It turns out to have been a trap. In the course of reminiscing about the cheap and delicious radish peel deals Beijing street vendors used to offer, YU started her soliloquy like this:
Guòqù Běijīng a, jiù jiùshi nèige, jiùshi, wǒ, wǒ shì mài luóbo de,
过去北京啊，就就是那个，就是，我，我是卖萝卜的
In the past in Beijing, uh, well, I, if I was [...]
You can’t help but think that Chinglish speakers have it harder than Zhonglish speakers in the dumb-made-up-rule department. You know the category — the rules that are supposed to make your writing clearer or keep you from sounding like a dolt if you’re a native speaker, or keep you from sounding like a non-native [...]
Tourism part 1: On embracing complexity [all in series]
About Tourism, the series
Engraved into a sizable hunk of Labrador granite, on a pedestal in the executive anteroom at the Beijing Sounds Studios:
Tourist, n. One who favors packaged over live, who inches squeamishly past the teeming fauna of his own backyard — with its outrageous comedies, its [...]
First it was [ʋ] now it’s [ə]. Probably YR Chao has something to say about this, but any such reference is yet unknown in the Beijing Sounds studios, primarily because the phenomenon just hit the radar this morning. To be specific, what, exactly is going on with plain old hēi (黑=black) here?!
On maintaining political correctness when other people’s languages still sound funny
New Mexico, USA — Christmas, 1978. In the wrapping paper-strewn living room of grandma’s house, after the midday dinner, the adults are engaged in the safe banter of nostalgia, the children, including nine-year-old syz, engrossed in the newly acquired toys, tools and trinkets.
There is no [...]
On the inability to write characters, maternal grandmothers, poop, pee
You spend most of your life cowering, trying to fit the whole, sloppy you into the veal crate of polite society, hiding the fact that your underwear is stained and you trim your nose hairs; ashamed to admit that your daughter crashed when you were teaching [...]
On metaphors living and fossilized; YR Chao’s syllable-final M
If you’re a real-estate-free Minnesotan you might be feeling kind of self-righteous right now.
“That house I sold in June. Yeah, I sold it at a loss, but I took the blow and look at me now! Sitting in my rental, calling the manager the second the faucet [...]
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