We don’t have a specific policy about being political here, except to avoid it when possible. We don’t need any more uniformed sorts showing up at our corporate offices this year. Randy already made a full apology for that incident and promised to mend his ways. That said, the following is going to wade just ever so slightly into the kiddie pool of foreign relations, but it’s really for a linguistic reason so please forgive me my editorial comments, should any slip in.
There’s a phrase in Chinese, “wǒ méiyǒu gōngfu,” which means “I have no time”.
Now, I’d been told that this was 我没有功夫, that is, the same characters that mean kung-fu. Not only that, but I’d seen it in writing, more than once. First in some dictionary somewhere and then again in some little snippet of prose on idioms in Mandarin. The latter gave the explanation that 功夫 means not only kung-fu, but anything that takes a lot of time to perfect or, alternatively, skill or effort. Wiktionary gives 要花很大的功夫才行 and 那个演员念台词的功夫不错 as examples.
On May 28th at 16:30, two weeks from today, I will be holding a small informal talk at Xindanwei in Shanghai. This is the first in the new Sinoglot Lecture series. More on that below.
If you’re in Shanghai on the 28th, please come out and take part in the discussion. We’ll be talking about the Shanghainese dialect, in terms of
· its role in the lives of the locals
· its future as a tool for interaction
· the value of preservation and
· the value of standardisation
It will be an informal discussion, mostly in English, and I hope to hear your thoughts as much as you’ll hear mine.
Here’s a simple action, in three steps, which I guess most people will recognise:
I imagine most English speakers will be thinking of the same expression to describe this action and, if that expression were given as a command, they would all perform the same action without hesitation.
So, I ask a simple question. How would you say this in Chinese?
Please, put the dictionary back on the shelf. No need for an online search. Just tell me how you would say this in whichever Chinese dialect or language you happen to be most familiar with and, if it’s not Standard Mandarin, please indicate which language or dialect it is. Interrogation of native speakers encouraged.
Free Sinoglot T-shirt* for the best answer.
* Subject to HQ releasing the necessary funds, arranging printing and delivery, etc.
Hint: it’s lexical. On the map, red and blue indicate the lexical item was exported from China’s north or south respectively, while gray indicates the lexical product does not come from China. If you give up or get lazy, you can get the answer from the very cool World Atlas of Language Structures Online, which I seem to rediscover from time to time and always intend to explore further. This map is just one niblet of all the linguistic goodies they offer.
Live in the capital of China too long and you start to get suspicious when there’s not a crowd. So not long after lunar new year when I walked into my usual barbershop and found it empty, I asked the owner if business was looking down.
“Oh we just opened today after the holiday.”
“But then I’d have thought you’d have customers lined up to come in!”
“You’re not supposed to get your hair cut during the holiday.”
Hmm. And that from the same proprietor who’d sell hair conditioner to the bald. He half-laughed, and then he said that in Beijing they say
正月不剃头，剃头死舅舅
Zhēngyuè bù tìtóu, tìtóu sǐ jiùjiu
During the first month don’t shave your head or your uncle will die* Continue…
[Update:
Please see followup post and discussion here. You can still vote, below, but I’ve closed comments on this post so everything can go to the followup post.]
Line up! Vote early, vote often. No one needs to register. Bring your spouses, kids and friends. Since Sinoglot readership is probably biased towards non-native speakers of Chinese, Zhonglish speakers please get your native-speaking friends to take a look at these pics and the question below:
Discussion coming soon, as soon as we have enough votes. The only rule is to please answer the question only for your native language! Continue…
Welcome to Nothing Undone. As the header says, it’s an experiment in teaching myself literary Chinese. Through this site I’ll be providing useful readings from classical times as well as glossaries and flashcards in various electronic formats.
Who am I to be doing this? My most relevant qualification is what I’m doing with most of my time these days. I’m a graduate student studying at a well known Chinese university, spending most of my days with my face stuck in a book written long before Gutenberg dovetailed his first joint. This is primarily an outlet for what I’m learning and what I think may be of use to others who may not have the time to enrol in full time classes.
In a similar position? Have something to add? Leave a comment with your contact information and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.