I was greatly encouraged to read in the news this morning that some Chinese reporter made the ol’ 2-syllable-mix-up mistake that’s been my Achilles heel these past 10+ years of speaking Mandarin.
I get bizarre looks when I ask a store clerk if they sell any “honeybees” (mì fēng 蜜蜂) when I really mean “honey” (fēng mì 蜂蜜), but this reporter apparently got suspended for mixing up:
And it was about the current president of China! (He actually made a speech and did NOT resign, by the way.)
I’d also like to mention the grammar involved (as you can see from the screenshot in that news link) was:
zài cízhí zhōng shuō 在辞职中说 = “(The President), while resigning, said…”
I’ll write more in detail later about the different words for ending a job in Chinese, but just one final thought before rushing off to the office this morning. Look at how quirky English is: a hyphen can change a word into it’s opposite.
That’s almost as fun as the fact that the word “cleave” can mean “stick together” or “separate!”
Have a great day full of careful proof-reading!
Ending a job in Chinese can be:
辞职(usually employee want to leave before the expiration of contract, boss doesn’t have to pay)
跳槽, means go to another company, usually a better one. if you want to 跳槽, then you need to 辞职 first.
解雇,formal,boss fires employee,usually have to pay some money according to 《劳动法》
spoken:被炒鱿鱼(a little cliche and out of date),被辞(get fired),被开(simple and popular recently) these are mean the same:get fired
Useful sentences:
我要辞职。(I want to quit my job)
阿尔伯特走了。(Albert has gone. you can say this to someone you work with, it’s very natrual)
阿尔伯特被开了!(Albert was fired!)
世界那么大,我想去看看。http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=B2VIoUm22YTbmhc6xn36lhxbAXPnGOpdINqDf2muE6dWGpnua4Ntb7aT7l_EHyg41_YXvwWKJjubi7yFLy5osimfzfEfCHeKmKSn0LxbgkpHYXzBzdWPJif6FuS6C0JSoOFcaXVX714G0t-D1ZScCIEDewbW6w0zV694kI4Edts-Nnyb76g4Ri6jl3C10Z14X9C2_SRkKEaqNYf-UXiCSK
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