Laowai Chinese 老外中文

Doubt: Harder Than You’d Suspect

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Quiz time! 1. Look at the picture 2. Answer the question (to yourself) 3. Check the answer below (no peeking!) Question This is a picture of graffiti advertising for machine drilling a new well (jī zuàn jǐng 机钻井).  I asked my students why there were so many phone numbers advertising the same exact thing.  Some ...

Posted in Divergent Concepts, Explanations | 9 Comments »

The Curse of the Convergent Concepts

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

We've talked a little bit before about concepts that are distinct in English but are the same in Chinese. Some of the examples I've given (I think) were: jiè 借 = to borrow / to lend ràng 让 = to make / to let / to ask someone to do something In ...

Posted in Divergent Concepts, Rants | 8 Comments »