7 ways in which learning Chinese will turn your world upside down

Relating to sports, you could say, “let’s hit the ‘slippery snow’ ’” when referring to skiing: 滑雪 (huáxuě); “how about a game of ‘fist attack’?” instead of boxing: 拳击 (quánjī); or, “I’d really fancy a game of ‘shoot arrow’ for archery: 射箭 (shèjiàn).  Other sport names include: 台球 (táiqiú), ‘table ball’ for billiards, and 曲棍球 (qǔgùnqiú), ‘crooked stick ball’ for hockey.

It kind of goes to show that if you have forgotten the Chinese word for something, sometimes guessing a word by its literal translation of the main verbs or objects involved can actually help! Of course this is not true all of the time though.  In some cases, the Chinese have lacked inspirationentirely and just gone for a name that sounds like the foreign name after all, for example 高尔夫 (gāo’ěrfū) sounds very similar to ‘golf’, and  保龄球 (bǎolíngqiú) which sounds very close to bowling (and qiú means ball).

3. You will look at every crisis as an opportunity

危机 (wēijī), meaning ‘crisis’ is made up of the words for ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’.  This idiom shows a great concept whereby encountering certain perils can often lead us to think of previously unimagined possibilities of action.  Superb optimism of the Chinese is conveyed here and there is great wisdom in looking at a situation positively when during a time of crisis. 

4. You will draw a link between ‘fish’, ‘scarves’ and ‘trousers’

You probably would not usually class these as linguistically similar in the English language, but in Chinese, the same measure word, 条 (tiáo) applies when counting and specifying fish 鱼 (yú), scarves 围巾 (wéijīn) and trousers  裤子 (kùzi), as they all represent long, narrow, flexible objects.  The same measure word can also be used for river 河 (hé), road 路 (lù), leg 腿 (tuǐ) and snake 蛇 (shé).

While these examples refer to classifiers depending on the nature of what they represent, more broad measure words also exist, even for abstract categories. For example, the same measure word: 件 (jiàn) is used for clothing 衣服 (yīfu), issues/matters/things 事 (shì), and presents 礼物 (lǐwù).

5. You will see a difference between riding your bicycle and riding the subway

The co-verbs used in Chinese for different modes of travel will definitely make you think more about the way you are seated during your trip!  Whilst you 坐 (zuò) or ‘ride on a seat’ whilst taking the subway 地铁 (dìtiě) or aeroplane飞机 (fēijī), you would instead 骑 (qí) or ‘straddle’ when taking your bicycle 自行车 (zìxíngchē) or horse 马 (mǎ)… if you are fortunate enough to travel by horse!  Though perhaps the verb indicating that you ‘sit’ on the subway should actually be updated to 站 (zhàn) – ‘to stand’.  After all, the chances of actually getting a seat on the subway are close to zero in China’s big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai!

6. You will picture grapes and teeth every time somebody mentions the country Portugal

The phonetic approximation of the country name Portugal translates to 葡萄牙 (pútáoyá), meaning ‘grapes teeth’; this can also be seen as a reference to the country’s sweet grapes.  Some names are translated literally such as ‘ice island’ 冰岛 (bīngdǎo) for Iceland.  The Chinese name for America is 美国 (měiguó) meaning: ‘beautiful country’, and England is 英国 (yīngguó) meaning ‘brave land’.

A country name is not just that: the Chinese name for America is měiguó: beautiful country; and England is yīngguó: brave land [Tweet this]

Yugoslavia is an interesting example of a word that is half translated and the o ther half transliterated: 南斯拉夫 (nánsīlāfū) where 南 (nán) means south and 斯拉夫 (sīlāfū) is a phonetic equivalent of Yugoslavia. And some names even have links to history, for example, 旧金山(jiùjīnshān) for San Francisco means ‘old gold mountain’, a name given by Chinese migrants who flocked over during the Gold Rush.

The word for computer is ‘electric brain’ 电脑 (diànnǎo).  And what can adding the word ‘electric’ 电 (diàn) to other words mean?  Some examples include: ’electric + speech’ or 电话 (diànhuà)  = telephone; ‘electric + (to) view’ 电视 (diànshì) = television, and ‘electric + shadow’ 电影 (diànyǐng) = movie. It is logical and economical of the Chinese to combine two ancient characters to create new words with a literal meaning.  It also makes remembering vocabulary a doddle! 

Well there you go, here were just a few examples how learning Chinese will change your way of seeing the world.  Now it’s your turn to go off and discover your own examples!

by Amy Wong