Thursday, October 11th, 2007...8:05 pm
What words do foreigners learn first?
It’s interesting to meet some of the international students who just recently arrived in Tainan and hear some of the Chinese words they pick up on their first weeks here. Obviously, there’s Ni Hao. There’s the various necessities for getting food like rice, noodle and the basic words for meat. There are also the words they pick up for tea and beer. Hao Chi, or "delicious", usually follows. If it’s a guy, most chances he’ll get to know the word Shuai very fast, as Taiwanese politeness dictates that you compliment everyone, even those considered monstrosities in their home country, as handsome. All white folks, whether from Europe, Australia, South Africa or even Israel, learn the Chinese word for "American" or "Canadian", as that’s what all the little kids will say pointing at them while hiding behind their mothers. Depending on the character, you see western guys that quickly learn how to flatter a Taiwanese local girl, and western girls that learn how to say "I’m really really not interested" to the Taiwanese local guys. It’s really quite amusing.
How about Israel? I found this really interesting short flick about what the foreign workers in Israel first learn in Hebrew. It’s an awful reflection of Israeli attitude towards those poor souls:
Ai ya…
I’d really like to make something similar for foreigners in Taiwan, compare the western foreigners and the Asian foreigners here. Anybody want to join in?
tags: Asia-Israel connections, chinese_words, international_students, ni_hao, tainan, Taiwan
Funny article it is!!!
This is an interesting topic. Right now, I am taking a Chinese class at my college (where I teach English) with Vietnamese students who just arrived. The first line the teacher taught them was Da Jia Hao (everyone hello), and then someone had to ask him how to say hello to just one person.
For some weird reason, my first original sentence in my first Mandarin class a few years ago was “I like tomatoes”. Our first week we learned “how much does it cost” and “mei-guan-xi”. Figuring out what first words are for those who just arrive would be an interesting study. I have to do some research for my current job, maybe this could be a topic to explore.
Yep. I’d be very interested in your research, should you decide to explore this topic.