Wild and whacky world inhabited by Chinese characters

By Lisa Carducci (China Daily)

Updated: 2009-03-05 07:56

It's often said that you have mastered a language when you know its proverbs and can use them properly in a conversation or in writing. I for one, though, don't like to quote proverbs or hear others quoting them.

Who has not heard hundreds of time that "in heaven there is the paradise, on Earth there is Hangzhou", or Confucius' "what a pleasure to have friends coming from afar!" or, talking about the good of diversity, Bai hua qi fang; bai jia zheng ming (All the flowers are blossoming; different schools teach different lessons).

I have never paid much attention to studying proverbs in the five languages I can speak, so in some people's eyes I haven't even mastered my mother tongue!

The third time I came to China, in 1991, was for good, so I started teaching myself Chinese from the outset, with books and cassettes, and by asking people questions.

One of my students once told me: "The day you really know how to use bu hao yi si (excuse me) you can say you are starting to know Chinese."

Studying languages is not only an interesting pursuit, it is also one you can enjoy while trying. Take Chinese characters, for example. The one for home (jia) is made up of a pig under a roof. This means that deep in the Chinese mind, having a pig and a roof is akin to having a home.

When the character shows a woman under the roof, however, the character means an, and you enjoy peace - but if the woman has a son next to her, it means "good" (hao). Single men take note!

Some words are composed of two opposite elements: relaxed and tight (song jin) means "elastic"; big and small (da xiao) is "size"; much and little (duo shao) combine for "how much".

Repeating a character gives it a different meaning: one mu is a tree but put two mu characters side by side and you have a wood (lin), while three make a forest (sen). A single person (ren) doesn't make an audience - but three (zhong) do. If you are very happy (gao xing) you are gao gao xing xing!

Chinese language is also very descriptive: A computer is an "electric brain" (dian nao); a radio is literally a "receive sound machine" (shou yin ji); a thermometer (han shu biao) is a "cold-heat measure instrument"; and a plane (fei ji), a flying machine.

Sometimes words don't mean what they say. For instance, guan xin doesn't mean "to close your heart", but to open it to those who need you. Similarly, just like xiao xin doesn't mean "little heart", but to be cautious. Gai si literally means "should die" but is used as a swear word in a sentence like "Damn! It's going to rain again today."

When Chinese people see someone slip and fall in the street, they will tell them to "Man yi dianr!" or "Go slowly". But isn't it too late to go slowly?

Last week I watched a Chinese movie on TV, a story set in the Qing Dynasty. A fearless fighter killed four or five opponents with his spade but ended up with a knife in his chest, the whole blade mind you, right up to the handle.

He staggered a little, then leant on a tree. His beloved fiance quickly came to him and asked: "Mei shi'r ma?"(You have nothing?) I could not but laugh thinking how many knives the girl could stand before thinking her fianc might accept "you shi'r"!

I laughed even more when the soldier comforted her, saying: "Wo mei shi'r!" (I'm fine.) How brave! He was alive, so what is a knife in your chest between friends?

(China Daily 03/05/2009 page20)