Richard told me that when he was living in Taiwan, he'd taken up calligraphy and needed a special brush with a very fine hair. He went to a shop that sold such supplies and asked the young clerk for a "maibee". She turned red and ran to the back of the store. An older woman came out and asked him what he wanted. He repeated his request and she realized what had gone wrong. Due to misuse of tone, he was asking for a pubic hair...not a brush. Apparently it's the same word, different tone. One example of the many problems you can get into with a new language.
I've read of people doing such fracturing of a foreign language in a restaurant: ordering a hemmorhoid instead of an oyster. Usually people are amused by these language butcherings particularly in touristic areas.
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