When I first started coming to China and getting involved speaking Chinese on a daily basis, I was often confronted with a situation in which I thought I knew what was being said because I understood each of the words used. It\u2019s an easy approach if you\u2019re translating directly, but direct translation has its faults. Often, it will lead to misunderstanding and get you into a bit of trouble that with a more perfect understanding you would have been able to avoid.<\/p>\n
One standout example is the phrase<\/p>\n
\u8981\u4e0d\u8981\uff1f Now translated directly, this means \u201cwant no want,\u201d which to me came out to something very close to \u201cDo you want it or not?\u201d Walking down a street full of vendors in Yabaolu<\/strong> (\u96c5\u5b9d\u8def<\/strong>), each of whom shouts at you \u201cdo you want it or not?\u201d over and over again even after you\u2019ve passed on by can be, and has been, interpreted as both annoying and aggressive. Add to that the onslaught of another variant on the phrase: Which, if translated directly, can also be aggressive: \u201cBuy no buy?\u201d In our black and white, yes and no world, this can be interpreted quite simply as \u201cAre you going to buy it or not?\u201d And in the world of haggling and bargaining, a world that is very much a Chinese one, there is no faster way to end negotiations. This is not their intent, and it led me to reanalyze the sentence structure I\u2019d interpreted as so aggressive. I raised the question with my teachers and discovered that it wasn\u2019t the vendors being aggressive and hostile, it was me who\u2019d just misunderstood how people phrase a question in Chinese.<\/p>\n To add the Chinese \u201c\u4e0d<\/strong>\u201d between verbs is simply a way of phrasing a question. Remove the \u201cor not\u201d from the direct translation and you\u2019ll have \u201cDo you want it?\u201d and \u201cWill you buy it?\u201d which are quite different questions than \u201cdo you want it or not?\u201d and \u201cwill you buy it or not?\u201d Once I understood the essential different, China became a much friendlier place.<\/p>\n Here are three more examples that use the V+\u4e0d+V<\/strong> sentence structure to form a question: \u4f60\u540c\u610f\u4e0d\u540c\u610f\uff1f When I first started coming to China and getting involved speaking Chinese on a daily basis, I was often confronted with a situation in which I thought I knew what was being said because I understood each of the words used. It\u2019s an easy approach if you\u2019re translating directly, but direct translation has its faults…<\/p>\n
\nY\u00e0o b\u00f9 y\u00e0o?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\n\u4e70\u4e0d\u4e70\uff1f
\nM\u01cei b\u00f9 m\u01cei?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\n\u4f60\u53bb\u4e0d\u53bb\uff1f
\nN\u01d0 q\u00f9 b\u00f9 q\u00f9?
\nAre you going?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nN\u01d0 t\u00f3ngy\u00ec b\u00f9 t\u00f3ngy\u00ec?
\nDo you agree?
\n\u4f60\u997f\u4e0d\u997f\uff1f
\nN\u01d0 \u00e8 b\u00f9 \u00e8?
\nAre you hungry?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"