You want me to walk? Or did you want me to run?
Wait... Run? Walk? What?
I cannot say I am 100% fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese (in fact, I can’t say I’m 100% fluent in English either, I have no way to gauge where my fluency is), but I can vouch that I am pretty well adept at all three languages to a certain degree. I find it often that I would want to help people native to one of those three languages learn another one since I have the ability to, why not? (Maybe I should start charging… but who’s to say I have the qualifications to do that? I’m just being a good Samaritan, a cultural ambassador to an extent, and an interpreter to a degree). There were a couple of friends I had from Mainland China who were not Cantonese. One of them however did know Cantonese to a small certain degree. Now, naturally their native language was definitely not English and Mandarin was their native (or one of) their native languages. In teaching them some bits and pieces of English, I learned several things about Cantonese and Mandarin that I didn’t know before, aside from the obvious fact that my Mandarin needs improvement, here’s what I learned. Hopefully this comes in hands for you guys reading out there. Oh and yes, this serves as a Cantonese lesson too!
So the first problem I encountered was that in the Mandarin language, the word for “to walk” and the word for “to leave” or “to go” was the exact same character: 走 (M: zou3). So the way that you determine whether or not you’re walking to the store or leaving the store depends on what other words and context surrounds it. Sometimes it doesn’t help at all and it’s left ambiguous. No, the language still works, in English there are things that are left ambiguous and we don’t really notice nor care because it’s not important or you have extra words in context that tell you what’s going on. For example in Cantonese the word 挖 (C: waat6) means “to dig out” but in the sense that you have to exhume it out, has a nasty connotation/image at times, and it’s not digging with a shovel but implied that you use a hand or some other instrument and… yeah anyway.
So What was I supposed to do and what I was supposed to make again?
So now when you go to Cantonese, what’s the difference? The word “to walk” is translated as 行 (C: haang4) while to word for “to leave” or “to go” is 走 (C: jaau2). Teaching someone who’s native in Cantonese or knows Cantonese what “to walk” and “to leave/go” means is MUCH easier as a result than someone who’s solely native in Mandarin. What happens often is that they will run into troubles and mix “to walk” and “to leave” up sometimes while speaking in English. While for these pair of verbs, it’s quite alright, I mean people can understand when you say “I left to the store” and “I walked to the store” have similar albeit different meanings, but what if your words were something else?
Cantonese – English – Mandarin:
整 (jing2) – to make – 做 (zuo4)
做 (jou6) – to do – 做 (zuo4)
Catch my drift here? What if you wanted to say “I am making dinner tonight” and it becomes “I am doing dinner tonight”? Now granted it can be interpreted correctly, but at the same time it also can’t. Depends on who’s on the receiving side listening. Now granted, I bet you if English has such faults and Mandarin has such errors then Cantonese has a couple too; I just can’t think of any right now but if you can think of some be sure to leave that in the comments for us (or me) to discuss and learn upon!
In lighter news, I’m still working on that project… and 中秋節 (Mid-Autumn Festival) is coming up! So if you have anything you guys like to share about it, make sure you leave it in the comments!
Picture Link Credits:
http://www.walkfortheshelters.com/?p=68
http://www.thesmartcodes.com/organize-your-tasks-online-with-to-do-lists/
Wait... Run? Walk? What?
Related posts:
Differences between Mandarin and Cantonese; Written and Spoken
Views of the Cantonese Language Protest
Second Language? Native Language? Cantonese?
Simplified Characters Might Cause Lost in Pronunciation for Cantonese
Why I Choose to Defend Instead of Run
Comments
It is pretty common in Chinese that one word
may have multiple meanings depending on the context or mood,
or the same character is interpreted differently in
Cantonese and Mandarin, or even differently in classical
(archaic) Chinese-script and modern Chinese-Mandarin-oral.
整
C: zíng – to make (a dish; a TV); to repair (a TV)
M: zhéng – to make neat; to tease
作
C: zòg – to do; to compose (a text)
作文(zòg mên_°) – composition (lesson in school)
作反(zògfán) – civil upturn
M: zuò – to compose
做
C: zòu_ – to do
M: zuò – to make (by doing)
造
C: zòu_; M: zào – to make (by creation); to create
造船(C: zòu_ sûen_; M: zào chuân_) – shipbuilding
violation of this rule: 造反(zàofán) – civil upturn
The above also creates pronunciation confusions in
both Cantonese and Mandarin.
CROSS-DIALECT TONE-MARKERS:
C: tonemarks: yêm yôeng_ pîng_ sóeng_ hòeue yëb
mên_zôeng (passage); zòg mên_° (composition);
mén hûng_môu_nêi_ (paste cement)
M: tonemakrs: yîn yâng_ pîng_ sháng qù rü (archaic)
It is also common in English. So, I almost don’t use the
word “last” but instead use “previous” or “final”,
except when both “previous” (from now) and “final”
(up till now) point to the same thing.
Have fun learning Cantones and Mandarin.
Thanks.
[Reply]
Solanum Capsicoides Reply:
September 6th, 2011 at 12:14 am
It may be worse.
行
C: (literal) hêng_; (colloq big-mouth) hâng_ – walk
M: xîng_ – walk (only in compounds)
e.g.
通行(C: tûnghêng_; M: tôngxîng_) – pass through
發行(C: fàdhêng_; M: fâxîng_) – publish
(I oldentimes thought it was C: fàdhông_.)
[I don't say "I used to think" - confusion with "use".]
other pronunciation:
C: hông_ – row
M: hâng_ – row
e.g.
行列(C: hông_lïd_; M: hâng_liè) – rows and columns
排行(C: pâi_hông_; M: pâi_hâng_) – position in siblings
(I oldentimes thought it was C: pâi_hêng_.)
other pronunciation:
C: hèng_ – manners
M: (original) xìng; (modern) xîng_ – manners
M: (sometimes heard in Buddhist text, may be corrupted from xìng) hèn
e.g. 品行(C: bénhèng_; M: pínxìng, becomes written as 品性)
e.g. 修行(C: sêuhèng_; M: xiûxîng_, becomes read as 修形) – religious practising
走
C: zéu – run; leave
M: zóu – walk; go; leave
跑
C: páu – run (only in compounds)
M: páo – run; execute (colloq for computer program); go away
POSSIBLE CONFUSION:
行星
C: hâng_sîng (heard in Hong Kong Space Museum; reading “hêng_sîng” would confuse with “star”) – planet
M: xîng_xîng – planet
恆星
C: hêng_sîng – fixed star
M: hêng_xîng – fixed star
Thanks.
[Reply]
In my book, you are fluent in all three languages to make comparisons!
[Reply]
“to do” can also be 弄 in Mandarin or 搞 in Cantonese, and it all depends on the context
[Reply]
MakMak Reply:
September 5th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Trying to keep it simplified for now yo! haha
[Reply]