Monday, February 01, 2010
இ Baŋäŋaz இ
Most of the time I would like to dig right through deeply to "Why Ask Why" on certain mundane words that we used. I wonder why we Chinese say " 等一下 {děng yī xià} ~ wait one time " the equivalent to English's "wait a minute". In the olden Chinese ghost movies if you can recall there is this time keeper who walks around the town after midnite holding a lantern, a gong and a log of bamboo. He will beat the bamboo a few times followed by the gong a few times. Just out of curiosity how on earth this time keeper knows the time to tell the time? Most probably from the astronomical clock built by Su Song & Han Gong-Lian in 1088 A.D. during the Northern Song Dynasty. Hope anyone can be kind enough to post the answer on how the 一下 {yī xià} came into being. Could it be the word {yī xià} derives from the striking the bamboo or the gong?
It is a known fact that advertisers for all clocks or watches would mainly and mostly focused the time at 10 past 10 so that you get a smile on the face. So in colloq Chinese it's 十点兩个字 {shí'diǎn liǎng ge zì} [10 dot & 2 number]. There is nothing wrong as it is widely accepted and spoken all over the country since day one until I had the opportunity to meet a Taiwanese colleague who was assigned to Malaysia for a year. While sorting out dinner arrangement and said to pick him up at 6:15pm 六点三个字 {liù diǎn sān ge zì} [6 dot & 3 number] he had a shock and asked me what is the exact time. Huh no one has ever corrected me on this before. He explained back home his version would be 六点十五分 {liù diǎn shí'wǔ fēn}. 6:30pm would be 六点三十分 {liù diǎn sān shí'fēn} or 六点半 {liù diǎn bàn}. So there is this joke we often played on each other when we wanted to say 7.00pm we would chuckled 六点十二个字 {liù diǎn shí' èr ge zì} [6:60pm ~ 6 dot & 12 number]
Blunder #5: When I was referring to hotel I said 客栈 {kèzhàn} which is merely an inn or guest house. Correct version should be 酒店 {jiǔdiàn} or 饭店 {fàndiàn} which can be very confusing for bananaz as its 'liqour' shop or 'rice' shop?
