Rediscovery

A Chinglish Moment

So... I was teaching a freshman class today and had a very Chinglish moment.

But what is a Chinglish moment you might ask?

Well, anyone who is fluent in two languages knows that it can all get pretty mixed up sometimes. Chinglish and its variations (Spanglish, Ebonsh, etc) are a result of making direct translations in your head from one tounge to the other when you really shouldn't. For Chinese Americans, I've discovered the most common Chinglish phrase is 'close the light.' Closing the light sounds perfectly normal to me because in Chinese you literally say 'close light' (guan deng). But my roommate still chuckles a bit when he hears me say it. Yea, yea, I know... you don't 'close' the light, you 'turn it off.' I just forget sometimes. Really, I'm fluent in English.

Anyway, speaking Chinglish in private is okay, but it really sucks when you use it by accident while teaching Chinese students English. Talk about losing face as a teacher. ~_~*

I was teaching students about the different ways to refer to the time. In my head I began thinking of all the phrases you could use to tell people the time. I made a list and checked it twice. No problem. . right?

"You can say '10 past 6' or '10 before 6.'"

"You can also say 'a quarter before or past 6"

"Or you can also say "Half past 6 or 6 and a half."

.. .

"Wait... no, never mind, you can't say 6 and a half... can you?"

.. .

"No, I don't think you can. Never mind."

Needless to say, I felt like an idiot. But before my students could catch on to it, I moved on to the next part of our lesson (ironically about how to make excuses).

Maybe I'm wrong, but you can't say "6 and a half o'clock" can you? Well... you can say something like it in Chinese (Lio Dian Ban).

Really.. . I'm a teacher, an English teacher actually.

posted by Unknown @ 10:13 PM