What usually happens is that the student looks up a word in Chinese and is given a word in English that seems strange or funny to me. When I come across it in a conversation with them or see it in a writing assignment, I always ask them about it. Sometimes it is something that I have never heard of and other times it's a food or word that doesn't really exist in America.
Here are some of my favorites:
chilblain - a painful, itching swelling on the skin, typically on a hand or foot, caused by poor circulation in the skin when exposed to cold (many students' hands get so cold that they turn red or purple and look as though they have a rash - when I asked what was wrong they told me that they had "chilblains")
haw - the red fruit of the hawthorn (these are a favorite snack in China, especially in winter - they are kind of like crab apples and students eat them on a stick)
shadduck or pomelo - the largest of the citrus fruits, with a thick yellow skin and bitter pulp that resembles grapefruit in flavor (this is a popular fruit here this time of year - it tastes like an orange and a grapefruit mixed together and is literally the size of a person's head)
sandhi - the process whereby the form of a word changes as a result of its position in an utterance (e.g., the change from a to an before a vowel).
ORIGIN from Sanskrit saṃdhi ‘putting together.’ (oddly, I've never heard of this before but my Chinese teacher is always using it when she teaches us pronunciation rules)
chafing dish - a metal pan, typically one containing an alcohol lamp, used for cooking at the table (these are very common dishes in the winter - my students always say they want to eat some "chafing dish" which really means they want to have some hot soups or stews that are kept warm right on the table).
loofah - the tropical Old World climbing plant of the gourd family that produces these fruits, which are also edible (when my students told me they like to eat loofah, I pictured the kind you use in the shower - it's commonly eaten here but I don't really find it that flavorful or tasty).
(definitions from Wikipedia dictionary)
interesting! I'd have to agree with most of the words but 'chafing dish' is a commonly used word in the restaurant industry! Even in the US where my family has its 65 year old restaurant!
What are you doing in China and for how long?
Haha...but despite the dictionary or google translator (I don't know if I can live here without these tools)China create (was an accident for sure) a new language: 'Chinglish'. At least is so funny. But sometimes driving us crazy. If you read in portuguese, in my blog has a post or only put this new word on google. =]
Best! Christine
Great sharing !!!
Really inspiring and helpful...
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Thank you...