Archive for the ‘situational’ Category
On knowing what to listen for
December 12th, 2007
In your hometown, you pretty much know what everyone’s going to say before they say it. There’s really no new thing under the sun. In Eden Prairie, MN, the grocery bagger’s going to ask me about paper or plastic, the restaurant greeter’s going to apologize for my wait, and so on. It’s the flip side of knowing what to say in a given social situation — knowing what to listen for reduces the complexity of the task faced by your overtaxed linguistic processor.
But the farther you get from home, the more you have to adjust your expectations. Here are a couple I missed recently. Read the rest of this entry »
What would Beijingers say?
December 2nd, 2007
Ah, language learning. It’s one thing to try to get the accent right. You can work on that every day in Beijing. But it’s another thing to know what to say in particular social situations.Like when you’re introduced to your brother-in-law’s coworker.
In the US: Nice to meet you
Beijing: Nǐ hǎo... [and what else???]
Is there something else to say? Well, maybe, but it’s pretty sure not to be a direct translation of “nice to meet you”. Read the rest of this entry »
