Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Chinglish Acquisition









As I look over the blog postings, I am delighted with what Dennis is doing, and I'm appalled by the grammatical errors. Is it just poor proofreading? Do I imagine it? Sometimes I think I'm make errors similar to those students make. In Cincinnati, I learned to say "please?" when I didn't understand what someone was saying; as a resident of East Tennessee, I've begun to say "you'all" for the first person plural. When I reread my postings, I wonder if I am acquiring the local English dialect, which is influenced by Chinese and nicknamed "Chinglish"!

I continue to be amazed by the difference between American and Chinese practices. The other day, I visited a yarn shop on campus. I thought I'd knit Joe a blue and gold scarf he can wear to the ETSU games he attends so faithfully. The man spun out the yarn on a hand operated spindle (above). Then, the woman tried to give me a refresher course in knitting (below). Trouble is, the Chinese method of knitting is totally different from ours, though the product is similar. It was so confusing. I gave up trying to do it her way. Somehow I've managed to recall how we knitted when I was in the Girl Scouts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I look forward to knitting with you when you get home. It will be so good to see you. Marie

Roz Raymond Gann said...

Good! I don't have much confidence in my ability to do the fringe and finish on this scarf.

What does tomorrow mean? It is 5:30 pm here, but at home it’s 5:00 in the morning. I leave Weihai tomorrow and make a stop in Beijing. ...