Stand Behind the Noodle

In seminar, we were discussing what’s known as “language contact.”  This is what happens when two or more languages are used in a single community. While Chinese is clearly the dominant language here, English is present as an international language.

The graduate students told me Chinese renders the expression “Stand behind the yellow line” as “Stand behind the noodle.”  When translated directly, the expression is either incomprehensible to us or funny. But calling a yellow line a noodle makes sense in a way. A yellow line looks a bit like a noodle. The principle is similar to using the word ‘trunk’ to mean the thickest part of a tree and also the human chest.

English and Chinese have different perspectives on life and have dissimilar idiomatic usage. We are apt to use the disparaging term “Chinglish” to describe such hybrid forms as “Your careful step keeps tiny grass invariably green.”  Actually, such expressions give us a window into how the Chinese see the world.