Adventures in multiculturalism
[The scene: 5 Bryant Street, home of the Chinese department office. Three other students and I are reviewing a skit with one of the teachers. I’ve corrected some of my grammatical errors for clarity.]
Me: “Nín xǐ huān tāng ma?” (您喜歡湯嗎?) [Do you like soup?]
Teacher: It should be “Nín xǐ huān hé tāng ma?” (您喜歡喝湯嗎?) [Do you like to drink soup?]
(later)
Me: “Nín xǐ huān ròu ma?” (您喜歡肉嗎?) [Do you like meat?]
Teacher: It should be “Nín xǐ huān chī ròu ma?” (您喜歡吃肉嗎?) [Do you like to eat meat?]
(later)
Me: “Nín xǐ huān dòufu ma?” (您喜豆腐嗎?) [Do you like tofu?] Wait, no…[I’m sensing a pattern here] it’s “Nín xǐ huān chī dòufu ma?” (您喜吃豆腐嗎?) [Do you like to eat tofu?]
Teacher: Er, it’s just “xǐ huān dòufu.” “chī dòufu” means…something else.
Me: Is it bad?
Teacher: Yes.
I didn’t press it. Native speakers: can you cast any illumination on this one? I’d love to know.
Update: From my collaborator on a comp. sci. project:
i saw your post because your site was on digg. "eat someone's tofu" means to touch someone in private parts. i had a taiwanese girlfriend.
Rock on, Intarweb! That was quick.
That said, what on earth am I doing in digg? As of right now (12:36 am on the 5th), the Dan Peng article is in the third slot. I wrote it in April of 2003; it showed up on Slashdot a bit later. Dan settled with the RIAA in May 2003.
I’m surprised that there’s still life in that page. I guess this is why Jakob Nielsen marked undated content as #3 on the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design. (There are dates in the article – but they’re at the very bottom.)