Now ya got me started on Mandarin... Us GI's could speak Mandarin and the native Chinese could not understand us even as they stood there listening. It was called "Temple Street Mandarin".
A couple of examples from 62 years ago: In Mandarin, the word for "friend" is "pengyou" (pronounced "pung-yo") The word for ship/boat is "chwan".
So if we said, "pengyou chwan" it meant nothing to a Chinese person. But we put the words together and get "friendship" <-- see? "Friend boat?? Wozzat?"
There is no word for yes or no in Mandarin. Nor for man or woman. But there is a way to say a negative: "bu" (boo). So "hau" (how) being "good", then buhau = bad. Dung (doong) means "understand".
Now we get deeper into this rare language known only to weirdos:
I'll just cut to the chase and record a statement in TSMandarin: "A big stone falls in a well."
This one could be solved by Master Po and his ilk, but I gotta pass the concept along:
What sound does a large stone falling into a well make? Bu-dung. <-- So you are telling the other person you do not understand. The sound is onomatopoeia like buzz or meow or boom... the meaning is like the sound.
My English/Chinese dictionary has pengyou and chwan, as well as hechi for friendly, but nothing for friendship in Mandarin. No word for friend or friendship in Cantonese shown at all.
What I found doing business with them is that they are friendly to work with but continue to probe the limits and always want to make up any quality discrepancies on the next order.
Interestingly in Japanese there is no Ellis, so the Kanji name on the back of my kendo and Aikido hakama said Alice.
I speak American English, The Queen's English, 'billy, ebonix, and drunk. I know enough Polish, Spanish, and Italian to get beat up at the UN. Pretty much swear words and phrases only.
I mostly speak American English with an mild Okie Farm-boy acKCeent, sprinkled with some Ridge-runnah, drunk, and ferrin terms I picked up along the way. My second wife was Japanese, so Japanese curse words were the first thing that I learned in that language as well.
I picked up some Japanese, Spanish, French, and German doing business in those countries to be polite, but used a professional translator for business and interestingly the Japanese, Mexican, French, and German business folks all spoke good English. Since I haven't used them since, I have retained virtually none, though might get some right on multiple choice.
What I also note is that despite my profession of convincing folks to sign capital project budgets using the written word and having a high percentile comprehension of the English language as a result at one time, I am losing that too through non use.
Compounding the problem is that most of the people I talk to on a daily basis, including myself can hear for s*it, so I can't wax eloquently anyway and actually communicate.
I’ve only eaten cumquats to impress friends pretending that they were great. It’s like a tiny orange that you eat peeling and all. They are much better in preserves on toast.
I've found Cumquats make delicious jam, but that they are highly over rated eating like popcorn or grapes.
