Monday, May 12, 2008

Learning Chinese from TV Shows

This was what happened at the washroom at The Gardens:

My sis and I were preening in front of the mirror when...

Mom: You both look like tong zhi men...
Steffi: Is it? Haha...(wonders why her mom suddenly said that)
Mom: People will think that you are tong zhi men from Japan or Korea
Steffi: Haha...
Steffi: Do I really look like my Elaine's boyfriend ah? I mean, girlfriend.
Mom: Huh?
Steffi: You said we look like tong zhi men...
Mom: I'm not talking about that tong zhi men! Your mind is so corrupted. Tong zhi men means fellow countrymen!
Steffi: How am I supposed to know?! Everytime I hear that word, they refer to "gay/lesbian"! Like how Jiro's character calls himself "tong zhi men" in the Taiwanese drama Hana Kimi when he thought that he fell in love with a boy! Entertainment news also always use that word!

When words have double/hidden meaning...*sigh*

Update: I was told that a more accurate meaning of "tong zhi men" is "comrade". Also, I have finally remembered that I didn't hear that word from Hana Kimi (they used the word "gay" instead), but possibly from another show called "Go Go G-boys - Movie" where there were a bunch of them, and that is probably why they used "tong zhi men" to indicated that they are "comrades". Forgive this banana *bows deeply*

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1 Comments:

At 9:16 AM, Blogger Darke Shard said...

Ooohhh... yeaahhh... I just remembered in my Chinese handbook that colloquially, the word 'comrade' has an underlying 'gay' meaning.

...

...now you can just imagine big, hairy Russian men calling each other 'comrades' and then giving a cheeky wink to each other...

 

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