5 ms·

Could she not have said "blood sucking insect"?

by chime 16y ago

CWuestefeld 16y ago
What, you mean mosquitos?
- chime 16y ago
  You have a point there. I stand corrected.
- joubert 16y ago
  "no dad, I meant the blood sucking arachnids, not insects"
  - CWuestefeld 16y ago
    D'oh! But in colloquial Chinese, do they reflect the same zoological classifications that we have in the West? Maybe they just have a generic "bug" or something. This is one of the things that's very easy to assume, but not doesn't really have any strong intrinsic logic to support, much like recent conversations here about color perception. Also, why do we always orient maps with the North pointing up or away from us, and reference those maps based on that assumed orientation? Why not have East pointing up?
    - joubert 16y ago
      unless the other guy quite literally doesn't have experience/knowledge of a tick, I think one can figure out a way to describe it :-) north: although ptolemy introduced the convention of north/up, I can easily see how the use of a lodestone could naturally give rise to the custom (north --> lodestone points forward; when you tilt the surface perpendicular to the ground, it is up).
    - sliverstorm 16y ago
      > Maybe they just have a generic "bug" or something. You have an excellent point there. I remember when I was learning Japanese I asked my teacher what the word for 'rat' was (mouse is 'nezumi') and she said just use 'nezumi', or use a qualifier e.g. 'ookii nezumi' (big mouse)
    - hugh3 16y ago
      For what it's worth, I saw an Australian stand-up comic once making fun of American English in which all insects are referred to as "bugs". (Australian English tends to reserve the word "bug" for beetles.) It was funnier in context, trust me.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
billybob 16y ago
Seconded. One of the most valuable tools for me in Spanish is the ability to describe things I can't say. I don't know the word for tick, but I could say "an insect that [hmmm, don't know the word for 'sucks'...] eats your blood, and it doesn't fly, and it stays there on your skin for an hour or two, and it gets bigger while it eats..." and the person would say, "oh, a tick!" And I'd learn a new word.
- georgieporgie 16y ago
  And that's how we got kangaroo, which means, "I don't know." "Hey, you, what's that... that jumpy thing over there?" "I don't know." "Ah! An I don't know, eh? Spectacular!" (note: it appears that there is reason to believe this old story is untrue, but it still serves to illustrate a real and hilarious problem when speaking across languages)

Could she not have said "blood sucking insect"?

by chime 16y ago

Could she not have said "blood sucking insect"?

CWuestefeld 16y ago

What, you mean mosquitos?

chime 16y ago
You have a point there. I stand corrected.
joubert 16y ago
"no dad, I meant the blood sucking arachnids, not insects"
- CWuestefeld 16y ago
  D'oh! But in colloquial Chinese, do they reflect the same zoological classifications that we have in the West? Maybe they just have a generic "bug" or something. This is one of the things that's very easy to assume, but not doesn't really have any strong intrinsic logic to support, much like recent conversations here about color perception. Also, why do we always orient maps with the North pointing up or away from us, and reference those maps based on that assumed orientation? Why not have East pointing up?
  - joubert 16y ago
    unless the other guy quite literally doesn't have experience/knowledge of a tick, I think one can figure out a way to describe it :-) north: although ptolemy introduced the convention of north/up, I can easily see how the use of a lodestone could naturally give rise to the custom (north --> lodestone points forward; when you tilt the surface perpendicular to the ground, it is up).
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    > Maybe they just have a generic "bug" or something. You have an excellent point there. I remember when I was learning Japanese I asked my teacher what the word for 'rat' was (mouse is 'nezumi') and she said just use 'nezumi', or use a qualifier e.g. 'ookii nezumi' (big mouse)
  - hugh3 16y ago
    For what it's worth, I saw an Australian stand-up comic once making fun of American English in which all insects are referred to as "bugs". (Australian English tends to reserve the word "bug" for beetles.) It was funnier in context, trust me.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

billybob 16y ago

Seconded. One of the most valuable tools for me in Spanish is the ability to describe things I can't say. I don't know the word for tick, but I could say "an insect that [hmmm, don't know the word for 'sucks'...] eats your blood, and it doesn't fly, and it stays there on your skin for an hour or two, and it gets bigger while it eats..." and the person would say, "oh, a tick!" And I'd learn a new word.

georgieporgie 16y ago
And that's how we got kangaroo, which means, "I don't know." "Hey, you, what's that... that jumpy thing over there?" "I don't know." "Ah! An I don't know, eh? Spectacular!" (note: it appears that there is reason to believe this old story is untrue, but it still serves to illustrate a real and hilarious problem when speaking across languages)