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It would never be accidental. In China, English language students are taught to break that habit for fear of it being misinterpreted by a native English speaker
by whiddershins 6y ago
It would never be accidental. In China, English language students are taught to break that habit for fear of it being misinterpreted by a native English speaker.
It could be opportunistically malicious though, to feign outrage. That’s not beyond the realm of possibility at all.
Edit: people are asking how I ‘know’ this.
——
It is anecdotal, so I should have phrased it more carefully. When I was in mainland China about 15 years ago I talked to several people eager to practice their English, in various regions.
They were aware. One kid in particular I remember vividly having that conversation.
But this was a very small sample.
- galimaufry 6y ago> In China, English language students are taught to break that habit for fear of it being misinterpreted by a native English speaker. Based on my Chinese colleagues this is not true, or at least is not universal, or it changed within the last 3 years.
- hitekker 6y ago> It would never be accidental. As someone with a number of friends from the mainland, I can assure you it does happen by accident. None of them were taught to avoid saying “na ge” because it is the English equivalent of "that" or "that one". Where are you getting your information from?
- whiddershins 6y agoIt is anecdotal, so I should have phrased it more carefully. When I was in mainland China about 15 years ago I talked to several people eager to practice their English, in various regions. They were aware. One kid in particular I remember vividly having that conversation. But this was a very small sample.
- apricot 6y agoSome English students might be taught that, but I'm far from certain that is the norm. In fact, I just asked three Chinese native speakers who learned English in China, and none of them was ever taught to avoid na ge / nei ge.