Chinglish At Its Finest

I’ve been in Beijing for a little over a month now, and I’ve met a lot of interesting people.  I’m slowly learning my way around and have made some wonderful new friends.  Several of them are Beijing locals and have been very helpful.  There’s one in particular that has become an informal Chinese tutor and tour guide.  He’s a fascinating individual.  He’s a server at a coffee shop that I frequent and he’s waited on me many times.  One day, he asked me where I was from, expressed interest in learning more English and suggested that we tutor each other.  I discovered that he’s 25 years old and is a Third Officer for a ship that transports coal between Australia and Taiwan.  He’s at sea for 13 months and then has a 3 month holiday.  During his holidays, he lives in different cities throughout China, taking on a whole new life…and this holiday, he chose Beijing.  He explained that he wanted to learn how to make a really good cup coffee and that’s why he wanted  to work at a posh coffee shop.  Anyway, we became good friends and he has been my partner in crime lately.

We do our best to communicate and then laugh about how we don’t understand each other.  He’s one of the nicest people I’ve met and it’s always entertaining talking with him because I know very little Chinese and his spoken English is poor.  However, his conversational English has improved dramatically since I’ve met him.  With that said, many expressions still get taken out of context due to the language barrier.  His use of the English language is what many would call, “Chinglish.”  Chinglish is a hodgepodge of English and Chinese, and is usually nonsensical and/or grammatically incorrect. A lot of things get lost in translation through the language barriers, cultural differences, and  context.  This is especially evident in text messages.  I don’t understand word for word what he’s saying when texting but I feel have general understanding….or so I thought.

My Beijing bestie. We went for foot massages lol

One thing about Chinglish is that a lot of direct translations from Chinese to English are straight up hilarious because Chinese is a high context language whereas English is not.  Some common Chinglish expressions I’ve heard thus far are:

“I want to play with you,” meaning I want to hang out

“Oh my Lady Gaga,” meaning OMG

“Cash recycling machine,” meaning ATM

And my personal favorite, “good good study, day day up,” meaning if you study hard, you will improve day by day

One thing to also note is that Chinese people can be very direct in some aspects.  I have had Chinese friends and students say that, “you’re so sexy,” as well as compliment me on my legs, eyes, and the “whiteness” of my skin.  All of these statements are simple compliments and doesn’t necessarily mean they’re flirting.

Every time my Chinese friend says he wants to get together, he says he wants to play with me.  He will also state that he’ll “look me up” when he’s ready to hang out. The  other day, he texted that he wanted to play with me and he’ll look me up when I get off work.  I informed him that I get off at 9:30pm and he asked me, “you work late. can I live together with you?” Now, I really wasn’t sure what he was trying to say but I assumed he was asking if he could stay over.  I was quite honestly shocked and didn’t know what his intentions were because he has stated several times that I was sexy prior to this.  I waited several hours to respond because I really didn’t know what to say.  I eventually told him that I would be too tired and that we’ll play together some other time.

Afterwards, I asked my colleagues, both international and local, and friends what the hell this could mean.  Everyone got a good laugh but no one really knows because they don’t really know the context of our relationship.  Even when I explain it’s strictly platonic and he’s like a brother to me, they all explain that he may not think that at all.  One local friend immediately said he’s looking to “take advantage” of the situation but once I showed her a picture of him, she immediately changed her mind and said that he looks “too innocent and pure”…and to not read into it.  When I said that looks can be deceiving, she immediately shot back, “Not him. I trust and like him.” lol, whatever the hell that means.

It’s been a couple days since I received that text and I’m still struggling with how to handle the situation.  Obviously, if he was an American, I would know exactly what his intentions were and would be very direct when handling it.  However, I do not want him to “lose face” when I confront him.  From what I understand, “losing face” means to become very embarrassed but it’s very degrading to Chinese people…similar to losing one’s dignity.   Of course, there’s the possibility that he’s simply wanting to hang out, talk, watch American TV shows, and then couch surf…but I don’t want to lead him on either.  A local friend suggested that I introduce the topic of culture shock and explain how Chinglish expressions can imply very different things in English.  I plan to take this approach when we play together on Wednesday but if y’all have any suggestions/thoughts, please let me know!