Mainpiece: Don’t stick your chopsticks into your rice. Background Information: I was having dinner with my family back in my father’s home town when I was younger. When we are watiting for other family members to be seated, my younger cousin casually sticked his chopsticks into his bowl of rice. My father stopped him. My… Continue Reading »
Mainpiece: I was helping prepare the dining table someday. The informant told me don’t put the chopsticks uneven in length When Chinese people are having dinner, puting the chopsticks uneven in length means bad luck. We called it “三长两短/ three pieces long and two pieces short.” It represented “death”. Chinese people believe when some one… Continue Reading »
Main Piece: 月が綺麗ですね /The moon is very pretty (tonight). The informant told me that it is too direct for Japanese people to say “I love you”. Japanese as a language is very obscure. In daily conversation, people are being extremely polite to each other. Therefore. directly saying “I love you” seems to be rude and… Continue Reading »
Main piece: Original text: 夏が終わった Translated text: The summer ends. The informant told me that in Japanese, words sometimes have more meanings than they seem to have. For example, “summer” is not only a season. It represented the best time of love. “Summer” is when you are fervently love someone but haven’t decided to tell… Continue Reading »
Main piece: Translated conversation: Me: I want a new pair of board shoes. Father: Sure, we can go shopping after the Qingming festival. Me: You mean after tomorrow? Why not tomorrow? Father: You don’t buy shoes(鞋xie) on Qingming because it brought bad luck (邪xie). Me：It sounds like a terrible joke. Father: I mean it. Background… Continue Reading »