I was enrolled in formal Chinese studies at a university here in Dalian for one year. And today I realized that one year was just not enough. Let me explain why. I’ve been living in China for 4+ years, and picking up Mandarin bit by bit over that time. Practical Mandarin. First it was the essential phrases like “Where’s the bathroom?,” or “Waiter, I do you have a cold Heinekin?”

My Chinese learning, for a long time, was on a need-to-know basis. When I needed a bank account, I learned how to say “bank account.”

When I began working in a computer company, I learned how to say crazy stuff in Chinese like “upgrade the system BIOS” or “hard drive partition.” Learning such advanced words certainly gave me a sense of pride about how far my Chinese study has come.

That sense of pride was shattered today, when I got hung up when my Chinese friend mentioned his “膝盖/xÄ«gài” in a conversation this morning. He said, he had gotten out of bed and hurt his “膝盖.” With my advanced knowledge of Chinese I supposed he must have meant his fibula or his femur, or some other obscure body part.

Turns out it means “knee,” which is apparently a word that I never picked up in my so-called Chinese study. I mean really, how often do knees come up as a topic of conversation?

Moral of the story: Don’t overlook the basics. At some point, as I did this morning, you’ll look way ridiculous.

Discussion

8
  1. I’ve really enjoyed reading this blog. Even though I’ve been coming to China for nearly 6 years, I’ve only been in China for about 7 months and my Chinese skills leave much to be desired.

  2. Rick – That’s great, but don’t worry: You’re not alone.

    4 Years of Classes + 3 living in China = Still unsure of how to say ‘knee’

    Thanks for the reminder.

  3. 头和肩膀,膝盖和脚指头
    膝盖和脚指头
    膝盖和脚指头
    头和肩膀,膝盖和脚指头
    眼睛,耳朵,口和鼻子

    tóu hé jiānbǎng, xīgài hé jiǎozhǐtou
    xīgài hé jiǎozhǐtou
    xīgài hé jiǎozhǐtou
    tóu hé jiānbǎng, xīgài hé jiǎozhǐtou
    yǎnjing, ěrduo, kǒu hé bízi

    😉 Just doesn’t have the same ring to it – so I’ve likely got the wrong characters.

  4. 哈哈! Yes!

    Ryan, that rhyme is like the one I learned at first school…. “eyes and ears and nose and mouth”…and I’ve forgotten the rest…something about a rainbow ?

  5. Hey Rick

    You’re certainly not alone. I’d been living in China for two and half years and didn’t have to use the word “knee” until I took my parents for massages after they had just arrived after a 20-hour flight from Toronto.

    After impressing my parents by getting them around town without trouble not knowing the word for “knee” felt really embarrassing.

    J.

  6. @John: I LOVE that it’s set to some class-A polka music. Cheers for the link!

    For anyone that just wants to listen – you can use this player:

    Though, check out the page John references for a lot of commentary on it.

    And for anyone curious, but lazy, the Chinese version apparently (and literally) goes:

    Hair and shoulder, knee and foot, knee and foot
    Hair and shoulder, knee and foot, knee and foot
    Eye, ear, nose and mouth
    Hair and shoulder, knee and foot, knee and foot

Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Return to Top ▲Return to Top ▲