If, like myself, you’ve ever had trouble visualizing the concept of time in Chinese with its “behind day” and “ahead day” paradoxically meaning “the day after tomorrow” and “the day before yesterday” respectively; be sure to check out…
If, like myself, you’ve ever had trouble visualizing the concept of time in Chinese with its “behind day” and “ahead day” paradoxically meaning “the day after tomorrow” and “the day before yesterday” respectively; be sure to check out “Long Time No See“, a recent post on Sinoglot.
We need, in terms of understanding the metaphor, to be a little more careful with before and after. Whilst we see time as moving toward and past us, we actually project a front and a back onto blocks of time or events. So one thing happens after another.
We perceive a stream of events, days, seconds, whatever, flowing past us from front to back. Earlier events precede, that is, are in front of, later events.
Visualizing time in Chinese
As we look forward, tomorrow is moving toward us, and it is followed by the day after; the day after tomorrow is behind tomorrow.
Similarly, yesterday has already passed us, and it was preceded by the day before; the day before yesterday is in front of yesterday.
Be sure to check out the entire post for more explanation, and watch for the second part of the article which will discuss the ups (上) and downs (下) of next/last week.
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