Nee I hv not gone nuts."Xie Xie" is supposedly "Thank You" in Chinese!
This titbit is courtesy Sabs who has spent over a year in China. She
came up with this post when I ate her brains for a "X post". So over to her
for rest of the post .
"Xie Xie" was perhaps the first of the Chinese words I learnt to pronounce correctly with the right intonation and expression...bow gently and say ‘Shi-eh Shi-eh’ without a pause, really fast so it flows. Imagine that you are the vent weight of a pressure cooker that has given the first two half whistles :-D - yeah, now the ‘shi-eh shi-eh’ sounds right. Well jokes aside, I think nothing can be more beautiful than the word ‘thanks’ and that too said with an added effort. Interestingly they say thanks to you for taking their cab, buying their wares or for paying the due for their service(N not other way round!)
Chinese words and names can be tongue twisters to the unfamiliar. My students at the Anhui University found an easy way out, by adopting ‘English’ names...what amused me was the creativity in choosing their assumed names- butterfly, dragonfly, book, mayflower, Meg Ryan, David Beckham, coco cola...and what not. I used to tell them to go back to their Chinese names but many of them found it uncool ! On the contrary, I was keen on choosing an assumed Chinese name for myself and from a list kindly made by my students, I narrowed down on dongmei (winter plum), Xiang(Fragrant\To-soar) and yinghua(cherry flower), planning to use them someday as pseudonyms.
So XieXie Xiang for this post.
Linking this to AtoZChallenge - X is for XieXie Xiang
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| Guess who's the celebrity in the pic :-P |
"Xie Xie" was perhaps the first of the Chinese words I learnt to pronounce correctly with the right intonation and expression...bow gently and say ‘Shi-eh Shi-eh’ without a pause, really fast so it flows. Imagine that you are the vent weight of a pressure cooker that has given the first two half whistles :-D - yeah, now the ‘shi-eh shi-eh’ sounds right. Well jokes aside, I think nothing can be more beautiful than the word ‘thanks’ and that too said with an added effort. Interestingly they say thanks to you for taking their cab, buying their wares or for paying the due for their service(N not other way round!)
Chinese words and names can be tongue twisters to the unfamiliar. My students at the Anhui University found an easy way out, by adopting ‘English’ names...what amused me was the creativity in choosing their assumed names- butterfly, dragonfly, book, mayflower, Meg Ryan, David Beckham, coco cola...and what not. I used to tell them to go back to their Chinese names but many of them found it uncool ! On the contrary, I was keen on choosing an assumed Chinese name for myself and from a list kindly made by my students, I narrowed down on dongmei (winter plum), Xiang(Fragrant\To-soar) and yinghua(cherry flower), planning to use them someday as pseudonyms.
So XieXie Xiang for this post.
Linking this to AtoZChallenge - X is for XieXie Xiang
Cool!! xie xie for the post :)
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting and informative!
ReplyDeleteXieXie Xiang
The celebrity in that pic should be the author of this post! Right!?
it sounds like Hee Hee Haa
ReplyDeletePhenoMenon
hahaha
ReplyDeleteaamazing
like a cooker whistle made me LOL
xie xie
its like psi to me
cool idea. grt post
Cheating, cheating...I'll tell to teacher! ;)
ReplyDeletegood one ;
ReplyDeleteChinese is such a tongue twister !
ReplyDeleteHa ha...I knew the Chinese Thank you long back, thank to 'Ni Hau, Kylan' but wouldn't have guessed that it is spelled with an X - There is a very big Chinese population in the part of US I live and all of them have American names. NOw I should go ask my neighbor what her Chinese name is :-)
ReplyDeleteXie Xie...for all the wonderful posts so far.
ReplyDeletexie xie... gee.. pronouncing it had me in splits ! :P
ReplyDeleteWell, xie xie for this informative post!
ReplyDeleteXie Xie! Cool post :D
ReplyDeleteVery cool take on the post. Xie Xie for sharing.
ReplyDeleteXieXie Xiang for sharing! I always loved to learn Hello n Thank You in different languages.
ReplyDeletenice Xie Xie ! post ..
ReplyDeleteXie-xie for the wonderful post! And yes I said it like the "vent weight of a pressure cooker that has given the first two half whistles" :D :D
ReplyDeleteI practised saying xie-xie with the taxi drivers and shopkeepers in China.I liked the way you have described the pronunciation though :D
ReplyDeleteI would say a reverend XieXie Xiang for this post :)
ReplyDeleteLovely. China remains an enigma to me, a country that I want to live and work in (but probably will be unfulfilled!). Xie Xie for the post.
ReplyDeleteGotto go now... the cooker is whistling :)
Yup, this was the first thing we learnt on our trip to China. And names and everything else is quite a tongue twister there. Nice one on X!
ReplyDeleteDropping by from AtoZ
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