Language Perspectives

This is a delayed blogging of an incident. It did provoke a thought at the time and I suppose it is worth a mention.

A colleague (who was also my trainee previously) asked me what is 'hak cheng' in English. This was after I asked her what was wrong when I saw her examining her hand. (FYI 'Hak' means black, and 'cheng' means green if you separate the two words in Cantonese.)

"I suppose you can say you're black and blue", I replied. I frequently think about the story of 'The Princess and the Pea' and the Princess complaining about her bad night when the term 'black and blue' is mentioned.

The injured girl pondered it for a second and I thought the English term may be a bit of a troublesome mouthful compared to the efficient Cantonese one so (considering that she had always been a very keen pupil) I added, "You could say that you are bruised as well". I even spelt it for her when she asked me to.

"Is that the same?", she asked.

"Well, 'bruise' covers a wider array of injury including the reddish or other types. 'Black and blue' is more specific and would be a more accurate translation of 'hak cheng,'" Gosh, I guess I was lecturing again.

"Black and blue", she repeated to herself. I saw her serious expression when trying to remember the new information and could not resist adding something funny to aid her memory.

"Remember, there is black... and blue, but not green, ok?" We ended up laughing at it and I suppose she may think of me the next time she uses the phrase.

This made me think how differently the English and the Chinese view that patch of colour on the skin. One sees blue mixed with black while the other sees green mixed with black. Isn't that interesting? (Before you proceed further with your thoughts, let me jump two steps ahead of you and warn you that no racist thoughts about ideas or skin will be tolerated. You were warned.)

This links back to my contemplation of equivalent of another common phrase that I have noticed in the past. The English term 'flesh and blood' is used to describe family, especially children. The Chinese phrase translate directly as 'bone and flesh'. So, do your children inherit your flesh and blood or your bone and flesh? Maybe blood is more important in the English-speaking world because, as we know, 'blood is thicker than water'. Are bones less important then? They do last a long, long time (check out the tombs for bones used for carbon dating and DNA testing!) and anyone without it will be like jellyfish out of water.