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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (6145)	9/3/1998 8:00:00 PM
From: E	Respond to of 9980

In Setswana, the language spoken by the Tswana people of southern Africa, which I studied briefly and quite ineffectually, the word for corn and for breast are identical except for tone or inflection. The clumsy efforts at asking for corn or complimenting the corn made by the non-native speakers resulted in much local merriment. (Same story as yours, but less funny.)

To: Stitch who wrote (6145)	9/3/1998 8:06:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Stitch, The Cebuano word for "vegetables" is "utan", the word for "penis" is "uten". The actual pronunciations are virtually identical, which occasionally makes for amusing confusion in the markets. Then there's the famous Tagalog elevator dialogue, in which one party asks "is this going down?", and the other answers "it is going down". Literal translation: "Bababa ba?" "Bababa". Something related to the black sheep in the family, no doubt. Steve

To: Stitch who wrote (6145)	9/4/1998 12:39:00 PM
From: sonyNchair	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

<<In a language where the same word form can mean so many things with only slight intonation differences any Chinese dialect is a minefield for the westerner wanting to learn it. For example, I had a group rolling one day when I tried to say in Cantonese "Yes, I live there". Instead I said "vagina", I want there"! (True story)>> Let's hope Clinton doesn't go to China and try to capture a little Kennedy Camelot aura with a variation of the "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. <g>