Because Chinese and English are two different systems of language, it is easy for us to make some jokes when we come to some utterancess. To learn Chinese language well, we would better have a good understanding of these mistakes we usually make.

First of all, let us come to the English-Chinese part. Before you know the meaning of “How are you”, what does it mean would you guess? Someone may say “怎么是你(zen3 me5 shi4 ni3)”. Because we have known “how” means “怎么”; ‘”are” means “是” and “you” means “你”, they can form into one sentence “怎么是你”. This has become a popular joke when it comes to the English newly-learners.

Actually, it is the same case that we learn Mandarin. The followings are some typical sentences.

How to translate “萝卜白菜各有所爱(luo2 bo5 bai2 cai4 ge4 you3 suo3 ai4)”? You may say “Some prefer radish but others prefer cabbage”. Actually it is just your literal translation that can not be understand by other people. I have a version for you to understand this Chinese saying better. That is “Taste differs”. After you have know such a equivalent utterances, you may get to know the correct usage of this saying.

“他就是嘴硬， 不肯认错(ta1 jiu4 shi4 zui3 ying4 bu4 ken3 ren4 cuo4)” is another frequently-used saying. Many foreigners are puzzled about the word “嘴硬(zui3 ying4). And someone translates it into “He has always got a hard mouth and never admit a fault.” That is not a good translation because there is no such an utterances in English. We’d better say “He never says uncle.”

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