“同志”

[liukaiqin]

昨天上课的时候我们老师把“同志”的作用说清楚。课文里面有警察，老师说，中国人平时不用“同志”，可是有的老年人经常用，比如说他们叫警察“同志”。我问老师，“老师，如果我们（外国学生）叫警察‘同志’就怎么样？”好像她觉得很可笑，笑了，说“他会说：那个小外国姑娘很可爱，她中文说得很好，她叫我‘同志’了！”

Comments

[liukaiqin]

Roffle! That's a spiffing rendition. I would provide a supplementary one for luck, but nice bokane has got there first, see below. We should feel well-attended-to - he does this for money. :)

P.S. Are you going through a Helen Mirren phase? She's lovely in that picture. Hey, I bought my flights last night! I'm coming home for the Easter break. xx

[bokane]

moonverythin,

In class yesterday, the teacher explained the usage of "Comrade" to us. In the textbook, there's a cop, and the teacher said that Chinese people usually don't use "comrade," but old people often use it, for instance, to address police officers. I asked the teacher, "If we (foreign students) call police officers 'comrade,' what'll happen?" She seemed to find it very funny, and said, "He'll say 'that foreign girl's adorable; boy, her Chinese is good. She called me 'comrade!'"

The more common colloquial meaning of "comrade," as liukaiqin knows, is to refer to homosexuals, as in "同志酒吧" ('gay bar') etc. And as to the teacher's response, I can say from the experience of a very sincerely pinko (as in Communist) friend of mine that addressing people as "comrade," at least in some parts, will get you a worried look and a muttered "I'm not like that."

[liukaiqin]

Thanks :) I'm trying to think in Chinese as much as I can this week, because the department's having their usual evening of showing off their students in embarrassing ways next Friday.

[anonymous]

我今年跟中国朋友过年。有几次她跟家人说话的时候我听她叫我“马同志“。但我觉得只是开玩笑的。

derek

[liukaiqin]

真的！哈哈。我的英国朋友是真正的“同志”，最近他的香港男朋友开始叫他“洋鬼”了！

[liukaiqin]

Derek, 我把你的URL失掉了。你还在大连吧？