Mind your…
While strolling through a park in Hainan (a tropical island off the south coast of China), I suddenly found myself facing the following sign:
I was, of course, very excited and immediately proceeded to take a picture of it. When I proudly showed the sign to Moon, though, she did not share my enthusiasm. “What’s the big deal”, she asked. “Mind your crotch!!!”, I bounced up and down, “they meant to write head, but they wrote crotch! It’s funny!”. “But crotch means head”, was her reply.
Sometimes it seems as if China’s entire English teaching system is some kind of perverse prank performed by the first foreigner to come to China. It’s not that they are taught completely wrong words (although I can’t understand how “crotch” managed to get this meaning), but rather they are taught words that while are technically correct, have new meanings which totally overshadow the old meanings.
Examples? In primary school the children are taught that “pussy” means cat and that “rubber” is an eraser. All Chinese know that the correct word for a male chicken is, of course “cock”. When speaking English with Chinese, every once in a while you will bump into a word which will surprise you.
I’ve already given up on trying to correct them; often the reply will be a thinly-disguised version of “that’s what I was taught in school, and obviously my English teachers know better English than you do”. They will just have to learn the hard way; I merely hope it won’t be too painful… 
Liron
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
While some of the words seem funny to me too (e.g.- pussy), as someone who originally studied British-English, I must say that’s how I’ve also learnt some of them (e.g.- rubber…). American-English isn’t the only English…
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jackass
October 29th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
yea it is
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Ori
October 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Like it or not, American English is becoming the international standard - especially in places where English is spoken as a second language. Chinese seem to teach American English spiced up with select British English words. These pop up often, for example “trousers” instead of “pants”, and I couldn’t care less. Care should be taken, however, when the word you are teaching has a completely different meaning for the majority of the speakers. Jerusalem Hebrew may still use the word “מציצה” to describe a lollipop, but I don’t think you will approve of making this word a part of the curriculum of an abroad Hebrew-teaching program….
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Iftah
October 30th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I have three cute little pussies living with me at home. Since I live in an apartment building, I haven’t let them out of the flat since I got them. In contrast, my neighbor, who owns a house with a yard, has a big cock which he keeps outside all the time. It is quite funny to watch my three pussies by the window, watching eagerly at the cock as he wanders around with his crotch held up high.
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Ori
October 31st, 2007 at 2:20 pm
At this rate, you might get my web site marked by The Great Firewall as a pornographic site…
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mush
November 1st, 2007 at 10:01 pm
How comes? The builders of the Great Firewall studied English in some special schools?
Besides, till say 10-15 years ago, hearing on the radio/TV news about “hakohot hamezuyanim shel…” was pretty common. Not anymore.
I would say that the same process happened in US to some of the words you were mentioning.
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