Friday, January 21, 2011

Clothes-es, and Other Chinese-isms

Chinese students almost uniformly make the mistake of pluralizing 'clothes' into 'clothes-es' and we are the kind of teachers that mimicked our students most common mistakes when talking to each other, so now I say 'clothes-es' all the time in my head. Other things we said:

Deeleeciours (delicious)
Advices
I wish you happy every day!

I miss speaking Chinglish on a daily basis. Luckily I still talk to folks in China so when they say things like this, I write them down. You think you won't forget, but you do!

Did you know in Chinese culture it is normal to wear the same clothes for several days in a row? (Not underwear, that I know of!) You wear them until they are dirty, then change into new clothes and wash the ones you've been wearing. It was really hard to get used to at first, but then I loved it. It's much easier than having to choose new outfits every day. My students thought it was really strange Americans change our clothes every day. I don't know if they thought we were showing off how many clothes-es we own, or being impractical, or just weird. But they definitely noticed the foreign teachers changed their clothes all the time. I started wearing the same thing several days in a row to fit in, and because: lazy. I miss it.

However, when I was in college, this was my favorite sweatshirt of all time; I got it for $10 at the GAP and wore it constantly. I was Chinese and didn't know it!



My students often told me that Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) was very special when they were growing up because it was the only time they got new clothes; now that people have more money, people own more clothes, and Spring Festival is not as special.

7 comments:

  1. > You wear them until they are dirty,
    >then change into new clothes and
    >wash the ones you've been wearing.

    In the states we just call that being unemployed and depressed.

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  2. I am Chinese when it comes to my jeans!!!

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  3. Oh boy, I can change my clothes 3 times a day! Which means new cap, new bling, new watch...

    But I do like to slob at home in an old pair of trackies too. :)

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  4. I so remember that day in the photo! Ha! I also remember getting smoked out of the cabin. Good times...

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  5. As a stay at home mom, I do this more than I care to admit already.

    I don't get why we change clothes every day... I've gone to the trouble to pick an outfit, I think my style muscle should be able to rest on yesterday's laurels. It was a good outfit yesterday, why not for today too?

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  6. That is a great idea! Love the toddler pic too.

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  7. When I was a student at NYU, I frequently noticed that foreign exchange students would wear the same clothes more than a day at a time and I had the same thought ("why don't we Americans do that?"). Every once and again I'll wear the same outfit twice in one week, but I'm always self-conscious about it... isn't that silly?

    But as far as jeans, I'm with Suz... once you find the PERFECT pair of jeans... I wear them and wear them and wear them. :)

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