Jack talk Thai, Jack talk Thai real well

This post may need to come with a disclaimer, I in no way intend for it to come across as mean or racist. As with all blog posts, I am merely informing those who read them of my time spent here. So if any feel uncomfortable with my choice of words, just pretend you didn’t read it.

Many people have had their experiences with Spanglish, but what about Chinglish? I have spent pretty much this whole week in a Chinglish mess. It’s been funny at times, but also very very frustrating.

In my Management and Organization class our first assignment is a group project where we have to come up with a project and fill out a grant proposal to fund said project. My partner is a nice Taiwanese girl who was pretty much forced upon me. Not a big deal. This project has been a major pain in the ass, not because of my partner, but because the project guidelines are so vague and the teacher provides no help. It’s almost over, and I am counting down the hours until I get to hand it in.

My partner and I have met several times at the good old campus library to discuss the workings of the project. The last couple of times I left frustrated and mad, again mainly because of the project itself, but also the language barrier crept in and made it hard.

Example conversation between my partner and myself:

Me: Do you think it should be this way or that way?
Partner: Yes
Me: No, which one?
Partner: Uh huh
Me: Okay this is not working……

Today I found myself spending the day going through and correcting Chinglish grammar for our project proposal. My partner and I split up the work to try and make the project go faster, and we sent each other our parts after we were done. I won’t give any specific details of what I had to read, try and figure out the meaning to, and then fix because that would be mean. All I know is I spent a good amount of time just sitting and reading a sentence over many times before I realized what she was trying to convey in the message.

I must say, I have to give the girl credit, because it definitely has to be hard for her. I do not think I could go to China and take classes in Chinese and expect to make good grades. This has for sure been a learning experience, and I am happy this project is almost over-did I mention that already? Me love you long time (said in Chinese accent of course)