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Mr., Mrs., Miss. as used on FSI - Still in use?

Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Learning Languages
Forum Name: Chinese (Standard)
Forum Discription: Discussion about studying Standard Chinese using the FSI course.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=326
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 3:29am


Topic: Mr., Mrs., Miss. as used on FSI - Still in use?
Posted By: Rina
Subject: Mr., Mrs., Miss. as used on FSI - Still in use?
Date Posted: 26 February 2007 at 2:28pm
Hi-
First, this page is wonderful and it's unbelievable, amazing, that there has been such a collaboration to make the language courses available to the public.
I'm going through Module 1 and I have a question about the titles -Xiansheng, Taitai, Xiaojie- or Mr. Mrs. Miss.
Are those titles still used?
I'm just wondering since so much time has passed from the development of these tapes.

[Edit: I'm assuming the term 'comrade' is not in wide use anymore, or is it?]


Also, is there any significant part of the course where I should skip certain words that are not in use anymore? Or this won't be a problem"
Thanks again for posting this course.



Replies:
Posted By: Thomas
Date Posted: 26 February 2007 at 9:42pm
I think if you try to avoid any of the communist party related terms you'll be ok. The first that comes to mind, as you mentioned, is 同志: [ tóng zhì ] or comrade. There are a lot of references in the Society module but that's a long way off for you right now. For a basic intro to respectful greetings you might want to have a listen to this: http://www.chineselearnonline.com/2007/02/21/clo_068-showing-respect/

Good luck!


-------------
Tom


Posted By: onebir
Date Posted: 27 February 2007 at 5:53am
Xiansheng & Taitai are usable with no problems everywhere AFIAK.

Xiaojie is generally OK in Mainland China, but has developed associations with prostitution.  (An acquaintance of mine was was once asked 'ni zai zhongguo deng xiaojie ma?' - 'are you in china working as a prostitute?'  She was blond, and was mistaken for an eastern european prostitute.)  Having said that, in ordinary contexts using xiaojie shouldn't cause offence. I vaguely remember hearing that in Taiwan the situation's different.

I don't know if FSI includes the term nvshi (女士) but it's probably worth knowing in the unlikely event any confusion arises.

Tongzhi is fine for older, especially rural, people, but is an urban slang term for gay men.  [As is 'boli' - which literally means glass.  This struck me as very odd when I first heard it, but does have a certain logic: homosexual partners resemble each other more than heterosexual partners, so they're (relatively speaking) like mirror images - &  mirrors are made of glass.]

It's also respectful to use people's title or first name plus title.  So when your teacher comes in, you could say 'laoshi hao' rather than 'ni hao'.  I find this a bit easier to remember than using 'nin', which usually slips back to 'ni' a few sentences into a conversation :s


Posted By: Rina
Date Posted: 28 February 2007 at 9:59pm
thanks for such detailed answers. this is fascinating to me.



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