What not to say to your kids in Chinese (from Sinosplice)
I was reading a post on Sinosplice about a book that contains sayings that parents should not say to their kids. The original post can be found here. I found it to be quite amusing and decided to ask my girlfriend 申琦 (shēn qí ) which of the sayings she had heard before. She said that she had personally heard the following sayings used when disciplining kids:
- 3. 你怎么这么笨 (How can you be so stupid!)
- 5. 你看看人家的孩子 (Look at the other kids.)
- 8. 你的任务就是好好学习，其他的别管 (Your job is studying. Don’t worry about anything else.)
- 11. 当心，摔下来我可不管 (Be careful. If you trip, I’m not going to help you.)
- 12. 那么难看，你还喜欢 (You actually like something this ugly?)
- 13. 你哪有钱去捐款呀 (Like you have enough money to make a donation?)
- 16. 没事，反正没人看见 (Don’t worry, no one saw us.)
- 18. 你问我，我问谁 (You ask me, but then who do I ask?)
- 21. 你怎么不明白我的苦心呢 (Can’t you understand how much I’ve sacrificed for you?)
I found this to be quite surprising as I originally thought the list was more of a joke and that people didn’t use these phrases. These are some of the less offensive ones on the list, but I was still surprised.
Later on, I went to the “24 365″ convenience store and overheard a mother say to her kid “如果你再那么麻烦我就抽你” (rúguǒ nǐ zài nàme máfan wǒ jiù chōu nǐ) (“If you continue to be so troublesome, I’m going to smack you”), and then proceed to smack her kid over the head with a belt once for behaving badly, and then a second time for crying because he’d been smacked.
Go figure…..
July 12th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
cultural discipline…I have to say though that sometimes it just works ^_^ but definitely, it can be very harsh.
July 12th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I’m surprised, because what I observed in China in public was parents doting and being over protective of their single child.
But then, I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Mom
July 12th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Elijah…..haha….could be
Sara…..parents usually are that way. When kids misbehave, however, things change quite fast
July 15th, 2006 at 8:52 am
im sorry……whats wrong with smacking a child?
July 15th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Rachel……hehehe
July 28th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
ha ha ha….strange enough this method of discipline is not so foreign to our Latino populations……remember them?…the hidden Americans….Hek
July 28th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Hek El Chicano…..you may be right