A Mandarin Interpreter’s Family and Relationship Issues

1.       Mysterious uncle

Once upon a time there was this uncle.

He was acting on behalf of a young man on an important occasion and introduced

himself as the young man’s “uncle”. The Mandarin interpreter interpreted,

faithfully, the word “uncle”.

Later on the young man attended the event himself and was confused when asked about his “uncle”, saying that “I don’t have an uncle”. An investigation was conducted and it was determined he was telling the truth. “Uncle” is used in the Chinese culture as a polite way to address the father’s generation, the same way “grandpa/grandma” is used in Mandarin to respectfully address the senior generation.            

2.       Elusive sister

The individual had declared, on an important

document, that he and his “sister” grew up together. When questioned about this

“sister”, he denied he had one. It turned out the meaning of “cousin” was

translated as “sister”, because “cousin” can be described as “sister” in

(Mandarin) Chinese.

3.       Gender Identity Disorder?

The individual was describing how his

“sister” was put in an all boys’ school. It turned out it’s not a sister, but a

male cousin. Each relationship that a “cousin” depicts, like the son of the

father’s sister or the daughter of a mother’s brother, has to be precisely identified

with a different word in (Mandarin) Chinese. This is why the perfectly normal question

whether that “cousin is a male or a female” doesn’t make sense in Mandarin.

4.       His aunt is also his sister

The wife asks someone to pass on a message to

her husband. She wants his husband to call his “aunt”. The interpreted message

could be confusing. The husband said he didn’t have an “aunt”. This aunt, it is

found, is actually his “sister”. In Chinese culture, parents sometimes use

their children’s relationship to address or describe the individual. In this

case, the father’s “sister” is referred to as “aunt”, as she is the actual

“aunt” of their child.

5.       The “Royal We”

It often happens the speaker uses “we (the

Royal We)” to refer to himself and “they” to refer to a third party. For

example, someone might use the words “they called me”, while what he was trying

to say was “he called me”.

6. Your Brother

It was in court that I heard this term for the first time. Initially I thought there was really that “BROTHER” until I realized people were referring to another judge. The question is: is there an easy way to interpret this into Mandarin, without losing at least part of the meaning?

In this sense, is “uncle” in Mandarin really

that “uncle” in English? Do Mandarin speakers and English speakers have

different (definitions of) grandparents? Do different cultures view the same

relationship differently? Or is the world viewed differently when we switch

between languages?

Language is like the soul. When you speak two languages, you are blessed with two souls in one body.