Saying, seeing, spotting vital Chinese words - how ladies avoid entering the Gents Toilet

The Chinese signs for some words are easy.

Problem
In my previous post I talked about the Sunday Times article which introduced me to Chineasy which helps you to remember Chinese signs. In case anybody doesn't know, Chinese is not written phonetically, but in signs and symbols, rather like our no smoking signs and traffic signs showing a picture of a cigarette or a car and sometimes a line or cross on top.

The article warns that recognising the signs does not teach you how say them. What's the answer?

Answers
The simple answer is to use Google Translate.

Story
My first trip to China was a side trip from Hong Kong to Guilin mountains, which you see in a 360 degree video in Disney in Florida, USA. Coming down the mountain I wanted to visit the toilet. I asked somebody for the sign for 'toilet'. I quickly said, 'no, ladies toilet'.

TOILET
I looked for the sign, checked the last character matched what was on my notebook, thinking like in England it would be LADIES and went in. I immediately realised I was in the men's!

I went back to the girl who had showed me, told her I had walked into the Gents. I don't think she understood. So I pointed to the sign she had written. I asked her, "What is this word!"

 She said, "I've written LADIES (toilet).


LADIES AND GENTS

For years I though she had just written the sign for toilet.

LADIES TOILET
Now that I have photographed the signs for Ladies toilet, I see the symbols clearly. It is not one word, Ladies, but two words, ladies toilet.

Tips
1 If you are in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong or a Chinese restaurant in England, America, Europe or anywhere in the world, show the sign to a Chinese speaking friend. Learn how to say it.

2 Or take a video of them saying it. If you were really nifty, you could take a video of them asking,
Where is the restaurant?

Where is the toilet?
A separate video of: My hotel is (...); and
Please call me a taxi.
How much?
Too much?

3 If you have a friend whose name translates into something you would want to remember such as 'Beautiful', video them saying their name and translating it.

4 Use Photos From Google translate.
You can click on the Chinese to hear the sound. Learn to say it if you can.
I photograph the google translate of my favourite words and make them into little flashcards, or have a page of them, or shrink them small to go inside my notebook or diary.

Looking at the symbols, you can see why the Chinese language and the Malay language don't have plurals but use a double word like child-child to mean children.

You can also see why they don't understand the concepts of the or a or an. A or an would translate into one.

The or this might translate into a pointing finger symbol. Easier just to leave it out.

That does not explain to me why the Russian language, using the alphabet does not use the or a or an.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Language teacher. Teaching English and other languages. I have many posts on languages here and on my language blog. Please share posts.