249CULTURE QUIZ
SITUATION 1
At a morning language lesson, you ask your Chinese tutor
for help correctly pronouncing the name of a Hong Kong
client. You hand him the piece of paper on which you have
carefully copied the client’s name: Chan Tai Man. But the tutor
shakes his head, saying that he’s not sure how to pronounce
the name. You decide:
The teacher is a bit dim.
There is something you don’t understand about Chinese
names; better bring the business card to your next lesson, or
at a minimum have someone write the name in characters.
Hong Kong Chinese is different than Mainland Chinese.
The teacher’s sister is actually married to Chan Tai Man
and he is angry with him for winning at mahjong last week
and so thinks you shouldn’t associate with him.
Comments
Chinese names are traditionally written with the family name
first (almost always one character) and the given name second
(usually two characters). When writing in Chinese characters,
whether traditional complex characters (as in Hong Kong)
or simplified characters (as in the Mainland), family name
is always first. When writing a Romanised version of the
name using English letters, Westernised Chinese sometimes
reverse order and put given name first ‘for the convenience
of Western friends’. This can cause confusion, especially with
two-character names.
The correct answer is . Hong Kong Chinese speak
Cantonese while Mainland Chinese speak Mandarin, so a
word in Pinyin that appears the same could have a completely
different pronunciation. For example, in Cantonese the word
for big is tai, while in Mandarin it is da. His name would
actually be pronounced Chan Da Man in Mandarin. It will
help your teacher to see the characters, at a minimum he
can give you the pronunciation in Mandarin.