Ah....tis why you and Pigsy make such a wonderful couple, lol.

I had a lady friend in
China who often confused "chicken" with "kitchen."

I wanted to buy a turkey for Xmas, and when I asked for a 'da huo ji' they gave me a cigarette lighter, lol.

The Chinese language make me sick.

Why? Too difficult for you?

I've heard students say the same about English. English isn't difficult, it's stupid!

Why does an alarm clock 'go off' when it's coming on?
Why does the word 'fast' mean 'quick moving' and 'stuck'?
Why is 'abbreviation' such a long word?
Who put the alphabet in 'alphabetical order'?

Why is a 'rubbish bag' called a 'rubbish bag' when it's empty? Until it has rubbish in it, it's just a 'bag'.
Why does 'consult' mean to give advice and also receive advice?

If there are 20 students in a classroom, ten on the right and ten on the left, and 6 on the left, left, why do we say there are 4 left on the left?

Why does 'to bomb' mean a failure or success and why does 'mean' = good or bad?
Why does the verb 'to dust' mean to add or remove?
If you are waiting for the waiter, aren't you the 'waiter'?

Isn't a 'lethal dose' of something also a 'lifetime supply'?

Is it the S or the C that's silent in 'scent'?

Why isn't 'bomb' pronounced like 'womb', 'tomb', or even 'comb'?

How can something be 'new and improved'? If it's new, what's it improving on?

Why do we say 'free gift'....aren't all gifts 'free'?

Why do the words 'caregiver' and 'caretaker' mean the same thing?

Why is it called 'cargo' on a ship, yet 'shipment' in a car?

Is it any wonder why ESL students get confused?

You're right, Pigsy, I've never been to Pattaya, but I have spent a great deal of time in
Phuket (Patong) and have a lot of ex-pat friends there.

As for your example of a teacher confusing 'can't/cunt', it's not unusual for Chinese people
to get words confused. Sometimes it's quite amusing. A Chinese ex-gf of mine always
confused 'hungry' with 'angry', which always caused a smile, and one of my students
always confuses 'mention' with 'mansion'.

There also cannot be a FT in China who has never heard students laughing at 'beach' and
'bitch'.

As for me, I still can't tell the difference, in Chinese, between the sounds of 'shang' and
xiang'.

It's half the fun of teaching.....

I believe these are called "false cognates," but I would rely on Turnoi to clarify that. But, yes, there are some pretty funny examples that illustrate the difficulty that some learners demonstrate with certain similar sounding words. I had a lady friend in China who often confused "chicken" with "kitchen." Personally, I once asked for a child in Chinese when expressing my desire for chopsticks....lol, you can imagine the look I got from the waiter. By the way, though, the whole can't/cunt thing is nothing more than akin to an urban myth, and has been thrown about at more than one college in China.

The Toddler, though, exacerbates his problems with the English language by not reading well - as demonstrated by his claim that I taught at GXU when what I actually wrote was that I was quite familiar with said university. Nor did he bother mentioning which college employed him there.

And once more to set the record straight, I've never been a big supporter of training centers. I do support a logical approach, however, when discussing training centers. That is, if 99.9 percent of training centers are bad, that leaves .1 that are not. Also, to assume that one can know that all training centers are bad is ludicrous when considering the volume.

But more importantly, the problem the Toddler has with my approach is that I believe the blame for those training centers that are total shams needs to be placed on the shoulders of pretend FTs, such as himself, as well as on the shoulders of the con artists that run them. That said, though, I have seen a few excellent training centers run as joint ventures with highly qualified foreign administrators.

As for being a Chinese apologists, well, that's somewhat true; however, I do not support communist dictatorships. Moreover, less than 10% of the Chinese population are communists, which does make it the largest political party in the world but does not justify attacking the whole population.

I'm also an Anti-Imperialist.

I do believe that Taiwan belongs to China. Believe that about Tibet, too. And I hope that China builds a chain of islands all the way to Australia and then maybe a bridge right up to the Toddler's mommy's doorstep.

Finally, no, I'm happy to say I've never been to Pattaya. My only exposure to Thailand was touring Buddhist temples, which was an absolutely fascinating experience. Also spent time at a Buddhist commune. (A very humbling and gratifying experience.) But, no, I have no interest in hanging with a bunch of drunken sexpats.

As for me, I still can't tell the difference, in Chinese, between the sounds of 'shang' and
xiang'.

And 'zhao' and 'jiao'. I am able to create each of these sounds successfully when I speak, but unable to actually distinguish between the sounds when listening.

I have learned to carefully watch the Chinese speakers face; the 'jiao' and 'xiang' sounds result in a widening of the lips in a kind of 'wincing'. The 'zhao and shang' sounds are made with relaxed, unstressed, lips.

After 10 years, I'm still unable to produce a genuine Mandarin 'r' sound as in hot 're' and 'v' sound as in young beautiful woman 'meinv', much to the amusement of my students.