Story 1: This late afternoon, while taking a walk around The Democracy Lawn (霧峰民主草坪), I stopped by the well-designed restroom in the park. By chance, I noticed a gecko resting still on the outside of the windowpane. The tiny creature couldn't have noticed me because, while it was outside the glass, I was inside the room.
I was able to get very close to the gecko, and in the peaceful evening, the bright light from the outdoor lamps allowed me to clearly see the silhouette of the tiny creature (see photos).
What a charming species! This gecko is nothing like those ugly lizards, nor does it resemble scary snakes or serpents. Instead, it's completely harmless in my mind. Somehow, it reminds me of children's literature, such as Little Gecko Borrows a Tail (小壁虎借尾巴), The Lying Little Gecko (撒謊的小壁虎), and No Crying, Little Gecko! (小壁虎不哭).
🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎
Story 2: From the summer of 2007 to the summer of 2010, I worked at St. James for three years, helping my church establish St. James' Language Institute (聖雅各語文機構) and leading its administrative and teaching affairs. During those years, we employed several native English-speaking teachers from cold regions of North America, like Boston. Most of them had never seen geckos before arriving in Taiwan. One of the female teachers shared a troubling experience with me, saying, "You know, Jerry, I almost couldn't fall asleep last night. I heard something so weird, so ghostly... Then I spotted a tiny creature on the wall of the guestroom, making the strangest noises, over and over! Do you know what it could be?"
"Did it look like a lizard?" I asked.
"Yes! It looked like a lizard but smaller. Its skin was clear and smooth."
"Don't worry. It must have been a gecko. They're actually quite helpful—they're great at catching mosquitoes."
🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎
Story 3: In Mandarin Chinese, we call geckos either 壁虎 (bìhŭ) or 守宮 (shŏugōng). But how do we say it in Taiwanese Hokkien? Over the generations, it has become increasingly difficult for children to know what geckos are called in Taiwanese.
I looked up the term in the Taiwanese Dictionary Online and found this: a gecko can be called 蟮蟲仔 (siān-thâng-á / siān-tâng-á), 蟮尪仔 (siān-âng-á / sîn-âng-á), or 蟮螂 (siān-lâng) in Taiwanese. The pronunciation varies depending on the region in Taiwan!
Both of my grandkids have studied a subject called "鄉土語言" (Native Languages / Vernacular Languages). This course allows students to practice either Taiwanese, Hakka, or one of the indigenous languages of Taiwan. To my surprise, our "mother tongues" are now being taught in schools!
My first grandson, James, chose Hakka (which is my "father tongue," the primary language my father spoke) for his Native Language course. He didn’t start learning Taiwanese until junior high, so reading or spelling the words in his Taiwanese textbook wasn’t easy for him. I imagine he had no idea how to say "gecko" in his mother tongue!
Now, shifting from my grandkids to my son, Antony, I remember when he was a little boy, he spoke Mandarin much better than Taiwanese. He didn’t speak Hakka at all. One morning, he was surprised to see a gecko crawling on the kitchen table where I had placed breakfast. I overheard him calling his grandma, my wife's mother, on the phone. He said, "A-Má! Thò-pâng ū tsi̍t-tsiah hóo teh tsia̍h nn̄g" (= 阿嬤！套房有一隻虎在吃蛋 / Grandma! There is a tiger in the suite eating a cooked egg).
My mother-in-law sounded puzzled and confused, even though Antony repeated his report in broken Taiwanese.
Eventually, I realized what he meant. He had confused the words for "kitchen" (廚房 / tû-pâng) with "suite" (套房 / thò-pâng) and mistakenly called the gecko (壁虎 / piah-hóo*) a tiger (虎 / hóo). He had directly translated the Mandarin into Taiwanese. In everyday Taiwanese, we say 灶跤 (tsàu-kha) instead of 廚房 (tû-pâng), and we don’t call a gecko "piah-hóo" but something closer to 蟮尪仔 (siān-âng-á / sîn-âng-á). What a funny mistranslation!
= = =
相關文章 (See also)：
1) Snake Stories (2010; originally, 2007)
2) I Killed a Snake This Morning (2010)
3) 水母、壁虎功、海邊的回憶 (2017)
4) 櫻花步道 ● 好漢坡 ● 蛇 (2019)
沒有留言:
張貼留言