Tuesday 7 November 2017

On The Few Occasions We Go To The Beach,

we always see a Westerner or two with a Thai script tattoo,


 not reading Thai I have no idea what is written on their bodies, which begs the question, do they know what the Thai script says? which brings me onto this chaps tattoo, Redditor chojurou posted a picture of a friend's tattoo, when people ask him what his tattoo says, he replies,

"I don't know, I don't speak Chinese."

And that is literally what it says. Those who read Chinese pointed out that it appears to be a machine translation, rendered in typewriter font instead of calligraphy, but it says what it says, Southernnfratty gave a little more information,

中國話 is kind of a dated way to say "Chinese" (almost like how you'd say/write it in Japanese, actually).

Most people in Mainland China say 中文 or 汉语, or 國語 / 普通話 / 華語 if you're in HK/Taiwan/SE Asia. Also colloquially many people say "” more often than "” ; the latter which to me sounds a bit more textbook-y.

But other than that, the tattoo is correct

Edit: 纹身的那个人的手写也挺标准的 Edit 2: Guys I was just pointing out a few subtleties lol. The phrase is a bit awk but overall correct. And / can be used interchangeably, just sounds more natural to me, many thanks to Southernnfratty,

He's dressed up the tattoo a bit since the top picture was taken, but it has to be said, it still reads "I don't know, I don't speak Chinese." cat with tins of paint or not!


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