Over the course of the last year, text messaging has taken over my social life. In America, we have Facebook, email, IM, Twitter, and of course the good ol' telephone. In China text messaging is King. I'd say I average around 10 text messages a day and maybe 1 actual voice call per day. Text message kills two birds with one stone: 1. they are cheap 2. they are culturally convenient ways to communicate indirectly. In the course of 12 months I've received some very memorable, emotional, strange text messages over the year. I'll share some of them, leaving the context for you to figure out. All are from native Chinese people, in the original language unless otherwise noted. I wish my phone had more memory so I had saved more.
'i got a good news for you,apple says your are nice and she want to take to you more. come on my friend!'
'sweet!and then we can have a family diner'
'Hope u r fine uncle, u know Yuki is always by ur side :)'
'fuck it, she doesnt deserve u'
'you style,I like %-)'
'uncle,we both wil live life easier in 2010,trust me'
'that's ok my brother.just take it easy.remmber that i love you as my brother!'
'The sun came out for you again'- American friend
'UNCLE FIGHTING!!!!'
'wow! u r a fucking star! 牛逼‘ - the last chinese term pronounced 'niu3 bi1' literally means "cow pussy". It translates to 'fucking awesome!'
'when will u take me to see ladyboys! ;)'
'Eliot i am gone !see you in wintre you are my best teacher in my life!wish you have a wonderful life you said you dont like usa life so you came to china seeyou'
2 comments:
When I read those texts in my mind in Chinese they aren't as strange. =) Yeah, when Duy and I get over to the other side, we'll both have new phones and learn the way of the text. How do you text in Chinese? Is it a pinyin + select character interface?
Can't believe you guys will be here soon. Actually my piece of crap phone, can't text in Chinese, so I sometimes just type in Pinyin which the locals seem to decipher ok.
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