Do you know when the World Toilet Day is? Exactly,
today is the second World Toilet Day. You may find it really funny to say so,
but it is real and has been certificated by the World Toilet Organization. As a mandarin tutor, I will talk about something relevant in Chinese.
“世界厕所日(shi4 jie4 ce4 suo3 ri4)” is the Chinese
translation. So why does such a special day occur? There is some information
for you. The aim of it is to promote the safe drinking water and the basic
health construction. And it advocates that everyone should enjoy the clean,
healthy, and comfortable environment.
Because this passage is for Chinese
learning(中文學習), let me ask you a question. If you want
to go to the toilet, what are you supposed to say in Chinese?
Generally speaking, we will say “上厕所” to represent the need of going to the
toilet. Someone may not understand why we use “上” here. I want to say it is a fixed usage
of Chinese. If you want to learn to speak Chinese, you have to put the language in a
specific situation. Here is a reference for you. You have a chat with your
superiors, and at this time, you are dying to go to the toilet. Can you just
say “我想上厕所(wo3 xiang3 shang4 ce4 suo3)”? Of course it
is not appropriate. You are supposed to say “抱歉, 我需要去一下洗手间(bao4 qian4, wo3 xu1 yao4 qu4 yi2 xia4 xi3
shou3 jian1)”.
Besides “上厕所”, there are some other names for going to
the toilet. In the ancient Chinese, “如厕(ru2 ce4)” and “更衣(geng1 yi1)” are the implicit utterance of “上厕所”. A more common word representing going to
the toilet is “方便(fang1 bian4)”. The polysemy is a difficult
point in mandarin language learning. And here “方便” is such a word. It may refer to “convenience”,
“going to toilet”, or some other specific meanings.
source:
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