Assume you are a Chinese immigrant...

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Assume you are a Chinese immigrant...

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about 2 years ago Pedro Thomaz responded:

AHAHA #win :D

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

As a teacher, I find this very funny. Now one of my Chinese students needs to tell me what it says. :-)

about 2 years ago glennib (Twitter) responded:

When you've done that, tell us! :)

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

My living conditions here are poor.
The working environments here aren't great either, and there is very little welfare.
But don't worry, every day there are only about 10 people who get into serious injuries, and I'm very careful.
We opened a little shop, the business isn't very popular.
Even though my english isn't very good, I can still kind of understand the white people.
I hope I can succeed. I will be working really hard here, and watching my health.
Are you guys well?
I miss you guys, hope we can see can see each other again.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Also saw this on : http://laugh-at-this.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-assume-you-are-chinese-immigrant.html

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

That is a very touching letter. I wonder what grade the writer was in.

about 2 years ago Erika Fletcher responded:

That is awesome, lol. If I were the teacher that'd be instant full credit.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Also saw this on : http://dailydarkhumor.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-assume-you-are-chinese-immigrant.html

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

very funny, although he used simplified characters, which weren't invented until the 1950's.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

says the ignorant american asshole

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

the chinese characters isn't simplified

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

They aren't simplified. lol But they are very sloppy.. I find it quite difficult to recognize even some of the easy ones.. it took me a solid five minutes to realize the first character was Wo. Is this a Chinese persons writing or someone who learned to write recently?

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

for me that kind of adds to it, , as if they learnt it specially

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

It is not sloppy, just cursive if you will. Many of my friends write like that. If they just learned it, it would be a lot more readable as you do not learn how to simplify characters without loss of readability until the higher levels.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

This looks like no cursive Chinese I have ever seen... it looks sloppy.. like it was written very fast. I giess sloppy is the wrong word.. it looks rushed. Just takes a while to read.

about 2 years ago Trickboss (Twitter) responded:

For some reason I dont get it ?D:

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

If you were a chinese immigrant, and you had to write a letter to your people back in china, that'd be in chinese, of course. Teacher expected it to be in english, so s/he could grade it, and the kid out-smarted her.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

the characters are all right, but the language is modern Chinese writing. Nice Joke though!

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

I thought it was traditional.. look at the men character in wo men..

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

very funny, lol

about 2 years ago Jessica responded:

It *is* traditional Chinese. Now this would be funnier if the Chinese wasn't so oddly phrased :/

about 2 years ago Jessica responded:

Also, Desmond, many Chinese kids write like that. It's slightly messy, yes, but perfectly normal.

about 2 years ago Aviraj Saluja liked this post.

about 2 years ago pearl liked this post.

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

As a teacher I find this funny.

about 2 years ago jeffhung (Twitter) responded:

In 1870, the simplified Chinese characters are not invented, yet. So it *should* be written in traditional Chinese. :-)

about 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

God, I really hope this kid go full credit!!! This is totally awesome! I'd have done the same thing in Italian. I wanna give this kid a big hug!!!

about 2 years ago haruko014 responded:

ha! i did this once during my 3rd year of high school, but it was as a young girl during the fire bombings in japan... i did it all in Japanese because i was taking the class at the time.. my teacher got really angry.

about 2 years ago Will Burns responded:

lolz awesome.

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

That's not cursive. I'm a Malaysian banana, but my dad is Chinese-educated and his cursive doesn't look anything like that. Guessing this is from the USA? A lot of ethnic Chinese and Japanese Americans make their kids take language classes to "appreciate their heritage" or whatever, especially if the family speaks English at home. So it's not terribly surprising if the writing is a bit messy, it's probably not the student's first language either.

On the other hand, many of the labourers who emigrated to the USA from China back then weren't highly educated people either, so you could say the messy handwriting gives it a flavour of authenticity =D

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

it looks like how a lot of ethnically chinese kids in singapore write, so from that i'll say it's the regular writing of someone who grew up with both english and chinese education, but spends more time on english than chinese. he/she wrote notes to himself about the assignment (at the top) in english, which implies he's more comfortable with english. it could be a chinese kid whose family migrated when he/she was very young, and was started on chinese (as shi-hsia said) as soon as they reached america. or heck, maybe it's a malaysian or singaporean migrant. the fact that he/she uses traditional chinese makes me think they are actually from hong kong or taiwan or even mainland china, or maybe their chinese teacher is. or you know, it could even be a white kid whose family was farsighted and got him to take chinese from childhood.

what doesn't fit this picture is the fact that it's a very well written letter. the writer drops words and uses phrases the way only someone who is very comfortable with the language would do. i had eleven years of chinese classes and examinations, most of that time spent in classes considered advanced for my age; i grew up with it and live and speak it everyday, i even taught it for a (very short) while, and i'm not sure i could write as well.

and yeah, my dad stared at it and didn't get what was so funny for about 5 minutes. then he realised the teacher expected the assignment to be in english. you know you live in a bilingual culture when...:D i had the same problem initially as well, though it didn't take me quite as long. :D

he also said something that cannot be denied: chinese people in the 1800s didn't speak or write the way we do now. so while the writing itself is traditional chinese, the wording isn't of the right era. it's like using elizabethan english in modern english sentence construction.

in addition, while most migrants were illiterate, there were a very few who were literate, and they usually wrote letters for the others. also, this 'migrant' opened a shop, while implies he has some education.

or maybe we're just way overthinking a smart-alec kid's outsmarting of his/her teacher. :D

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Wow, everyone here seems to have failed to consider the obvious lack of humor in this post. The assignment is one at that was assigned at my high school in a class for American Students studying Chinese. There is no joke in the fact that Chinese characters were used. It's a legitimate assignment that you have all ignorantly decided was a joke. It's no surprise that people this America is full of idiots...

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

And of course, Chris, you being a typical U-Mass liberal, are so much more intelligent than the rest of us morons who can see the humour in it, intentional or not. I find it more telling that the majority of readers who found it humorous are of Chinese or Malaysian descent; if they're able to appreciate the humor in it, why can't you?

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

first, how many chinese people knew how to write Chinese 1850s ?

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Paul - UMass Liberal, haha... the only humor in this is that it is posted without context in order to present a humorous intention which wasn't actually intended. If you find it offensive that I am pointing out the obvious flaw in the "humor" of this post it is probably because you feel stupid for not seeing it and are taking it out on me. I don't think I'm more intelligent than the rest of you, those are your words.

Kevin - you've missed the point. It's an exercise for contemporary students in order to provide an outlet in which they can write in contemporary Chinese. It's not a historically accurate assignment, merely an exercise.

I'm not saying you are morons for seeing humor in this post as the lack of context allows for some sort of humor to appear present. I'm just trying to shine a light on the ignorance that comes from a lack of context. If you would rather live in ignorance and "appreciate" the stupid humor then that is your prerogative.

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Paul, the only logical conclusion we can draw from the tone and wording of your posts is that you are, in fact, a pretentious prick. To assert that the vast majority (AKA all the others who left comments) are shallow, narrow-minded, or outright stupid for finding humor in something which is, by the common definition of irony, funny, is pompous and certainly carries a hint of condescension.

If you had truly wanted to shed new light on the context of this picture, you could easily have done so without insinuating that any other interpretation must have been the work of a complete idiot.

I'd also urge you to check your grammar next time you make a statement like "It's no surprise that people this America is full of idiots... " because it makes you sound like a dumb fuck. If you're so disgusted with the intellectual aptitude of the American people, please express your displeasure to the small percentage of people who give a flying rat's ass about your opinion. Don't try to flaunt your superior intellect on the comment string for a funny picture. It's not the greatest venue.

I'd also like to add (and yes, I'll be presumptuous) that people like yourself who suffer from the incessant need to disagree with a benign and often correct majority do no good on a personal level or in a community. I'd imagine you spend a portion of each day reaffirming both outwardly and to yourself just how informed, special, and worldly you are while ignoring the fact that everyone around you cares very little for your bloated sense of self-importance.

Next time this situation presents itself in real life or online, I strongly recommend you keep your mouth shut and maybe just enjoy the humor. You may find closing your mouth to be a very rewarding experiment.

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Ha, speaking of irony...

When I said Paul, I meant Chris. My apologies, Paul. You don't deserve that at all.

almost 2 years ago (Facebook) responded:

Ah, two more gems from the mouth of the almighty Chris:

"If you find it offensive that I am pointing out the obvious flaw in the "humor" of this post it is probably because you feel stupid for not seeing it and are taking it out on me."

An excellent assumption, Sherlock. The only logical reason that someone could be upset by your melancholy approach to what was once a funny post would be that they are stupid. Brilliant.

"If you would rather live in ignorance and "appreciate" the stupid humor then that is your prerogative."

I'm glad you ended your post with this just to be sure everyone understood that anyone who found humor in this post is a complete and total idiot. You can never restate your thesis too often... asshole.

over 1 year ago pcchris responded:

I think it is important to consider the following.
This assignment is not for any sort of Chinese class. The notation "Horizons" is a Canadian Socials 10 or 11 textbook, and this was an assignment connected to a section of the book about the Chinese coming to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

over 1 year ago Sckit (Twitter) responded:

OMG. If I was the teacher, I would have given them like, a 150%, no matter what it translated to. EPIC WIN.

over 1 year ago (Facebook) responded:

chill. please. It's funny. It's cute. It's smart. It's not worth arguing over. just lawl like the rest of us and get over it.

Context less and humorous as it is, I want whoever wrote this to be my new best friend.

over 1 year ago (Facebook) responded:

pcchris: i agree with you because I had the Horizons textbook in 10th grade . And to be quite honest, now being in grade 12 I almost vaguely remember having an assignment similar to this given to me in 10th grade... so I highly highly doubt that this assignment was for whatever class the other Chris above was referring to. Or perhaps a teacher borrowed the assignment structure and it's context to apply to a Chinese classroom. It's really unknown unless we know the photographer of the photo...

over 1 year ago meredittyanne responded:

I dunno how far that stick is lodged, but I think it'll take 70 days and a Chilean rescue crew to get it out of Chris' ass.

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Assume you are a Chinese immigrant...