Best left unsaid

Being that I speak very little Mandarin and read even less, I really do appreciate restaurants that use photos on their menus, or better yet, incorporate English. However, there are the occasional translations that should be forgone. Case in point, driving past an area restaurant this week, a friend and I were amused to discover a new banner stating "Mandarin Duck Chaffing Dish."

Children can also have an interesting way with words. Tonight a young student shared that his uncle died this week. The uncle had jumped from his (the uncle's) 9th floor balcony, to which a classmate quickly added, "and now he's in hell." Woah! I think I'm the only one who understood what the classmate said and was slightly amused/intrigued that he was so quick-witted in his sarcasm and frankly, bold enough to make such a remark, much less know how to say it in English. However, in retrospect, I'm a bit shocked. In this predominately Buddhist country, that's not a typical comment an adult, much less a child, would say, whether in English or Chinese. I was beginning to think that maybe I've just not heard it here because people express it in Chinese, but I asked around and even the Taiwanese people I checked with were surprised. Hmm.