At one of our
family dinners at a Milpitas Chinese restaurant (The King Wah Restaurant), the
waitresses taped a slip of paper with our order on the table. As I can't read
Chinese, my son's mother-in-law asked for a printout in English.
That came in
mighty handy when I wrote a posting of the restaurant for my restaurant blog.
It was while
referring to the list during the writing that I saw it. They called the
"Yin-Yang Fried Rice" "Ying-Yang Fried Rice."
Ahem. We all
know that Yin-Yang refers to two opposing parts juxtaposed to form a whole ...
like night and day, male and female, hot and cold, and so forth. You can see it
at work in the Korean flag.
But most
people arbitrarily say "Ying" instead of "yin," and
in doing so, don't realize what they are really saying.
You see,
although "Ying-yang" can be considered an alternate pronunciation
of "yin-yang," it has a rather different meaning in English and
American slang. "Ying-Yang" means either the human anus, or
the male penis ... as in "up the Ying-yang." Look it up; there
are even citations in English literature using the phrase in that context.
So, next time
you are tempted to use the phrase in everyday conversation, please drop the
"g" in "Ying."
2 comments:
LOL!! I have actually heard people saying it that way! In fact, I wondered if I was saying it incorrectly. Nice to know I was right!! :)
Carolyn, I've stopped correcting people who say it in public. It was too embarrassing for them.
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