Name Change or Sex Change

Last week I was talking with my teacher about some of the differences between our culture and the Chinese culture, in particular women and marriage. In China when a couple get married the woman will keep her old Family Name where as in the UK generally the woman will change to be the same as the man.

When I was explaining this she looked at me with a degree of confusion on her face, and was deeply surprised when I said that Jenna did this when we got married. She then started asking me about an operation in a clinic and I got the idea we were talking about a different thing.

In the end we had to resort to speaking English to try and figure out what was wrong. It turns out that the word for "Family Name" and "Sex" are pronounced exactly the same and even the characters are very similar.

So I had been telling her that Jenna had a sex change when we got married! There is a different word for "change" that I hadn't learnt yet, which would have been suitable for name change.

I'm glad I was talking to a teacher who could understand what I was saying, and not one of my friends who don't really understand English language and culture. Otherwise I could have given out a very wrong impression!