So there I am in my Chinese lesson, painstakingly (and painfully) reading aloud like a 5 -year-old.
水 龙 头
Shui long tou. Water dragon head. I look up. Okay, I can read it, but what’s it mean?
Tap, my teacher says.
I’m still clueless, so I wait.
You turn it and water comes out, she adds.
Ah, ok……. And why is a faucet called a “water dragon head”?
She seems to think this should be obvious. Because it looks kind of like a dragon head.
Oh. Well maybe this could be useful, I think. The terminology for water has been, shall we say, murky for a while. Ever since our first tutor back in Washington in 2004 told us not to drink any water in restaurants in China, but to stick to beer — this advice to a mother moving her teenage son to China! Her concern was that even bottled water may be unsafe tap water masquerading in a re-capped bottle.
On a roll, I write out 水龙头水。Shui long tou shui. So is this how to say “tap water”?
Now my teacher is puzzled until I explain. No, here’s how we say that: 自来 水。 Zi lai shui. “Self comes water,” means “you don’t have to go to the well for it.”
Aha.
The Chinese teacher back in Washington used to say that Chinese is a very scientific language. I guess it does make sense. Well sometimes, sort of. As my son says, just not in a way that you would expect.