Three Minute Post

Evil

Before coming out to Shanghai, the last time I was in Chinese class was like 12 or 13 years ago, while I was still at university. Back then, we used this old school text book that you know had to have been written by Communists. Because in the vocabulary list were words like: 同志 (comrade) and 解放军 (People's Liberation Army). Why the F would university kids in NYC need to learn vocabulary like that?

Anyway, for some reason, the word for comrade came up in class yesterday. I mentioned the word and the teacher goes, "Do you know what that means?" And I said, "Sure, it means comrade." And she said, "Do you know what else it means? The slang meaning?" I shook my head. She said, "It means gay. So don't go around on the street greeting people as 'comrade' because they probably wouldn't like it." Ah, good to know.