Lost in translation: The difference between ‘four’ and ‘ten’ is more than 10,000 yuan for Chinese supermarket manager
Manager from Guangdong confuses pronunciation of the two numbers in Chongqing dialect, giving shoppers a bargain of a lifetime
A failure to tell the difference between the pronunciation of “four” and “ten” in the Chongqing dialect has cost a supermarket owner more than 10,000 yuan (HK$11,200), mainland media reports.
The costly misunderstanding occurred when Tan Jiayue, the owner of a supermarket in the huge southwest Chinese metropolis, called a printing house to make coupons for imported lobsters that were going on sale, the Chongqing Commercial Daily reported.
Tan, from coastal Guangdong province, said he wanted to sell four lobsters for 328 yuan, and the owner of the printery thought he meant 10.
“I didn’t know how much a lobster should cost. His Mandarin had a heavy accent. I carefully confirmed the quantity with him and asked if he meant 10, and he said ‘yes’,” the printery owner told the newspaper.
Tan, in turn, thought his counterpart said “four” instead of “ten”.
In the Chongqing dialect, “four” and “ten” are pronounced almost the same except their slightly differed tones – a delicate difference that many outsiders find difficult to distinguish.