fart

fart
vulgar slang n emission of gas from the anus v emit gas from the anus

“Suddenly the man next table reading newspaper with naked-breast-woman made a huge noise.
‘What is that noise name?’ I ask you.
You cannot understand what I mean. Too much involving in looking house property advertisement on the newspaper.
I try to explain: ‘How to say a word which represents a kind of noise from the arse?’
‘What?’
‘You know that. You know it is a wind comes from between two legs.’
‘It’s called a fart.’Fart?
The old man who reads the newspaper stares at us for several seconds, then buries himself into the paper again.
I never hear English person says anything about fart. They must be too shameful to pronounce that sound.
There are lots of words we used in China so often, but here people never use it. Even English dictionary say it is a ‘taboo’.
‘ ‘ is fart in Chinese. It is the word made up from two parts. is a symbol of a body with tail, and underneath that represent two legs. That means fart, a kind of Chi. If a person have that kind of Chi regularly in his daily life that means he is very healthy. Chi , everything to do with Chi is very important to us Chinese. We had so many words related to Chi, like Tai-Chi, or Chi-Gong, or Chi-Chang.
Yes, fart, I want remember this word. Is the response means you enjoys a good homely cooking, after big meal. Mans in China loves to use this word everyday.”
Extract from A concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

I was reading this extract today and it occurred to me that we sail through life blissfully unaware of all the things we know nothing about and their impact and relevance to the situation we find our selves in. In this story the Chinese girl is utterly aware of her ignorance of all things western, but it never occurs to the English that she interacts with that something as simple as a fart can have a totally different meaning and import in another culture.

If you find yourself in a position where things are not making sense, or you are getting unpredicted responses, then chances are there is something you don’t know. The wise man acts on this and starts asking questions, starts listening, starts offering different inputs.

Here is a great little model that you are probably aware of but it is very useful. Remember when you first learnt to ride a bike? Initially you are unaware of what you don’t know [1], then you try and fall off and realise you can’t do this [2], then you can ride if you concentrate hard [3]… next thing you are peddling around and not even thinking about it [4]!

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Mark Twain