Some Chinese tongue twisters in one vernacular are difficult even to other Chinese who speak a different accent. The famous “Si Shi Shi Si Shi (forty is forty); Shi Si Shi Shi Si (fourteen is fourteen)” in mandarin, for example, is known to have failed many a Northeasterner. The best they can manage is “事实是事实,时事是时事”. Or, to translate, “facts are facts; current affairs are current affairs.”
See, totally different things – but they sound the same the way the Northeasterners tell them: Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi; Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi.
Next time you meet a Chinese language learner from the West, try the “Si, Shi” line on them.
Before then, however, try these English lines (from the simple to the more complicated) to see how English tongue twisters torment you – and please quit the exercise the first moment it makes you feel like the sixth sheik’s six sheep (see bottom of the text to find out exactly how that feels):
Greek grapes.
Red lorry yellow lorry (repeat).
She sells seashells on the seashore.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Quick-witted cricket critic.
The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
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