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Giản thể: 年龄和生肖
记得大学毕业后，第一次走上讲台，面对外国学生，我做了一份小小的调查表，了解他们的年龄、爱好、家长联系方式等等。当把表格都收上来的时候，发现即使是出生在同一年的学生，年龄也不一样。有的十四岁，有的十三岁。我很好奇：明明是出生在同一年，为什么年龄不一样？
后来，我问了一下，才知道因为有的学生生日还没过，所以是十三岁，有的生日已经过了，所以大一岁。由此我明白了，原来他们计算年龄是按照具体的生日那一天来算的。
中国人有“虚岁”和“周岁”两种不同的年龄计算方法。在我的家乡，我们很少按照生日来计算，都是按照出生的年份。比如，我是1988年出生的，今年是2015年，所以我虚岁是28岁，周岁是27岁。每过完一个春节，年龄就会增加一岁。
为什么会有“虚岁”的说法呢？因为很多中国人觉得在母亲身体里的那一段时间也应该算作年龄的一部分。虽然母亲怀孕不到一年，但是也有近十个月，所以算上这一年，就有了“虚岁”之说。刚出生的宝宝虚岁就是一岁，如果宝宝在春节前出生，过完春节，虚岁就是两岁了。
在中国，很少有人直接问对方年龄。无论是同龄人之间，还是长辈问晚辈。大部分时候，大家问的都是：你属什么？然后通过对方的外貌估计一下大约多少岁，根据属相算出具体的年龄。属相也叫生肖，十二生肖分别是十二种动物：鼠牛虎兔、龙蛇马羊、猴鸡狗猪。一轮是十二年。如果对方和自己年龄相差不大，算起来就更容易了。比如我妈妈属羊，我爸爸属马，我爸爸就比我妈妈大一岁。我属龙，我妹妹属羊，我比我妹妹大三岁。我妹妹和我妈妈都属羊，我妈妈比我妹妹大两轮，也就是大二十四岁。
这招对外国朋友可能不太管用，我常常看不出对方的年龄。我的同事是美国人，西班牙后裔，我一直以为她三十岁左右，有一天聊起她的妹妹，才知道原来比她小两岁的妹妹都已经四十五岁了。想必外国朋友看中国人也差不多。
因为我在女子高中工作，有一次我去附近的超市买东西，超市收银处的帅小伙问我是不是任教女校的学生。我说：不是，我是中文老师。他问：你多大？我笑了笑，说：二十七岁。然后他就惊呆了。
关于年龄，你遇到过什么有趣的事情吗？欢迎和我们分享。
Phồn thể: 年齡和生肖
記得大學畢業後，第一次走上講台，面對外國學生，我做了一份小小的調查表，了解他們的年齡、愛好、家長聯繫方式等等。當把表格都收上來的時候，發現即使是出生在同一年的學生，年齡也不一樣。有的十四歲，有的十三歲。我很好奇：明明是出生在同一年，為什麼年齡不一樣？
後來，我問了一下，才知道因為有的學生生日還沒過，所以是十三歲，有的生日已經過了，所以大一歲。由此我明白了，原來他們計算年齡是按照具體的生日那一天來算的。
中國人有“虛歲”和“周歲”兩種不同的年齡計算方法。在我的家鄉，我們很少按照生日來計算，都是按照出生的年份。比如，我是1988年出生的，今年是2015年，所以我虛歲是28歲，周歲是27歲。每過完一個春節，年齡就會增加一歲。
為什麼會有“虛歲”的說法呢？因為很多中國人覺得在母親身體裡的那一段時間也應該算作年齡的一部分。雖然母親懷孕不到一年，但是也有近十個月，所以算上這一年，就有了“虛歲”之說。剛出生的寶寶虛歲就是一歲，如果寶寶在春節前出生，過完春節，虛歲就是兩歲了。
在中國，很少有人直接問對方年齡。無論是同齡人之間，還是長輩問晚輩。大部分時候，大家問的都是：你屬什麼？然後通過對方的外貌估計一下大約多少歲，根據屬相算出具體的年齡。屬相也叫生肖，十二生肖分別是十二種動物：鼠牛虎兔、龍蛇馬羊、猴雞狗豬。一輪是十二年。如果對方和自己年齡相差不大，算起來就更容易了。比如我媽媽屬羊，我爸爸屬馬，我爸爸就比我媽媽大一歲。我屬龍，我妹妹屬羊，我比我妹妹大三歲。我妹妹和我媽媽都屬羊，我媽媽比我妹妹大兩輪，也就是大二十四歲。
這招對外國朋友可能不太管用，我常常看不出對方的年齡。我的同事是美國人，西班牙後裔，我一直以為她三十歲左右，有一天聊起她的妹妹，才知道原來比她小兩歲的妹妹都已經四十五歲了。想必外國朋友看中國人也差不多。
因為我在女子高中工作，有一次我去附近的超市買東西，超市收銀處的帥小伙問我是不是任教女校的學生。我說：不是，我是中文老師。他問：你多大？我笑了笑，說：二十七歲。然後他就驚呆了。
關於年齡，你遇到過什麼有趣的事情嗎？歡迎和我們分享。
Pinyin: Niánlíng hé shēngxiào
Jìdé dàxué bìyè hòu, dì yīcì zǒu shàng jiǎngtái, miàn duì wàiguó xuéshēng, wǒ zuòle yī fèn xiǎo xiǎo de diàochá biǎo, liǎojiě tāmen de niánlíng, àihào, jiāzhǎng liánxì fāngshì děng děng. Dāng bǎ biǎogé dōu shōu shànglái de shíhòu, fāxiàn jíshǐ shì chūshēng zài tóngyī nián de xuéshēng, niánlíng yě bù yīyàng. Yǒu de shísì suì, yǒu de shísān suì. Wǒ hěn hàoqí: Míngmíng shì chūshēng zài tóngyī nián, wèishéme niánlíng bù yīyàng?
Hòulái, wǒ wènle yīxià, cái zhīdào yīnwèi yǒu de xuéshēng shēngrì hái méiguò, suǒyǐ shì shísān suì, yǒu de shēngrì yǐjīngguòle, suǒyǐ dà yī suì. Yóu cǐ wǒ míngbáile, yuánlái tāmen jìsuàn niánlíng shì ànzhào jùtǐ de shēngrì nà yītiān lái suàn de.
Zhōngguó rén yǒu “xūsuì” hé “zhōusuì” liǎng zhǒng bùtóng de niánlíng jìsuàn fāngfǎ. Zài wǒ de jiāxiāng, wǒmen hěn shǎo ànzhào shēngrì lái jìsuàn, dōu shì ànzhào chūshēng de niánfèn. Bǐrú, wǒ shì 1988 nián chūshēng de, jīnnián shì 2015 nián, suǒyǐ wǒ xūsuì shì 28 suì, zhōusuì shì 27 suì. Měiguò wán yīgè chūnjié, niánlíng jiù huì zēngjiā yī suì.
Wèishéme huì yǒu “xūsuì” de shuōfǎ ne? Yīnwèi hěnduō zhōngguó rén juédé zài mǔqīn shēntǐ lǐ dì nà yīduàn shíjiān yě yīnggāi suàn zuò niánlíng de yībùfèn. Suīrán mǔqīn huáiyùn bù dào yī nián, dànshì yěyǒu jìn shí gè yuè, suǒyǐ suàn shàng zhè yī nián, jiù yǒule “xūsuì” zhī shuō. Gāng chūshēng de bǎobǎo xūsuì jiùshì yī suì, rúguǒ bǎobǎo zài chūnjié qián chūshēng,guò wán chūnjié, xūsuì jiùshì liǎng suìle.
Zài zhōngguó, hěn shǎo yǒurén zhíjiē wèn duìfāng niánlíng. Wúlùn shì tónglíng rén zhī jiān, háishì zhǎngbèi wèn wǎnbèi. Dà bùfèn shíhòu, dàjiā wèn de dōu shì: Nǐ shǔ shénme? Ránhòu tōngguò duìfāng de wàimào gūjì yīxià dàyuē duōshǎo suì, gēnjù shǔxiang suànchū jùtǐ de niánlíng. Shǔxiang yě jiào shēngxiào, shí’èr shēngxiào fēnbié shì shí’èr zhǒng dòngwù: Shǔ niúhǔ tù, lóng shé mǎ yáng, hóu jī gǒu zhū. Yī lún shì shí’èr nián. Rúguǒ duìfāng hé zìjǐ niánlíng xiāngchà bù dà, suàn qǐlái jiù gèng róngyìle. Bǐrú wǒ māmā shǔ yáng, wǒ bàba shǔ mǎ, wǒ bàba jiù bǐ wǒ māmā dà yī suì. Wǒ shǔ lóng, wǒ mèimei shǔ yáng, wǒ bǐ wǒ mèimei dà sān suì. Wǒ mèimei hé wǒ māmā dōu shǔ yáng, wǒ māmā bǐ wǒ mèimei dà liǎng lún, yě jiùshì dà èrshísì suì.
Zhè zhāo duì wàiguó péngyǒu kěnéng bù tài guǎnyòng, wǒ chángcháng kàn bù chū duìfāng de niánlíng. Wǒ de tóngshì shì měiguó rén, xībānyá hòuyì, wǒ yīzhí yǐwéi tā sānshí suì zuǒyòu, yǒu yītiān liáo qǐ tā de mèimei, cái zhīdào yuánlái bǐ tā xiǎo liǎng suì de mèimei dōu yǐjīng sìshíwǔ suìle. Xiǎngbì wàiguó péngyǒu kàn zhòng guó rén yě chàbùduō.
Yīnwèi wǒ zài nǚzǐ gāozhōng gōngzuò, yǒu yī cì wǒ qù fùjìn de chāoshì mǎi dōngxī, chāoshì shōuyín chǔ de shuài xiǎohuǒ wèn wǒ shì bùshì rènjiào nǚ xiào de xuéshēng. Wǒ shuō: Bùshì, wǒ shì zhōngwén lǎoshī. Tā wèn: Nǐ duōdà? Wǒ xiàole xiào, shuō: Èrshíqī suì. Ránhòu tā jiù jīng dāile.
Guānyú niánlíng, nǐ yù dàoguò shèn me yǒuqù de shìqíng ma? Huānyíng hé wǒmen fēnxiǎng.
English: One’s age and the year of one’s birth
I remember that after graduating from university, the first time I was in front of a class, facing foreign students, I did a small survey to find out their ages, hobbies, how they contacted their parents, those sorts of things. Once I had collected all the forms I discovered that even if students were born in the same year their ages weren’t always the same. Some were fourteen, some were thirteen. I was really curious: clearly they were born in the same year, why weren’t they the same age?
Afterwards, after asking, I realised that it was because some of the students hadn’t had their birthday yet so they were thirteen while others had already had their birthday so they were a year older. From this I came to understand that it turns out that they calculated their age according to the actual day of their birthdate.
Chinese have two different methods of calculating age – ‘xusui’ and ‘zhousui’. In my hometown we very rarely calculate according to the day of birth; it’s always by the year of one’s birth. For example, I was born in 1988 and this year is 2015, so according to ‘xusui’ I’m 28, according to ‘shousui’ 27. Every time another Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) passes my age goes up by another year.
Why do we have the term ‘xusui’? Because many Chinese feel that the period of time spent in the mother’s body should be counted towards one’s age. Although the mother is not pregnant for a year, it’s still close to ten months so it’s calculated as a year, so we have this expression ‘xusui’. (1) A baby that has just been born is thus one year old. If the baby is born before Spring Festival, once Spring Festival is over it’s ‘xusui’ age is then two.
In Chinese few people will directly ask another’s age, regardless of whether similarly aged or whether it’s older people asking a younger generation. Most of the time everyone will ask ‘what Chinese zodiac sign are you?’ Then through the other person’s appearance one can estimate the person’s age and then according to their zodiac sign you can work out their actual age. ‘Shuxiang’ is also called ‘shengxiao’. The twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into twelve animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig. One cycle is twelve years. If the difference between the other person’s and your age is not great, it’s even easier to work out. If my mother is the year of the sheep and my father is the year of the horse then my father is one year older than my mother. I was born in the year of the dragon, my younger sister is year of the sheep, I’m three years older than my younger sister. Both my sister and my mother are year of the sheep. My mother is two cycles older than my sister, i.e. 24 years.
This trick is perhaps not as efficacious with foreigners; I often can’t tell their age. My colleague is American, ethnically Spanish. All along I thought she was around thirty years old. One day we were chatting about her younger sister and it was only then that I found out that actually her younger sister, who is two years younger than her, is already forty-five. I think it must be about the same for foreigners looking at Chinese.
Because I work at a senior high school for girls, I was once in a nearby supermarket shopping and the young chap at the check-out asked me whether I was a student at the school where I was teaching. I said: ‘no, I teach Chinese.’ He asked: ‘how old are you?’ I laughed and said: ‘Twenty seven’. After that he was stunned. What interesting things have you encountered to do with age? You’re welcome to share them with us.
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Note:
My dictionary let me down here. On enquiry I found out that 讲台 is the spot for the teacher up the front of the class.
2. 属: It’s worth taking note of this word. It will inevitably come up in conversation. The construction with 属 is quite different from the English – ‘born in the year of’ so one should take particular notice of the way it’s used in a sentence. e.g. 你属什么？ = Which Chinese zodiac animal are you?
Interestingly enough, as a foreigner I used to think that Chinese were asking my zodiac sign through some superstition to do with what it might show about the sort of person I am. Now it seems that they probably just wanted to know how old I am.
Robert Budzul (robert@budzul.com)
Zak Gray (zak_lives@hotmail.com)
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