Pinyin vs. characters
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From Dotno Pount:
I received this poster in Chinese and thought you would enjoy it! It captures the Catch-22 of talents and careers very nicely, I think.
It looks like a blizzard of 干, 一, and 行, with a few other characters mixed in, swirling across the page.
What does it mean?
As interpreted, line by line, by Diana Shuheng Zhang:
rén yàoshì xíng, gàn yìháng xíng yìháng,
人要是行，干一行行一行，
“If one is capable, (then one would) be capable at any job he does.”
yìháng xíng hángháng xíng, hángháng xíng gàn nǎháng dōu xíng.
一行行行行行，行行行干哪行都行。
“(If one is) capable at one job (one would be) capable at every job. (If one is) capable at every job (then one) could be omni-capable at whichever job.”
yàoshì bùxíng, gàn yìháng bùxíng yìháng,
要是不行，干一行不行一行，
“If one is not capable, (then one would) be non-capable at any job he does.”
yìháng bùxíng hángháng bùxíng,
一行不行行行不行，
“(If one is) not capable at one job (one would be) non-capable at any job."
hángháng bùxíng gàn nǎháng dōu bùxíng.
行行不行干哪行都不行。
"(If one is) not capable at any job (then one) could be totally non-capable at whichever job.”
Basically, the last three lines are the first two lines expressed in negative ways, creating a symmetrical effect that is common in idiomatic folk-sayings in any culture of the world. :)
As interpreted phrase by phrase and word by word, by Yijie Zhang:
Aha! What an interesting tongue twister — a ràokǒulìng 绕口令 with the polyphone 行 (háng/xíng):
人要是行（xíng），干一行（háng）行（xíng）一行（
If one is capable, whatever job he/she does will succeed.
一行（háng）行（xíng），行（háng）行（háng）
If he/she is capable of doing one specific job, he/she is also likely to be capable of doing any other job.
行（háng）行（háng）行（xíng），干哪行（
That he/she is capable of doing any job means that he/she can do whatever jobs he/she wants.
要是不行（xíng），干一行（háng）不行（xíng）
If one is not capable, whatever job he/she does fails.
一行（háng）不行（xíng），行（háng）行（
If he/she is not capable of doing one specific job, it's likely he/she will not be capable of doing any other job.
行（háng）行（háng）不行（xíng），干哪行（
That he/she is not capable of doing any job means that he/she cannot do any job he/she wants.
In this tongue twister, 行（háng）refers to "hángyè 行业" , "zhíyè 职业" （noun, "job"/ "industry"), while 行（xíng）refers to either “nénggàn 能干”, “yǒu nénglì de 有能力的” (adjective, "capable"/ "competent") to describe a person [e.g., rén yàoshi xíng 人要是行（xíng）], or "make it" as a predicate [e.g., gàn yī háng 干一行（háng）行（xíng）一行（háng）].
If you read it aloud or write it in Pinyin, it's easy to understand, but if you read it in Sinographs, it is quite intimidating.
Selected readings
- "Mandarin tongue twister" (10/20/20)
- "Sumomomomomomomomo" (11/17/21)
- "Peppa Pig has been purged " (5/2/18)
~flow said,
January 30, 2022 @ 5:20 am
I actually find the text quite readable and understandable once you figure out that 一行行 is yihang xing '(if) one profession/occupation/job works/is OK'. What is a bit of a mystery to me is why there is, apparently, no need felt by native users of the script to differentiate the two readings (and meanings) of 行. Other examples of this include 了(瞭) and my nemesis, 著/着. Of course some will say 'Oh no not even MORE characters' but there already are thousands in use, so adding a few to clear up things does not matter much in the scheme of things. Also there may be existing variants that could be revived.
David Marjanović said,
January 30, 2022 @ 5:39 am
I have no clue either, but such situations do exist elsewhere – read comes to mind. Indeed read is so common that lots of people misspell led as lead in analogy.
Philip Taylor said,
January 30, 2022 @ 6:11 am
… and although not really analogous, a depressingly large (and increasing) number of people spell lose as loose.
Victor Mair said,
January 30, 2022 @ 8:27 am
@~flow:
"once you figure out that 一行行 is yihang xing"
Ah, there's the rub!
But I couldn't agree with you more about 著 and 着, which are the absolute bane of my life when trying to write in Sinographs. They drive me to distraction, and I'm not about to waste half an hour trying to explain their different usages and pronunciations, thereby ruining a lovely, bright, snowy morning under pale blue skies flecked with wisps of gauzy clouds.
Diana Shuheng Zhang said,
January 30, 2022 @ 2:41 pm
This 一行/行, 行行/行 tongue twister reminds me of the English tongue twisters like:
"A canner can can the can that he can can but he can't can the can he can't can."
Or:
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
I guess it's never exclusive in Sinophone / Sinograph or Sinographic cultures — it the word-game played many the clever people across all languages and cultures, but differently managed according to the specificities of each language! And I remember how my English class (around the 5th grade or so) used to teach us about English tongue twisters like these to give us a better sense of heteronyms (words that are spelled identically but have different sounds and meanings).
Joshua K. said,
January 30, 2022 @ 9:36 pm
I would like to know whether the people who created this poster gave sufficient thought to the meaning of the saying. "(If one is) capable at one job (one would be) capable at every job"? Do they assume that since Yao Ming is capable as a basketball player, he would also be capable as a violinist? Or that since Zhang Yimou is capable as a filmmaker, he would also be capable as a boxer?
Or have I missed the point somehow?
Jonathan Smith said,
January 31, 2022 @ 10:24 pm
I don't suppose this is a "saying" :D (and not much of a tongue-twister either) — rather an orthographical-syntactic joke like the English ones cited by Diana Shuheng Zhang.
After all, the two cases in question are predicated respectively on a person's being fundamentally either xing 行 or not :D
Speaking of which and of translation, 'capable' is clearly overtranslating here but there is no good alternative really… more to the point is maybe simply "if a person cuts the mustard.." vs. "doesn't cut [it]"…