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Thread: Boyfriend or Girl friend culture

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[quote=APAULT,37715]As all language students are taught, you cannot properly understand a language unless you understand the culture that it relates to. This is important with the words boyfriend and girlfriend.

You see, in many countries they are used much more broadly than in China.  So when I said to my Chinese university students that children of 12 have bfs/gfs they all gasped.  In China the words tend to imply that the 'couple' are thinking of marriage, it seems to be a pre-engagement status.  This is not true in Australia and similar countries.
Thus the words have a different meanings in different cultural contexts.

Most of my students say there is no way they will take a boy or girl to meet their parents or even mention them until they are very sure they plan to stay together.  Indeed, my experience is that most young people in China only ever want one bf/gf who will become their one and only true love, anything else is still considered promiscuous.  Whereas in western countries most young people expect to have a few (or more!) bfs/gfs before they find their true love.  I am not convinced the majority of young Chinese have changed much in this traditional attitude, though no doubt the most westernised cities the attitudes must surely be changing (but not in Hebei province!)[/quote]

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