The World Cup is a big deal here in Beijing, as it is in every other world capital, I'm sure. But in Asia, the Chinese take this obsession to a funny length at times. You can see all sorts of exhibits and signs and odes to this competition, accompanied by copious photographing of people next to such exhibits and signs and odes. I remember watching the 2006 World Cup. I was just a month away from beginning a new life south of the hemisphere, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to be exact. So I was caught up in the fever, wisely preparing myself for the worship that would surround me in my new home.
In China, the games are of course narrated in Mandarin, which can be interesting if you know anything at all about the language. There is a word here, nega (sometimes it's spelled nigga), which means "this one" or "that one" (I forget) but sounds very much like the unmentionable N-word that no one in their right mind would say these days. The thing with the nega word is that I've never heard it used all by its lonesome (I'm not sure why since in English we don't typically say, "that, that, that") but rather multiplied like cells gone awry.* Anyhow, it's rather jarring to hear the N-bomb cast about wily nilly while watching the men of Ghana play, for example. More disturbing than the vuvuzelas? You betcha.
* Ahh, mystery solved. According to the interweb, nega can be used to stall in speech when you are searching for something to say. Bet you're glad you learned this Mandarin lesson, eh? You nega nega nega whatever you.
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