The phrase Chinese whispers is a popular children’s game that involves sharing one idea from person to person through whispering. A group of people gather in a circle or in a line. Share × Credits × Chinese whispers in British English. In this version of the game, when players transfer the message, they deliberately change one or two words of the phrase (often to something more humorous than the previous message). In this view, using the phrase "Chinese whispers" is taken as evidence of a belief that the Chinese language itself is not understandable. In 2003, a new video was created and released to promote the Chinese Whispers mix. the people listening and the one saying it. . I began my Chinese studies not knowing how to say “hello” in Chinese. Grandmother: Oh, you loved that game when you were younger! Enrich your vocabulary with the English Definition dictionary The game has no winner: the entertainment comes from comparing the original and final messages. Intermediate messages may also be compared; some messages will become unrecognizable after only a few steps. 63.7%. Definition: Gossip that has been inaccurately transmitted from person to person; the telephone game; a game for repeating the same thing until it changes. Usually, this is funny because after so many people have whispered the sentence, it has morphed into something different than when it started. And it will keep them from being too loud! [9] Whether any of this was true for more than a sub-set of English people, or in the minds of the people who named the children's game, is at best speculation. The name 'Chinese Whispers' was adopted for the game in the UK in the mid 20th century, prior to that it was known as 'Russian Scandal' or 'Russian Gossip'. Posted by ESC on January 12, 2001. Synonyms for Chinese Whispers (other words and phrases for Chinese Whispers). A phrase that describes how people distort an original message down the line. Another proposed theory is that English people of the 19th century believed that Chinese people spoke in a way that was deliberately unintelligible, thus in their minds associating the Chinese language with confusion and incomprehensibility[citation needed]. whisper translate: 讲话, 小声说话；低语；耳语, 迹象, 私下里说；传闻, 说话, 小声说话；低语；耳语, 沙沙声；飒飒声, 迹象, 传闻；私下的议论. broken telephone # game. What does Chinese whispers mean? Turns out it was a case of telephone, or Chinese whispers, in the digital age. Grandmother: That’s a good idea. Chinese whispers (Commonwealth English) or telephone (North American English)[1] is an internationally popular children's game.[2]. "And then it's become Chinese Whispers, which is like Telephone. Change your default dictionary to American English. An additional explanation is the commonplace observation that when two people, such as English and Chinese speakers, try to communicate with each other in their own language, the result is often confusion, and equally often amusing to both parties. CHINESE WHISPERS. [7] [16] It can also be used to teach young children to moderate the volume of their voice,[17] and how to listen attentively;[18] in this case, a game is a success if the message is transmitted accurately with each child whispering rather than shouting. Reasons for changes include anxiousness or impatience, erroneous corrections, and the difficult-to-understand mechanism of whispering. 1. The idiomatic … Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. "Chinese Whispers" is a popular game played by children and sometimes adults at parties. phrases. Thesaurus Trending Words. 58.0%. Chinese Whispers is used in many subfield of network science. [14] Alternative names used in the United States include Broken Telephone, Gossip, and Rumours.[15]. Three of the rounds are based on chinese whispers. I wish I could drop out of school. Daughter: She says she only told one other person, but the whole school spread rumors of it. At the end, the final phrase is compared to the first in front of all participants. In Medici-era Florence it was called the "game of the ear". This excerpt is about a woman embroiled in a controversy over using a song but not explaining it was about white people lynching African Americans. french. game. 85.2%. Parts of speech. definitions. Discover . take on. Yunte Huang, a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has said that "Indicating inaccurately transmitted What does Chinese whispers expression mean? I told a new friend a secret, and it was an awful idea. Chinese whispers relies on this principle. This continues until it reaches the last person. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from that of the first player, usually with amusing or humorous effect. How did a spoof article about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un being the sexiest man alive end up as a real news item in China? [1] In Turkey, this game is called kulaktan kulağa, which means from (one) ear to (another) ear. put off. The second dialogue shows a daughter and her father discussing some challenges the daughter is having at school. In this game the participants, seated in a circle, whisper a message to each other until it arrives back at the person who started, usually changed beyond recognition. Glamor or Glamour – What’s the Difference? In the uk Chinese whispers is a game played by children wher they whisper in someone’s ear a phrase and it gets passed around the circle. View the pronunciation for Chinese whispers. Another variant of Chinese whispers is shown on Ellen's Game of Games under the name of Say Whaaaat?. Definition of Chinese whispers in the Definitions.net dictionary. Today, I am an HSK 3 speaker who can read, write, and speak about 700 Chinese words. It is unclear why the name change occurred. Before that it was called Russian Scandal or Russian Gossip. Due to people not being able to hear or understand, the message gets change and when the last person in the circle says what they heard, it’s usually very different from the original word. "Telephone game" redirects here. I'm going to take it back out, because a) it looks ugly having a link in the middle of an alternative title (note that Chinese whispers redirects here); and b) I gather it's not entirely certain whether the name refers to China, the Chinese language, or is completely erroneous and doesn't really mean anything at all. Origin of Chinese Whispers. es La novela ilustrada Chinese Whispers (Susurros chinos), de la artista Rani Pramesti, que vive en Melbourne, narra la tragedia que la obligó a huir de su amado país en 1998. en Chinese whispers is a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Learn more in the Cambridge English-Chinese simplified Dictionary. Chinese Whispers Meaning. Translation for 'whisper' in the free English-Japanese dictionary and many other Japanese translations. Definition: Gossip that has been inaccurately transmitted from person to person; the telephone game; a game for repeating the same thing until it changes. Chinese Whisper. Each player only knows the translation done by his immediate predecessor, but customarily the relay master or mistress collects all of them. Players form a line or circle, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line. similar meaning - 22 Lists. … Granddaughter: Well, it’s probably a good idea to have a mix of active and non-active games, so they can spend some energy and then relax. In the United States, this game is usually called telephone. –, This is “a phenomena of our times that we live in, with Twitter and social media and everybody commenting,” she said. Father: Did she share your secret with other people? In France, it is called téléphone arabe (Arabic telephone) or téléphone sans fil (wireless telephone). Home » Phrase and Idiom Dictionary » What Does Chinese Whispers Mean? examples. 39.7%. It shows how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication. Chinese whispers definition in English dictionary, Chinese whispers meaning, synonyms, see also 'Chinese block',Chinese cabbage',Chinese chequers',Chinese Chippendale'. The person who just heard the sentence whispers it to the next person. Grandmother: I’m planning a party for the children at my church. A group of people gather in a circle or in a line. It’s like a giant game of Chinese whispers. keen on something. suggest new. Another way to say Chinese Whispers? ‘These fears passed around the centre via Chinese whispers and spread like the plague.’ ‘But, in a sort of worldwide game of Chinese whispers, it reaches us in a totally corrupted form.’ ‘A handful of texts and 40,000 Chinese whispers sent the message around the ground like wildfire.’ “It’s very tricky. Gabriel bent to whisper something to Katie and then moved in front of him. It is often invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread,[1] or, more generally, for the unreliability of human recollection or even oral traditions. [10], As the game is popular among children worldwide, it is also known under various other names depending on locality, such as Russian scandal,[11] whisper down the lane, broken telephone (in Greece), operator, grapevine, gossip, secret message, the messenger game, and pass the message, among others. It is sometimes suggested that the phrase is a racial slur and is intended to convey the idea that the Chinese talk nonsense. Granddaughter: For an active game they could play tag, or if there’s not enough room for them all to run around, they could play hide-and-seek. [3][4], Various reasons have been suggested for naming the game after the Chinese, but there is no concrete explanation. sentences Preparation A short written conversation for each team Try to make each conversation of equal length. Tags. Definition of 'Chinese whispers' Word Frequency. TBC. Is the phrase “chinese whispers” racist? What games do you suggest? For the coordination game in game theory, see, "MasterChef contestant under fire for using old saying 'Chinese whispers, "Eat Poop You Cat: A silly, fun, and free party game", "Nektan Slots Games & Other Communication Games - Broken Picture Telephone", "Best of Casual Gameplay 2009 - Simple Idea Results (browser games) - Jay is games", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_whispers&oldid=1008844006, Articles lacking reliable references from August 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 February 2021, at 10:06. Chinese whispers definition is - a situation in which a piece of information is passed from one person to the next and is changed slightly each time it is told. The game is often played by children as a party game or on the playground. As well as providing amusement, the game can have educational value. surprise. You can say something and be damned for it or not say something and be damned for that, and the Chinese whispers and the whole kind of whispering thing that goes on, it kind of shut me up.” –. Chinese whispers synonyms, Chinese whispers pronunciation, Chinese whispers translation, English dictionary definition of Chinese whispers. This game is in no way racist. Here are few books that give a deeper meaning to the Chinese language and provided more context to many of the Chinese phrases you’re bound to learn. antonyms. When the last player is reached, they announce the message they heard to the entire group. Here is an example of two family members using the expression while having dinner. The first person then compares the original message with the final version. nouns. whisper definition: 1. to speak very quietly, using the breath but not the voice, so that only the person close to you…. Synonyms of the month. In the U.K. and Australia, the game is typically called "Chinese whispers"; in the U.K., this is documented from 1964. What does Chinese whispers expression mean? It can also be used for older or adult learners of a foreign language, where the challenge of speaking comprehensibly, and understanding, is more difficult because of the low volume, and hence a greater mastery of the fine points of pronunciation is required.[19]. words. Information and translations of Chinese whispers in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. The rules for the game Chinese whispers (or the telephone game) are simple. Chinese whispers translation in English - French Reverso dictionary, see also 'Chinese leaves',chin',chinos',Chinese leaves', examples, definition, conjugation The game has been used in schools to simulate the spread of gossip and its possible harmful effects. n. # game. Meaning: A game in which a message is passed along in whispers, often distorted between the start and finish. Do you have any ideas for fun activities that I should have them participate in? : : Does "Chinese whisper" mean a "stage whisper," a whisper that really isn't? Chinese whispers (uncountable) (games, chiefly Britain) A game for several players in which a phrase, whispered by each person in turn to their neighbour, is often unwittingly misunderstood as it is transferred, to humorous effect by the time it reaches the last person and is compared with the original phrase. In Malaysia, this game is commonly referred to as telefon rosak, in Israel as telefon shavur (טלפון שבור) and in Greece as spazmeno tilefono (σπασμένο τηλέφωνο) which all translate to "broken telephone". The second player repeats the message to the third player, and so on. Then to rest after that they could play Chinese whispers. The relay ends when the last player returns the translation to the beginning player. I see no reason to assume that. In other words, a whisper that can readily be overheard? token. [21] The game was first implemented online by Broken Picture Telephone in early 2007. Chinese whispers phrase. This is the British English definition of Chinese whispers.View American English definition of Chinese whispers. information, the expression “Chinese Whispers” carries with it a sense of paranoia caused by espionage, counterespionage, Red Scare, and other war games, real or imaginary, cold or hot". This game has many other names, but the name Chinese whispers appears to have started in the mid-1900s in the United Kingdom. A translation relay is a variant in which the first player produces a text in a given language, together with a basic guide to understanding, which includes a lexicon, an interlinear gloss, possibly a list of grammatical morphemes, comments on the meaning of difficult words, etc. A further theory is that the game stems from the supposed confused messages created when a message was passed verbally from tower to tower along the Great Wall of China. This is called the " Chinese whispers" effect. [13], The game has also been known in English as Russian Scandal, Russian Gossip and Russian Telephone. synonyms. Granddaughter: Yeah, I think it’s always a popular choice. The first person thinks of a sentence and whispers it into the ear of the person next to him or her. [12] In Germany the game is known as Stille Post (Silent mail). This excerpt is about how people told and retold a joke so many times that some people believed it was serious. Chinese words for whisper include 耳语, 呤, 咬耳朵, 叽咕, 喁喁, 喳喳, 窃窃, 聂 and 嘘. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming garbled along the way, part of the enjoyment is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening. Chinese whispers definition: a game in which a message is passed on, in a whisper , by each of a number of people, so... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples 82.7%. I noticed somebody decided to link the word "Chinese" in "Chinese whispers". As an idiom, its meaning comes from the game. present. Find more Chinese words at wordhippo.com! [5], Usage of the term has been defended as being similar to other expression such as "It's all Greek to me" and "Double Dutch".[6]. telephone game # game. (everything except an actual translation). The text is passed on to the following player, who tries to make sense of it and casts it into his/her language of choice, then repeating the procedure, and so on. The game is played by whispering a specific phrase from person to person until everyone has quietly said it, at which point the phrase is again spoken out loud. It wasn’t until I stood in front of an audience in USA in 2013 and used the phrase Chinese whispers to describe the results I was presenting. Learn more. chinese whispers / synonyms. The goal is to keep the original statement unchanged, but because of the nature of the game, it usually morphs significantly. Translation for 'Chinese whispers' in the free English-French dictionary and many other French translations. The pen-and-paper game Telephone Pictionary (also known as Eat Poop You Cat[20]) is played by alternately writing and illustrating captions, the paper being folded so that each player can only see the previous participant's contribution. Look it up now! The reason for the change isn't clear. The last person says the sentence that he or she heard out loud. Chinese whispers is a spoken language parlor game and an idiomatic English expression. In Poland it is called głuchy telefon, meaning dead call. [8] Additionally, it is claimed, Chinese people have historically been stereotyped by Westerners as secretive or inscrutable. Meaning of Chinese whispers. Daughter: I hate it. gossip. [10], In the North America, the game is known under the name telephone. When gossip or a story is being passed around, being told to one person, who retells it to another, and with each re-telling the story is changed slightly, until by the last re-telling it has changed almost beyond recognition of the original story. noun (functioning as singular) 1. a game in which a message is passed on, in a whisper, by each of a number of people, so that the final version of the message is often radically changed from the original. Wellbeing or Well-Being – Which is Correct? telephone. However, the difference is that the four players will be wearing earmuffs; therefore the players have to read their lips. In Reply to: Chinese Whisper posted by Barney on January 12, 2001: : : Can anyone tell me the origin of Chinese Whisper? The rules for the game Chinese whispers (or the telephone game) are simple. the number of words occurring in a sentence dimensionality reduction techniques can greatly reduce complexity without considerably losing accuracy. for. They were just words for a game we played with no wider meaning to me. In the U.K. and Australia, the game is typically called "Chinese whispers"; in the U.K., this is documented from 1964. Historians who focus on Western use of the word Chinese as denoting "confusion" and "incomprehensibility" look to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 17th century, attributing it to a supposed inability on the part of Europeans to understand China's culture and worldview. This often reveals a distorted and humorous version of the original phrase. gift. So now, all the other students are sharing my secret, but it’s changed, and now it seems much worse! ‘These fears passed around the centre via Chinese whispers and spread like the plague.’ ‘But, in a sort of worldwide game of Chinese whispers, it reaches us in a totally corrupted form.’ ‘A handful of texts and 40,000 Chinese whispers sent the message around the ground like wildfire.’ [22] Following the success of Broken Picture Telephone,[23] commercial boardgame versions Telestrations[20] and Cranium Scribblish were released two years later in 2009. [5] One suggested reason is a widespread English fascination with Chinese culture in the 18th and 19th centuries - including that now known as Orientalism[citation needed]. Other online creations Drawception and other websites also arrived in 2009. There is a second derivative variant, no less popular than Rumors, known as Mahjong Secrets (UK), or Broken Telephone (US), where the objective is to receive the message from the whisperer and whisper to the next participant the first word or phrase that comes to mind in association with what was heard. It turned out she wasn’t a friend;  she was a horrible person. Full disclosure, I wrote Bao in honor of my experience learning Chinese. A variant of Chinese whispers is called Rumors. Log in. Bao. Intermediate messages can be compared. Chinese whispers definition at Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary with pronunciation, synonyms and translation.