Language

Heard this riddle over a Mandarin Chinese radio station today: What kind of hai (sea or ocean) can't be swum in?

Callers offered shang hai (Shanghai, duh), liu hai (fringe), huo hai (a fire), etc. The required answer was nao hai, meaning the mind.

In English, the phrase "swimming in my mind" is fairly common, and refers to thoughts, emotions, etc., of course. In Chinese, the mental imagery for emotions is that of ebbs and flows - the emotions are themselves the oceans and the seas, so to speak, not the things that are swimming in such.