Having trouble understanding my vocab...

[Etwood]

Hi everyone,

I'm having some trouble getting my head around (understanding) these 3 vocab items:

单位 (dan1wei4)

岗位 (gang3 wei4)

干部 (gan4 bu4)

Wondering if anyone could explain the meanings to me?

Thanks in advance

[HashiriKata]

I'm sorry to say but I don't think members here can do better than a good dictionary. What we may do better than a dictionary is when you want the finer points of something in context, or verification of your understanding regarding some matters. Show us how far you've got to so that we'd know whether we can help from there.

[Etwood]

Oh I'm so sorry...I do apologise. The definitions I have (which I need clarification of) are as follows:

单位: unit (including 工作的地方). (What type of unit is this referring to? I don't quite understand.)

岗位: 工作单位. (See above)

干部: cadre; a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and train others; a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party. (Why would anyone need to know this word? What are the uses of it?)

I didn't expect to be shouted down from the first person to reply to my post. I only wanted some help in clarifying these definitions. I do own Chinese dictionaries. Don't you think I would have checked them? Why do you think I'm asking for more clarification? Getting the nuance of a word requires a lot more than looking up a definition in a dictionary, hence why I posted. Sorry if I'm wasting time. Just wanted some assistance.

[yonglin]

As much as I'd like to agree with HashiriKata, both 干部 and 单位 are concepts quite specific to China (and some other East Asian countries), because social and political institutions differ quite a lot from more "western" countries.

Maybe a simple wikipedia search could clear the matter up (given that your current position is indeed outside the PRC)?

For instance,

单位

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%95%E4%BD%8D

or http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fzh.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%25E5%258D%2595%25E4%25BD%258D&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools (machine translation)

or English version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danwei

干部

http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%B9%B2%E9%83%A8&variant=zh-cn

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fzh.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D%25E5%25B9%25B2%25E9%2583%25A8%26variant%3Dzh-cn&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools (machine translation)

(I know how much the lot of you must hate machine translation, but I must say that the google one is quite neat, since it'll give you the original text in on-mouse-over, so that you could actually broaden your language skills whilst cheating....)

岗位 is a not specific to Chinese conditions, and could be fully understood by consulting a good dictionary as pointed out by HashiriKata.

[HashiriKata]

I didn't expect to be shouted down from the first person to reply to my post. I only wanted some help in clarifying these definitions.

My best effort has been taken so negatively. Not much else can I say!

(I wish you had been modest and looked at my words literally, they would serve you very well whichever forums you go. But never minds...)

[gato]

干部: cadre; a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and train others; a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party.

(Why would anyone need to know this word? What are the uses of it?)

You would probably benefit from reading a short modern Chinese history. To understand certain terms used in mainland China, it helps to be familiar with its recent history and the Communist party.

Both 单位 and 干部 originate in Communist party lingo, but they have broader meaning today.

单位: literally means unit (as in a unit of measurement); in the context of work, it refers work unit, a place of employment

岗位: a job

干部: cadre (i.e. Communist party official); more broadly used to refer to a leader in an organization

[roddy]

I do own Chinese dictionaries. Don't you think I would have checked them? Why do you think I'm asking for more clarification? Getting the nuance of a word requires a lot more than looking up a definition in a dictionary, hence why I posted. Sorry if I'm wasting time. Just wanted some assistance.

No offense, but your first post doesn't make it clear that you've done any dictionary work at all, and while you might have there are plenty of people who will post without bothering to do so. Saying that you have means people are more likely to help you, and explaining why the dictionary wasn't enough and exactly where your confusion lies - as you've done in your second post - means you're much more likely to get the answers you need.