Gleaves Posted April 7, 2009 at 11:16 PM Report Posted April 7, 2009 at 11:16 PM 窍门 -- qiào mén -- a trick, or knack for doing something ...有没有一些窍门让自己的注意力不会太分散... Saw it in a WSJ article. Stuck me as interesting. Quote
heifeng Posted April 9, 2009 at 06:39 AM Report Posted April 9, 2009 at 06:39 AM ok, I'm hoping I'm not the only one that never realized that: 苗族miao2zu2 = Hmong Now I need to look at the English translations for all the minority groups... other than that (yesterday) I came across the next word twice...lots of naval and air force activity these days:wink:: 编队：bian1dui4: formation (of ships or planes) Quote
Lu Posted April 9, 2009 at 11:52 AM Report Posted April 9, 2009 at 11:52 AM Song Zuying is educational, isn't she :-) 游击 you2ji1 guerilla. Like Che Guevara. Except I saw that movie with Dutch subtitles. Quote
renzhe Posted April 13, 2009 at 08:09 PM Report Posted April 13, 2009 at 08:09 PM 挑剔 (tiāoti) picky / fussy Quote
rob07 Posted April 14, 2009 at 02:08 PM Report Posted April 14, 2009 at 02:08 PM Now I need to look at the English translations for all the minority groups... If someone tells you in Mandarin what minority group they belong to, it is worth trying out the English translation on them as it often comes from the minority group dialect pronounciation of the group name and you can look pretty cool. I managed this with one of the easy ones - a girl told me in Mandarin that she was a 客家人 when I knew that 客家 was Hakka in 客家话. You might even momentarily fool them into thinking you speak a few words of their dialect! Of course, the 客家 are still 汉 so not strictly a minority group ... New word - 八字开, ba1zi4kai1, wide open. 衙门八字开, 有理无钱莫进来. Quote
rob07 Posted April 19, 2009 at 12:15 PM Report Posted April 19, 2009 at 12:15 PM Listening to one of the songs recommended on the Song of the Day thread reminded me what a great word 酸甜苦辣/suan1tian2ku3la4 is - all the ups and downs of life. I like the way the tones go 1234 too. Quote
renzhe Posted April 25, 2009 at 08:15 PM Report Posted April 25, 2009 at 08:15 PM 蹂躏 róu lìn to ravage / to devastate Quote
roddy Posted April 26, 2009 at 04:01 PM Author Report Posted April 26, 2009 at 04:01 PM 鸣不平, míngbùpíng, to protest of injustice. Heard in some random TV show. Will throw in a usage, not really a word, that I hadn't come across until today which threw me - 你是大几？I couldn't figure out if I was being asked my age or my sibling-rank or what, turned out I'd been mistaken for a student (my own fault, was lazing around on a university campus) and I was being asked what year I was in. Makes perfect sense when you know what it means. Quote
skylee Posted April 26, 2009 at 04:18 PM Report Posted April 26, 2009 at 04:18 PM A more commonly seen form would be 不平則鳴. Quote
Native Speaker Posted April 28, 2009 at 09:00 AM Report Posted April 28, 2009 at 09:00 AM 宁死不屈, nìng sĭ bù qū, rather die than surrender. 我宁死不屈 Quote
rob07 Posted April 28, 2009 at 01:15 PM Report Posted April 28, 2009 at 01:15 PM 新西兰 - xin1xi1lan2 - New Zealand. So far not that interesting, but apparently among those at risk of being sent down to the countryside in the Cultural Revolution, the joke was that if you were really unlucky, you would be sent to New Zealand, 新西兰 being a pun on 新疆 (Xinjiang), 西藏 (Tibet) or 兰州 (Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, one of the poorest in China and far west like Xinjiang and Tibet). I heard this recently from a New Zealand woman who lived in China in the early 1980s and spoke good Chinese. Apparently some Chinese people found it pretty funny to meet someone who really did come from New Zealand. Quote
crazy-meiguoren Posted May 1, 2009 at 05:40 AM Report Posted May 1, 2009 at 05:40 AM I heard this recently from a New Zealand woman who lived in China in the early 1980s and spoke good Chinese. Apparently some Chinese people found it pretty funny to meet someone who really did come from New Zealand. Were they telling New Zealand jokes much like the Americans used to tell Polish jokes? Anyway, being from 华盛顿州, some friends met some misunderstanding while touring Israel in 1980. The locals were asking them if they were moving in because of our 火山. Quote
heifeng Posted May 2, 2009 at 05:39 PM Report Posted May 2, 2009 at 05:39 PM from the song of the day thread, since I was about 99.999% positive they were NOT in fact talking about turtlenecks: (some reverse Chinglish going on in my mind for that remaining fraction of a percentage point) 龟毛 gui1mao2 according to the above link at least 龟毛脱掉=废话少说 Quote
Don_Horhe Posted May 3, 2009 at 03:51 PM Report Posted May 3, 2009 at 03:51 PM 铁娘子 - Iron Maiden:clap Quote
Lu Posted May 3, 2009 at 05:11 PM Report Posted May 3, 2009 at 05:11 PM Guimao is usually translated as 'anal', caring about every little stupid detail. I think it's from Taiwanese. Quote
heifeng Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:22 AM Report Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:22 AM oooh, I discovered a great word today: 猫腻： mao1ni4: basically something fishy or underhanded...basically a trick or something bad disguised as something else.. discovered it in a 新京报article today... 这时我终于明白为什么窗口没卖几张票，一辆大客车的票就售完的原因了，但这背后有没有猫腻乘客就不得而知了。 荨麻疹 xún má zhěn: hives or nettle rash (I didn't actually know what nettle was in English..yeah for learning both English and Chinese at once) from this article Quote
heifeng Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:37 PM Report Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:37 PM 鼻祖： bí zǔ the earliest ancestor / originator (of a tradition, school of thought etc) from this article: 青岛举办老爷车展览 “汽车鼻祖”亮相 Edit: 11/24/2011: again found in this article: 李开复：Groupon僧多粥少的伎俩失败了 作为全球团购网站的鼻祖，Groupon在11月5日顺利登陆纳斯达克，发行价为20美元，但是在本周三的交易中，其股价最终跌破了这个价位，报于16.96美元。 Quote
roddy Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:50 PM Author Report Posted May 5, 2009 at 01:50 PM 二甲醚, èrjiǎmí, dimethyl ether or DME. Just, y'know, came up in conversation. Came across 猫腻 myself recently, can't recall where. TV, most likely. Quote
crazy-meiguoren Posted May 7, 2009 at 01:56 AM Report Posted May 7, 2009 at 01:56 AM 铁娘子 - Iron Maiden I'm an old codger who grew up in the 60s. I like 披头四乐团. That's what the MDBG online dictionary gave me. I was taken back by the words used, but a Google image search confirmed it. I chuckled a bit over a parody of the cover of their last album, which was found on the Taipei Times website. http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2007/01/21/P14-070121-002.jpg Quote
skylee Posted May 7, 2009 at 11:57 AM Report Posted May 7, 2009 at 11:57 AM 鐵娘子 is a nickname for Margaret Thatcher. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.