ouyangjun Posted March 8, 2015 at 05:14 AM Report Posted March 8, 2015 at 05:14 AM Another one I learned from a conversation with a friend about government officials and business... 天下乌鸦一般黑. The meaning is something along the lines of, evil people or bad people are the same all over the world. My dictionary says, 一般：一样。比喻世界上的同类人或事物大致都有相同的特性。也比喻不管什么地方的坏人，在本质上都是一样的。 The conversation was my comparison of dealing with government officials in Shanghai versus now in the Dongguan area. I had said that I felt the government officials in Shanghai were easier to deal with and more on the up and up compared to other areas, the person then said something along the lines of, "天下旗帜一般红"... which got a laugh out of my other friends (native speakers), but was lost on me. It wasn't until it was explained to me that I understood. She used a creative variation of 天下乌鸦一般黑, but used the China flag and red instead of a crow and black to mean that no matter where you are in China, all the government officials are corrupt. The latter about the flag and red I believe she made up, but all of the Chinese people immediately got it and thought it was funny. 1 Quote
ouyangjun Posted March 8, 2015 at 12:55 PM Report Posted March 8, 2015 at 12:55 PM 奶嘴男 - mama's boy. Quote
Lu Posted March 8, 2015 at 06:42 PM Report Posted March 8, 2015 at 06:42 PM 贱人就是矫情...I was at a 元宵节 students' party today. Charades was played and this was one of the first words/phrases to be guessed. I had no idea what it meant (luckily I wasn't one of the players) and now I suddenly see it show up here. Quote
ouyangjun Posted March 9, 2015 at 11:36 AM Report Posted March 9, 2015 at 11:36 AM @Lu - yeah, it appears it's a popular word lately, but I had never heard it until that day my fortune cookie told me that... Funny how newly learned words sometimes re-appear in short time frames after learning. Gotta love it. Quote
tysond Posted March 12, 2015 at 08:09 AM Report Posted March 12, 2015 at 08:09 AM 七位数字 - a seven digit number. I was asked to give this number in order to activate a card. Quote
Kobo-Daishi Posted March 19, 2015 at 07:39 PM Report Posted March 19, 2015 at 07:39 PM The word is 防彈背心. I like to download TV shows from Chinese share sites. This way I can catchup watching an entire series all at once. And also because they'll usually have subtitles in both English and Chinese, which is good for Chinese studying. Lately, I've been watching the American police procedural Castle. About a crime novelist assisting the NYPD in their homicide investigations when I came across this. I was going to post it in the lost in translation (subtitles) thread, but, couldn't find it. So, I'll just post it here. In the English subs, they've got "Well, the safety was on the whole time", while the Chinese subs has "我穿着防彈背心呢" (I was wearing a bullet-proof vest). Talk about lost in translation. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=%E9%98%B2%E5%BD%88%E8%83%8C%E5%BF%83 A bullet-proof vest would have been no help in this case because the bad guy had the gun pointed at his head the entire time. What's the difference between a bullet-proof vest and a flak jacket? And, how would one say "the safety was on the whole time" in Chinese? ;-) Kobo. Quote
Lu Posted March 22, 2015 at 09:58 PM Report Posted March 22, 2015 at 09:58 PM This is a word with a rather ugly meaning. Learned from my Taiwanese friend, I had never heard it before but understood the meaning immediately: 洋屌 yángdiǎo There is a certain subset of Chinese/Taiwanese women who really want to find a foreign boyfriend. They are sometimes interested in foreign men exclusively. If such a woman succeeds in finding her foreign boyfriend, the foreign boyfriend in question can be referred to as a 洋屌. (This is only for actual boyfriends. Single guys with yellow fever are not 洋屌.) Hunting for such a foreign boyfriend is called 哈洋屌 hā yángdiǎo. Quote
wushucrab20 Posted March 24, 2015 at 12:50 AM Report Posted March 24, 2015 at 12:50 AM 垫底－definition from baidu is (指排行排在最后面，最差的)。 I was watching 爱情公寓 and one of the characters was referred to as 垫底王。 Quote
tysond Posted March 25, 2015 at 08:23 AM Report Posted March 25, 2015 at 08:23 AM Regarding "the safety" on guns: 关闭保险按钮 is how you say "turn on the safety" (at least I think that's turn on, it could be turn off!). The safety is an "insurance button". Also saw it labelled 保险转轴. 修罗场 - a pit where one fights to the death - kind of like a bloody battlefield (extended a person in a terrible situation who needs to adopt extreme measures to survive). http://baike.baidu.com/subview/565073/10260692.htm Quote
Lu Posted March 25, 2015 at 12:24 PM Report Posted March 25, 2015 at 12:24 PM 兽面纹 shòumiànwén turns out to be the same as 饕餮纹 tāotièwén, a common motif on bronze vessels and such. Translating a long document on Chinese art objects through the ages. I'm rather out of my depth here content- and vocabulary-wise, but I suppose I'll just tackle the objects one by one and learn as I go. Quote
Lu Posted March 26, 2015 at 10:50 AM Report Posted March 26, 2015 at 10:50 AM 浅浮雕 qiǎnfúdiāo bas-relief or low relief. In sculptures and such. Or on Shang bronzes, as the case may be. Quote
imron Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:03 AM Report Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:03 AM 雫 - nǎ - dripping, trickling. Seen on the name of a book, and when I asked a native speaker the meaning/pronunciation they didn't know. Quote
studychinese Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:29 AM Report Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:29 AM 雫 - nǎ - dripping, trickling. Seen on the name of a book, and when I asked a native speaker the meaning/pronunciation they didn't know. Wow, doesn't even appear on browser popup Chinese dictionary. Quote
imron Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:34 AM Report Posted April 2, 2015 at 04:34 AM It's in the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane, so it can't be *that* rare. Having said that though, neither the ABC or the GF dictionary of Pleco have it (only the Pleco Unihan dict does). Quote
dwq Posted April 2, 2015 at 03:09 PM Report Posted April 2, 2015 at 03:09 PM It is more commonly seen in Japanese than Chinese, I think. Quote
wushucrab20 Posted April 7, 2015 at 03:48 AM Report Posted April 7, 2015 at 03:48 AM 硌到了牙齿 硌- press painfully on something Quote
Lu Posted April 7, 2015 at 02:58 PM Report Posted April 7, 2015 at 02:58 PM 光脚的不怕穿鞋的 guāng jiǎo de bù pà chuān xié de If you have nothing to lose, there's also nothing to be afraid of. Slightly funny expression, as the person wearing shoes can step on the barefooted person's toes and that would hurt a lot more than the other way around. As an aside, could posters in this thread please post not just the meaning of their random word but also the pinyin? Some people already do this and it saves me (and possible other readers) the effort of all having to look it up. Quote
Demonic_Duck Posted April 7, 2015 at 03:34 PM Report Posted April 7, 2015 at 03:34 PM I think most folks have browser dictionaries installed (even if they don't leave them turned on all the time), hence don't need the pinyin, unless it's a rare character. “雷区” [léiqū] "minefield". I should probably have known this already, along with “地雷” [dìléi] "landmine" (which I've definitely learned before, but certainly wasn't in my active vocab). Quote
wushucrab20 Posted April 7, 2015 at 05:13 PM Report Posted April 7, 2015 at 05:13 PM 锒铛入狱 Lang2dang1ru4yu4- to be thrown in prison 1 Quote
roddy Posted April 7, 2015 at 06:30 PM Author Report Posted April 7, 2015 at 06:30 PM Perhaps for committing a crime while you were 酩酊大醉 Quote
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