embarrassing

[sfr@rcn.com]

My teacher has taught me bu4 hao3 yi4si1 for the English word embarrasing. I know that word usage varies throughout the Chinese-speaking world, but just about everyone else I've used 不好意思 with can't get my meaning. What should I use instead? Or should I stick to 不好意思？

Thanks,

Sandra

BTW, I can't resist bringing this up, but I'll probably offend everyone who reads it: separate is spelled with two As and two Es.This is one of those words that has changed its spelling on the Net but not in the dictionaries.

[JoH]

It means embarrassing as far as I know, although it often seems to mean something more like 'I'm embarrassed'. So if you do something stupid you can say '不好意思' and it more or less means ':oops: ', or something like that. I can't really think of an exact translation because you wouldn't really say 'I'm embarrassed' in English, you would just look it. ; )

But I think you can also use it like the english word 'embarrassing', so you can say '他觉得不好意思' - I　ｔｈｉｎｋ...

I'm sure someone else can explain its usage much better.

Jo

[sunyata]

first off, don't be so anal about "separate"...haha, were you in spelling contests as a child or something?

secondly, depending on what you mean, you could use 尴尬

[sfr@rcn.com]

If you mean you forgot how to write the pinyin, it's da3 pen1ti4. Or maybe you meant you forgot how to write something else

And, no, I'm not anal. I'm well trained. As I said, I'm an editor. It's part of my job to catch writers' mistakes.

So, what is the difference between 不好意思 and 尷尬 gang1ga4？

Sandra

[sunyata]

I see - you have the editor's eye, then it becomes a matter of duty, not a matter of trying to be anal...

The da peng ti comment is in reference to the "Characaters are objectively harder" thread, but don't even bother looking there...

I believe a native speaker will do a better job of explaining the differences between 不好意思 and 尷尬. But my quick two cents (gotta go sleep) are that 不好意思 does not really mean "embarassed" in the English sense of the word...It has more to do with being courteous, not losing face, and simply being polite. 尷尬 is more used either to refer to an awkward situation or to talk about embarassment in the English sense of the word...perhaps this is not such a good explanation... Anyway, 尷尬 is a bit stronger than 不好意思

[skylee]

I would think 不好意思 is more casual and not as serious/formal as 尷尬. And I always say the former to mean "excuse me, (could you help me)", "sorry (that I have bumped into you)".

You can say 我/他覺得(很)不好意思, or 我/他覺得(很)尷尬. IMHO, the latter is more serious/formal.

But if I describe a situation being embarrassing, I would say "尷尬的情況" or "情況很尷尬".

[sfr@rcn.com]

You guys are great. Thanks. In fact， 感謝。 Forgive me if that isn't gan xie. The characters are so small on this screen that I can't see them. And I'm being called to dinner so I'm just taking my chances.

Thanks again,

Sandra

[xuechengfeng]

My teacher has taught me bu4 hao3 yi4si1 for the English word embarrasing. I know that word usage varies throughout the Chinese-speaking world, but just about everyone else I've used 不好意思 with can't get my meaning. What should I use instead? Or should I stick to 不好意思？

sorry, I couldn't resist either.

[sfr@rcn.com]

Couldn't resist what? Misspelling embarrassing? Otherwise, I don't get it.

Sandra

[sfr@rcn.com]

Oh, phoo. I just reread my first post and you're right. I left out an S. 不好意思.

Sandra

[Jose]

How about 为难 (wei2nan2)? I think that is a common word for saying "embarrassed". I think it is less formal than 尴尬, but I am not sure if they are completely interchangeable.

[sfr@rcn.com]

Wenlin's definitions of each phrase suggest that gang1ga4 means devastatingly embarrassing whereas wei2nan2 means embarrassed, awkward, create a difficult situation--i.e. not quite as overshelming.

Sandra

[trevelyan]

不好意思 isn't too serious. If people aren't understanding you, may you should try 尴尬 (gan1ga4), which means "awkward" or "embarassing" but has a more serious and negative connotation.

[Disenchant]

If you're just trying to express awkwardness, simply use [别扭].