你們作甚麼事﹖

[xuechengfeng]

and for those in china, how important is the concept of 關係?

[skylee]

"你們作甚麼事﹖" sounds like the bible. 你想幹啥?

[keith]

I think 關係 is really, really important in China. More useful than a MBA in securing a job anyway.

[xuechengfeng]

skylee:

explain we were taught to ask in my university by asking zuo shenmo shi?

你 you

想 i know xiang but not in this context

幹 to do business with?

啥 ??????????????

[Claw]

你 you

想 i know xiang but not in this context

幹 to do business with?

啥 ??????????????

啥 (taiwan - sha2; mainland - sha4) means what, basically a more colloquial way of saying 甚麼.

[xuechengfeng]

ok, so minus my incorrect question, what do you guys do for a living?

i am currently a 3rd year student at a university, and i work at the university's day care center in the kitchen..

boring!

[Disenchant]

啥 (taiwan - sha2; mainland - sha4) means what, basically a more colloquial way of saying 甚麼.

Colloquial to the Sichuan topolect.

[roddy]

啥 and it’s cousin 咋 are both very common in the north-east. I heard sha constantly when I was teaching in Harbin – I’d say something to one student and they’d invariably ask someone else 啥意思? I saw a CCTV sit-com once set in a Dongbei train station which consisted entirely of staff running around saying 啥事 and 咋啦。