有点儿gay...

[Brandon263]

We were revising how to use 好 as an adjective today and my classmate gave an example that ended in 好吃啊. Our teacher responded saying that only girls/women can say that; apparently if a guy were to say that it would sound "有点儿 gay." :huh:

[anonymoose]

It sounds like something got lost in translation here.

[creamyhorror]

Did he say 好好吃? This might be totally off-base, but I only seem to hear women say it on Taiwanese shows.

[Brandon263]

Yeah I think it was 好好吃啊 or something like that.

I doubt that anything was lost in translation though. She explained fully that it sounded 有点儿gay and only 同志 would say that.

I burst out laughing, but then after a while I was like hmm...

[Don_Horhe]

Phew, it's a good thing one sounds gay only when using it as a reduplicated adjective and not when using it as an adverb, i.e 你+好好休息/好好玩/好好吃(+吧) (in all cases it's hǎohāor). I've been using the latter ever since I started learning Chinese, and it would have been quite a shock to find out that I'd spoken like a 兔子 all this time.

No, seriously...

[creamyhorror]

Phew' date=' it's a good thing one sounds gay only when using it as a reduplicated adjective and not when using it as an adverb, i.e 你+好好休息/好好玩/好好吃(+吧) (in all cases it's hǎohāor). I've been using the latter ever since I started learning Chinese, and it would have been quite a shock to find out that I'd spoken like a 兔子 all this time.[/quote']

好好 here isn't a reduplicated adjective. It's simply 好[intensifier] + 好吃[adjective], meaning the same thing as 真好吃.

"这碗面好好吃啊!" = "这碗面真好吃啊!"

I'm not sure how 好 sounds when used to intensify other adjectives: 她好漂亮喔 / 这节目好精彩啊 / 事情好复杂. It feels more neutral, but someone else will have to confirm it.

She explained fully that it sounded 有点儿gay and only 同志 would say that.

Maybe he learnt it from his Chinese girlfriend, just like many foreigners in Japan inadvertently speak femininely because they primarily converse with Japanese women :V

[aristotle1990]

My time spent with Chinese women makes me say 好好吃呀 all the time. I do hope it's not gay.

[xiaocai]

Not necessarily gay but would sound be a bit funny to me if a guy just keep saying in this way. It may be regarded as slightly feminine especially in Mainland.

[Horse]

'Hao hao chi' sounds decidely less gay than when Chinese men you've only just met at a dinner tell you you have a 'strong body' or 'very nice eyes'

[aristotle1990]

'Hao hao chi' sounds decidely less gay than when Chinese men you've only just met at a dinner tell you you have a 'strong body' or 'very nice eyes'

Or when they say it to you.

[Brandon263]

It's getting curioser and curioser...today she was on transvestites. She thinks they're 奇怪 of course, but more outrageously （though typically) suggested that the number of transvestites in China 还可以，but in Japan 有很多，很多。

[aristotle1990]

It's getting curioser and curioser...today she was on transvestites. She thinks they're 奇怪 of course, but more outrageously （though typically) suggested that the number of transvestites in China 还可以，but in Japan 有很多，很多。

Just ask her what she thinks about Thailand.

[Ah-Bin]

I have often been told in China that I sound like a woman or gay when speaking Mandarin. Since I learnt to speak Mandarin in Taiwan rather than China, and I was never told this in Taiwan, I think it's probably to do with the generally refined way that lots of Taiwanese speak (not the ones with really pronounced Hokkien accents, but ordinary men) compared to the rough-as-guts way some Chinese (especially northern) men like to conduct themselves, swearing and so on. Even some of the roguher betel-chewing taxi-drivers in Taiwan have a very cute way of saying "bye bye".

'Hao hao chi' sounds decidely less gay than when Chinese men you've only just met at a dinner tell you you have a 'strong body' or 'very nice eyes'

and it sounds a lot less gay than "you are very handsome" I would sometimes get from apparently straight men.

[Outofin]

^^^

I agree. Taiwanese tone sounds very soft to me. I mentioned here. Even their gangsters sound somewhat cute.

[Outofin]

Now I think more of it, I want to add it's not a north or south thing. I think it's just dialects. Cantonese is obviously no soft at all. I wonder if Taiwanese Mandarin is influenced by Wu dialect. It's quite possible given their history.

[Ah-Bin]

It's also because when Taiwanese first started learning Mandarin, they learnt a refined version from books rather than from the mouths of rickshaw pullers and coolies. This meant that all the swearing and rough language was left behind in China, and also meant that men did their swearing and rough stuff in Taiwanese as they always had done. I only ever heard "tamade" once in my whole time in Taiwan, and that was from a taxi driver with tattoos...who still said "bye-bye" in a really cute way! It obviously wasn't pur down as a key vocabulary item in the 國文 textbooks!

[xiaocai]

But 好好吃哦 doesn't sound exactly very refined to me either. It sounds softer and can even be feminine sometimes but I don't think it is a more "educated" way to say 好吃...

[gegehuhu]

I logged on here to start my own thread, but then found this one, and felt my topic is close enough that I'll just post it here instead.

Unlike other posters here, I've never studied in Taiwan. I've been in mainland China the whole time.

I've had both Chinese men and women tell me that my Chinese is too feminine. They say I shouldn't use so many "feminine" (娘娘腔,有女人味) modal particles (语气词), such as 啊，呀， 啦，and 哦.

So my question is: which modal particles can I use that are more "masculine" (有男人味)？

[liao]

Well, I'm not sure about the whole sounding feminine = sounding gay. But I will say that Taiwanese accents are much softer and the eastern Taiwan has really soft, really cute accents. When I lived there I always wanted to talk that way. Now I don't.

I've had discussions with other students where we've all expressed concern that all of our teachers, language-exchange partners, etc have been female and that while we don't sound "gay" (whatever that sounds like) we're not as masculine sounding as we thought. It feels awkward though requesting male only language exchange partners. So, I just live with it.

[gato]

How about a Lesbian teacher or language exchange partner?