Power strip, panda hugger, and others

[drencrom]

This is a list of words i jotted down as having wanted to say at the time, but couldn't.

power strip

feather duster

Android - 安卓，对不对？

颜福 - I had this written down, but no idea why. Translator gives no help.

Sorry, I wasn't listening - I have to be actively listening to Chinese to hear what people are saying. Sometimes I'll hear the dreaded "tingde dong ma" and have no idea what was going on because I just plain wasn't listening. However, 9 times out of 10 they think I didn't understand and it's frustrating not being able to explain this.

down the drain, wasted money, sunk costs - however you explain this concept in Chinese

the line starts back there - this is what you say in English when someone tries to cut in line ahead of you. How do you express this in Chinese?

panda hugger - people who are a bit too friendly with the CCP.

volume

so-so - Chinese people never say 马马虎虎 so what should you say instead?

it's too loud - explaining to people on a long train trip that their mobile phone games need to be set on mute mode

mute - the instruction from remote controls

[OneEye]

不好意思，我沒注意你說的話。 Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to what you said.

浪費錢 to waste money

在那邊排隊喔。 Line up over there. (the final 喔 here might be a little more Taiwanese Mandarin or Southern Mandarin usage, I'm not sure, but it indicates a mild imperative that the speaker wants the listener to pay attention to)

還好 so-so

聲音太大了。 The sound is too loud.

無聲 or 靜音 silent/mute

The others I'm not sure about. In Taiwan some older people call CCP members and supporters 共匪. Not sure if that's a common term on the Mainland, but I'm sure it would get the point across, if in a rude way.

[Ludens]

I think power strip is 电插板.

[tooironic]

power strip - 接线板 jiēxiànbǎn

feather duster - 鸡毛帚 jīmáozhǒu (but I've never seen them in China so don't know if this word is commonly known)

Android - both 安卓 and occasionally 安致 are used, but I'd say just "Android" is more common

颜福 - is this someone's name?

so-so - 一般般 yībānbān

[kdavid]

I've always said 插排 for power strip, as have my (Chinese) colleagues.

"Panda hugger" is one of those words which doesn't appear to have a one-for-one equivalent (that I know of). If the objective is to describe someone who worships the CCP, something like 崇党者 may work. (Btw, I just made that up).

[imron]

Although not an exact equivalent, I would go for 五毛党.

[drencrom]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

If you haven't seen a feather duster in China before, then how do you know what the name for it is? FWIW, they look like this:

一般般 doesn't that just mean "half"?

For power strip, I've got:

插排 chāpái

接线板 jiēxiànbǎn

电插板 diànchābǎn

I suppose I'll have to do a poll around the office. I hate learning a "correct" word but then finding out nobody around here says it that way. So much wasted brainpower, and I have little enough to spare as it is.

For panda hugger, it means a foreigner. Wumaodang are tools, but they are Chinese. 共匪 is awesome, I'm totally learning that one, but it does refer to a mainlander in the context of a Taiwanese. Does Chinese have a phrase like 'useful idiots'? What did Mao call people like Edgar Snow?

[skylee]

I like 共匪. Once a friend of mine who can speak the minnan dialect said Taiwanese people did not like hearing HK people speak the dialect. Then I called him 共匪, and we had a good laugh because it was so comical.

[OneEye]

If you haven't seen a feather duster in China before, then how do you know what the name for it is? FWIW, they look like this:

I think most people here know what a feather duster is. And you don't have to have seen something in country to know what it's called. I've never seen a an owl in Taiwan, but I know the Chinese word is 貓頭鷹.

[tooironic]

@drencrom All I was saying is that I've never seen them used in China. I found the translation on jukuu.com, and like anything found on there, it should be taken with a grain salt until it's verified by a native speaker.

And 一般般 is a very common way of saying "so-so" (ugh, hate that word) or "average". Same as 还可以, 还好, 还行 and 还成 (common in Northern Mandarin).

[imron]

@drencrom, don't confuse 一般 with 一半 (they are different tones also).

[heifeng]

Wait! Back up, where are these words coming from?

Anyway...

feather duster:as the picture above says 鸡毛掸 or 鸡毛扫. I actually have heard this term a few times...I'm drawing a blank on what final character I heard more often...but the chicken feather part sticks. Especially b/c it was usually during stories of friends getting spanked with em...hehe

did you hear颜福...or 眼福? As in有眼福了...

排插座 or even shorter still 排插

For so-so, it depends on your tone & what you want to describe. 凑合 can be used to say something is so so as in it's passable （～～还凑合） , or will make due （～～～凑合用） You can reference iciba here and see how it's used online as well...

[tooironic]

If you want to express "passable" or "acceptable", 说得过去 and 就那么回事 are two other options.

@drencrom, don't confuse 一般 with 一半 (they are different tones also).

I didn't even make the connection that that could have been the character @drencrom was thinking about. :o (It seems bān and bàn are completely different things in my mind.)

[animal world]

Panda hugger is a great word. I had never heard of it before. Reading the posts here I'm confused about its true meaning . Does it mean foreigner or someone who's a little too cozy with the Party? Can't seem to find in this thread a good translation of the word in Chinese. If it means Party-aficionado the word in Chinese offered here is 共匪. Unless, i totally misinterpret this, this has a negative connotation whereas Pandahugger is deceptively positive.

Anyone can shed some light on this word? Thanks!

[gato]

If it means Party-aficionado the word in Chinese offered here is 共匪. Unless, i totally misinterpret this, this has a negative connotation whereas Pandahugger is deceptively positive.

共匪 means Communist bandit. Where did you see that?

[animal world]

I know "共匪 means Communist bandit." The comments at post 7 (last paragraph) and 8 threw me off the trail of the panda hugger.

Panda hugger IS a great word. Now, if only I knew what it meansand what is it in Chinese??? lol

[skylee]

Perhaps you can consider 擁華者 or 擁華躉 for panda hugger. I made them up. 擁 can have dual-meanings (support and hug) here.

Also learn the term 擁躉 -

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?wdrst=1&popup=1&wdqchid=%E6%93%81%E8%BA%89

http://book.sina.com.cn/longbook/liv/1109834226_zhengbanyuwen/52.shtml

[xiaocai]

The Chinese name for feather duster is right on the picture you found...

[animal world]

I never asked for the Chinese name of feather duster; the answer was provided quite a while ago.

Thanks for the help and suggestions, Skylee. I assumed that there was a "fixed expression" in Chinese for panda hugger and I seemed to be wrong. So, is "panda hugger" an expression in English? I had never heard of it.

[gato]

You've heard of "tree hugger"?