Word of the Day project 每日一词计划 (Day 12 updated)

[imron]

身闷气

生闷气

[艾紫茉]

jbradfor

Similar would be "silent treatment". To me, the difference is that "cold shoulder" is more along the lines of not walking to talk with someone, while "silent treatment" is more of an active punishment.

Haha, I always thought that "silent treatment" and "cold shoulder" meant the same thing. At least here in America they are two different ways of saying the same thing.

[malanting]

艾紫茉

The English equivalent of 身闷气 would be "to give the cold shoulder,"

I would definitely say that in America we would say "soothe" or "comfort" the baby.

"Sweet talk," I think, would definitely be the equivalent of 甜言蜜语.

Great words malanting! Keep up the good work!

Thank you for all that. I really like "to give the cold shoulder". So vivid! That really helps. I'm glad you like my posts.

jbradfor

Is there something similar to "silent treatment" in Chinese?

I looked up the phrase in the dictionary and found "He game me the silent treatment" (so it means he was angry and wouldn't talk to me). It seems that the one who really needs a treatment is "he" not "I" as the sentence implies.

Just joking. I think 不理 bu4 li3 would be the equivalent (as you said, it's more "active"). Example: 我们吵架后他就一直不理我。They can also be used together—她还在生闷气，一直故意不理我。

But isn't "to give the cold shoulder" also an active punishment?

[roddy]

Credit due to Malanting I think for currently occupying all five spaces in the 'Posts of the Week' box on the front page.

[malanting]

Day 8

黄牛 huang2 niu2 means "scalper" or "tout", someone who buys tickets and then sells it at a high price (often train tickets or tickets for concerts, sporting events etc.) What 黄牛 does is called 倒票 dao3 piao4 For example: 本想买演唱会门票，但都卖完了。售票处门口都是黄牛。/ 为了防止倒票，火车票实行实名制。

Next word, 实名制 shi2 ming2 zhi4 (already appeared in the last example) is a real name registration system when buying tickets. Recently, in order to buy a ticket, we need to use our ID cards. There are also random checks on a train to confirm passengers' identity. A random check would be 抽查 chou1 cha2 . Some examples: 自从实行了实名制后，黄牛倒票的现象就看不到了。/ 昨天老师布置背诵作业，忘了背，结果没逃过抽查。

Today's last word 改签 gai3 qian1 which means to change the time of a train or a plane ticket. Say, your are supposed to catch a 7:00 train, but you arrive ten minutes late, then you can 改签 and take the 7:30 train. Example: 每张车票只能改签一次，改签后不能退票。

All right, is 黄牛 common in your country? How do you say 改签 and 倒票? Do you need your ID card when buying a ticket?

[malanting]

roddy

Credit due to Malanting I think for currently occupying all five spaces in the 'Posts of the Week' box on the front page.

Thank you! I've just noticed it.

[freshysauce]

Let me be next in line to heap praise on Malanting. I don't know how much time you spend on this each day, but it is very much appreciated. This has the potential to be one of the most valuable threads on a board that is full of them.

Rather than simply lurking, I might as well chip in. In America, 黄牛 is ubiquitous at sporting events and concerts, but I've never heard of them for planes and trains. I'm pretty sure that would be impossible/illegal with the security measures in place.

As for the verb, 倒票, to describe what a 黄牛 does is simply "to scalp". I do think that is it technically illegal to sell a ticket for more than face value, but it still happens everywhere.

As for 改签, I don't think we have a simple word. I would say "change my reservation", "change my flight/train", or just "get on a later flight/train". Ex: "I missed the 7PM flight to Washington, but I was able to get on a later flight."

[skylee]

One could also get on an earlier train/flight.

[jbradfor]

As for 改签, I don't think we have a simple word.

rebook.

[neverending]

Thanks for this awesome thread malanting!

All right, is 黄牛 common in your country? How do you say 改签 and 倒票? Do you need your ID card when buying a ticket?

UK here:

We don't have national ID cards - they were going to be introduced by the last government, but there was a strong reaction against them by the current government. Doesn't look like they're going to go through in the near future. So anyone can buy train tickets, and there are no random ID checks anywhere, on transportation or not. You do usually need your passport number to buy a plane ticket and obviously keep it with you to get through the security checks at airports.

黄牛 are very common in Britain. Apparently the British English word is tout, though I have heard scalper more often. There are laws against them for football tickets (footballing is too big here to allow such shenanigans), and no one bothers to scalp transport tickets afaik (usually transport tickets are resold at less than their face value) but this quite often happens with popular music concerts.

One question: why are 黄牛 called 黄牛? Is there a story behind that name?

改签 - I agree with the above posters.

[malanting]

freshysauce

Let me be next in line to heap praise on Malanting. I don't know how much time you spend on this each day, but it is very much appreciated.

Thank you. The first day I signed up with the forum, it occurred to me that I could start a topic like this. I know there're similar topics, but some of the words introduced seem rarely used in daily life. So I thought I can update practical expressions. So when a useful phrase comes up, I would think of some relevant words and update them here. For example, today I thought of the trip I made to Beijing. Hence 黄牛 and so on. Hopefully, this thread can help clearing cultural differences.

As for the verb, 倒票, to describe what a 黄牛 does is simply "to scalp". I do think that is it technically illegal to sell a ticket for more than face value, but it still happens everywhere.

I should have thought of it since the noun form is scalper. Thanks.

As for 改签, I don't think we have a simple word. I would say "change my reservation", "change my flight/train", or just "get on a later flight/train". Ex: "I missed the 7PM flight to Washington, but I was able to get on a later flight."

Thank you. Easier than I thought. I thought there would be a technical term.

Yes, I believe scalping tickets is illegal in China as well. But somehow, people just turn a blind eye to the phenomenon. 实名制 has been a good way of cracking down on those scalping train tickets. There're also 黄牛 scalping coupons. In this case, it seems a win-win situation.

jbradfor

rebook.

So it would be "rebook the tickets"?

neverending

Thanks for this awesome thread malanting!

We don't have national ID cards

Is it true that you use driver's licence as a sort of ID cards?

no one bothers to scalp transport tickets afaik (usually transport tickets are resold at less than their face value)

Well, train tickets scalpers are most common here, especially during 春运 chun1 yun4 when migrant workers go home (by train) during the Spring Festival. So a train ticket of 500 yuan may be resold at 550 or 600 yuan. There're so many people that there are not enough tickets going around.

One question: why are 黄牛 called 黄牛? Is there a story behind that name?

I don't know either. So I searched the Internet. It is said that scalpers are liken to 黄牛 because "yellow bulls" are hard to tame (scalpers don't hesitate to break the law) and that bull flocks is like the crowd 黄牛 make. There's another version that in the past corrupt lawyers are somehow related to 黄牛, they were called 司法黄牛. But this version still doesn't explain why it's 黄牛 in the first place.

[neverending]

The general perception is that our train tickets are already too expensive, and the UK has a lot of drivers, so scalping on that would be difficult. On the other hand, we have a very robust national interest in music, and big names often tour here, so scalping on concert tickets is what I tend to experience.

We do indeed use our driver's licenses for ID - a lot of students will get a provisional license just as ID, rather than to drive. But this is used about 95% of the time just as proof of age (mostly for buying alcohol in shops/pubs), only very rarely as proof of identity (when, for instance, one opens a bank account.), and there's no law that requires you to have it with you, even when you're driving.

Cheers for the info about the 黄牛. I find Chinese such a colourful language - it's interesting to hear the etymology of all the terms and idioms.

[malanting]

neverending

On the other hand, we have a very robust national interest in music, and big names often tour here, so scalping on concert tickets is what I tend to experience.

Concert tickets and tickets for a sporting event is also a common target here. One of my friends told me he bought a ticket for basketball finals online and resold it, earning a couple of hundred yuan. Apparently, rich people don't care about the price, they buy tickets from 黄牛 or whoever's willing to give up the ticket at a higher price.

We do indeed use our driver's licenses for ID - a lot of students will get a provisional license just as ID, rather than to drive.

I remember reading an article about it. A Chinese was in UK (or maybe US? can't recall it) and was asked to show his driver's licence to confirm his identity. It happened that he didn't have one and he showed some other licences instead. But people wouldn't believe him. So he said at the end of the article that a driver's licence is a must in Western countries.

Cheers for the info about the 黄牛. I find Chinese such a colourful language - it's interesting to hear the etymology of all the terms and idioms.

Yeah. There're so many interesting terms, English or Chinese. Language is really interesting! That's why I'm looking forward to more interactions here.

[Shelley]

Quote

We don't have national ID cards

Is it true that you use driver's licence as a sort of ID cards? end Quote

The drivers licence is the closest thing to an ID card but is not an ID card.

They are supposed to be updated when you change address but people don't. There is even a fine of up to £1000.00 if your address is out of date but its one of those things that dosen't usually happen.

We ask for a driving licence and a goverment document recieved in the last year with your name and address printed and dated for our business. (P.A. Hire) to prove the address is current.

We don't accept utilty bills, bank statements, Birth certificates or passports because passports do not have the adddress printed in them, only your place of birth, which is of no use for ID.

It makes difficult to ensure people are who they say they and live where they say they live.

This is not an advertising plug cos I don't really think anyone on the forum has any use of our services but I will include a link to our website to satisfy people's curiousity as to why we might need all this ID http://www.arcelectronics.co.uk/

If you look under the FAQ's you will see the bit about ID

Edited June 6, 2012 at 03:55 PM by Shelley

[Shelley]

Quote

We don't have national ID cards

Is it true that you use driver's licence as a sort of ID cards? end Quote

The drivers licence is the closest thing to an ID card but is not an ID card.

They are supposed to be updated when you change address but people don't. There is even a fine of up to £1000.00 if your address is out of date but its one of those things that dosen't usually happen.

We ask for a driving licence and a goverment document recieved in the last year with your name and address printed and dated for our business. (P.A. Hire) to prove the address is current.

We don't accept utilty bills, bank statements, Birth certificates or passports because passports do not have the adddress printed in them, only your place of birth, which is of no use for ID.

It makes difficult to ensure people are who they say they and live where they say they live.<p>This is not an advertising plug cos I don't really think anyone on the forum has any use of our services but I will include a link to our website to satisfy people's curiousity as to why we might need all this ID [url="

[Shelley]

Help

how do you edit a post?

How do use quotes?

[Michaelyus]

改签 I think can also refer to "amendment to [one's] booking/ticket" / "to amend the booking", which is used by some companies for an advance rebooking. There may or may not be amendment charges associated. I agree that these are largely replaced by the alternatives above most of the time.

抽查 in official contexts is more commonly expressed as "[ticket] inspection" in Britain.

I also confess never to have heard 'to scalp' in my experience of British English at all, only 'to tout'.

I agree that there is a nuance distinguishing "to give [somebody] the cold shoulder" from "to give [somebody] the silent treatment". The latter sounds more directed and more regulated to me.

[Guest realmayo]

Well, I've never had a driving license and can't remember ever needing it. I guess I've not hired enough music systems in my time!

So he said at the end of the article that a driver's licence is a must in Western countries.

I can see why he might draw that conclusion in the UK. But lots of western countries have ID cards, I imagine they'd use those over driving licenses?

[malanting]

Shelley

Help

how do you edit a post?

How do use quotes?

There's a button on the tools menu just beside the "t" (twitter) one. Edit button is at the end of the post.

[malanting]

Shelley

We ask for a driving licence and a goverment document recieved in the last year with your name and address printed and dated for our business. (P.A. Hire) to prove the address is current.

We don't accept utilty bills, bank statements, Birth certificates or passports because passports do not have the adddress printed in them, only your place of birth, which is of no use for ID.

Now I see why the author I mentioned before had problems when he didn't have a driver's licence. Thank you!

http://www.arcelectronics.co.uk/

Just checked it out. It's a nice little website.