glock Posted March 6, 2013 at 04:32 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 at 04:32 AM http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4505 I cannot think of any better alternatives, what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 6, 2013 at 06:18 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 at 06:18 AM This is similar to the problem of finding an English translation for "Laowai". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
最爱狮子和熊 Posted March 6, 2013 at 08:56 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 at 08:56 AM Maybe you can say 呆子 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny同志 Posted March 6, 2013 at 09:05 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 at 09:05 AM nerd: someone who seems very boring and unfashionable, and is not good in social situations I'd say a nerd is a 悶瓜. The word is not widely known but I presume it's understandable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members siwangqi4 Posted March 6, 2013 at 11:20 AM New Members Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 at 11:20 AM When I watch TBBT(the big bang theory),chinese translators translated "nerd" into “书呆子” in Chinese,which means the people who read too much books but lacking the basic knowledge of living skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted March 7, 2013 at 12:18 AM Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 at 12:18 AM I would translate it as 宅男/宅女. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lingo-ling Posted March 7, 2013 at 03:16 AM Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 at 03:16 AM And one might translate 宅男 back into English as "otaku". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted March 7, 2013 at 03:28 AM Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 at 03:28 AM "Revenge of the Otakus" was a great film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny同志 Posted March 7, 2013 at 04:19 AM Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 at 04:19 AM From how I understand the term 宅男, it basically refers to a man who stays at home all day long and rarely goes out. It's quite different from otaku, which, according to Wikipedia, refers to people with obsessive interests, particularly (but not limited to) anime and manga. Addition to post 4: 悶瓜(mēn guā) means a boring person who is of few words, and supposedly, socially inept. A quick Baidu search seems to say it's not as rare as I thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
陳德聰 Posted March 7, 2013 at 10:29 AM Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 at 10:29 AM Part of the problem probably lies in the fact that different groups of people use the word "nerd" to describe totally different types of people. The entirety of my high school used the word almost exclusively to mean someone who, in exchange for being very smart, gave up the greater portion of their social interaction skills. Many nerds were also very good at sports and physical activity, they just really liked their studies. The high school down the road used it to mean someone who met certain appearance requirements like pimples, glasses, lack of fashion etc. If you use it to mean ... the opposite of "jock", then it would be a person who is not good at sports, is weak, small, likes to read books instead of exert themself. With this kind of vague scope... I don't think it's that you "can't" translate nerd into Chinese but just that the different usages mean you would probably have to use many different Chinese words to capture the different ways in which people use the word "nerd". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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