Abbvs in Taiwan

I have come across a few English acronyms in Taiwan that I don’t fully understand:

Acronym What it means (I think) What the Acronym stands for (I think/guess)
1. WC Bathroom Water Closet (is this some British English?)
2. PK Versus Penalty Kick???
3. LP Male genitalia Large Penis???
4. OL Female Office Worker Office Lady
5. CT Someone who teaches Chinese language Chinese Teacher

Feel free to correct me or add your own that you’ve come across.

PK could be “player kill” from Counterstrike

LP is “little penis,” from some ad or song or something where a woman was laughing at a man and holding up her little finger

CT is Hess speak, and officially means “class teacher”, but “chinese teacher” is equally accurate.

[quote=“Modest Mouse”]I have come across a few English acronyms in Taiwan that I don’t fully understand:

Acronym What it means (I think) What the Acronym stands for (I think/guess)
1. WC Bathroom Water Closet (is this some British English?)

[/quote]

Yes and no. Americans will go red in the face if you mention ‘toilet’, so in absence of a bath, and when required to take a big, long, piss, or drop a bomb, many establishments will recourse to the ancient term ‘WC’ to denote a place you can relieve yourself without necessarily bathing.

LP is from Taiwanese lan pah, which means testicles.
PK is from “penalty kick”, meaning a one-on-one contest.
WC is indeed water closet. Meaning toilet. (Yes, I’m American and I proudly say “toilet”.)

Also:

LKK (lao ke ke) = old geezer
QQ, meaning chewy
3Q meaning “thank you”
3C = consumer electronics (computers, cameras, cell phones)
NG = “no good” (from the movie industry, used for designating a bad take)
K = to hit
A = to steal or otherwise acquire in an illicit manner

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It’s usually used like the English word “to mooch”.

DIY = get it yourself because we can’t be bothered to wait on you

Good thread.

T = Lesbian. As in: “She is a T”. Don’t know where it comes from.

Apparently it comes from “Tomboy”.

More like…
You: 你要炒飯嗎? (Nǐ yào​ chǎo​fàn​ ma​?)​​ :howyoudoin:
Her: 不要啦!你可以DIY! (Bù​yào​ lā​! Nǐ​ kě​yǐ​ DIY!) :hand:

DB please merge with this thread and bounce back.

I always use toilet. Why should I say ‘bathroom’, if I don’t want to take a shower or a bath? Also, I try to annoy Americans by speaking and writing British English, although I am not quite sure if this succeeds. Maybe it is more effectful by annoying Taiwanese, who don’t know, that there is a country called England (or Great Britain) where English is spoken :smiley:

What do you say if you want to go to the bathroom, by the way?

While we’re on the topic, I’d like to ask the origin of the term DM. In my previous job, people would always talk about getting DMs out.

I’d correct them by saying that no foreigner would understand what that meant and that they should use brochure, pamphlet, or some such term.

Is DM used anywhere outside of Taiwan? Does it stand for distributable/distributed material?

DM = Dungeon Master

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Had I known, I would have stayed on at the job. :smiley:

Why not just speak and write your natural way, whatever that may be, without any obnoxious effort to annoy anyone? :loco: People are more likely to react negatively to people who display obnoxious intent, as opposed to the style of the speech or writing per se. British English coming from friendly, socially well-adjusted individuals sounds quite lovely to my (semi-)American ears.

It’s direct mailing, I believe, and I think you’re right in terms of it being a very local abbreviation.

Yup, nobody uses it ANYWHERE outside of Taiwan. Except perhaps China and HK? (No exp there.)

CM is Commercial. (Perhaps this is Japanese instead of Taiwanese, though, as most people in TW use the Chinese.)

Can’t think of any others. I’d love for KY (Japanese for: Cannot read situations at all) to catch on in TW, there’d be so many times I could use it.

I know a few people around here who have uses for KY…

Well, of course I don’t really want to annoy anyone… Just in a funny way. Maybe not annoy, but rather tease.
But because I don’t have much contact with Americans, this is more a theoretical issue. But I really like to do it with Taiwanese, because I think their “foreign = America“ attitude is a little bit weird :wink:

Why do you think speaking English with a British accent annoys or teases Americans? :eh: Particularly those living abroad? :ponder:

mm - is a prostitute, or something related to prostitution.
mmt - momo tea, or ‘touch’ tea.