You’re a bloody language Nazi! Who else refuses to use the word “typhoon”?[/quote]
You’re a big bully. I’m going into my bungalow for a nice cuppa char and I’m not coming out until you’ve gone. :raspberry:
I had more options, but the last few didn’t show up, which seems to have happened with the last poll as well.
Anyway, from reading this forum, it seems to me that those male foreigners who are most likely to use “xiaojie” in an English-language conversation/writing and those that are also most likely to go off on long, semi-poetic odes to the beauty of the Taiwanese female form. But I can’t seem to fit that into a poll, so it will just have to remain conjecture on my part.
[quote=“Poagao”]I had more options, but the last few didn’t show up, which seems to have happened with the last poll as well. [/quote]You have to make sure you press “add option” (or whatever it says) for each one. You should have a blank one when you’ve finished.
I don’t use xiaojie, but I do often use Chinese words in English conversations where I’m talking about something that really doesn’t have an adequate English word to describe it. I use “shuijiao” instead of “dumpling,” for example (“dumpling,” for me, evokes images of doughy blobs floating in stews as opposed to the Chinese food item).
Mmmmm. Mmmmmm. I wish I could get me some beef suet here so I could make some proper dumplings.
And actually, I suppose I DO use the X-term, but I only misuse it as a derogatory slur, and I only ever prefix with “fucking,” “damn,” “stupid,” or somesuch. Does that still count? I mean, it’s usual use is not as a curse word, so I should be let off, I think.
I’ll use “xiaojie” when talking to “in-group” people in Taiwan or whom I know from Taiwan (which for me means English speaking people who also speak Chinese to a fair extent). In that kind of situation, “xiaojie” usually is slightly derogatory – the kind of bleached-blond, high-heeled, mini-skirted, overly made-up Taiwanese girl with too much money and free time, accompanied by a lapdog on a leash or in her handbag and trailed by a slightly harried but arrogant looking older man who is usually no prizewinner by his looks.
Other words we would typically mix into English with this group are (with their ordinary meanings, for the most part): shuijiao, guotie, zongzi (probably other food terms as well), qing jia, lihai, baituo, baibai, laoban, lizhang, suozhang, (probably other titles of officials or people), yuanfen, and probably a lot more I can’t think of just now. These seem to be used because even if there’s a close English near equivalent, the English just doesn’t adequately cover the full nuance of meaning in Taiwan in my mind, and since the person I’m talking to knows what this term means from its original context in Chinese, it’s easier to use it in Chinese. Also of course linguistically it gives us the cachet of belonging to the in-group of people who “fit in” (a lot of language choice and code-switching options have to do with group membership and belonging).
I can’t even say why but it kind of bugs me when someone fixates on one or two Chinese words and tries using it in every possible English conversation. Had a customer once that used “Ma Fan” in just about every other sentence - drove me batty. Just one of my quirks I guess.