Just wondering if anyone else knew some interesting Chinese idioms or slang whose literal translations are puzzling. Here’s a few that I found out in my brief time here:
Wang Ba Dan: whose literal translation would be “King 8 Egg”, apparently means something like “asshole” or “piece of shit”…I’d love to know the story behind this one.
Er Bai Wu: literal translation “250”, is another kind of insult…but it has to be “er” and not “liang”
GongGongQiChe: usually means a “public bus”, but is also used as a name to call prostitutes or slutty women. This seems logical, though…since the “whole town is getting a ride”.
And I don’t know if this should be considered an idiom…but I’ll never quite understand how “DongXi” (east west) came to mean “things”
I’m not good at writting phonetic Chinese so bear with me.
In Chinese they have the expression “Speak of the devil”, too. It’s “shwa Cao Cao, Cao Cao Dao” = “Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao comes” Cao Cao being one of the more famous people from the romance of the three kingdom books, videogames, and real life history…hehe
I know a few other ones but dont’ want to share them…because they make me special! damn it. :loco:
In the dictionary it says ‘persistant efforts can acheive difficult things’ but apparantley the ‘rubbing of the batton’ involved allows it to be used to talk about a fella who gets his oats more than regularly. In fact so much so that his once substantial girth has been worn down due to friction. :s
BTW as for chau fan, I have been using that as an explaination when things with my university aged students have gone ‘off topic’. It gets embarassing when they don’t understand that slang. (I think it must be still quite new).
Apparently it’s well-enough established that the marketers of Bridget Jones 2 feel OK about using it in the trailer for said film…
I learnt a nice bit of slang yesterday actually - apparently, at least amongst the young go-getters of Taida, getting one’s “hao ren ka” (nice guy card) is jocular slang for getting rejected, from the apparently universal knockback, “You’re such a nice guy”.
大姨媽 (literally “great aunt”) is another good one. It is local slang used to refer to a woman’s period. Could be funny when you want to say your aunt is coming (我大姨媽來了﹗) and it’s interpreted as something else …
That’s kind of cute - not sure if you realize that almost exactly the same situation exists in English… I think it’s Aunt Flo (har har), but it can just be “Aunty” coming to visit.
This one is for Cantonese - not sure if it exists in Mandarin. I always thought it was funny that to express disbelief one phrase used is “your head” (neige tou) whereas of course the equivalent in English is “my foot”.
wang3ba1 王八 is the venacular expression of “turtle.” In ancient China, a prostitute’s husband was regulated to wear green clothing. In this way, a guy cheated by his wife was/is often ridiculed as “dai4lv4mao4 戴綠帽 (wearing a green hat).” Since a turtle is green, it becomes the icon of a man whose wife has affairs.
Therefor, wangba dan = a turtle’s egg = son of bitch / bastard
According to Ciyuan, a big Chinese dictionary with word origins, originally DongXi meant “space” synecdochically. Later on, goods coming from different places were also called DongXi.
Anyone use slang or idioms? Please share and be sure to let us know the tones. Here are a few to get us going.
Slang:
boba (1,4) big breasted woman
gui mao (1,2) Lit: turtle hair= a person who is picky, critical. The kind of person that would look hard to find a hair on the shell of a turtle
han jian (4,1) In the past used to refer to a person who betrayed china, now refers to someone who betrays a friend
hong pa(1,1) house party
hua chi(1,1) Lit:flower idiot= a girl who is boy crazy
diao kai zi(4,3,N)To go fishing for a rich husband, gold digger
Kai zi(3,N) sugar daddy
gu gou(3,1) butt crack, plumber’s butt
xi er duo(3,3,1) Lit: wash ears= listen to music
zhi ma(1,2) Lit: sesame seeds= very troublesome
