xiaojie xiansheng
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thanks @tando, you’re the best!
Interesting, I seem to recall this had a negative connotation on the mainland (like, a prostitute)
It has a negative connotation in China, but not in Taiwan, where it’s normal, common, and expected.
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Is mei nu ever acceptable, or is it too flirty? What if I’m trying to flirt!?
It might sound like you say xiaojie in China.
Ah, flirty may be more proper description as you say.
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Good to know!
So, if I try to chat up a pretty girl in a cafe an Ikea restaurant, mei nu is a complement or that will get me slapped? I suppose I could try it and amuse Forumosa with the results.
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I’m trying to find a good translation for “who cares?”. Context is when giving an introduction, the writer/speaker wants to answer the “who cares?” question to show their reader/listener that the following content is important. Justification.
Google gives this, it looks OK but I don’t know: 谁在乎 Shéi zàihū
This video is the wrong connotation, seems like when someone is annoyed or brushing something off, so not this:
Any ideas of a good way to communicate this in Mandarin?
Still not quite getting the context here.
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I’m putting together a lecture on lecture introductions, here are some examples of similar contexts:
those two words are easy to put on a slide to convey my meaning, but I’m not sure if it will be conveyed clearly enough so a little Mandarin might go a long way…
OK, I get it. 誰在乎 may sound a little jarring there. How about 有人在乎嗎?
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You seem like a reasonable guy, if you think it works I’ll take it. Can’t be worse than that girl in the video!
Or this may be part of an elaborate practical joke. 
Actually, another possibility would be keeping the 誰在乎 but softening it with a 呢, i.e. 誰在乎呢？
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Checking the pronunciation (because I still can’t read Chinese, makes it look like you’re not telling me bad words. Also, having bad Mandarin is now a teaching tactic
That rare accurate Google Translate translation.
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有人在乎嗎
誰在乎呢
I like them both, but I think I’ll err on the side of the softer one, which is actually what Google gave me before I posted but with the ‘ne’ added on
I’ve had an assistant check my other translations, which were easier, and a few of them Google was not my friend…
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I doge the day we did that
Yes, you doge.
How about an accurate translation for ‘activating background schemata’? Maybe I should just paraphrase as ‘brain warmup’ 
I’m thinking "有什麼重要？“ which is different but makes the point I think.
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