Taiwanese media sometimes coin new Chinese phrases which mix with Taiwanese or Japanese. Some examples:
When I traveled in China, one Chinese mainlander asked me their meaning. It was a little bit hard for me to explain their meaning if they were not in the right context.
How do you learn those new-coined phrases? Or you just skip them to learn standardized Chinese?
八卦is from Cantonese. If you know someone speak cantonese, you can ask them.
A lot of mainlander love to ask me about this kind of terms, cause they hear them on TV show. Chinese is a interesting language that the written form and spoken language were not that close in the past. But now a days lots of people try to write down what they use orally every. that’s why you can see these strange words.
I always thought it came from the sound of the word: “bagua” (people gossiping sound like they’re saying “bagua bagua bagua”)!
Guess I was wrong.
I like backu for reverse, which has come from English via Japan. I think congolee for concrete is likewise English via Japan.
HG
[quote=“DoD”]八卦is from Cantonese. If you know someone speak cantonese, you can ask them.
A lot of mainlander love to ask me about this kind of terms, cause they hear them on TV show. Chinese is a interesting language that the written form and spoken language were not that close in the past. But now a days lots of people try to write down what they use orally every. that’s why you can see these strange words.[/quote]
That’s one problem I encountered recently. I wrote email to my friends, they told me that my writing was really different from my speaking.
I don’t know if I should write articles in style or just simply write what I say.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I like backu for reverse, which has come from English via Japan. I think congolee for concrete is likewise English via Japan.
HG[/quote]
Those phrases are Taiwanese, not Mandarin, I think.
It is interesting to see languages evolve but it is hard to trace the process of language evolution.
Do we have good Chinese etymology dictionary?
Sorry, you;re right, they are taiwanese, but then again they also appear in Taiwanese gou yu (that’s not a typo on the pinyin!).
HG
I always thought it came from the sound of the word: “bagua” (people gossiping sound like they’re saying “bagua bagua bagua”)!
Guess I was wrong.[/quote]
DoD is correct. 八卦 is from Cantonese. With the popularity of Hong Kong TV shows and movies, some Cantonese words have made it into Mandarin. 二奶 or 包二奶 should be a couple of new words that are intimately familiar to many Taiwanese doing business on the mainland.
歐巴桑 & 歐吉桑 – two very common terms from Japanese, but strictly limited to Taiwan.
I think “無厘頭” is from Cantonese and it meaning is similar to KUSO which means nonsensical but funny.
I think nowadays teenagers use KUSO frequnetly, but the usage of “無厘頭” belongs to my generation.
Taiwanese language mixed with many other languages.
Especially mixed with the japanese.
I think it relates to the youth’s caziness about japanse culture.
da ren,jiao zhu,zhai ji bian…etc.
Local countries langauge mixed with other languages is common to see .
It is not only in Taiwan.
Surely this phenomena applies to different languages.(Except dead languages)
Is it called “borrowing?” I am not a linguist nor English major. Am I right?
I try to recall how I learn new-coined Mandanrin phrases, try to figure out my learning strategy so I can share with Chinese learners. But it is difficult for me to analyze how I gained my native language.
(The answer is the cliché that psychologists like to say, Nature v.s. Environment)
But I think over how I learn English, it is probably the same.
(Even though some neuroscientific researches point out they are not the same process.)
In term of learning second language, I think it is easier for me to learn new words or phrases if I understand their cultural meanings or historical/social context.
can you post the pinyn (any kind) for us stupid people to laugh too?
ya you tell em bro. 
I been in taiwan for decades and i cant hardly read more then ten words in chinese (shame on me i know) even tho i can speak it fluently (high school level)