I know what the dictionary definition is. But the original poster’s language exchange partner is definitely coming on to her when he says we have ‘yuan2fen4’. He does not simply ‘enjoy her company’. This is the way it is almost always used on the street in Taiwan. I rarely if ever hear any other sense.
Gen x wu2yuan2 is a different usage.
Oh, and ‘yuan2fen4’ is not at all formal. The dictionary definition is way out of date.
Feiren I wasn’t even responding to your posts.
I was merely pointing out the definition to the original posters so that she can decide for herself whether or not her language partner really does like her or maybe she is making too much out of nothing.
不懂就不要裝懂 
Gretel, I might be wrong, but from the way you described the whole situation it does sound to me as if he might be interested in you. So perhaps it’s a good time to consider whether you might give things a try, or if you’re really not interested then letting him know so in a polite (face-saving) but clear way.
yuanfen means fate/predestined in general.
in certain contexts, it just may mean fate as in i had a car accident, i missed the bus kinda mundane crap.
in other contexts, it may take on a romantic meaning.
from you story and your situation, it is quite possible the dude may think the latter.
I submit that in Mandarin as spoken today in Taiwan, ‘yuan2fen4’ refers exclusively to romantic love. It does not mean ‘fate’ or ‘friendship’. If you don’t believe me, do a Google search and find out how people are actually using the word.
google.com/search?q=%E7%B7%A … rt=10&sa=N
The previous posters are relying on what Chinese-English dictionaries say. These dictionaries are badly out of date and often do not reflect contemporary usage.
[quote=“Feiren”]I submit that in Mandarin as spoken today in Taiwan, ‘yuan2fen4’ refers exclusively to romantic love. It does not mean ‘fate’ or ‘friendship’. If you don’t believe me, do a Google search and find out how people are actually using the word.
google.com/search?q=%E7%B7%A … rt=10&sa=N
The previous posters are relying on what Chinese-English dictionaries say. These dictionaries are badly out of date and often do not reflect contemporary usage.[/quote]
no. you only presume that we are using chinese-english dictionaries just like now how I presume you are an idiot for presuming that we presume.
Thanks people. It also occurred to me that I should just talk to him (duh)… This could be tricky though but I’ll see how things go anyway. 
I think Feiren is overdoing it a bit.
Sure, yuanfen is often used in relation to romance. Feiren is probably quite right that it is used in relation to romance more than anything else. But it ofen means other things. For example I recently caught up with some guys I haven’t seen for a few years at a wedding in Malaysia. No romance going on, but they observed that we had plenty of ‘yuanfen’, since we were able to meet up again despite living in different countries now.
But having said that, if a female has a guy asking about her love life and hinting they have ‘yuanfen’ then I think the meaning is pretty clear.
Yup. Which is why my money’s on Feiren’s explanation in this situation.
Yup. Which is why my money’s on Feiren’s explanation in this situation.[/quote]
and also shows you didn’t read the other posts carefully. there is a difference between exclusive meaning and multiple meanings, but which fit contextually.
I never said that 緣分 is not used romantically. I was giving a general definition so that the original poster can take it into context and think for herself. You are the one who refuses to recognise that there are other uses for 緣分 that are not outdated.
It appears to me that you can barely type in Chinese, so excuse me if I find it absurd that you are lecturing me, a native Taiwanese, on the correct usages of Chinese words simply because you did a search on Google.
:boo-hoo:
Just because I’m using pinyin so that more people on this forum can follow the discussion does not mean that I can’t type in Chinese. And besides, wouldn’t someone who is a native Mandarin speaker but illiterate in Chinese be your equal as an authority on Chinese usage if we granted your dubious premise?
You are appealingl to authority when you say:
I’m presenting evidence in the form of Google searches to support my argument that ‘yuan2fen4’ refers exclusively to romantic love in spoken Mandarin as used in Taiwan. Google searches are samples from a living corpus far broader than your own personal lexicon.
I’ve also had the experience of meeting a few non-native speakers of English whose knowledge of English far surpasses my own. While I’m not so immodest that I would claim that for my Mandarin, it just goes to show that being a native speaker doesn’t necessarily mean that you have absolute knowledge of your own language.
Yup. Which is why my money’s on Feiren’s explanation in this situation.[/quote]
and also shows you didn’t read the other posts carefully. there is a difference between exclusive meaning and multiple meanings, but which fit contextually.[/quote]
Bullshit. I read the first one, which asks a question. I read the second, which gave the wrong answer under the circumstances. I read the third – Feiren’s – which gave the correct one. What comes after is just fluff and backbiting.
Unless you really believe, that this guy is NOT trying his luck with the girl, in which case, I’d say you might have problems gauging human nature.
Show me ten foreigners that have better mastery and understanding of the Chinese language than the average locals and I’ll bite. 
No.
You do realize that as love is one of the most talked about topics on the Internet that your “findings” are a bit biased?
As for your “evidence” if you were to do a google search by phrasing it into a more context-specific form, you’ll find that the results would look much more different.
Yup. Which is why my money’s on Feiren’s explanation in this situation.[/quote]
and also shows you didn’t read the other posts carefully. there is a difference between exclusive meaning and multiple meanings, but which fit contextually.[/quote]
Bullshit. I read the first one, which asks a question. I read the second, which gave the wrong answer under the circumstances. I read the third – Feiren’s – which gave the correct one. What comes after is just fluff and backbiting.
Unless you really believe, that this guy is NOT trying his luck with the girl, in which case, I’d say you might have problems gauging human nature.[/quote]
Bullshit bullshit. Falcon’s answer was perfectly acceptable. As I said, Feiren’s answer was too narrow, but if you like condescending answer, or I supposed, you might argue, focused, then kudos to you.
Yup. Which is why my money’s on Feiren’s explanation in this situation.[/quote]
and also shows you didn’t read the other posts carefully. there is a difference between exclusive meaning and multiple meanings, but which fit contextually.[/quote]
Bullshit. I read the first one, which asks a question. I read the second, which gave the wrong answer under the circumstances. I read the third – Feiren’s – which gave the correct one. What comes after is just fluff and backbiting.
Unless you really believe, that this guy is NOT trying his luck with the girl, in which case, I’d say you might have problems gauging human nature.[/quote]
Bullshit bullshit. Falcon’s answer was perfectly acceptable. As I said, Feiren’s answer was too narrow, but if you like condescending answer, or I supposed, you might argue, focused, then kudos to you.[/quote]
Bullshit bullshit bullshit
Is your naivety really such that you think after reading the above quote that there’s even the slightest chance that the guy might NOT be seeking to broaden the scope of their relationship? Come on!
Read in context, people. I know the thread title, but use your common sense. What she’s really asking is: “What does this guy mean?” NOT “What COULD this guy mean?”
Feiren’s therefore right and the rest of you are wrong.
Noone is disputing the fact that 緣分 can be used romantically. I have never explicitly said that it cannot be used romantically. All the other posters have at some point expressed that the terms is usually used romantically and that they too agree that the guy was probably interested in the original poster.
The original poster asked a question and many of us tried to answer it to the best of our abilities. But some of you seems to think that just because we try to cover the ‘other uses’ for the term that we are somehow “missing the point”.
Jack Burton for instance, agreed that the language partner probably does like the girl yet he kept getting flamed just because he also tried to cover other areas where the word can be used. (which is legitimate since she did ask for other uses of the word)
In my case, I didn’t explicit agree or disagree on the issue, I simply trust that given all the information about the word 緣分 and its various uses, she can take everything into account and decide for herself.
I wasn’t literally asking people to find 10 people around the world who are Chinese experts… boggle
And IMO, Feiren did it best. Which was my point. He saw accurately where she was coming from and answered her question. The rest of you got bogged down in pedantry and probably ended up leaving her more confused than before. Funny as hell though. Thanks for the chuckles. 
BTW, arguing is not flaming, laddie. Get a grip.
Despite the discussions on the various uses of the word, the common consensus has always been the same - that the language partner probably likes her. I don’t see how she can get confused.
That’s only because Feiren kept arguing with people who has broader definitions than his own.
You’re welcome. 