After a few minutes, another friend sat down and he asked her what it meant. She answered immediately that it meant “fūfù” 夫妇 (which he also didn’t understand on first hearing, probably for acoustic reasons though). According to her, it’s a very formal, written way of saying “husband and wife.” If you look at the characters individually, you find that 伉 means “husband and wife” and 俪 also means “husband and wife” (although I suspect 伉 really means “husband” more than “wife”).

I just always think it’s interesting when I come across whole characters that are still in use that are mysterious to Chinese people. I wonder whether my friend’s wife would have known if she’d attended.

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xuétóu 噱头

If you click on the hanzi above you’ll be taken to MDBG where you see that it’s more like “antics” or “shenanigans” than stunts that a stuntman would do. That’s fine. The definition seemed appropriate enough.

The problem was, no one in the room of about eight Chinese university students knew how to pronounce the first character: 噱. Even one student who got a 98 percent (giving him the highest grade possible) on the Mandarin Test (pǔtōnghuà cèshì 普通话测试, discussed briefly here) didn’t know how to pronounce it.

Finally, someone looked it up in a cell phone or electronic dictionary that had pinyin and announced it was “xue2.” I guess it’s such an obscure character that it doesn’t really belong on David Moser’s list of common yet hard Hanzi. But still, good thing pinyin exists. Otherwise, they would have had méi bànfǎ 没办法 to find out how to say it.

According to MDBG, when it’s by itself, 噱 should be pronounced “jue2,” but Nciku lists it as “xue2″ in isolation as well as in compounds. Can anyone confirm which is correct?

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• Nciku.com – My Review
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wúnài 无奈

As you can see from the two dictionary links, wúnài 无奈 is sometimes translated as “helpless” or “without choice.” That fits with this situation in which I heard it used recently:

Story 1

I went with a student to a Guangzhou radio station. We were each supposed to record a short interview for some show about campus life or something. After I recorded my interview, the station personnel told the student that they didn’t have time for her interview that day. She’d have to come back some other day. As we were leaving I told her how sorry I was that she’d spent over an hour on the bus getting to the station, and even ditched her afternoon class but didn’t do a thing. She said:

wǒ hěn wúnài 我很无奈

I guess that should be translated as, “There’s nothing I can do about it” or maybe “I feel helpless,” right? I kind of get the feeling that it has the connotation of “Yeah, this is bad but there’s nothing I can do about it.” At least that’s how I try to connect this story with the next one:

Story 2

Some friends and I were watching the semi-finals of the Guangzhou Open (not a huge tournament on the pro circuit) a few weekends ago and some sports journalism majors from Guangzhou Sports University sat with us. They started talking to us and one of the topics of conversation (that they brought up, mind you) was the crowd of xiǎoxuéshēng 小学生, all wearing matching hats, who had been bused in for the first match. The guy told us the kids don’t know (or care) anything about tennis. The organizers just wanted the bleachers to look full for the TV cameras. I nodded in understanding and the guy said:

hěn wúnài, shì ba? 很无奈是吧?

I tried to clarify with him “What is wúnài? This situation? Your feelings? My feelings?” But, as so often happens to me, the water just got muddier and, in the end, I gave up trying to get him to explain what he meant.

I’m constantly stumped when students ask me in class how to say “wúnài” in English. I usually just tell them to go with “helpless” but I don’t know if that’s the best translation, and I don’t know how it would apply to the second story. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or guidance, please comment away.

In closing, here’s the first time I ever heard the word:

[See original post to listen to audio]

(from Bù de bú ài 不得不爱 by 潘玮柏, lyrics here)

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Judging from the great success of the previous episode (just LOOK at the fruits of our labor!), I’m confident this student will not have suffered in vain (see what fun the Chinese could have if they too had a future perfect tense!).

Inspirational Story

A student suddenly started choking in my class. So I stopped everything and pointed straight at the poor girl and said, “Are you ok?” No, of course I didn’t say that. Why would I put my student’s well-being above a teachable moment? I pointed at her and asked the class, “How do you say that in English?”

Before I get sued for negligence or abuse or excessive pointing let me just say she was fine withing a few seconds. It was just a matter of a little kǒushuǐ 口水 going down the wrong guǎnzi 管子, or so I thought.

I wrote “choke” on the board. Then, as typically happens, a blizzard of Chinese sprang forth as the students debated and “bu shi” bashed each other over which hanzi to write next to the English word in their notes. I just stood in awe for a few seconds and then asked directly how to say it in Chinese.

Qiàng 呛, yē 噎, and even késou 咳嗽 each had advocates until the choking girl herself raised her hands and silenced the masses and then did sit down and spake to the multitude saying:

“Shànghuǒ 上火.”

An “Ooohhhh” rose up from the crowd and the debate was finished.

New Definition Needed

An irresponsibly literal translation of those two characters yields, “on fire.” But look at the definitions in the dictionaries (click the icons):

shànghuǒ 上火

You’ll see that they both disappointingly have “get angry” as the only definition. However, the sentence examples in nciku start to approach what we want.

I’m constantly asked, “Teacher how to say in English, ‘I don’t like fried dumplings because they will make you shànghuǒ’?” I’m sure they’re not talking about jiaozi rage. It’s some sort of Chinese medical philosophy thing that I don’t know how to translate well. In a pinch, I usually go with, “Just say ‘will give you a sore throat’.” But now that I’ve seen shànghuǒ induce choking, I’m having to re-think my advice.

Any suggestions for a better translation of shànghuǒ 上火?

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• Stump the Laowai: shuǎlài 耍赖
• Stump the Laowai: wúnài 无奈
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• Hey, That’s Cheating! OK?

shuǎlài 耍赖

(Click icons to look it up in different online dictionaries.)

Can anyone give a better definition and preferably an example situation (not just a sentence) where this word would be appropriate? The sentence examples at Nciku aren’t particularly helpful, especially not:

tā gǎn shuǎlài, wǒ gēn tā méi wán! 他敢耍赖，我跟他没完！

He dares to shuǎlài, I’m not going to play with him!

Ok, so we know it’s one of those adjectival verbs, but what does it mean?!

The example my student gave me today was:

S: You lend me a pen. Then you ask for it back and I say I never borrowed it. That’s shuǎlài.

Me: Ok, so it’s like lying?

S: No. It’s bāoyì 褒义.

Me: Oh really?

And then the “bú shì” bashing started as her classmates shouted that she was wrong and it’s definitely biǎnyì 贬义. Immediately, the original student’s genetic bargaining autopilot took over and she declared it zhōngxìng 中性.

I’d love to start using shuǎlài 耍赖, but I don’t dare until someone explains it better. Anyone?

See also:

• A Bit about Bù 不
• Four Little Stars
• Stump the Laowai: shànghuǒ 上火
• Stump the Laowai: wúnài 无奈
• Parents Hurt Rather Than Love Their Children

The following is inspired by (read: directly stolen from) David Moser’s article “The ‘Invisible’ Writing on the Wall.”

How Do You Write the Hanzi for “guànzi” (tin can)?

The correct answer is 罐子. Oh believe me, I can’t write that. But the goal isn’t to stump me (that would be way to easy). The point Moser makes is many Chinese don’t know how to write that first character.

I know, there are commonly misspelled words in English too. I’m not ranting against the Chinese language (this time).

Just for fun, here’s Moser’s list of common hanzi characters that he found Chinese adults with advanced degrees often had trouble writing (not meant to be complete or conclusive):

1. guànzi 罐子 (tin can)
2. yàoshi 钥匙 (key)
3. qī 漆 (paint)
4. dǎ pēntì 打喷嚔 (sneeze)
5. lǎoshǔ 老鼠 (mouse)
6. sàozhou 扫帚 (broom)
7. gēbozhǒu 胳膊肘 (elbow)
8. zhòuwén 皱纹 (wrinkle)
9. áizhèng 癌症 (cancer)
10. ménkǎn 门槛 (threshold)
11. qí 鳍 (fin)
12. chǐrǔ 耻辱 (shame)
13. xǐdícáo 洗涤槽 (kitchen sink)
14. Lúndūn 伦敦 (London)

How many out of 14 did you know how to write?

How many did your Chinese friend’s get correct?

Tell us some scores in the comments. I’ll start.

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As you’re making your bàinián 拜年 tour, and you find yourself face to face with countless relatives of your Chinese friends, perhaps you’ve gotten tired of the same old conversation topics you’re ready to branch out. Well you’re in luck! Here’s a game you can play to impress your friends and discourage your enemies.

How do you say “Velcro” in Chinese?

Just find some velcro (on a shoe, a bag, a pocket) and point to it and ask your Chinese friends “zhège dōngxi zěnme shuō?” 这个东西怎么说 and see what they say. Chances are they won’t know.

It’s not that they don’t know what it is. The Chinese just don’t seem to know the Chinese word for velcro. The best I can find on the internet is “nylon buckle” (nílóng dākòu 尼龙搭扣). I think it’s amazing that something so common doesn’t have a commonly-known name in Chinese. I haven’t gone to shoe shops and asked the workers yet but I suspect if anyone would know, they would.

How do you say “boombox” in Chinese?

You’ll need another visual aid for this one.

(image source)

I first discovered this one in my English class. Many teachers at my college (Chinese and foreign) bring boomboxes to class for listening comprehension exercises. When a colleague walked into my classroom I asked my students “What do you call this in English?” They didn’t know. “How about in Chinese?” They still didn’t know. Yet, they see them everyday! The closest I’ve gotten to an answer is “noise box” (zàoyīn hé 噪音盒) but I’m not sure how widely-used that is. It’s not just a portable CD player because it has speakers.

Any Winners?

If you play “Stump the Chinese” this year and you happen to learn how they really say “velcro” or “boombox,” please let us know.

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