死就是死

"不得好死" is a very common curse.

But strictly speaking, 死就是死, 管他个好死还是坏死呢?

As long as one lives, there is hope, be it 生不如死 or not. Once dead, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, for that person anymore.

In that light, maybe "祝你早死" would be a better malediction as compared to "不得好死" and "生不如死", for (1) the other two means letting the person suffer, that's not very nice, and (2) there's a "祝" there oh, which is polite.

当然，以上只是建议，没有恶意，请不要(太)在意。

A baker's dozen

A dozen == 12
A baker's dozen == 13

Why?

It is believed that this came from medieval times, when bread was sold by weight. If bakers were found to have sold "underweight" bread, they would be punished. So when people buy a dozen, they would give another loaf just in case.

Another theory is that bakers would charge vendors 13 loaves for the price of 12, making it something like a wholesale price, so the vendors can make a profit on their side.

The difference between 刹那 and 霎时

Both are nouns, and both means a super short time frame.

Here are their differences-


刹那
= 一瞬间. aka 刹时
sentence example: 觉得他满身灰尘的后影，刹时高大了... ...
刹 is pronounced chà and not shà
"刹那"可作壮语，也能作宾语
"刹那" 可说成 "一刹那"


霎时
= 一会儿. aka 霎时间
sentence example: 小陈脸色霎时变得苍白。
霎 is pronounced shà and not sà
"霎时" 只能作壮语，不能作宾语
"霎时" 不可说成 "一霎时"

听雨

在家里，我不是一个有事没事会每分每秒盯着窗外看外头是怎么样的天气来着的人。

所以当外面下起雨时，我不是靠看，而是靠听出来的。几乎每一次我喊"下雨了！"时，老爸老妈都未察觉外面的天其实已经变了。有时他们还不信呢。真是一个下，一个听，一个准。

厉害吧。

我是一个睡眠蛮浅，又难轻易入睡的人。晚上碰到下雨时，简直是被听醒的。

现在时间凌晨一点半。

不厉害了吧。

听个屁啊，听雨。我要睡觉，呜呜。

会面、会见、会晤、会谈 - 会不会？

Was reading a news article and came across these 4 terms all in the same article:　会面、会见、会晤、会谈

So what's the difference between them?

Checked the dictionary, googled a little, and the results are as per the below.

会面
解释： 见面
英语： meet
同义词： 会见、会晤


会谈
解释： 双方或多方共同进行的商谈
英语： talks; conversation; negotiation
同义词： 商谈、座谈
More info:
   - 双方或多方就某些重大的政治、经济、文化、军事问题，以及其他共同关心的问题交换意见
   - 一般说来内容较为正式，政治性或专业性较强


会见
解释： 跟别人相见
英语： meet with
同义词： 会晤、会面
More info:
   - 一般适用于普通人之间的见面
   - 书面语用的也比较多
seems like there's further classification:
   - 身份高的人士会见身份低的 / 主人会见客人： 一般称为接见或召见
   - 身份低的人士会见身份高的 / 客人会见主人： 一般称为拜会或拜见
 

会晤
解释： 相见,会面晤谈
英语： meet
同义词： 会面、会见、见面
More info:
   - 国家最高领导人之间的见面

AA

Following the BAE acronym, here's another one: AA.

Overheard in the MRT the other day, I asked the Sis, "Eh, test you, what's AA? I heard them saying, 'Yeah, he thinks he very AA one lor, can't stand him.'"

The Sis also dunno, so she went to test her friends. They came back saying that's a common one, AA == attract attention.

I'm either a mountain turtle, or old age is catching up, or both. Cos when I think of AA, the first thing that comes to mind is... double A battery.

Checking the urban dictionary shows a lot of other things that AA can stand for: Alcoholic Anonymous, African American, the bra size for women that don't need bras, and etc. But guess these are not as applicable here as "attract attention".


Edit: following a conversation with a friend on this, she said her mom uses this to mean "split the bill", as in, in a restaurant and on way to settle the bill, "Let's do AA." For the record, this occurred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

#funnyfails

Shared by Teacher during class:

There was this person who doesn't speak Chinese. Let's call him A. He went to visit this Chinese couple with a friend who speaks Chinese. Let's call this friend T.

At the door, the Chinese couple greeted A and T. Being the polite person A is, he told the Chinese man (let's call this guy M), "Your wife is very pretty." T proceeds to help with interpretating.

T: 你的太太很漂亮。

M smiles at A: 哪里哪里。

T turns to A: Where? Where?

A blinks: ... Everywhere! From head to toe.

兄 and 哥

In English, the word "brother" can mean either an elder brother, or the younger brother.

In Chinese, elder brother is "哥哥", while younger brother is "弟弟".

In Japanese, elder brother is "兄", while younger brother is "弟".


So teacher was sharing an incident in her other class where she teaches Chinese.

One of her students, a Japanese, was asked to write "elder brother" in Chinese. Because Chinese and Japanese had words to differentiate the elder from the younger brother, unlike English, the student had no problems understanding what was needed. The thing she couldn't do was remembering the words for "elder brother" in Chinese.

And so in the end she wrote... "兄兄".

Interlingual and Intersemiotic Translation

A picture of interlingual translation and intersemiotic translation together.

Lucky it does not come with a real cockroach pic.

肮脏 vs 脏

During lesson one day, teacher (from China) was sharing with us some "language shocks" she had when she first came to Singapore.

One of them was hearing how locals use the words "肮脏". Singaporeans use "肮脏" to describe something as being dirty, like, "This table is very dirty." A very normal situation in life, no biggies.

To them though, in China, "肮脏" is used to describe a person's character. It's a very very negative description. It has this meaning: "比喻卑鄙、丑恶;道义上应受指责". One definitely does not want to be described as "肮脏".

Imagine her shock when she heard us say, "这个桌子很肮脏。"

She went on to ask a fellow classmate who's from China how she felt when she first heard that sentence.

And the classmate's reply was, "我觉得那个桌子好可怜。" LOL

So how do they say a table's dirty in China? Just "脏" will do, like, "这个桌子很脏。"

False Friends - 祭

For people who know Chinese, you'll know the word 祭 is related to rites, rituals, sacrifices. It has not so positive connotations.

For people who know Japanese, you'll know the word 祭 is related to festivals. It has very positive connotations.

So if your colleague goes to Japan, buys back a banner with the word 祭 to hang as decoration in the office cubicle in an office with more Chinese than Japanese, maybe it's good to advice said colleague to take it down. XD