师父 vs 师傅

What's the difference between 师父 and 师傅, other than how it's written?

师父
1) can also mean 师傅
2) a honorific title for monks, nuns, and priests

师傅
1) the teachers who impart their profession skills to others
2) a honorific title for people who are skilled in their profession, eg 厨师傅(chef) 木匠师傅(carpenter)

In olden times, the people/disciples who learn from 师傅s usually start learning when they were very young. The 师傅s' ages thus were around the same as the disciples' fathers. Added to that was the fact that the disciples treated the 师傅s with respect akin to the respect they gave their own fathers, plus usually the 师傅s were male, which often resulted in 师傅 being written as 师父, and people in general accepted this.

Nowadays, though, 师傅s are not necessarily someone as old as the student's father, and might also be a female, so to address a teacher, using 师傅 would be more appropriate.

On the other hand, using 师父 to address a teacher would sound more affectionate, as there is an underlying meaning of 师父=父.

Can one use 师母 instead of 师父 to address a female teacher then?

In this day and age, the term has evolved to include female teachers, though it is more commonly understood that 师母 == 师父's wife.

The meaning of 666

In terms of Chinese, 666 is an internet slang that means something along the lines of "good job", "well done".

In most parts of China, “溜”, pronounced "liu", means "good at doing something", and the number 6 is also pronounced "liu" in Chinese, and that's how it came about.

This slang was first used in online games, likely MMORPG games, before it became widely used. Which is logical when you think on it, as those who do play online games would know that typing fast often saves lives. Typing "666" is definitely faster than typing the same in Chinese using the QWERTY keyboard - imagine wasting time choosing the correct word in the midst of battle!

Increasing the number of sixes, I guess, would mean deepening the degree of the praise, similar to "!" versus "!!!!".

AA制, AB制, and AO制

Remember the AA post previously?

Apparently it's also used in China to mean going Dutch. They call it "AA制" or "AA treat", where "AA" means "Algebraic Average".

From this comes another one: "AB制", or "AB treat".

This has become a fad among young people, where males would choose to pay a bigger slice of the bill, and the remainder would be paid by the females dining with them.

What about the male paying all for the female?

Yup, that would be the "AO制". The "O" here stands for zero, because the female basically paid zero cents.

Time to go to...

You know that cliché where it is claimed that there are 50 Eskimo words for snow, leading to the argument that "language embodies different local concerns in different areas of the world"?

In Chinese, there are many different ways of saying "going to the toilet", like:

上厕所 - shàng cè suǒ
去方便 - qù fāng biàn
如厕 - rú cè
更衣 - gēng yī
解手 - jiě shǒu
出恭 - chū gōng
净手 - jìng shǒu
撇条 - piě tiáo
解溲 - jiě sōu

Does that embody some particular concern for going to the toilet for this culture?

Just saying. :p

The difference between 王室 and 皇室

王室 and 皇室 both mean the royal family, so what's the difference?

If the monarch is the king/queen kind - the more western type - use 王室. Cos 国王.

If the monarch is the emperor kind - the more eastern type - use 皇室. Cos 皇帝.

Word of the day - 外挂

Learned a new word in HiNative.com.

Someone asked, "What does 外挂 mean?"

The chrome extension dictionary explained the word as
1) attached externally (eg, fuel tank)
2) plug-in
3) add-on
4) special software used to cheat in an online game

Both answers given in HiNative were (4). Which I guess when without context, 外挂 is more popularly known as something that people use to cheat when playing online games.

One helpful person further went on to give an example sentence “像开了外挂一样” - which was explained as when describing someone using this sentence, means that person's life and etc is very smooth sailing, so smooth sailing to the point that it's easy to make other people jealous.

The difference between 立刻 and 顿时

A classmate whatsapped the group asking, what's the difference between 立刻 and 顿时?

You know what - I dunno, so I googled.


立刻
EN: right away; immediately
CN: 表示紧接着某个时候，马上
Sentence1: 请同学们立刻回到教室去。
Sentence2: 老师一进来，教室里立刻安静了。

顿时
EN: suddenly; at once
CN: 很快地；一下子
Sentence1: 听到这个好消息，各种欢呼声顿时在全程响起。
Sentence2: 她看到他非常高兴，顿时完全忘记了之前的烦恼。

"两者都有在很短的时间内动作很快地开始或结束的意思，但是顿时只用于描述过去发生的事情，立刻咩有此限度，顿时不能用于祈使句，立刻可以。"


Hmmm. So the biggest difference is in "suddenly" vs "immediately".

Another person within the group replied with an answer that I think is so much better that the above: 立刻通常指马上去执行一个行动。顿时是指一个时间点，像突然间。eg: 顿时恍然大悟。

So nice to have such awesome classmates.

乖乖

When we use 乖乖, it's often in this way, "乖乖啊，不然打你屁股。"

Or, as a noun, "我的小乖乖，有没有想我啊？"

But did you know, other than the above, it can also be used as an interjection (叹词)?

"外面好冷啊， 乖乖，冻死我啦！" - akin to "OMG", "wow", and the such.

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"

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

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".

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。"

The difference between 兵 and 卒

兵 and 卒 both mean "soldier". But what is their difference?

From what I can piece together, the origin of 兵 came from weaponry (兵器). So originally, 兵 does not mean "soldier". 卒 came from 步卒, like, foot soldiers.

Eventually, it seems, 兵 would refer to soldiers that go to war, and 卒 would refer to soldiers stationed at garrisons and the like.

Some said nowadays both 兵 and 卒 mean "soldier". But can they be used interchangeably? I'm not sure, to be honest. What I know is, now, 兵 can adequately be used for "soldier", and it's the term used in everyday life, in conversations, news, and the such, while I've rarely heard 卒 being used, with Chinese chess (and idioms and the such) being the exception.

When do you use what? 信上/信里 and 写上/写下

When learning a new language, or when reading/writing something, are you often stuck at trying to understand what something means, or often wonder whether what you've wrote is correct, and hope someone can answer your doubts and questions?

You might want to try out HiNative, a global Q&A platform where you can ask people any questions on language, culture, and/or travel related. It also has an app, but because I have problems logging in via Lang-8, I uninstalled it. (Disclaimer: while I admit it's helpful, do note that not all answers are ... correct / what you expect.)

In HiNative, I came across this question from someone: "How do you say this in Simplified Chinese (China)? write your name on the letter"

Various people replied, including me, and the answers were roughly the same:
1. 在信上写上你的名字。
2. 在信里写下你的名字
3. 在信上写下你的名字
4. 在信里写上你的名字
5. 在信上写你的名字

As you can see from the above, the two major differences were "信上" vs. "信里" and "写上" vs. "写下", with the last omitting "上/下" altogether.

I can't find anything on "信上" vs. "信里", but searching for "写上" vs. "写下" returned a result from HiNative:

“写上”的语气强硬一点，一般是必须要写的东西，比如
老师对学生说：“作业本请写上名字。”
“写下”可以理解为语气稍微委婉一点，比如出去玩之后，老师对学生说：“写下你们的感受。”
不过虽然“写下”的语气委婉一点，也并不代表就可以随便拒绝。

As the person who wrote the above mentioned, it's interesting how we just use the words and never really thought about their differences. And when someone asks about it, we either don't know the difference, or find it so hard to explain it clearly.

The origin of "小王"

And so the other day while chatting with a friend, we came to the topic of 3rd parties in a marriage/relationship. The now-common term "小三" is used to refer to these 3rd parties, because, well, "三" equals to the number 3.

And when "小三" comes up in a conversion, I would automatically think of a woman, ie, the 3rd party is a female. Does this "小三" also refer to the male 3rd party? Apparently not.

Male 3rd parties are referred to as "小王". When I first learnt of it, my first thought was, "What? Prince?? Serious???" Both are 3rd parties, but the female version has such obvious negative connotations - a direct "小三" - while the male version is the opposite? It even somehow sounds cool?

But I was mistaken. The origin of the term came to be by adding a stroke to "三" - the stroke being a direct reference to a certain part of the male anatomy. Thus the male "小三" became "小王". And coincidence or not, "小王" also has the connotation of "male".

Ah, people's creativity and the wonders of language.

For those who know Chinese, here's an article from 蘋果日報 on this topic: 《「多一根」 男小三新稱「小王」》