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.

Zombie Fans

"Zombie fans" is one of those terms which has multiple meanings.

It can mean
1) People who love all things related to zombies
2) People who are fans of "The Walking Dead"
3) Fake followers on social media

The third is a straight translation from the Chinese term "僵尸粉", a term that originated from the internet, as one can see from what it means.

It is said that people even used zombie fans to "earn money" - they created fake accounts and followed a particular person, and after some time, starts to decrease that person's number of followers, and then sends a private message to that person to "ask" for payment so as to maintain the number of followers.

When it comes to money, people are indeed creative.

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.

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"

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.

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。"

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

This BAE is not that BAE

So one day the Sis was telling me about this generation gap thing in her office. A colleague was asked what's BAE (pronounced BAY, as in B-A-E). And the colleague promptly replied, "Porridge", thinking it's the dialect word for porridge. I blinked and concurred.

The youngsters in the office were horrified and corrected said colleague. BAE actually stands for "Before Anyone Else". To quote,

"BAE is an acronym that's typically used to refer to a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a lover, a crush or really anyone considered to be the most important person in another person's life. The trend is particularly popular with teens and young adults—many of which type the lowercase version of bae as a word itself as an alternative to babe or boo on social media."

I guess my age is showing.

For a more detailed history of BAE, what it means, and how to use it, see this article on Lifewire.

职业病

According to Baidu百科, "职业病是指企业、事业单位和个体经济组织等用人单位的劳动者在职业活动中，因接触粉尘、放射性物质和其他有毒、有害物质等因素而引起的疾病。"

Translated to English, it's "occupational diseases". According to Wiki, "An occupational disease is any chronic ailment that occurs as a result of work or occupational activity."

The "chronic ailment" refers to physical diseases like skin/lung diseases. But often when 职业病 appears in everyday conversations, I realise that the term actually refers to a person's action, an action related to the person's occupation.

• The person in finance insists to divide the cost right down to the last penny. We say it's the person's 职业病.

• The English teacher goes crazy when the friend forgets to put a comma and a full stop in the sentence - and has the friend edit the sentence. We say it's the teacher's 职业病.

• The XHTML programmer frowns when the colleague uses <br> instead of <br /> - and proceeds to add the / behind.

• The person working in postal goes admiring and taking pictures of mail boxes when travelling in foreign countries.

The "chronic ailment" is now more like a mental state instead of a physical state, a mental state that causes the action, which in turn triggers the use of the term 职业病.

And interestingly, when the term is used thus, from what I can recall, I've only heard it used in its Chinese form - 职业病 - and rarely, if ever, in English - occupation disease.

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.

What does "quiet" mean to you?

According to dictionary.com, "quiet" can be an adjective, or a verb, used with, or without object.

"Quiet", when used to describe different things, can mean different things, like:
1) quiet neighbours == the neighbours make no noise / disturbing sounds
2) quiet street == the street is relatively free from noise
3) quiet person == the person is restrained in speech
4) quiet life == the life is peaceful with little disturbance
5) quiet afternoon == there is little activity for the afternoon

Very straightforward.

Yet conversations are often not so straightforward.

I was checking into a hotel in Scotland the other day, before noon. The neighbourhood around the hotel is a residential area, and the streets around are rather quiet - relatively free from noise, with not much activity in terms of humans and cars - even though the hotel is less than 5 mins walk from the main street.

So I commented to the lady checking me in, "This area is rather quiet, isn't it?" She looked up, thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "Yes, there are not much cars going past, so a room facing the street wouldn't have much disturbances, but, if you'd prefer, I can try to arrange a room that does not face the street."

I was stumped for a moment, because that absolutely did not occur to me. My concern was that it was a quiet neighbourhood, and since it's already so quiet during the day, won't it be even more so during the night? Safety was my top concern, especially when I'm a woman travelling alone.

So I said, "Erm, I mean, during the night, is it also this quiet? Is it okay to come back late?"

The lady's face then brightened as she realised what I was driving at, "Oh, yes, yes, of course! It is safe, absolutely, it's just a short walk from the main street, it's fine! This is a residential area, so that's why it's a little quiet, you don't have to worry."

So, while a "quiet neighbourhood/street around a hotel" can have a person thinking of "a room that does not face the street", it can also mean "is the area actually safe?" Not so straightforward now, when factoring in the background of the hotel staff and the hotel guest.

I wonder is it a culture thing, that westerns are very confident that it's safe, since it's just a short walk from the main street, that lone women travellers are more concerned about safety? Or a work related thing, that hotel guests are more concerned with having a quiet environment to rest? Or maybe the staff is just so used to the area, that the topic of safety did not occur to her at all.

What other connotations of "quiet" can you think of and/or encountered?