Hú lǐ hú tū ( 糊 里 糊 涂) The author’s hú lǐ hú tū father falling down after skiing for the first time on Snoqualmie. “It’s like, ‘Why is this person acting like this?’”īecause they are mòmíngqímiào. ” It’s a statement wrapped within a question. Or more aptly, as my friend put it in Chinglish, “The way my friend is behaving is really mòmíngqímiào. In separate characters, this almost sounds flattering, but taken together, this phrase is like the Chinese “WTF,” but more polite. The literal character-by-character translation is m ò ( 莫 ), meaning “is not,” “cannot” or “do not” míng ( 名) (title, position, rank, name) qí ( 其) translating to “that, her, its” then there’s miào ( 莫), which means clever, mysterious, subtle and exquisite. M ò míng qí miào ( 莫 名 其 妙)Īccording to the Pin Pin Chinese dictionary, the closest direct translation into English for this expression is “I can’t make heads or tails of this,” but it also works as an adjective meaning baffling or puzzling. Though I can’t pay homage to the 300-some other Chinese dialects and languages besides Mandarin (including Cantonese, with these unparalleled proverbs captured by artist Ah To), I like to believe they come from the same spirit: the Chinese trinity of judgment, humor and family love.īut mostly, I can just vouch for my own experience as a Federal Way-reared American-born Chinese (ABC). Here is a smattering of it: five Mandarin Chinese phrases the English language should take a cue from: 1. But while these words often stung, they were delivered with equal parts suspicion, warmth and humor. They threw their words around like darts: this person was too loud, lazy, too wild they stink, they’re crazy, wrong, or they are just too much. They would pass tiger judgment and pounce on anyone walking their direction. Growing up in a Mandarin-speaking household, I always knew I could count on my family tongue to express what I couldn’t in English.įor Chinese-Taiwanese-American families like mine (and Eddie Huang’s of “ Fresh off the Boat” fame) most of what I heard growing up were from the mouths of Chinese matriarchs - a feisty auntie, a sassy mom, a scary restaurant boss. The author with her cousins at a family gathering in the ’80s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |