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Chinese lesson one: don't call someone a "thing".¹ Chinese lesson two: really don't call them "not a thing". ¹: Also it's still my favourite, uh, thing that t
by Oxidation 4y ago
Chinese lesson one: don't call someone a "thing".¹
Chinese lesson two: really don't call them "not a thing".
¹: Also it's still my favourite, uh, thing that the word for a "thing" is, literally, an "east-west".
- ye-olde-sysrq 4y agoIs the lesson for native-chinese-speakers about speaking English? If so, interesting, I haven't actually seen this (presumably common?) oopsie before. It also hadn't occurred to me how crushing of an insult it is, but damn yeah it sure is.
- st_goliath 4y agoNo, it's a Chinese lesson. A "thing" or "stuff" in Chinese is 东西 (dōngxi). That's literally "east-west" if you pick the individual characters apart. That's what the footnote refers to. Calling somebody 不是个东西 (bùshì ge dōngxī) means something along the lines of being good for nothing, i.e. an insult. Translating it literally, it would be calling somebody "not a thing".
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- still_grokking 4y agoWhich lines up fine with "that's not a thing" in the sense of "that's irrelevant". Saying someone is irrelevant is likely an insult, also in English.