dalaowai Posted March 22, 2007 at 02:59 AM Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 at 02:59 AM I've been living out here for a while and as my Mandarin improved, my friends and I started creating Mandarin slang, which introduced to our Chinese friends were incorporated into their daily talk. I'd like to find out if anybody else created expressions/slang and how they were received by locals. Please explain the story behind your creation. Here are a few of my favourite ones: 水果梦 or 水果dream : One day we were walking down the street (two foreigners) and a strawberry seller (baskets in hand) saw us coming. His eyes lit up and the man bellowed "HELLLOOOO! FE-LAN-DE! 草莓!!!草莓！很便宜！全都给你200人民币!" At that point, we laughed and said that fellow had a "水果 dream" when he saw two foreigners and thought that he was gonna go home rich. We now use this expression whenever someone thinks that they'll get rich off of us, or if we have our own illusions of grandeur, we'll accuse each other of having a 水果梦。 出租车妓：I take taxis every morning without a problem, there are always many available unless it rains and it's quite irritating that the usual cyclers or bus-takers steal my taxi. People who jump out of the bushes when your taxi arrives and yoinks it away from you also qualify as being 出租车妓. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted March 22, 2007 at 03:33 PM Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 at 03:33 PM 百分之(adj) eg: 百分之很好,百分之不怎么样. Created by me trying to put a quantitative value on something one day and then giving up halfway through the sentence and going for a fuzzy adjective. I also misspoke in the kitchen once, trying to say 微波炉 and somehow ended up saying something along the lines of 为萝卜. For a brief period of time, among a select group of people, it was normal to say "为萝卜！" instead of 微波炉 and I still get them confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalaowai Posted March 23, 2007 at 01:00 AM Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 at 01:00 AM 为萝卜! I do that to! it drives my wife crazy! haha I'm glad that I'm not the only one doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yonitabonita Posted March 23, 2007 at 08:17 AM Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 at 08:17 AM I attach 'ed' to the end of some Chinese verbs which I regularly use. eg That hutong's marked to get "拆ed" Crap! I think I just got "骗ed". He "骂ed" her right in front of everyone. There's my 2c contribution to the evolution of pigeon Chinese. y Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted March 23, 2007 at 08:45 AM Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 at 08:45 AM Wow, I felt really stupid for saying 微萝卜 all the time... What is it with foreigners and microradish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wushijiao Posted March 26, 2007 at 11:47 AM Report Share Posted March 26, 2007 at 11:47 AM I say 订萨 for ordering pizza. One time, before going to the bathroom, I said that I was going to, "参加厕所活动＂，which has been simplified down to "参个活儿" . Also, when telling a story with a male and a female, I've added the "sh" (of the English "she") to 她 to make "shta", and added an extra gutteral "h" sound to 他, to make "hhhta". 水果梦 That's a pretty good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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