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roddy

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玄关 which came up in a news story about an assault, means the vestibule/hall just inside the front door, though I see an older meaning is the entry to the teachings of Buddhism which seems more obvious; presume former more quotidian use was derived from the latter, maybe jocularly.

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I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

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On 9/4/2021 at 4:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

From the context here it seemed to have been just a standard modern apartment but perhaps it's the sort of fancy-sounding term estate agents borrow then creeps into wider use.

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On 9/4/2021 at 6:50 PM, Jim said:

 

On 9/4/2021 at 5:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

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From the context here it seemed to have been just a standard modern apartment but perhaps it's the sort of fancy-sounding term estate agents borrow then creeps into wider use

 


Our real estate agent also used that when we were looking for apartments. And I’ve heard it my Chinese teacher say it, when we talked about how to set up a flat in a Chinese manner. Both times it seemed just like a regular word to me, so maybe it was just carried over from its spiritual use and does not denote anything fancy nowadays except that is adheres to the traditional aspect of shrouding off the rest of the apartment?

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On 9/4/2021 at 6:29 PM, Tomsima said:

I believe the 玄关 is specifically the traditional entrance hall which has a partition wall directly inside the door, to 玄, or 'shroud' outsiders from seeing into the inner area of the house from the street. Thats always how ive thought of it at least, perhaps there is a deeper meaning there!

 

Hmm.. Interesting. That is a common word in Japanese and means the area or room immediately inside the front door of a home where you leave your shoes.

Based on a picture search on Google with that Chinese term, it seems to mean close enough the same thing.

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On 11/9/2021 at 9:39 AM, Jim said:

老虎机 - slot machine; surprised I'd never encountered that before.

Probably because gambling is illegal. My impression is it comes from Cantonese. 老虎 because it eats your money so relentlessly. Same vein as the one-armed bandit.

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发展中国家 - developing country

 

A simple word, but my mind automatically extracted 中国 as China which made me take a while to figure out the meaning.

 

 

Edit: A search for "发展中国家" on Chinese-forums makes it clear that I'm not the first one to be befuddled by this word

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On 5/20/2022 at 9:21 AM, Balthazar said:

Edit: A search for "发展中国家" on Chinese-forums makes it clear that I'm not the first one to be befuddled by this word

Welcome to a most exclusive club.

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Sorry to be late to the party (postings from the end of 2021) concerning both Japanese and Chinese entrances separated by a partition that disallows moving on a direct line from the vestibule to the interior of the dwelling. Over the years, I've heard from both Japanese and Chinese informants that "spirits" or other non-corporeal entities could only move in straight lines, therefore a partition that prevented such movement was there for protection. 

 

In Japan, recently, apartments were often too small to have the space for such shenanigans (genkan with a change in direction required), but the feeling (kimochi), was still there. 

 

 

TBZ

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