English sayings, Chinese counterparts

Thank you connie,

我猜想 "性比" 是 "性别比例" 的缩约形式

I guess 性比 is the contaction of 性别比例

sex ratio: 性别比例；男女比例；男女人口比例；

Who checked "sex ratio" on Nciku ?

I thought that "sex ratio" was translated as 男女比率 and classified in social science but it appears to be translated as 性比 and classified in ... Biology. What kind of "sex ratio" does 性比 describe ? ;o)

http://www.nciku.com/search/en/detail/sex+ratio/85672

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男女人口比例 or 性别比率 on other dictionaries

I thought it was only in Australia that we are born men.

I think there are born slightly more men than women, but whenever there's a war (and there's always a war) men get killed in significantly larger numbers.

I don't remember where I heard that but I think it has to do with the 2% to 13% of homosexuality.

Male homosexuals tend to marry less than the female homosexuals.

-> much more women available !

thanks mate. But I was asking where you got :

"Actually, there are much more women than men on the planet"

from, and those linked articles tend to refute that, unless I'm missing something.

This is called human sex ratio :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio

On wikipedia, the sex ratio of the world is 1.01 (a bit more men than women).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio

..where are you getting that information from?

Actually, there are much more women than men on the planet. But how many would like the chinese ear-pulling (娶) ? ;o)

Not to mention that the one-child policy created a surplus of men. If there are more men than women, there is certainly not a wife for every person.

And even if that weren't true, how are all the women going to find a wife to wed, when they're all married to the men? Oh, sorry, of course women aren't included in the expression "人人" …

Hi kimiik

The Chinese saying “人人皆有妻可娶” is not always true anymore here in the PRC. They say it's not so easy for young Chinese people to marry, mainly THANKS TO China's rapid economic development, ironically.

I guess “破锅配破盖” was used in another ERA or "破盖" had maybe a larger meaning.

Today, when you break a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer, the neck with the cork or the cap often remains intact.

I guess “破锅配破盖” was used in another area or "破盖" had maybe a larger meaning.

Today, when you break a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer, the neck with the cork or the cap often remains intact.

Hi kimiik

There is also a similar saying in Japanese, i.e. “割れ鍋に綴じ蓋”, which literally means “破锅配破盖” in Chinese. The Japanese saying has two meanings. One is "Every Jack has his Jill", and the other is "Let beggars match with beggars". The former one should be translated as “人人皆有妻可娶” or “人各有偶” in Chinese.

Actually, "每罐有盖" is a direct translation of the german expression "Auf jeden Pott passt ein Deckel" which doestn't exist in chinese.

I thought it could transcend cultural differences.

Nciku doesn't carry the expression "每罐有盖" and when I use Google (HK) I get two hits. Not a very common expression?

Though it's quite telling that Google doesn't find this discussion, so it might be acting up again. HK Google doesn't seem very reliable. Can someone else have a butcher's?

Surprisingly, this 每罐有盖 seems to be take a totally different meaning in chinese. 罐 represents the problem or topic that should be hidden and 捂盖子 (put a lid on something) means cover up the truth.

Then 每罐有盖 could mean "there's always a way to cover up a problem" and in the context of a single man the discussion quickly turns to 挂名新娘 (fake bride), 应召女郎 (call-girl) and "escort". ;o)

Another English version I've heard is "Scraggly horse, you find a scraggly bush to tie it to..."

At least, we can try to promote this one.

I guess the relation between the lid and the pot is universal :

每罐有盖 ! ;o)

Maybe. Although I don't think the influence of german culture in China is big enough to make chinese people adopt a german saying. But who knows?

Yes you're right and I even think that it's originally a german expression.

Or like we say in Germany: "Auf jeden Pott passt ein Deckel." (For every pot there is a fitting lid.)

哈哈，我喜欢那句“每罐有盖”的说法。英文中还有一个说法There are plenty of fish in the sea，我看了词典，词典写着“天涯何处无芳草”，好像具体的意思完全不同，那抽象的呢？

对不起, 我刚刚写错了第一句! "每个人总有一个特别适合自己的人"

有没有别的错误?

I did a web search, and I think you are absolutely right.

I guess it's more "take care of yourself for me"? The sort of thing you might say to a loved one if you're going away?

Random guess anyway :)

Yep, you got it. Careless of me.

@xiaophil

I guess you meant 活, as in 饭后百步走，活到九十九

That was also one of the first health-related prescriptive sentences I came across...

yep, I've heard it is Chinese. Ken mentioned this in a podcast once and it also turned up in a wikipedia { I think it was] list of English expressions borrowed from Chinese. It wasn't a particularly long list ,but this one was there alright.

Good observation

I have googled this before. Long time no see is almost certainly from Chinese. Another expression that is supposedly Chinese is "let's take a 'looksee'", although I am a lot less convinced of that one.

Similarly in reverse, the infamous 好久不见 must have gone from chinese to english at some point. It's just too Chinese a grammatical formation to have been originally english.

thanks for letting me know. :)

They definitely borrowed this one, but now they own it too. They all know it.

..yeah,interesting. Surely this saying must be borrowed from one of the languages. Seems too big a coincidence...and I'm guessing the Chinese has borrowed from English on this occasion.

哈哈，说的很好

There is an irony when we become intolerant of intolerance, isn't there?

... everything in moderation, including moderation.

Okay, who is going to photoshop a corncob pipe onto xiao_liang's avatar?

Thanks for telling us 红脖子 by the way. I'm surprised they bothered to translate it. I'll file it right next to 嬉皮士 (hippy) in my head.

xiao_liang would make an excellent hillbilly, with that mustache...

Interestingly, MDBG gives this translation for hillbilly: 红脖子. I'm not sure I agree that hillbilly and redneck are the same thing, but I supposed that's splitting hairs.

Yeehaw!

xiao_liang

I'm going to tell your friends you talk like an American, and a hillbilly to boot :)

Chinesepod: We'll LEARN YOU (or else).

Phew, that's a relief. Using a verb in reverse as xiao_liang says. Cute. Now you mention it, I have heard it as a threat (probably out of Hollywood, maybe those Beverley Hillbillies again), but I didn't think I was being threatened. :)

haha, we are thinking far too much. In America, especially the South, some people will say "I'll learn ya," as in something like "I'll put you in your place." Don't take seriously, though. I was just having fun with words. I really meant, "You did teach me something I didn't know." Sorry to get all American on you :-).

I think it's a vernacular, bodawei. Like "remember me to your mother". Using a verb in reverse, almost.

Oh dear, are you having me on, again? :) I assumed when you said 'You did learn me though' that you were either having a light-hearted go at MY poor expression, or having a giggle about people who spent every English class parked outside the Principal's office. Are you going to tell me that this is acceptable grammar in the US, or have I just made a giant fool of myself by being sucked into your joke?

Bodawei

Regarding this:

"'You did learn me though.' I gather that you are laughing at the less fortunate, but because of the communication gaps we have been talking about I cannot be sure!"

It is rather amusing that we cannot understand each other when we are talking about having trouble understanding each other. I honestly don't understand this sentence, haha.

'You did learn me though.' I gather that you are laughing at the less fortunate, but because of the communication gaps we have been talking about I cannot be sure!

Don't worry about the 'major blunder' - context gave me what you mean.

You are right about ESL land - spelling, grammar. I' m not too excited about spelling differences, or grammar. As I am grammar deficient I can't worry about those much. I wonder if there are greater (i) intra-country and (ii) inter-subculture differences than inter-country differences? Terminology differs to a significant extent, although I get the meaning mostly. The one serious barrier between English speakers is accent. Do Scottish/Welsh people speak 'English'? haha. I guess that it is actually called Scottish/Welsh. But Northerners in England can be almost unintelligible to us Australians. American differences are subtle by comparison.

There is a contemporary film called The Castle that many Australians are fond of. (My wife showed it to a Chinese university class and it went totally unappreciated.) This film lends weight to the view that intra-country (lingusitic) differences may be greater than inter-country differences.

不用谢 (Baba too)！Right, the Idioms group not the Chengyu group.

oh right zhen,thanks for that. Even further back than I thought.

Zhen,

I'm glad you made this comment. Thank you. I actually thought I was a member of the idiom group, so I had no idea I was missing posts from it.

hehe, yeah, I always love a bit of irony. There must be a word for that situation. I'm trying to think of something other than catch 22. Once we've come up with the English term,next to think of the Chinese term

Thanks for looking anyway. Maybe I've just forgotten, but it wasn't ringing any bells and I thought you meant recently.

don't worry mate... I realised what you meant to say. I did notice it but I thought anyone else reading would realise too.

Baba if you take a look at the comment I just made in the Chengyu group--I'm sure the QW I linked to is the one being referred to. You were in this discussion.

There is an irony when we become intolerant of intolerance, isn't there?

I just poked my head around looking for the Qingwen episode, but couldn't find it. I only vaguely remember it. Perhaps xiao_liang can tell us?

Major blunder alert. I didn't mean to say:

What I really want to say is, yes, Australia does have its own, unique brand of English that doesn't deserves its own category

I DID mean to say:

I'm digressing a bit. What I really want to say is, yes, Australia does have its own, unique brand of English that deserves its own category

..or should we be intolerant of intolerance?

...which particular QW convo?...I must have missed it.

xiao_liang

"It really opens your eyes about how different we all are, and how unwise it is to impose both your morality, and your world view on a multi-national community like this one."

I agree mostly with what you said here. I think my default when it comes to dealing with other cultures is tolerance, and notice that I stayed out of that particular qingwen conversation. However, there are some cultural traditions that I personally believe to be open to criticism. For example, should we be tolerant of intolerance? One must of course choose wisely when and how to criticize, however.

Bodawei

Well, I have been aware that Australians sound different than Brits for as long as I can remember. In ESL land, though, Australian English is often branded British English, mostly in reference to spelling and grammar conventions. That isn't my opinion. That's my observation. Personally, sometimes I get tired of thinking in terms of different Englishes. Before I came to China, I only thought of myself as speaking 'English'. It was only after arriving in China that I heard the word 'Americanism', and heard the extremely snobby opinion held by a few that what Americans speak isn't even English at all. I'm digressing a bit. What I really want to say is, yes, Australia does have its own, unique brand of English that doesn't deserves its own category (although as I said I often think these categories are a bit annoying).

Anyway, you did learn me though. I had no idea that many original white settlers spoke Gaelic. That is interesting. I do have one thing to say about the Queen's English. I did meet one Australian a few years ago that surprised me because he did sound like could jump right on BBC news. He spent a few years in Europe, so that might explain it, but he didn't spend time in England.

It is interesting and there is a huge potential for growth. It makes one realize how arbitrary many of the things we believe really are. Learning about each other as we struggle with Chinese (culture and language) is a wonderful side effect.

It's not so much the language that I've noticed, it's the culture itself. Everyone has a different accent and certain words they use, but it's the differences in manner, politeness, what is acceptable, so on and so forth.

A really good example is the infamous Qing Wen when Liliana teased Connie about something a little personal. It was a genuinely normal fun conversation between two friends, when one embarassed the other and everyone had a laugh. But in the comments thread, multiple cultures clashed! Some people were appalled, some were bemused, some were amused! It really opens your eyes about how different we all are, and how unwise it is to impose both your morality, and your world view on a multi-national community like this one.

’wasn't aware of how far Australian English had deviated from British English, even though technically, well, still British English.‘

I am sometimes accused of being aggressively Australian - but on this one I might have just cause. I find this an interesting observation you've made and I wonder where it came from, xiao_phil?

I think that 'Australian English' was categorically different from 'British English' from day one of white settlement. [We need to define British English too and that isn't easy - we Australians tend to associate it with an educated accent that sounds vaguely like the Queen!] If you catch a newish Australian film called 'Van Diemen's Land' - the true story of a notorious convict - you will see what I mean. The film needs subtitles because half the characters (early Australians) spoke Gaelic rather than English. Neither the convicts nor the gaolers sounded like the Queen. Also the aborigines have influenced our sound - listen to David Gulpilil, the narrator of Ten Canoes. There is a small educated elite that maybe until the middle of the 20th century sounded a bit like the Queen (they though of themselves as English, or aspired to being English, and positively modelled their language on the language of the Mother Country); I wonder if this is what you think that Australians sound like? Because of Australian films from the 1950s and 1960s? But my point is that we, the majority of Australians, 'always' had our own language (or it evolved quickly after white settlement) - we have not spent 200 years plus sounding vaguely English and gradually evolving our own dialect. We sounded crass, nasal and disrespectful from early on, and the English would be shocked to think that it sounds like British English.

In Chinese I have heard "a fly with his head cut off", to mean the same thing, but I forgot how it goes.

yes, I needed an Australian roll-over for a while. Just when I think Ive heard them all, something new pops up - like chook. It is fascinating. I suppose in a global world the boundaries will blur.

And yes, for some reason I find it amusing when the person I'm talking to calls me mate, and I in turn call him dude.

In this case, British and American English are one and the same. A chicken is still called a chicken in America.

But yeah, I will say that after coming to China, my eyes opened up to the language differences between Brits and Americans. I honestly can't even understand some Brits when they speak, but then again, I would have trouble with some Americans from the deep South. These differences extend towards disposition as well, I might add. I also wasn't aware of how far Australian English had deviated from British English, even though technically, well, still British English.

Regarding chooks, the equivalent British expression is "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". Is that a US phrase as well?

You know, this board has really opened my eyes as to how really foreign we all are to each other. There are such massive cultural differences between even US folks and UK folks that we're just not normally aware of. I find it pretty interesting.

同意, I'm glad you mentioned that. I wanted that phrase to be the same, now it appears it might be.

I see. My rollover had it as "fig. different means of achieve the same end" [obviously meant to say achieving], so I guess my rollover had it closer to what you were after...ni tongyi ma?

My misgiving about 殊途同归 is that every definition I have of it says it means to "independently reach the same conclusion". I guess it just depends on how one uses the word "conclusion". I think "there is more than one way to skin a cat" means "there is more than one way to achieve the same result". I guess sometimes conclusion and result are interchangeable, but I usually think of a "reaching the same conclusion" as ending up with the same opinion. Thus, I don't know if my problem is real or just a misunderstanding of semantics.

hey xiaophil that's great that you've come up with all those examples. I recall seeing your first one on the boards not so long ago. Clearly it is a good example of being the Chinese equivalent and yet expressed in a totally different way. The imagery is also slightly different. Clearly one can't eat a cake and still have it there to admire..can't have it both ways. I think it was changye who explained that it was an old Chinese belief that you can't eat bear meat and fish at the same time for health reasons. So I guess in the English example it's just not possible and in the latter example it's more that it's highly unwise [but not impossible]. So I guess while equivalent they leave me with a different feeling about them.

I'm not sure what your misgivings about :

殊途同归

..are. Seems like a pretty good equivalent to me. Perhaps there is an alternative ,but not too likely it's better is my guess.

Yeah, I guess chook is Aussie. Didn't really think about it till you pointed it out.

Never mind about chook. It is indeed Australian English.