A recent blog post wonderfully captures the idiosyncrasies of languages. Titled “15 Wonderful Words without English Equivalent”, the author lists phrases in a dozen languages packed with social, philosophical and anthropological back stories whose wonderfulness are lost in English. My instinct to this quirky list is let’s make one for Chinese! Of course most chengyus and suyus fall beautifully into this category, but I am talking about basic, high frequency words that you struggle to find an English equivalent. Here’s my own list to get the ball rolling. Please add yours in the comments!
1. 客气 (kèqi): often translated as “polite”, this word is a fine specimen of Chinese culture. 客 means “guest”, 气 means “chi” or “an air of”. So 客气 means to act as if you were a guest. It’s often used in the phrase 别客气(bié kèqi/don’t be so guest like). The irony is in most cases, the recipient of the phrase is indeed a guest. However, since Chinese culture prides itself on being hospitable, we want guests to not feel like guests. That’s why Chinese are always trying to get guests to eat more, drink more to the point of pushiness.
2. 辛苦(xīnkǔ): It means to work laboriously, be it manual or intellectual. Often used in the phrase 辛苦了(xīnkǔ le), which is an acknowledgement of one’s hard work and contribution. I feel it’s almost the Chinese version of “great job” or “well done”.
3. 小吃(xiǎochī): often translated as “snacks”. These are little dishes or nosh often eaten on the street and are representative of the local food culture. Examples of Shanghai 小吃 include 小笼包(xiǎolóngbāo/steamed dumplings). In Beijing, it’s various sorts of 串儿(chuànr/sticks of food). 小吃(xiǎochī) can come in all sizes, shapes and forms, making it hard to translate.
4. 馋(chán): this means you are easily tempted by food and always want to eat. However, it doesn’t mean you are hungry or an over eater. Rather you see food as a form of entertainment rather than just necessity, but you are not quite a refined foodie. We often use this word to describe kids and teenage girls since they always want to eat or snack in order to entertain themselves.
5. 鲜(xiān): another food term. This flavor is hard to describe. It’s the taste and sensation of MSG if it were natural and healthy. It’s not just salty or savory. It has more substance. Although 鲜doesn’t describe sweet taste, a dish can be unsalted but extremely 鲜, for example, Chinese style chicken soup or hairy crab. The more well known Japanese version is umami.
6. 山寨 (shānzhài): if you live in China, you are probably no stranger to this relatively new term. It’s not knock off products. It’s products entirely “inspired” by a famous counterpart. However, these 山寨 products usually have their own brands, e.g. “Adibas” or “uPhone”.
7. 气质(qìzhì): this means an intangible quality one carries as the result of a good upbringing and education. If a woman 有气质, it means she is not necessarily beautiful, but has a lot of substance and elegance. The example I often use to explain this word is Hilary Clinton有气质, Kim Kardashian没有气质.
8. 没办法(méibànfǎ): literally “no solution”. It’s a sense of disappointment and acknowledging that life has its limits. It’s one of those words that truly reflect the national psyche of China.
9. 上火(shànghuǒ): ever heard of eating spicy things, chocolate or mandarin oranges will ignite your “internal fire” and cause you to have pimples or constipation? You may call it pseudo science, we live by it to balance the ying and yang in our body.
10. ? Let me know your wonderful Chinese word without English equivalent.
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October 26, 2011 10:57 am
this is awesome! i always had a hard time describing those words in english
October 26, 2011 11:07 am
随便
October 26, 2011 11:09 am
Actually 原来 (yuánlái) is kind of hard to translate. The dictionary might say “originally” or “in the beginning,” but it doesn’t have so much to do with time as it does with the state of one’s knowledge. It’s used when you find out something that you were unaware of, and in your “Aha!” moment you exclaim, 原来 (all along) 是这样！ (So that’s how it is!)
October 26, 2011 11:18 am
甜 – Vegetables that are fresh and flavorful can be “sweet”. I’m still not sure what it means.
October 26, 2011 11:20 am
Nice blog!
my favorite:
鱼腥草
pinyin: yúxīng cǎo; literally “fishy-smell herb“
often used in salads in Sichuan style restaurants
October 26, 2011 11:32 am
Sounds as appetizing in Chinese as it is in English…
October 26, 2011 11:33 am
Definitely gets my vote!
October 26, 2011 11:33 am
Exactly!
October 26, 2011 12:02 pm
I would say that 厉害 is really a great word that is so useful and versatile that we just don’t have in English. I catch myself about to say it many times and have to think about who I’m talking to and whether or not they will understand.
October 26, 2011 12:14 pm
I personally like 偷 (tou1), which can be put in front of various verbs to mean that one is doing them secretly. For example, one can tou1kan4 (watch someone secretly), or tou1ting1 (evesdrop), or even tou1chi1 someone’s cake when they aren’t looking.
October 26, 2011 1:25 pm
鲜 can be translated as fresh
October 26, 2011 3:00 pm
让 always gets me. Yes, it has several English translations but has a subtle extension to any English meaning you use.
October 26, 2011 3:16 pm
What I find fascinating with 6 shānzhài isn’t so much that there is a word for it, but where it is coming from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai
Outsiders may sneer about Made in China (like they did for products Made in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea), here the products are made in a mountain village. And knock-off products have been a home industry, though these days you can find very a very advanced imitation industry in Zhejiang province not behind anyone.
October 27, 2011 9:53 am
I love the sound of 餓 è (=hungry)
October 27, 2011 12:35 pm
素质 is a difficult word to translate sometimes — especially when it’s being used in sweeping generalizations. Talking about “groups of people with low moral fiber” just sounds creepy in English. 缘分 can also be a massive pain to translate.
October 27, 2011 12:37 pm
this was a really fun post and i love how there are chinese words that do not have a proper translation. gives me the incentive to use those words and practice some “chinglish”.
i also just realized you changed your theme and it’s beautiful!
October 27, 2011 1:23 pm
深有同感！
October 27, 2011 1:25 pm
Hope you will find plenty of uses for these words.
October 27, 2011 3:13 pm
What about 加油！ I think that’s the hardest of all to translate!
October 27, 2011 4:21 pm
It’s always fascinated me the way different languages split the colour spectrum in different ways. The Chinese colour word 青 is often translated as blue or green but really for an English speaker it’s very strange to call the sky something that you could also apply to a meadow. This book deals specifically with these issues of language: https://www.amazon.de/Through-Language-Glass-Words-Colour/dp/043401690X
I’d also class 关系 as something which doesn’t have a direct counterpart (at least with all its meanings).
October 28, 2011 12:21 am
把 while I understand its uses (or at least I think I do) my friend can not fully comprehend it. She attributes this partially to there being no English translation for it.
October 28, 2011 12:23 am
and then there’s all the Chinese particles, 吧，呢，哎，呀，啊，哦，噢，喔，嘛，等等。
October 28, 2011 10:17 am
给力 and hold住！
October 28, 2011 11:45 am
I have to agree with Magnus, 厉害 is the one that immediately comes to mind.
The one Chinese word (if it can be described as such) that I find myself often using inadvertently whilst speaking English is 恩！
October 28, 2011 1:51 pm
Yes, how can I forget that?
October 29, 2011 1:29 am
what about 吃苦 or 关系？
December 9, 2011 6:49 pm
I think all of us working with and in China, will know very much what I mean by the following two things :
差不多 Almost …
入乡随俗 When in Rome …