Once you know what it means you’ll agree that it’s also one of those pretty funny Chinese words. This is one of my favorite Chinese terms due to its sheer poetic nature. So, what do you get when you mix a bear and a cat together? According to the Chinese, a panda. While both are still used today, “bear cat” is more common. The story goes, that when the first one of these animals was put on display at a zoo, nobody was sure which way to read its name. Chinese text can be read in many directions (top to bottom, left to right, right to left). This one can also be a “cat bear” depending on who you ask. Bear Cat -熊貓 (xióngmāo) Image created and owned by author with AI drawing tool Fortunately, this funny Chinese word just refers to an animal that moistens its food before eating, the raccoon. Washing Bear – 浣熊 (huànxióng)īears can be trained to do many things, and I suppose doing the laundry would be a hilarious (and inhumane) circus trick. But I guess because its eyes are flat on its face instead of towards the sides, in Chinese, the owl gets associated with predatory cats. While a chameleon might not be the size of a dragon, it certainly does change color, so this Chinese name is spot on. The English name for this lizard traces back to the Greek for “lion”, I personally think “dragon” is more apt and the Chinese language agrees. ![]() 企’s standalone meaning is “upright”, so the Chinese for penguin is just “upright goose”. The true translation is still worth a chortle though. So with the penguin’s snazzy get-up and all, you could be forgiven for translating its name as “business goose”. The modern Chinese word for “enterprise” (something an entrepreneur would start) is 企業 (qǐyè). To make this English translation of a Chinese word really funny we have to cheat a bit. Business Goose – 企鵝 (qì’é) Image created and owned by author with AI drawing tool That’s why the shrimp’s bouncer-like big cousin, the lobster, is called a dragon shrimp in Chinese. Do you know what isn’t puny? A friggin dragon. Dragon Shrimp – 龍蝦 (lóngxiā)īeing called a shrimp is a not-so-pleasant way to be called puny. Perhaps that’s why the Chinese word for pineapple is Phoenix pear, a pear rising from the earth just as the mythical Phoenix rises from its ashes. To me they kind of look like the bomb plants in the original Zelda game. They grow directly from the ground surrounded by their leaves, a little like cauliflower. Phoenix Pear – 鳳梨 (fènglí) Image created and owned by author with AI drawing toolĬontrary to popular belief, pineapples do not grow on trees. ![]() Here are 15 of my favorite funny Chinese words.ġ. Perhaps the language with the funniest words when translated to English is German with its “Kummerspeck” (gain weight from comfort eating) and “Innerer Schwienehund” (inner pig-dog responsible for your slovenly behavior).īut Mandarin Chinese is not without its own vocabulary that is sure to get a chuckle or two from any Western listener. But if you talk like a normie, nobody will bat an eye when use your telephone to ring up the bank about a mortgage. ![]() For example, people might give you a strange look if you said you were going to use your “far voice” to call the bank about a “dead pledge”. If you think about it though, most languages have words that sound a little strange when you examine their meaning. As a learner of Mandarin Chinese, I often come across words or phrases that just sound plain funny when translated to English.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |