Blog

平安夜
ping an ye

There is a tradition that's becoming popular, on Christmas Eve, to give out apples.

Many stores have apples wrapped up in colored paper for sale. People give apples on Christmas Eve because in Chinese Christmas Eve is called 平安夜 (ping an ye).

If we breakdown the phrase:
平安: means peace or peaceful
夜: means evening or night

圣诞节是西方的传统节日（chuántǒngjiérì. Traditional Holiday），起源于基督教（jīdūjiào. Christianity. …教is religions ）。每年的圣诞节（shèngdànjié. Christmas）都是12月25日，距离现在已经不到10天了。

Christmas, originated from Christianity, is a western traditional holiday. Every Christmas comes at 25th December, which is less than 10 days from now.

Following up on yesterday's post on Christmas Vocabulary in Chinese, this is the second part~

1. 北极 (běi jí)
This means the North Pole. It is apparently where Santa Claus stays at with his elves and workshops~

2. 雪橇 (xuě qiāo):
This means sleigh, what Santa Claus uses to ride around the world~

“耶诞老公公搭雪橇来啰“
yé dàn lǎo gōng gōng dā xuě qiāo lái luō

“Santa Claus is coming on his sleigh“

3. 小精灵 (xiǎo jīng líng):
This mean little elf, the assistant of Santa Claus!

“小精灵请小朋友回答“
xiǎo jīng líng qǐng xiǎo péng yǒu huí dá

We are finally in the month of December and entering the festive season of Christmas!

Today, we will examine some Christmas related Chinese vocabulary!

1. 槲寄生 (hú jì shēng): This means mistletoe. You know the common myth (or maybe its true?) that you someone asks you for a kiss under the mistletoe, you can't reject them? Well, lets learn to say that in chinese!
"在槲寄生下，男生可亲吻女生且不会被拒绝"
zài hú jì shēng xià, nán shēng kě qīn wěn nǚ shēng qiě bù huì bèi jù jué

不明觉厉
bù míng jué lì

This is a form of an internet expression. This slang term is short for “[I] don’t understand it but feel it’s awesome.”

Breaking down the word: 虽然‘不明’白你在说什么，但‘觉’得很‘厉’害的样子
Although I don't understand what you are talking about, but it feels like its amazing/awesome.

‘不明’ -> Not understanding
觉 -> feel
‘厉’害 -> amazing/awesome

The full version of this phrase is suppose to be 虽不明，但觉厉!

“老鹿蹒跚”是“小鹿乱撞”的一个衍生词（yǎnshēngcí. Derivative word）。

老（lǎo）old

小（xiǎo）small, young

鹿（lù）dear

蹒跚（pánshān）stumble, walk in an unstable and slow motion

乱（luàn）random, disorder

撞（zhuàng）hit, bump in

官方（guānfāng. Official source）对这个词是这么解释的：指部分90后的叔叔阿姨看到喜欢的人后的心理活动。不同于少男少女（shàonánshàonǚ. Young boys and young girls）恋爱时的小鹿乱撞，这些叔叔阿姨们在经历一段又一段恋爱后对爱情的渴望并没有那么强烈，来了就来了，不来也罢。

补刀
bǔ dāo

It is another popular gaming terminology! It is used to describe an attack on a dying person once more to make sure that he or she will definitely die.
This is similar to the English phrase: to “rub salt in the wound”.

This Internet slang term is later used to describe further mocking or rebuttal in communication.
An example would be:

"你的补刀技巧真强！“
ni de bu dao ji qiao zhen qiang

which translates to: "your rebuttal technique is really strong!"

同样（tóngyàng）same kind, same type

九年（jiǔnián）nine years

制（zhì）system

义务（yìwù）obligation, duty

教育（jiàoyù）education

为何（wèihé）why

如此（rúcǐ）like this way, in this way, so

优秀（yōuxiù）excellent

你知道怎样赞扬（zànyáng）别人吗？“好”、“厉害（lìhài）”、“佩服（pèifú）”等词语已经不够了，一系列新潮（xīncháo）的句子应时而生。

Do you know how to compliment others? ‘Good’, ‘Splendid’, ‘Respect’ and more are not enough anymore. Many more trendy sentences are coined in our times.

“同样是九年制义务教育，你为何如此优秀”成为了2018年最流行的句子之一。

暴走
bào zǒu

Stemming from Japanese Manga, this Internet slang term means “to resort to violence and act like a beast when unable to control one’s emotion”. When used in the context of the Chinese Internet discussions, this Internet term can be interpreted simply as “to flip out.”

If we breakdown the term:
暴: means violence
走: means to walk away

“报复（bàofù. Revenge）性（xìng. The way of sth.）熬夜（áoyè. 熬means boil for a long time, 夜means night. 熬夜 means staying up late）”——很多人白天工作或学习太忙，没有自己的空闲时间，晚上就不想睡觉的熬夜方式。

‘Revenge stays up late’ ——It describes those who stay up late because of lack of free time due to busy daily life.

你们中有多少人是这样的？天不亮就起床准备工作/学习，直到灯火通明的夜晚才迟迟回家；在夜晚这个独自属于自己的时间，即使已经精疲力尽（jīngpílìjìn. Soul is tired and energy is used up），也要追剧追漫画，刷twitter刷朋友圈刷抖音，配点小吃打游戏，甚至只是单纯躺在床上，但就是不去睡觉，熬夜熬到两三点。