Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi! Welcome to Chinese Top Words. Today, we are going to talk about top 10 phrases tourists should never use, never use.
1. 好恶心! (Hǎo ěxīn!) "That's disgusting!"
I even read an article about maybe 10 most disgusting food in the world. The top 1 is the black egg in China. Actually, I like it. Actually, we eat it as a cold appetizer before the main course.
So if you look at it, oh 好恶心!(hǎo ěxīn!), it looks 恶心!(hǎo ěxīn!).
看起来好恶心! (Kàn qǐlái háo ěxīn.)
It’s really disrespectful for your friends because it’s very traditional Chinese food and usually, Chinese like it. Don’t judge food by its cover.
2. 我们国家比这里好多了。 (Wǒmen guójiā bǐ zhèli hǎo duō le.) "My country is better."
Do not compare your country with China or with other countries easily because there’s not really common or correct standard for saying one country is good, another country is bad, this culture is good, this culture is bad. Do not be so judgmental.
3. 我宁愿回家。 (Wǒ nìngyuàn huí jiā.) "I'd rather be back home."
宁愿 (Nìngyuàn) feels like I don’t like being here, I want to go home so it sounds you don’t want to spend time here. You don’t like the people around here. You don’t enjoy the time with your friends or the place or the environment. It sounds negative.
4. 我来错地方了。 (Wǒ lái cuò dìfang le.) "I picked the wrong place to visit. "
错 (Cuò) means “mistake” in China. 来错 (Lái cuò) is like “I’ve made a mistake.” I shouldn’t be here. 错 (Cuò) is always negative because it means “mistake”.
5. 我对你们的文化不感兴趣。 (Wǒ duì nǐmen de wénhuà bù gǎn xīngqu.) "I'm not very interested in your culture."
I think it’s always good to be open to other cultures to learn more and to be more open minded and you will enjoy the fun part and you’d be less judgmental. By having an open attitude for a lot of cultures, you will see clearer. You will have another perspective for your own culture. It’s actually a very fun thing to do.
6. 这些人看起来好奇怪。 (Zhèxiē rén kàn qǐlái hào qí guài.) "These people look strange."
奇怪 (Qí guài) means “weird / strange”. It sounds like they shouldn’t look the way they look so it sounds like you do not like the way they look.
7. 还是去吃麦当劳吧。 (Hái shì qù chī Màidāngláo ba.) "Let's just eat at McDonald's."
It sounds like, oh, I give up. I’ve like tried so many restaurants, I don’t like any of them or I don’t like anything here. Ah, let’s just eat at McDonald’s. Let’s just get it over with. I give up for trying the food in China. But actually, I feel that McDonald's is different in every country. Yeah, even ordering the same thing, you will get different sauce or will taste different so maybe trying the local McDonald’s is not bad.
8. 这也太难吃了吧。 (Zhèyě tài nánchī le ba.) "This tastes awful."
难 (Nán), literally it means “difficult”, 吃 (chī) means “eat” so 难吃 (nánchī) literally means “is difficult to eat”.
It’s a very negative word towards the food.
9. 他们说的话好难听。 (Tāmen shuō de huà hǎo nántīng.) "Their language sounds awful. "
难 (Nán) means “difficult” like what I just said, 听 (tīng) means “listen” so it’s not comfortable for my ears so it means it sounds awful.
10. 我再也不要来这里了! (Wǒ zài yě bú yào lái zhèli le!) "I will not come back here again!"
It implies that you had a such bad experience here and you don’t want to come here again. Like instead, you should say, “Oh, I want to come here again.” 我想再来这里。(Wó xiǎng zài lái zhèlǐ.) like “I will recommend it to my friends.” 我会推荐给我朋友。(Wǒ huì tuījiàn géi wǒ péngyǒu.), “recommend” 推荐 (tuījiàn).
Thank you for watching today’s Chinese Top Words. I hope you learned something useful and practical for Chinese learning and we’ll see you next time. Bye!

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