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beercanman
Joined: 16 May 2009
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 Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| roadwork wrote: |
| Didn't someone make a post on Dave's once about the Chinese use of the word "niga" to mean "look at that" and the poster's (black) friend was watching a basketball game with a couple of Chinese students who kept pointing at the screen and say "NIGA!" "NIGA!"? |
I'm still not sure, but I think the "ni ga" expression is like "er, um" kind of a filler while the speaker searches for the right thing to say. It's very common but seems like it has no meaning, just a filler like "er" or "um" or "like"...
I don't find Chinese totally annoying, well, a bit because I don't understand it. What is annoying is unnecessary loudness, in any language. People who shout on their phone, for example, these people need to be shot. And people who shout at each other when they are next to each other. Very weird and annoying indeed. It is worse when the two people do not speak the same language. Somehow, somewhere, some people got the idea that speaking more loudly and/or slowly would somehow make it more likely for the other to understand a language that is quite foreign to him.
Yep, these are the sharp ones. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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| roadwork wrote: |
| Didn't someone make a post on Dave's once about the Chinese use of the word "niga" to mean "look at that" and the poster's (black) friend was watching a basketball game with a couple of Chinese students who kept pointing at the screen and say "NIGA!" "NIGA!"? |
Is it mandarin chinese or cantonese? Cos I can't figure out what it possibly could be.
On a side note, my daughter has mastered Cantonese, having lived there for 2 months with her maternal grandparents. She speaks it with the cutest accent!! |
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crossmr
Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| roadwork wrote: |
| Didn't someone make a post on Dave's once about the Chinese use of the word "niga" to mean "look at that" and the poster's (black) friend was watching a basketball game with a couple of Chinese students who kept pointing at the screen and say "NIGA!" "NIGA!"? |
Is it mandarin chinese or cantonese? Cos I can't figure out what it possibly could be.
On a side note, my daughter has mastered Cantonese, having lived there for 2 months with her maternal grandparents. She speaks it with the cutest accent!! |
He was in Beijing, so I believe its mandarin and as far as we know (we had a couple mandarin speakers in our group at work) we were told what they were saying means exactly what roadwork said. "look at that" or "see that" and while watching sports they were just too into and it sounds very much like nigger with an accent. |
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niugnepLIVE
Joined: 26 Aug 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| crossmr wrote: |
[
He was in Beijing, so I believe its mandarin and as far as we know (we had a couple mandarin speakers in our group at work) we were told what they were saying means exactly what roadwork said. "look at that" or "see that" and while watching sports they were just too into and it sounds very much like nigger with an accent. |
As another said, it's more the equivalent of "ummmmm" in english. A good mate of mine in China was an zimbabwe-born (black) australian. Once we were walking through the local university campus and two female students really want to speak to us.... but their nerves caused them to lose all confidence... They proceeded to look at us in excitement, stammered out a "hello.... niga niga where are you from?" before running away in fits of nervous giggles. |
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beercanman
Joined: 16 May 2009
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I will ask some Chinese later. I'm pretty sure it's like "um, er, wait a sec til I think what I want to say".. not hard to tell from context and how often it is used. Despite knowing so little mandarin I can tell it's not "look at that", that does not fit the context most times it is used. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| See that in mandarin should be Ni Kan - you look. |
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OnTheOtherSide
Joined: 29 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| Russian for sure. Sounds like a mush mouthed monster or something. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| Tycho Brahe wrote: |
irish is the most annoying language in the world.
Its only ever spoken as
a) a statement of pointless defiance
or
b) some kind of pathetic superiority complex |
or
c) they were born in the gaeltacht
or
d) their parents sent them to a gaelscoil
or
e) they want to be a primary school teacher. |
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7drunkennights
Joined: 09 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:37 am Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
| Tycho Brahe wrote: |
irish is the most annoying language in the world.
Its only ever spoken as
a) a statement of pointless defiance
or
b) some kind of pathetic superiority complex |
or
c) they were born in the gaeltacht
or
d) their parents sent them to a gaelscoil
or
e) they want to be a primary school teacher. |
or there is a hot girl on the bus in a foreign country who you think doesnt speak irish, and you talk about "ag marcaiocht an cailin gneasach" with your friend with basic bad irish, until she walks off saying, "slan abhaile a buachailli!" |
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