They’ve updated it a bunch, but the “Pleco” dictionary is actually based on a Chinese-made dictionary that had originally plenty of old timey examples from communist slogans and such

day after pizza (cold) > fresh pizza > day after pizza (reheated)

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #14

虱多不痒［，债多不愁］

(shī duō bù yǎng [, zhài duō bù chóu])

Literally: “lice many not itch [, debts many not worry]”

Figuratively: “ ”

痒 can alternatively be 咬 yǎo “bite”.

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #13

过分

(guò fèn)

Literally: “[go past] part/portion/allotment”

Figuratively: “excessive; overboard; out of line”

过 is an essential very flexible grammar word, its core meaning is same as “pass”, and the abstract meanings flow from this similarly to English: pass by, pass time, past due, pass through, pass over to, pass away. But wait, there’s more: excessive, fault.

分 is perhaps even spicier, also an essential grammar word. Even if you don’t know any Chinese you should be able to see that the character depicts a knife parting something in two parts. That’s the core meaning: Part! And from that flows: divide, fraction, component, portion, cent, minute, allotment. Some of those are read fēn and some fèn. Oh and don’t ask about 份 lol

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #12

矛盾

(máo dùn)

Literally: “spear shield”

Figuratively: “contradiction”

Supposed to be from an ancient story where somebody claims to sell both spears that can cut through anything, and shields that can’t be broken. Unstoppable force, immovable object.

Nowadays it’s just the normal word for contradiction.

I don’t know how often it shows up in Marxist jargon, but I suspect 冲突 may be more common there.

@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net

I think it’s pretty telling that the original sea lion comic is just a guy being racist and getting annoyed when the sea lion calls him out on said racism

admittedly a rather gay drama but w/e (word of honor)

Everyone’s learning Mandarin lol. I’ve been on and off for a few years but should get back into it, 亡羊补牢！

I’ve tried to learn the Arabic alphabet a few times but I just can’t keep track of the dots. Are there other ways to group the letters that help learning?