Quote of the week (Jul. 13, 2010)
Jul. 14, 2010
Nǐ de zhìshāng zhēn de hěn tíshén.
你 的 智商 真 的 很 提神。
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Your IQ is really refreshing. —From “李成功 (Lǐ Chènggōng) Li Chenggong,” criticizing his subordinates in the movie “Lost on a Journey.”
Culture Note:
- In a humorous and ironic way, “李成功 (Lǐ Chènggōng) Li Chenggong” chose the Chinese characters “提神 (tíshén) refreshing” to comment on his people’s IQ instead of using “低下 (dī xià) low leveled” or “弱 (ruò) weak.”
- The Chinese name of the movie Lost on a Journey is “人在囧途 (rèn zài jiǒng tú).” “囧 (jiǒng)” is a special Chinese character. “囧 (jiǒng)” is a derivative of the Chinese character “冏 (jiǒng)” which means light or bright. But nowadays, Internet users helped derive a new meaning- embarrassed. The reason is that the Chinese character “囧 (jiǒng)” looks like an embarrassed face in which “八 (bā) eight” are the eyes or eyebrow and “口 (kǒu) mouth” is the mouth.
生词 (shēngcí) Vocabulary
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智商 (zhìshāng): n. IQ (intelligence quotient)
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提神 (tíshén): adj. refreshing
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In fact, English letters can also be interesting. I know a combination of three English letters “ORZ” (or “OTZ”) that express admiration. In which “O” is the head, “R” (or “T”) is the body and arms and “Z” is the hip and legs, “ORZ” (or “OTZ”) draws a picture that a person whose hands, knees and head are touching the ground.
Of course, most of Chinese characters are created in accordance with the shape of concrete objects. For example, the Chinese character 人 looks like the combination of a body and two legs; another is 川 which looks like the flowing water in a river.
Ha-ha! 囧 is cool! I believe that only Chinese characters can be so artistic! Is there any other Chinese character like 囧?