美國文化脫口秀 第346期:最難用英語表達的中文詞

“辛苦了”、“混”、“撒嬌"......這些簡單常用的詞，卻很難找到貼切的英語翻譯。今天，我們就說說最難翻譯的中文詞。

關(guān)鍵詞：

Chinese expressions that are hard to translate to English: 很難翻譯到英文的中文說法

They're simple and common expressions, but with rich cultural context: 這些說法很簡單，但是包含了很深的文化概念

What are those? Let me take a stab at it: 多有哪些詞?我來試試看

辛苦了

How do you say 辛苦了 in English? “辛苦了“英語就很難表達

There might be an English equivalent, but there's no exact match: 可能有對應(yīng)的說法，但沒有完全符合的

It can't perfectly convey the mood and meaning: 不能百分百把情緒和意思傳遞出去

It's a form of acknowledgement and gratitude: 這是用來表達認可和感謝的

“辛苦了”英語可以這么說

Thank you, you did a good job/job well done! 謝謝，你做的很棒, 比較多用于上級對下屬

Thanks for your hard work: 謝謝你辛勤的工作

When you say this, you acknowledge that it might not have been very easy: 你這樣說，代表你覺得那個工作比較辛苦、不容易

But sometimes I feel saying "辛苦了" is a bit of an exaggeration: 但是我有時候覺得說“辛苦了”有點夸張，因為并沒有很辛苦

But it's a way of showing appreciation and respect in Chinese culture: 但是這是中國文化里表達感謝和尊重的方式

最難用英語表達的中文詞

人情

How would you translate that? 這個怎么翻譯啊?

When you check the dictonary, you might find "human feelings": 查字典，字典會告訴你“human feelings"

Some foreigners might call it 關(guān)系, which has entered the English vocabulary: 有些外國人會用“關(guān)系”，這個詞現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)進入英語了

I don't think there's a one word equivalent of "人情” in English: 我覺得英語里沒有“人情”

“人情” is such an important aspect of Chinese society: 人情在中國社會是很重要的組成部分

It's untranslatable: 這個詞翻譯不了

得瑟

Spencer, I noticed you like to use "得瑟“ a lot: Spencer, 我發(fā)現(xiàn)你最近很愛說“得瑟”

How would you translate that in English? 這個英語怎么翻譯?

These are words that you won't be able to find in a dictionary, never mind textbooks:

Arrogant: 傲慢

Pretentious: 裝

Full of themselves/himself/herself: 得瑟、自我感覺良好

混

"混" is also very hard to translate: “混”也很難翻譯

It has both negative and positive connotations: 它既可以是褒義，又可以是貶義

To waste time, muddle through, mucking around: 混日子

You're doing well: 你混得不錯

作、嗲、撒嬌

I've got a bunch of related ones that are hard to translate: 我有一串相關(guān)的難翻譯的詞

Being cutesy, girly: 撒嬌

The dictionary defines it as "coquettish", but we don't really use that word: 字典會告訴你“嗲”是“coquettish”，但這個詞日常不會用

A lot of things are represented by one character in Chinese, but need a few English words to translate completely: 中文很多時候只需要一個字，但英文要好幾詞才能翻譯、解釋

Even though they look similar, cutesy means 撒嬌 and cute is more like 可愛: 雖然它們看上去很相像，“cutesy”更加撒嬌，“cute”可能更可愛

Cutesy: 嗲

Feminine: 女性化

You got me: 我被問住了

High maintenance: 作，需要高度保養(yǎng)

What about 素質(zhì)、討厭

素質(zhì) is class.

You can say someone has no class to mean 素質(zhì)差：你可以說一個人“have no class", 就是素質(zhì)差的意思

討厭 is annoying

But when we say "討厭", we often don't mean it. It's a way of 撒嬌：但是很多時候說討厭，不是真的覺得你annoying, 其實是在撒嬌

I think in English, we'd express a lot of things with the tone of voice: 我覺得英語里，會更多用語氣來傳遞意思上的差別