# I'm not an egg



## Gracieux_8

I was wondering if you wanted to say I'm not an egg (Egg; n. pej,
A white person who acts more Asian than a white person."
_Damn! That egg needs to stop trying to eat spaghetti with chopsticks!”)_
_Would you say _我不是一个鸡蛋 or我不是鸡蛋?!?!
Thank you! 
xx


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## avlee

Never heard of that before, really.


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## kenny4528

Do you mean ''I am not a stupid guy.''?



> 我不是一個笨蛋
> 我不是笨蛋


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## xiaolijie

avlee said:


> Never heard of that before, really.


I've never heard of this before either but I guesss the idea is based on "He/she is a _banana_" (=yellow outside but white inside = a Westernised Oriental person). Frankly, I think even if "我不是一个鸡蛋/我不是鸡蛋" is said clearly and correctly, only one in a million Chinese may be able to understand what you mean, unless you use it only as a way to start a conversation because people will sure ask what you mean by it


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## Gracieux_8

Xiaolije has the right idea!  It's a conversation between my brother and I but I didn't know if you'd use 一个 here.

It's not a stupid guy but thank you anyway! 
xxx


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## kenny4528

Gracieux_8 said:


> Xiaolije has the right idea!  It's a conversation between my brother and I but I didn't know if you'd use 一个 here.
> 
> It's not a stupid guy but thank you anyway!
> xxx


Whoops! sorry for misunderstanding about what you was intending to mean because I have never heard about it. (Xiaolije's banana version is something I ever heard)


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## avlee

Gracieux_8 said:


> Xiaolije has the right idea!  It's a conversation between my brother and I but I didn't know if you'd use 一个 here.
> 
> It's not a stupid guy but thank you anyway!
> xxx


In that case, it simply depends on what you want to emphasize.
If you really want to address the importance of quantity, then 一个 is very necessary to be added.
If you're not emphasizing the quantity, just a casual talk for practising or whatever, then quantitative word like 一个 shall always be omitted subconsciously by most native Chinese speakers.
Honestly, that reminds me of my childhood. And sometimes sentences without quantitative words may simply be regarded as the short form of those with quantitative words in everyday conversation to save time.


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## samanthalee

As of now, the concept of a person being an egg is alien to the Chinese world. We do not have an equivalent saying. 我不是鸡蛋 is merely a direct translation without the underlying meaning of the original English statement.


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## AVim

I have a question: Does the 'banana' or 'egg' here have a depreciatory implication?


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## Gracieux_8

Yes a little... not all the time though 
x


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## Coordinator

Really I think he's making a metaphor here, but it's like talking cantanese to a mandarin speaking person. I would definitely keep *一*个 because it sounds way better.


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## xiaolijie

AVim said:


> I have a question: Does the 'banana' or 'egg' here have a depreciatory implication?


It depends a lot on how the speaker intends it to mean. It can often be used jokingly.


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## Gracieux_8

My brother means it jokingly but most people would use it as an insult, or would take it as an insult if someone who they don't know very well said it to them.


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## HeiShan

Gracieux_8 said:


> I was wondering if you wanted to say I'm not an egg (Egg; n. pej,
> A white person who acts more Asian than a white person."
> _Damn! That egg needs to stop trying to eat spaghetti with chopsticks!”)_
> _Would you say _我不是一个鸡蛋 or我不是鸡蛋?!?!
> Thank you!
> xx


Haha! I've never heard of that. I'm of mixed heritage, i.e. my mother is black and father is white. So I guess I would be 皮蛋 

我是皮蛋!


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