# Don't take it personally



## ouzhantekin

大家好，
我想問一下，英文的 "don't take it personally" 華語怎麼說？
例如： That's how he treats everyone, don't take it personally.

我在網絡查了不少時間，找到了 "人格化"，不過我又不對勁的感覺。

謝謝你們


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## stellari

As far as I'm concerned, the English sentence 'don't take it personally' talks about how the receiver should interpret the intention of the deliverer and thus implicitly suggest the 'non-personal' intention of the deliverer. In Mandarin, however, I believe it's the other way around: It's more natural to explicitly describe the intention of the deliverer, such as 'I/He didn't mean to target at you personally.' For your example sentence, I would say:

他对所有的人都是这样，不是针对你（一）个人的。(he treats everyone in this way, (and he was) not targeting at you. )

If you feel like you really need to reassure the receiver by explicitly telling him how to take it. You can probably add some soothing statements at the end of the sentence above, such as '不要往心里去' (don't take it to heart).


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## ouzhantekin

stellari said:


> As far as I'm concerned, the English sentence 'don't take it personally' talks about how the receiver should interpret the intention of the deliverer and thus implicitly suggest the 'non-personal' intention of the deliverer. In Mandarin, however, I believe it's the other way around: It's more natural to explicitly describe the intention of the deliverer, such as 'I/He didn't mean to target at you personally.' For your example sentence, I would say:
> 
> 他对所有的人都是这样，不是针对你（一）个人的。(he treats everyone in this way, (and he was) not targeting at you. )
> 
> If you feel like you really need to reassure the receiver by explicitly telling him how to take it. You can probably add some soothing statements at the end of the sentence above, such as '不要往心里去' (don't take it to heart).



我可不可以说：跟个人没什么关系？


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## xiaolijie

> 跟个人没什么关系？


This doesn't seem to make much sense in Chinese to me 



			
				stellari said:
			
		

> As far as I'm concerned, the English sentence 'don't take it personally' talks about how the receiver should interpret the intention of the deliverer and thus implicitly suggest the 'non-personal' intention of the deliverer. In Mandarin, however, I believe it's the other way around: It's more natural to explicitly describe the intention of the deliverer, such as 'I/He didn't mean to target at you personally.'


This is a very good observation of how the points of view are switched in the two languages!


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## ouzhantekin

Well I thought since we can say, 這件事跟我沒有關係， we could also say "跟個人沒有關係" . I would love to hear a native speaker's point of view on this.


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## xiaolijie

ouzhantekin said:


> Well I thought since we can say, 這件事跟我沒有關係， we could also say "跟個人沒有關係" . I would love to hear a native speaker's point of view on this.


From your reaction to what I said, I could reasonably say "Don't take it personally!" but I could not possibly  say "跟个人没什么关系" and expect people to make sense of that. I hope you've got the point


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## ouzhantekin

xiaolijie said:


> From your reaction to what I said, I could reasonably say "Don't take it personally!" but I could not possibly  say "跟个人没什么关系" and expect people to make sense of that. I hope you've got the point



haha  did I sound (look, in this case .p) aggressive? Sorry for that, I had no such intention. I just wanted get a native's opinion on that. Besides I have been following your threads and questions from time to time and I know how knowledgeable you are as to Chinese. Sorry if I offended you. I mean it.

Back to my question, I don't know, maybe just because we could say something like that in Turkish prevents me from thinking objectively but it sounds OK to me. :s  .


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## Lucia_zwl

I think stallri's explanation is brillant! I would also say 不是针对你（一）个人的 or 不是冲(chong4)你（一）个人的.

Xiaolijie is also right that 跟个人没什么关系 doesn't make much sense in your context. You could say 跟*你*没什么关系, but, for me, it's more like "it has nothing to do with you" or even "it's none of your business" in some contexts.


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## ouzhantekin

Lucia_zwl said:


> I think stallri's explanation is brillant! I would also say 不是针对你（一）个人的 or 不是冲(chong4)你（一）个人的.
> 
> Xiaolijie is also right that 跟个人没什么关系 doesn't make much sense in your context. You could say 跟*你*没什么关系, but, for me, it's more like "it has nothing to do with you" or even "it's none of your business" in some contexts.



OK. I got you point ,) Thanks a lot for your help.


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## BODYholic

ouzhantekin said:


> 我想問一下，英文的 "don't take it personally" 華語怎麼說？
> 例如： That's how he treats everyone, don't take it personally.



他就是那副德性，你别放在心上。


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## SuperXW

I believe the following translation is the most authentic and widely acceptable one, you should learn this:

It's not personal. = 不是针对（某人）的。
Don't take it personally = 那不是针对你的。

针对 express the same feeling in Chinese, just, it's a verb.



BODYholic said:


> 他就是那副德性，你别放在心上。


Although the meaning is similar, I would say this translation is a little bit far away from the original text, while we have other translations more honest to the text.


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## ouzhantekin

SuperXW said:


> I believe the following translation is the most authentic and widely acceptable one, you should learn this:
> 
> It's not personal. = 不是针对（某人）的。
> Don't take it personally = 那不是针对你的。
> 
> 针对 express the same feeling in Chinese, just, it's a verb.
> 
> 
> Although the meaning is similar, I would say this translation is a little bit far away from the original text, while we have other translations more honest to the text.



I took a note of it. Thanks a lot SuperXW.


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## Wesley To

ouzhantekin said:


> 我可不可以说：跟个人没什么关系？


另类参考：我自己也会这样说。


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## walawala

I  think a more formal and common phrase for "don't take it personally" is 对事不对人


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## SuperXW

walawala said:


> I think a more formal and common phrase for "don't take it personally" is 对事不对人



 Good suggestion!
不过和英文比较起来，主语要变换一下。


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## ouzhantekin

walawala said:


> I  think a more formal and common phrase for "don't take it personally" is 对事不对人



 Thank you! This is of much help!


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## BODYholic

ouzhantekin said:


> 大家好，
> 我想問一下，英文的 "don't take it personally" 華語怎麼說？
> 例如： That's how he treats everyone, don't take it personally.
> 
> 我在網絡查了不少時間，找到了 "人格化"，不過我又不對勁的感覺。
> 
> 謝謝你們



Hi ouzhantekin,

I just like to share my views on the suggestions given by the others which may be valid but do not, in my opinion, fit quite aptly to the English words. 

Firstly, "(you) don't take it personally" are words of consolation, directed at the immediate recipient (you). Whereas, "不是针对你 / 不是冲你一个人的 / 对事不对人" are words of explanation. They give reasons/excuses why the person treated your immediate recipient.

And then, logically speaking, you may still comfort someone with the line "don't take it personally" even the person was verbally-abused by someone who did it intentionally. 

Example,
A is an a** hole to B and only B. Otherwise, A is an uber friendly guy to everyone else. B has just gotten another load of shit from A again.

In English, you may say "I wonder why that jerk always treats you like a piece of dirt. Anyway, relax and don't take it personally.".
You see, in this situation, A is really 针对 B. So you can't replace "don't take it personally" by any of the given suggestions.

My preference is still 别放在心上。Or in fact, any other generic models that offer words of comfort directly to the recipient. And that's the gist of "don't take it personally" which I guess, most people in this forum failed to get it.


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## ouzhantekin

Yes, exactly. That's what I thought in the beginning. All in all, that, say, rude person actually did direct what he said to our "poor victim".p However I, then, thought that maybe in Chinese it sounds all right.


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