# ni3 zen3me zou3lu4 kan4 ye3 bu2kan4



## jinxnao

tamade!x  ni3 zen3me zou3lu4 kan4 ye3 bu2kan4  what does it mean?


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## kirsitn

I think it means "How can you walk on the street and look without seeing", but I'm not entirely sure that I've understood it correctly... 

Tamade is probably a swear word, someone else will have to translate that.


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## jinxnao

you are perfect! xie xie wei nide bangzhu! tongshi wo shi cong tuerqi wo jiao mete... wan an


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## Ripple.Z

kirsitn said:


> I think it means "How can you walk on the street and look without seeing", but I'm not entirely sure that I've understood it correctly...
> 
> Tamade is probably a swear word, someone else will have to translate that.


 
Hehe...you're right. It means something like "Oh, shit!"


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## icelus

jinxnao said:


> you are perfect! xie xie wei nide bangzhu! tongshi wo shi cong tuerqi wo jiao mete... wan an


 
xie xie ni de bangzhu! (no 'wei')

tongshi wo shi cong tuerqi lai de...('lai de' means come from, it's same as 'tong shi wo  lai zi tuerqi'. = and I come from tuerqi.)

Nice to meet you mete!


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## jinxnao

what does zi means here? FROM??


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## jinxnao

ALSO i dont want to say i thank your help but i want to say thank you for your help


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## Geysere

Yes, "lai zi" means "from" here. 
"look without seeing" sounds a bit strange, I would say "How come you don't watch your way!"


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## Geysere

"xie xie wei nide bangzhu" doesn't work. It's different from English. In chinese we just say "xie xie + sth."


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## fffa4lulua

ta1 ma3 de3, 他妈的, literally mean "his mom's (xxx)"


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## Mugi

Sounds like something a driver would yell out to a pedestrian not paying attention to where they're going. An equivalent colloquial English translation would be:
Jeez, watch where goin' dipsh*t!


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## Staarkali

jinxnao said:


> tongshi wo shi cong tuerqi wo jiao mete...


about tongshi,
if tongshi means tong2 shi4 同事，_colleague _I think it is totally acceptable to use 同志 tong2 zhi4 instead, which means _comrade_
if tongshi means tong2 shi2 同时，_meanwhile/at the same time_, I think this way of speaking belongs to certain languages only, and I have never heard something like this in Chinese (although there are probably some blank fillers in Chinese for a equivalent purpose)


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## AVim

Staarkali said:


> about tongshi,
> if tongshi means tong2 shi4 同事，_colleague _I think it is totally acceptable to use 同志 tong2 zhi4 instead, which means _comrade_



I never use "同志" to style people, although my grandma sometimes does.
"同志" is almost obsolete these days (esp among young people), cause  sometimes it can be misunderstood as "gay".


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## gazagoal

Staarkali said:


> about tongshi,
> if tongshi means tong2 shi4 同事，_colleague _I think it is totally acceptable to use 同志 tong2 zhi4 instead, which means _comrade_
> if tongshi means tong2 shi2 同时，_meanwhile/at the same time_, I think this way of speaking belongs to certain languages only, and I have never heard something like this in Chinese (although there are probably some blank fillers in Chinese for a equivalent purpose)



maybe he wanted to say 'p.s.' or 'by the way', only mixed 同时 with them.


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## Staarkali

AVim said:


> I never use "同志" to style people, although my grandma sometimes does.
> "同志" is almost obsolete these days (esp among young people), cause sometimes it can be misunderstood as "gay".


Actually, we might use it occasionally as to call colleagues or friends in France, because of its importance in former communist countries;
this is nothing but out of respect, meanwhile being a wink  to communist or formerly communist people (we used to have around 10% of total population prior to the events of 1989)

I understand it might have a completely different usage in China or Russia, each time I used it here, people find it very funny  ; I personally always liked the idea of the comrade (people being equal) 

I already heard about the _gay _meaning among youngsters, although I admit I failed to understand the etymology.


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## samanthalee

Staarkali said:


> I already heard about the _gay _meaning among youngsters, although I admit I failed to understand the etymology.



The etymology is quite unusual. It came from the 1st homosexual film festival in Hong Kong in 1989. The film festival was named the "Comrades Film Festival" "同志电影节". Derived from a quote attributed to Sun Yat-sen that went "The revolution isn't over. Comrades, we must persevere."(革命尚未成功，同志仍须努力).
This quote was more or less adopted as a slogan for the homosexual community in Hong Kong at that time.
One thing leads to another. "Comrades" in Cantonese took on a whole new meaning. Hong Kong in the early 90's was the leading force in Chinese pop culture, so this new meaning for "comrades" made it into the pop culture vocabulary and got translated into Mandarin when it reached Taiwan and from Taiwan to Singapore, Malaysia and other parts within the reach of Chinese pop culture.


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## Staarkali

quite interesting.. the evolution of words..


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