# 猿辅导



## dojibear

I am reading an article about the government in China regulating the off-campus teaching industry. It has this sentence:

国家市场监督管理总局对包括作业帮和猿辅导在内的15家校外培训机构给予共计3650万元的罚款。

I assume 作业帮 means "homework assistance". But what is 猿辅导? The translation says "ape tutoring".


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## ovaltine888

They are the brand names of two of the most popular tutoring mobile apps in China.

猿辅导 is indeed Ape Tutoring, as it uses an ape as the brand mascot.


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## dojibear

Ape Tutoring. 明白。谢谢。


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## SimonTsai

'猿輔導' sounds extremely odd. I'd have been totally perplexed if I hadn't read post 2.

I don't know what '作業幫' actually is. I would suppose the character '幫' to refer to a group (as in '竹聯幫', '四海幫' and '四人幫').


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## Oswinw011

李鑫：为什么公司名称要叫猿辅导？体现进化的理念
The boss intended the corporate name to include the notion of evolution that people evolve in the process of learning and that is evidenced by apes.


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## ovaltine888

SimonTsai said:


> '猿輔導' sounds extremely odd. I'd have been totally perplexed if I hadn't read post 2.
> 
> I don't know what '作業幫' actually is. I would suppose the character '幫' to refer to a group (as in '竹聯幫', '四海幫' and '四人幫').


I'm a little surprised that you as a native speaker could not see through the puns in these two words.

They are both brand names of tutoring companies, just like Netflix or YouTube, seemingly nonsense at first glance, but have something implied underneath.

You are right about 作业帮 which has a sense of "group" or "gang" in 帮, while it could be also understood as “帮作业” (helping with homework).

猿辅导 is actually derived from 辅导员 I believe, which means "counsellor" at school, and it can be extended to be a "tutor/teacher".


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## henter

猿辅导 or Yuanfudao is  a tech upstart that offers education tools for online learning.   Its products are mainly used by Chinese students， I suppose. Forbes once mentioned this Chinese tech darling.


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## henter

SimonTsai said:


> '猿輔導' sounds extremely odd. I'd have been totally perplexed if I hadn't read post 2.
> 
> I don't know what '作業幫' actually is. I would suppose the character '幫' to refer to a group (as in '竹聯幫', '四海幫' and '四人幫').


  作业帮 or Zuoyebang is another online education startup.


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## SuperXW

SimonTsai said:


> '猿輔導' sounds extremely odd. I'd have been totally perplexed if I hadn't read post 2.
> 
> I don't know what '作業幫' actually is. I would suppose the character '幫' to refer to a group (as in '竹聯幫', '四海幫' and '四人幫').


As a native speaker, you should at least be able to understand that they are 培训机构 names according to the context. Even though you are unfamiliar with everything in Mainland, you shouldn't be "totally perplexed" as there are all kinds of company names in the world...


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## SimonTsai

ovaltine888 said:


> 作业帮 [...] could be also understood as “帮作业” (helping with homework).


I have actually guessed that and the brand name '作業幫' is fine by me. I said I didn't know what it is because I haven't heard of the company, so I can't really be sure. And I commented on the character '幫' so as to help @dojibear with what it actually means, in its basic sense, which is not homework assistance.


SuperXW said:


> As a native speaker, you should at least be able to understand that they are 培训机构 names according to the context.


I did know from the context that 猿輔導 is a 培訓機構, but the character '猿' is still very perplexing. Believe it or not, I thought of it as a place where apes (and maybe monkeys as well) get trained as requested by their owners. (That sounds extraordinarily exotic, doesn't it? But that's exactly what was in my mind.)


ovaltine888 said:


> I'm a little surprised that you as a native speaker could not see through the puns [....] 猿辅导 is actually derived from 辅导员 I believe,


Oh, now you say it, there may be one, and yes, I didn't notice it at all.

Are you ready to be surprised even more? My second guess was that 猿輔導 is a place where apes are the mentors of someone so that '猿' is the subject and that '輔導' is the verb. (The idea is unparallelably alien, absurd. Now you realise why I was confused.)


> just like Netflix or YouTube, seemingly nonsense at first glance, but have something implied underneath.


Their meanings are quite intuitive, I would say. YouTube is your tube (in the sense of 'television', for which I would prefer to say 'box' instead) and Netflix is flicks on the Internet.


Oswinw011 said:


> The boss intended the corporate name to include the notion of evolution [...] that is evidenced by apes.


So it serves as an adverb with '輔導' being the verb or an adjective with '輔導' being a gerund?


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## Oswinw011

SimonTsai said:


> So it serves as an adverb with '輔導' being the verb or an adjective with '輔導' being a gerund?


I understand it to be 猿（名词）+辅导（职业）。Like 狐狸医生，狗管家，兔司机。


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## SimonTsai

So there as you see it, '猿' is an attributive noun and '輔導' is short for '輔導員'.

But then it means that apes are our mentors. Why should we learn from apes in order to evolve?


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## SuperXW

……大部分新兴c端互联网企业起名重点都是有新意，让人记住，选个有趣的动物，年轻人喜欢……选择的语素最好让人能和业务关联起来，但又有点不符合传统，这样就记得了……
“狐狸医生”你觉得“医生”是名词，那么“狐狸问诊”“快狗打车”“飞猪旅行”“蚂蚁金服”……这些和“猿辅导”类似吧？
“搜狐”“搜狗”都是十多年前的名字了，也不符合语法逻辑啊，但这种名字还新鲜么……？


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## dojibear

ovaltine888 said:


> 猿辅导 is actually derived from 辅导员


It's a pun (双关语)! Both 员 and 猿 are pronounced "yuan2". But I did not notice this, until ovaltine888 told me.


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## ovaltine888

SimonTsai said:


> So there as you see it, '猿' is an attributive noun and '輔導' is short for '輔導員'.
> 
> But then it means that apes are our mentors. Why should we learn from apes in order to evolve?



Never mind the "evolution" concept, which is merely a subjective annotation of the founder. I don't see it worth discussing.

I think both 作业帮 and 猿辅导 are just wordplays by changing the word orders for distinctive brand names to catch eyeballs.

In my opinion, 猿辅导 was initially inspired by 辅导员 as I mentioned above. If you check out its website, the company also employs an ape character as the mascot, named 小猿. After changing the word order, the name sounds like Ape's Tutoring. You may also find something similar elsewhere like 王老师小课堂 (Mr Wang's Class). So here, 辅导 is the tutoring service they are offering, and 猿 is just the mascot name as a "trademark",  just like McDonald's (Hamburgers).


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## Oswinw011

ovaltine888 said:


> Never mind the "evolution" concept, which is merely a subjective annotation of the founder. I don't see it worth discussing.


It could be possible that "猿辅导 was initially inspired by 辅导员", but as I scrolled down the webpage I found 猿辅导、小猿搜题、小猿口算、猿题库。It seems that apes do catch the CEO's fancy. So I gather they first figured out the apes then the 猿辅导, in the similar way Jack Ma named the semiconductor company after the honey badger--ping tou ge。 Anyway, there's no point splitting hairs here.


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## SimonTsai

SuperXW said:


> 那么 “狐狸问诊” “快狗打车” “飞猪旅行” “蚂蚁金服”…… 这些和 “猿辅导” 类似吧？


I haven't heard of any of them except 快狗打車, and I thought 螞蟻金服 is a company that makes luxurious attire; it was not until I googled it that I realised '金服' is short for '金融服務'.

It seems that it's a common business practice in the mainland to have an animal in their brand names. Now China is thriving, I guess I will have to get used to this, although I'm not into the practice.


> “搜狐” “搜狗” 都是十多年前的名字了，也不符合语法逻辑啊，但这种名字还新鲜么……？


I think of these two as structurally different names and wouldn't be so confused (as I was in this case) if I knew that they help people with online searches. (I would take '搜狐' to suggest '獵奇' considering 狐仙 and 狐妖, and '搜狗' to suggest '獵犬'.)


ovaltine888 said:


> [...] like 王老师小课堂 (Mr Wang's Class). So here [...] 猿 is just the mascot name as a "trademark",


That explains everything. Thanks!


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## SuperXW

SimonTsai said:


> I think of these two as structurally different names and wouldn't be so confused (as I was in this case) if I knew that they help people with online searches. (I would take '搜狐' to suggest '獵奇' considering 狐仙 and 狐妖, and '搜狗' to suggest '獵犬'.)


So you can accept "search fox" but not "fox search"? They are just equally illogical...
猎奇就说猎奇，猎犬就叫猎犬，搜狐/搜狗我只能想到搜索一只狐狸、一条狗……
By the way, the sub-brands of 猿辅导 includes 猿题库/小猿搜题/小猿口算/猿编程, otherwise it would become 题库猿/搜题小猿/口算猿/编程猿...Maybe even more confusing.
Anyway, read more brand names and I think we'll get used to them.


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## ovaltine888

SuperXW said:


> So you can accept "search fox" but not "fox search"? They are just equally illogical...


Hahaha, I think Simon is trying to understand all these by instinct, but there is more to dig into the history of the internet if you really want to get to the bottom. Simon is likely too young to possess the dust-laden background knowledge back in the 20th century.

The name 搜狐 is actually inspired by 雅虎 (Yahoo.com), the dominating search engine at the time while Google was yet to be founded. Apparently, 雅虎 is simply a transliteration of Yahoo without much logical sense. 搜狐 (sohu.com), on the other hand, is obviously a copycat of 雅虎 in terms of brand naming, but it is infused with the implication of "searching" furthermore.

I reckon that it may be the earliest vogue that influences the way the later emerging Chinese internet companies name their brands, including 猿辅导.


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## SimonTsai

SuperXW said:


> So you can accept "search fox" but not "fox search"? They are just equally illogical...


Oh, I said that they are structually different simply to suggest that as I see it, '搜狐' is a verb phrase where '狐' is the object while '搜狗' is a noun phrase where '狗' is the head.

What makes '搜狗' and '搜狐' as well as '飛豬旅行' less confusing than '猿輔導' as a brand name as far as I am concerned is that the animals included can be somehow related to their business. For example, I feel that the name '飛豬旅行' suggests a strong transport capability: Hogs are weighty, but they can manage to take them to the sky and anywhere you want them to be.


ovaltine888 said:


> Hahaha, I think Simon is trying to understand all these by instinct, but there is more to dig into


You are right that I can't help but guess what the implication is, but that's natural, isn't it?

Still, I find '猿輔導' as a brand name a little bit awkward but now I know it was named so simply because the company has an ape as its mascot, I won't be confused anymore. (I wouldn't expect an ape to give lessons in abstract algebra but if it did, I guess I'd think of it as a friendly, intelligent alien in disguise. )


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## SuperXW

你怎么不想“搜什么狐狸？”“猪能飞起来？”“旅行的人都成猪了？”“打车的人都成狗了？”（快狗这个名字就确实遭到了司机抵制。）“金服和蚂蚁有什么关系？”……“猿辅导”和这些比没有任何特别之处……


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## ovaltine888

SuperXW said:


> 你怎么不想“搜什么狐狸？”“猪能飞起来？”“旅行的人都成猪了？”“打车的人都成狗了？”（快狗这个名字就确实遭到了司机抵制。）“金服和蚂蚁有什么关系？”……“猿辅导”和这些比没有任何特别之处……


哈哈哈，快狗被抵制了，为什么飞猪没有，确实值得研究一下


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## dojibear

SimonTsai said:


> For example, I feel that the name '飛豬旅行' suggests a strong transport capability: Hogs are weighty, but they can manage to take them to the sky and anywhere you want them to be.


English has many expressions where "pigs fly" means "impossible". For example, "I will do it when pigs can fly." means "I will *never *do it." This idea has been common in English for 400 years.

I think the company name 飛豬旅行 reflects this idea. Perhaps it is a joke.


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## lightheart

dojibear said:


> It's a pun (双关语)! Both 员 and 猿 are pronounced "yuan2". But I did not notice this, until ovaltine888 told me.


Well it’s surely not a pun here. First, the position of ”yuan” in the two phrases are totally different, making it kind of impossible to relate them; second, people in mainland China usually think of “辅导员” as a person in college who is in charge of students’ affairs, not a tutor for K12 education. Anyway “猿辅导“ and “辅导员” are phonologically and semantically unrelated, which surely excludes the possibility of “猿辅导” being a pun.

But interestingly, “猿(ape)” is sometimes used as a pun for “员(practitioner)”. For example, it’s common to refer to a “程序员(computer programmer)“ as a “程序猿”, and sometimes people even use an image of monkeys to denote them. Basically, if you put ”猿” at the end of a word, it’s legitimate to think of it as a pun(but not when it’s at the beginning, as in “猿辅导“）


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## ovaltine888

lightheart said:


> Well it’s surely not a pun here. First, the position of ”yuan” in the two phrases are totally different, making it kind of impossible to relate them; second, people in mainland China usually think of “辅导员” as a person in college who is in charge of students’ affairs, not a tutor for K12 education. Anyway “猿辅导“ and “辅导员” are phonologically and semantically unrelated, which surely excludes the possibility of “猿辅导” being a pun.
> 
> But interestingly, “猿(ape)” is sometimes used as a pun for “员(practitioner)”. For example, it’s common to refer to a “程序员(computer programmer)“ as a “程序猿”, and sometimes people even use an image of monkeys to denote them. Basically, if you put ”猿” at the end of a word, it’s legitimate to think of it as a pun(but not when it’s at the beginning, as in “猿辅导“）


哎唷，为什么非斩钉截铁地surely not了呢...
开头多写一句in my humble opinion, 表述中多用may，这样说话就不行么？

In fact, such wordplay in Chinese brands and slogans is very common--万家乐，乐万家；中国平安，平安中国.
In Chinese, this rhetorical device is called 回环.


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## lightheart

ovaltine888 said:


> 哎唷，为什么非斩钉截铁地surely not了呢...
> 开头多写一句in my humble opinion, 表述中多用may，这样说话就不行么？
> 
> In fact, such wordplay in Chinese brands and slogans is very common--万家乐，乐万家；中国平安，平安中国


可能是我说得太绝对了一些，我只是想表达一般我们不这么理解（至少我问周围的朋友都不会这么理解），而且问到猿辅导系列产品的“猿”字何来的时候，官方的解释也并不是“员”字一说，再就是“猿辅导”没有打出过“猿辅导，辅导员”之类的口号（大陆这边叫辅导员一般也是指大学负责思政，学生工作的人员，而不是中小学的辅导老师的含义）。我措辞或许不应该那么绝对。


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## hx1997

我也没从猿辅导联想到辅导员过，直到我看了这个贴子……（没有说不能这么理解的意思）


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## Youngfun

猿 is familiar enough for Mainlanders as a pun, since 程序员 is often written as 程序猿
Similarly to 工程师 - 攻城狮，教授 - 教兽


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## SuperXW

Youngfun said:


> 猿 is familiar enough for Mainlanders as a pun, since 程序员 is often written as 程序猿
> Similarly to 工程师 - 攻城狮，教授 - 教兽


We are not talking about 猿 itself, but 猿辅导.
Some native speakers don't see 猿辅导 a pun of 辅导员, as the word order has changed.


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## ovaltine888

SuperXW said:


> We are not talking about 猿 itself, but 猿辅导.
> Some native speakers don't see 猿辅导 a pun of 辅导员, as the word order has changed.


Sometimes it is very subtle. Different people may see it in different ways. It is also the appeal of wordplay.


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## nightowl666

SimonTsai said:


> '猿輔導' sounds extremely odd. I'd have been totally perplexed if I hadn't read post 2.
> 
> I don't know what '作業幫' actually is. I would suppose the character '幫' to refer to a group (as in '竹聯幫', '四海幫' and '四人幫').



You live in Taiwan, not familiar with  some particular usage in mainland China. '作業幫' literally means "Homework Help. " Maybe it has double meaning. But the meaning of a group is less articulated here. The Chinese language used across the Taiwan Strait has produced different connotations for its speakers due to long term isolation. For example, you would say 交流管道 in Taiwan, but on the mainland, we say 交流渠道。 Sydney is translated in Taiwan into 雪梨， but for mainlanders, they say 悉尼。 Hope my comment will be of use to you.


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