| Welcome to Fun and Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com! |
| 嗨大家好，我是李殷如. (Hài dà jiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| Hi everyone, Yinru Li here. |
| Have you ever been confused by words or expressions used on social media? |
| In China, there are billions of active users on major social media sites, such as 微信 (wēi xìn), "Wechat," 微博 (wēi bó), "Weibo," and 抖音 (dǒu yīn), "Tiktok." And every single day there are new words and expressions being created on each of these platforms. |
| In this lesson, we're going to take a closer look at some of the most popular expressions on the Internet! |
| We’ll start with C位 C (wèi). |
| The letter C stands for the English word "center." And 位 means "spot." C位 essentially means "center spot." |
| C位 (enunciated). |
| In China, people who are paid the most respect are always invited to sit or stand in the center of a group. This group of highly respected people includes the teacher of a class, the president of an organization, or the oldest member of a family. |
| On the Internet, C位 became a popular phrase based on a viral video that got posted on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. |
| In this video, female celebrities fight for center stage while they take a group picture. |
| Their action of "fighting for the center spot" is described as 抢C. |
| 抢 (qiǎng) is "to fight for" or "to snatch" |
| C位 (wèi) is "center spot" |
| 抢C位 is "to fight for the center spot" |
| Another popular expression on the Internet with C位 is |
| C位出道 C (wèi chūdào). |
| 出道 is mostly used for entertainers when making their first public performance or starting their career. 出道. |
| Together, it’s C位出道 (enunciated), meaning "getting the center spot right from the beginning." |
| The next time you see your friend post a picture of him or herself as the center of a group, you can add the comment, |
| C位出道. |
| I’m sure your friend will love it! |
| 锦鲤 |
| 锦鲤 (jǐnlǐ) is a kind of carp that is referred to as "koi." They're fish with gold, red, or white colors that are kept in ponds for decorative purposes. 锦鲤 (enunciated). |
| On the Internet, 锦鲤 has become a symbol of good luck. Things that have brought people luck, or even public figures who got famous because of their luck, are considered 锦鲤. |
| You may have seen a picture of 锦鲤 on the Internet with the caption, |
| 转发这条锦鲤求好运. (Zhuǎnfā zhè tiáo jǐnlǐ qiú hǎoyùn.) |
| "Repost this koi for good luck." |
| 转发这条锦鲤求好运 (enunciated). |
| But does reposting a picture of 锦鲤 really bring you luck? |
| 我也不知道. "I’m not sure either." |
| 杠精 |
| On the Internet, as well as in real life, there are always people who seem to enjoy arguing with and picking on other people’s |
| opinions. |
| Whatever the opinion is, they just like to argue for the sake of arguing — probably in order to feel that they’ve outsmarted everyone else. These kinds of people, in Chinese Internet slang, are called 杠精 (gàng jīng). |
| In English, a similar slang expression is "Internet troll." |
| 杠 comes from the phrase 抬杠 (tái gàng), which also means "to disagree with whatever is being said." 抬杠. |
| And 精 is some sort of spirit or goblin which is smart but evil. In some senses, it’s equivalent to a "troll" in English slang. |
| 杠精 (enunciated). |
| You can say 他就是个杠精。(Tā jiùshì ge gàng jīng.) |
| "He's literally an Internet troll." It can also translate as |
| "He simply likes to argue." |
| 他就是个杠精。 (enunciated). |
| 佛系 |
| 佛系 (fó xì) means "Buddhist style." |
| It describes the behavior or personality of not caring or worrying about anything. It’s the opposite of being intense, driven, or competitive. 佛系 (enunciated). |
| 佛系青年, "Buddhist-style youth" or "Buddhist-style young people" respond to everything with three phrases. |
| 都行，都可以，没关系 (dōu xíng, dōu kěyǐ, méiguānxi), |
| meaning "It’s all fine, it’s all okay, it doesn’t matter." In other words, |
| "Just let it go, leave it be. Whatever is fine with me." |
| 都行，都可以，没关系。(Enunciated). |
| Phrases like 佛系 seem to have emerged in response to the extremely competitive and stressful environment that young people face these days. |
| Who doesn’t want to relax and forget one’s worries after a long day of work? |
| 谁不想佛系一下。 |
| (Shéi bù xiǎng fó xì yíīxià?) |
| 小姐姐 |
| 小姐姐 (xiǎo jiějie) is a term for cute young women — in most cases, cute young women whose names you don’t know. |
| 小姐姐 originally means "little older sister." |
| 小 is "little.” |
| 姐姐 is what you call a girl who's older than you, whether she's your own older sister, or any girl who appears to be a bit older than you. |
| 小姐姐 (enunciated). |
| Suppose you see a picture of a cute woman on the Internet, either on Weibo or your friend’s post on Wechat, and you want to make a trendy comment on how pretty this woman is. You can type |
| 这个小姐姐好漂亮。(Zhège xiǎo jiějie hǎo piàoliang.) |
| "This young lady is so pretty." |
| 这个小姐姐好漂亮。(Enunciated). |
| Throughout the years, a number of Internet slang terms have been integrated into the modern Chinese language. Some of them have even become entries in formal dictionaries. |
| Here are some phrases that originated on the Internet and are now used in daily language. |
| 粉丝 (fěnsī) is originally a term for "glass noodles." Nowadays, it’s being used to mean "fans," as in "fans of Ariana Grande" because the English pronunciation of "fans" is so close to 粉丝 in Chinese. |
| 小三 (xiǎosān), which literally means "little three," is a nickname for "mistress." A mistress is the third person in an otherwise two-person relationship; therefore, the term became 小三. |
| 卖萌 (màiméng), which literally means "to sell one’s cuteness," |
| has nothing to do with selling. It’s more like "showing off one’s cuteness." It’s often used to describe children, pets, and girls. 卖萌. |
| 闪婚 (shǎnhūn) is a combination of 闪,"flash," and 婚, "marriage" or "to get married." Together, it’s used to say, "to get married fast" or "a fast marriage." 闪婚 (enunciated). |
| 土豪 (tǔ háo) refers to people with lots of money. In many cases, 土豪 are from rural areas and undereducated. And so, they have money but no class. |
| 学霸 (xué bà) literally means "academic bully." They're "bullying" their fellow students by always getting the best grades. They don’t give anyone else a chance. They’re straight-A students who focus on studying hard. |
| Unlike the word, "nerd," in English, which is a person who's often made fun of, 学霸 has the connotation of being heroic — like a super student. |
| Let’s recap the Internet slang expressions we learned in this lesson with a quiz. |
| What's used to refer to something that brings people good luck? Hint, it's a kind of fish. |
| 锦鲤. 锦鲤. |
| People who like to argue for the sake of arguing are called…? |
| 杠精. 杠精 |
| A lifestyle that involves sitting back and being carefree and relaxed is…? |
| 佛系. 佛系. |
| What would you call a friend who's a straight-A student? |
| 学霸 学霸. |
| Thank you for watching and learning with ChineseClass101.com! See you in the next lesson. 再见！ |
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