The rules of etiquette in Chinese culture state that compliments must be rejected. Therefore, if someone tells you that you speak Mandarin well, you should reply, “Not at all, my Mandarin is very poor.”
A good way to say this is with the Chinese phrase "mǎmǎ hǔhǔ" which means, "so, so" or "mediocre". Phonetically it is 'mah mah hoo hoo'.
Mǎmǎ hǔhǔ is made up of four Chinese characters: 馬馬虎虎. The first two characters each mean “horse” and the second two characters each mean “tiger.”
So why does "horse horse tiger tiger" mean "mediocre"? It’s neither one nor the other – it’s just so-so, mediocre.
3 comments:
That's fun. Thanks for a chuckle! Praying for you guys as you encounter this kind of stuff all the time and become more and more resilient.
THAT is hilarious!
very cool!!
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