Comments on: 13 o'clock

By: spoid

spoid — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:38:52 +0000

Often used or not, from what a shanghainese friend tells me it’s not that polite…? Actually she says it wouldn’t be far from calling a girl “bitch” and that it’s really not a nice thing to say. That just sounds a little different from “mild” and “cute”… Did anybody else make that experience? Maybe she’s just an exception (haha).

By: John

John — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:24:16 +0000

Ben,

I won't speak for 二百五, because as I mentioned, it's just not used much around here, so I'm not as familiar with it.

As for 十三点, I hear 你怎么这么十三点 the most. It can be abbreviated to 十三 too. Just Google/Baidu it for online usage examples.

By: theAdmiral

theAdmiral — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:45:07 +0000

@Ben – In Shangainese it’s prounounced “si say di”. si is shi, say is san, di is dian.

By: krovvy

krovvy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:16:03 +0000

One of the bad things about learning Beijing Mandarin is the cultural blandness it covers everything with. They teach you expressions that only work in Beijing, because Beijing is the center of the country, and heck, those people out in the sticks are just hicks with no culture, right?

By: TL

TL — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:58:31 +0000

The T-shirt is too subtle to me, I wouldn’t have connected the dots. Personally, I think it would be a shock to the system for Chinese to see someone wearing a T-shirt reads “属狗”. Or better yet, to see a couple wearing matching T-shirts, the guy’s reads “老不死的”,the lady’s reads“老婆子”。

By: Micah Sittig

Micah Sittig — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:34:07 +0000

it’s often used in flirting (and most often comes out of the girl’s mouth)

Personal experience?

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:24:58 +0000

Oops,

I meant @ Ben.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:24:05 +0000

@ Matt,

Yeah, it's said in SH. Actually, I never knew what it was in Mandarin, but just learned it as a Shanghainese way to 骂人。 It sounds something like, "Nong zi say a tee".

By: paperscissors

paperscissors — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:52:36 +0000

I’ve had multiple Shanghainese friends explain it to me as the “thirteenth nipple” on a pig….as in the most a pig has in a litter is about 12 piglets, and if the sow has 13 nipples then the 13th is “useless”

By: ChinaMatt

ChinaMatt — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:31:01 +0000

I’ve never heard this one (of course, I’m in Shenzhen, which might explain it). If someone had said that to me, I’d probably think I was hearing things wrong and would require a beer or two.