Comments on: shanghai’d: part 3, the job http://cluebyfour.com/2009/09/shanghaid-part-3-the-job/ like a 2x4 of awesome upside the head Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:15:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: adnoto http://cluebyfour.com/2009/09/shanghaid-part-3-the-job/comment-page-1/#comment-1473 adnoto Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:00:09 +0000 http://cluebyfour.com/?p=935#comment-1473 "The expression nèi gè in Mandarin, meaning “that one,” gets used a lot… it seems like it’s more or less a throwaway word when you’re referring to something and the other person knows what you’re talking about. It kind of gets slurred in fast speech and it kept cracking me up, because out of the jumble of syllables and tones I kept hearing neige neige neige, and it sounds like all these Chinese people are calling each other the N-word. Felt like I never left my neighborhood." Really funny. Exactly. When I first met my girlfriend and her friends I told them to be careful using nèi gè. They were confused but I explained. A couple of them turned beet red upon hearing the explanation and were genuinely worried that they were going to offend and/or get themselves into trouble as they realized they use the term excessively. As for the usage, I always thought of it as similar to the way some, if not all, of our sports figures us the term "you know" during interviews. “The expression nèi gè in Mandarin, meaning “that one,” gets used a lot… it seems like it’s more or less a throwaway word when you’re referring to something and the other person knows what you’re talking about. It kind of gets slurred in fast speech and it kept cracking me up, because out of the jumble of syllables and tones I kept hearing neige neige neige, and it sounds like all these Chinese people are calling each other the N-word. Felt like I never left my neighborhood.”

Really funny. Exactly. When I first met my girlfriend and her friends I told them to be careful using nèi gè. They were confused but I explained. A couple of them turned beet red upon hearing the explanation and were genuinely worried that they were going to offend and/or get themselves into trouble as they realized they use the term excessively.

As for the usage, I always thought of it as similar to the way some, if not all, of our sports figures us the term “you know” during interviews.

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