只是开玩笑

kāi wán xiào

Just kidding

This is the perfect sentence to know when you make a joke in China. Why is that?

Why you need to know how to say “Just kidding”when you make a joke in China

We, western people, often use a kind of sarcastic humor or make jokes based on exaggeration. Imagine the situation when a Chinese friend makes you strange-looking chicken claws to eat (which don’t turn out to be sometimes you like) You may sarcastically say “wow, that was delicious, I could eat that at every dinner! I’ll take another plate!… ” but they will run to grab you another plate.

That’s the kind of joke that most of the time they won’t get, and will take it seriously instead. That’s where a good 只是 开玩笑! can be placed.

Chinese people are usually accustomed to a different kind of humor. Chinese humor can be pretty hard to get for us because it’s often based on linguistics, tones and wordplay. Also, they can look a lot more serious than Westerners when making jokes. See, they really like cold/black humor (冷笑话 – lěng xiào huà) said without any expression on their face. You could view Chinese humor as a more “serious” flavor of humor.

Another thing the Chinese are not entirely accustomed to doing is to make fun of themselves, whereas we often make self-deprecating comments, or don’t mind looking silly for the sake of a good laugh. The focus on ‘face’ and fear of being ridiculed can exclude them from an entire genre of humor.

So let your Chinese friends know you are joking by saying 只是 开玩笑!

If you must make a bad, crappy, ridiculously mean joke, just make sure you are close enough to your audience so that they won’t feel offended. Alright? And remember: 只是开玩笑 is your best friend when you make a joke in China and it falls flat!

So, remember: 只是开玩笑 is your best friend when you make a joke in China and it falls flat!

Source: Quora

The Nincha Team

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The post What do you say to people when you make a joke in China? appeared first on Ninchanese.

A hair-raising exams technique!

Ok, so this technique is sort of extreme. And not really what we recommend you should be doing to study! But as the first semester’s finals are looming near for Chinese students, some have taken to resorting to strange techniques to study. Or rather, to relieve the pressure a bit and relax during these stressful times. The girl in the picture was the first to show off this innovative but painful studying technique, which in turn inspired many other students to do the same! Who knows, maybe clothespins, shackles and smelly shoes really are the best way to stay focused and studying!

Inspired by a real chengyu

Maybe you’re wondering: Where on earth did the idea for this curious, albeit fake, study technique come from?  Well, from this very real Chengyu:

悬梁刺股 xuán liáng cì gǔ

A literal translation would be to tie one’s hair on the house beam and jab one’s side with an awl to keep oneself awake.

Character breakdown: “悬(xuán)” means “to hang”; “梁(liáng)” means the “house beam”; “刺 (cì) means “to pierce” and “股(gǔ)” means “legs”.

The meaning is slightly less literal and is “to grind away at one’s studies, to study tirelessly and assiduously…”, but hopefully without hurting oneself.

Talk about extreme! Guess at some point, this technique was really used?! While this chengyu isn’t really used anymore (its use has gotten really ironic and outdated…), it certainly continues to inspire Chinese students!

An obvious but real study tip

Fancy having to hurt yourself to make sure you don’t fall asleep by mistake! That’d be taking cramming too far, don’t you think? Here’s my (real but far less funny) study tip: take a few short naps from time to time (20 minutes tops!)! It’s simple but it works wonders and helps you stay refreshed while studying. In any case, we hope you never get driven to using such extreme techniques! And we promise we’ll teach you much more efficient Nincha techniques to learn Chinese on Ninchanese! No hair hanging for you! For those of you studying for exams right now, 加油 (jiā yóu)! Keep at it, it’s all worth it! Happy studying!

The Nincha Team

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