Eight Phrases to Teach Your Buddies that Don't Speak Mandarin on National Pengyou Day
Hey, we know not all of you are Americans out there, but if you see a lot of Chinese in your English social media streams today and tomorrow, that's because November 20 is National Pengyou Day in the United States.
The American campaign, organized by the Beijing-based Project Pengyou, is designed to get more Americans to learn Chinese in an era where ten times as many Chinese study in the US than Americans study in China (and don't get us started about the imbalance of English-speaking Chinese vs Mandarin-speaking Americans).
Arranged in conjunction with the US State Department's International Education Week, National Pengyou Day encourages Americans who are studying Chinese to fill their social media streams with the hashtag "We are all #Pengyou."
Option A is to simply post a photo of themselves with their Chinese pals and Option B is to post a photo of themselves teaching a friend a Mandarin word or phrase.
Hell, even if you're not an American, this is something you can get in on.
For fear of the internet getting cluttered with too many "ni hao!"s, below are some choice selections we recommend teaching to your friends that will result in much more impressive sharing. Don't forget to tag it with: "I taught (name of person) (word) in Chinese! We are all #Pengyou #NameofSchool” (if you're not in school, aw heck just tag it with #thebeijinger).
么么哒 – (me me da) – simulating the sound of a kiss, simlar to "mwah" in English, to show your fondness for a person or express appreciation
牛逼 (niu bi) "the cow's vagina" – Awesome (because, why not?)
屌炸天 (diao zha tian) "dick explodes to the sky" – Awesome (because, obviously)
瓷器 (ciqi) "porcelain" – Buddy or good friend
草泥马 (cao ni ma) "grass mud horse" – A humorous homophone for the phrase "f*** your mother"
雾霾 (wumai) – Smog
社会主义万岁 (shehui zhuyi wansui) – Long live socalism!
跟丫死磕 (gen ya si ke) – F*** those bastards no matter what it takes! (use this only when cheering your sports team on)
Pengyou Day's third element is attending one of dozens of activities organized at schools that teach Mandarin, but we here in Beijing are at a loss to get involved, as they are all in the US (a full list can be found here).
For more information, visit: pengyouday.com.
Images: pengyouday.com
