One day,a boy who speaks terrible english give his girlfriend a call,cuz his GF is busy with something,then her roommate pick up the phone.

when the boy got that this is not his GF speaking,he said:How are u!
The next day,he call his GF again,and also is the roommate pick up the phone ,this time he surprise and said:how old are u!

Anybody here got what does it mean?try to translate it in chinese WORD BY WORD, hope you guys happy with learning english here.




Elaine.Dai

 

The Chinese Mean for "How are you? "is “why are you"“How old are you "is "why still are you 

Quoting from [sales002]:

The Chinese Mean for "How are you? "is “why are you" “How old are you "is "why still are you 

So, I am English and don't get this joke at all. Here's a joke in English about a Chinese man, do you understand this?

A group of friends go to apply for jobs at a factory. They are allocated work individually and when it gets to the Chinese man he is told that he is "in charge of supplies". No one sees him for days and everyone wonders where he is and then one lunchtime as they are all cleaning up he jumps out from a cupboard and shouts SURPISE!

Quoting from [Thomas1976]:


Replying to [Elaine Dai]:


I think I get the joke.... but I do not like it though....


"How old are you?" in chinese in this situation can be a bit insulting, dont you think so?


For example, a young employee and a old experienced employee are working together in a company. The young employee made a silly mistake by breaking a cup of tea on the floor. A harmless mistake in my opinion! But the old employee said "How old are you? Why you make such a mistake? Are you still a child who cannot handle a cup?" The young employee apologised. End of story.


Parents often used this "How old are you?" to teenager who make a mistake. I personally do not like this.


Maybe the time have changed, and younger generation have used this for funny conversation...........I would caution those who do not know when or how to use it......

Hello Thomas,


You've misunderstood "how old are you" in this joke.

Although the boy used this sentence, he didn't mean it. If we translate this sentence word by word with Chinglish manner, it means "why it is you answering again?" So there's no insulting meaning here.

Let me show you how the joke plays.
"How are you"->how=why, then we can understand it is "why are you"="why it is you answering?(why not my GF?)"
"How old are you"-> again here HOW insteads of WHY. And in Chinese we have "old age" to be translated from OLD, but at the same time, we have "always" with the Chinese word OLD. So here's the sentence:"Why always are you(answering)?"

Maybe it is a little difficult for oversea friends understanding this joke for the difference in our language manner. But I'm sure there's many such jokes happened in our life. Coz all of us make mistakes during our English learning way.

Quoting from [Donald2002]:

Quoting from [sales002]:

The Chinese Mean for "How are you? "is “why are you" “How old are you "is "why still are you 

So, I am English and don't get this joke at all. Here's a joke in English about a Chinese man, do you understand this?

A group of friends go to apply for jobs at a factory. They are allocated work individually and when it gets to the Chinese man he is told that he is "in charge of supplies". No one sees him for days and everyone wonders where he is and then one lunchtime as they are all cleaning up he jumps out from a cupboard and shouts SURPISE!

Hay there.

I'm wondering if the case is guy pronounced supplies instead of surprise.

Chinese people like to use english in this way, that's funny

 

Quoting from [Elaine Dai]:


One day,a boy who speaks terrible english give his girlfriend a call,cuz his GF is busy with something,then her roommate pick up the phone.


when the boy got that this is not his GF speaking,he said:How are u!

The next day,he call his GF again,and also is the roommate pick up the phone ,this time he surprise and said:how old are u!


Anybody here got what does it mean?try to translate it in chinese WORD BY WORD, hope you guys happy with learning english here.






Elaine.Dai

haha, it's very funny.

in to Chines: why it's you?)

                       why it's still you?)

                       

Quoting from [Thomas1976]:


Replying to [nbnhyk]:

old three old four, i will give you color to see see

Doesn't this mean that "if you have 3 or 4 wives, I will hit you till you see stars" ?

You only understand partof the sentence.

If you had more than 4children, then congratulations you will have chance to say this word.

It means the third child and the fourth child, I will beat you both till you see stars.

Quoting from [Donald2002]:

Quoting from [sales002]:

The Chinese Mean for "How are you? "is “why are you" “How old are you "is "why still are you 

So, I am English and don't get this joke at all. Here's a joke in English about a Chinese man, do you understand this?

A group of friends go to apply for jobs at a factory. They are allocated work individually and when it gets to the Chinese man he is told that he is "in charge of supplies". No one sees him for days and everyone wonders where he is and then one lunchtime as they are all cleaning up he jumps out from a cupboard and shouts SURPISE!

I get it. interesting. The boy thought he is "in charge of surprise".

I think people will make different kinds of jokes during learning foreign languages.

Just lets enjoy it !

Quoting from [Moolan99]:

Replying to [Elaine Dai]:



Hi Elaine, I didn't get the joke.

Moolan

HOW in chinese means --why  are you  ?

hold old are you ? OLD --MEAN AGAIN --SO HE WANT TO SAY ,WHY YOU PICK UP THE PHONE AGAIN ?

Quoting from [Elaine Dai]:


One day,a boy who speaks terrible english give his girlfriend a call,cuz his GF is busy with something,then her roommate pick up the phone.


when the boy got that this is not his GF speaking,he said:How are u!

The next day,he call his GF again,and also is the roommate pick up the phone ,this time he surprise and said:how old are u!


Anybody here got what does it mean?try to translate it in chinese WORD BY WORD, hope you guys happy with learning english here.






Elaine.Dai

 

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