Every language uses idioms to compare and express ideas more vividly. Get learning some common idioms and sound more like a native speaker. Then try them out on some of your friends and give them a surprise how competent you are in Mandarin!
In this Podcast, you will learn:
(i) To understand the meaning of some popular idioms
(ii) How to use certain idioms in common usage
Dialogue:
Two friends are waiting to see a film:
（排队买电影票）
(pái duì mǎi diàn yǐng piào)
(lining up for tickets to see a film)
A:我挺喜欢这个女演员的。
Wǒ tǐng xǐ huān zhè gè nǚ yǎn yuán de.
I like this actress.
B:可惜她在这部电影里只是个打酱油的。
Kě xì tā zài zhè bù diàn yǐng lǐ zhǐ shì ge dǎ jiàng yóu de.
Too bad that she is not a star in this film.
A:是嘛？
Shì mā?
Is that so?
B:她这角色就是个傻白甜，只会卖萌。
Tā zhè jué sè jiù shì gè shǎ bái tián, zhǐ huì mài méng.
Her character is just a sweet naïve girl. The only thing she does is look cute.
Chinese words and phrases mentioned in this Podcast:
打酱油：literally means buy soy sauce; a bystander
傻甜白：literally means silly, white and sweet; a cute and naïve girl
卖萌：acting adorable/being cute
排队：line up
电影票：ticket for a film
喜欢：like
女演员：actress
可惜：too bad that
这部电影：this film
部：measuring word for film
角色：character/role
Cultural/Grammar note:
In the past, we needed to take our own container when we went to buy soy sauce, because the soy sauce in the grocery store was stored in a large jar. However, in this dialogue, ‘打酱油’ means ‘a bystander’. This phrase is very common now in Chinese daily conversation.
‘傻白甜’ refers to a girl who is really cute and pretty, but very naïve and simple minded.
‘卖萌’ means a person pretending to be cute to please someone, or to get away with something.
E.g. ‘一只小猫在卖萌’ (a kitty is acting cute.)
‘她照相的时候很会卖萌’ (she knows how to be cute when taking photographs)
If a sentence starts with ‘可惜’, usually you can translate it to ‘too bad that’ or ‘it’s a pity that’.