A little game…?

[presumenothing]

It's already TGIF where I am, so 我们来玩玩游戏吧！

Since languages are all about connections, and everyone sees different patterns in the chaos:

Post a bit of vocab below, and I (plus anyone else who wants to play!) will reply with other bits of vocab that feel related to it!

Any shape or size of vocab goes – whether a single character or an idiom, your favourite word or one you just learned.

If you're responding, feel free to add why these words seem related to you! "They're the same shape/sound", or "it's a valid answer to 接龙ing the above", or "it came up together in one line of this show"… anything goes! 放飞创意吧！

Comments

[presumenothing]

My word: 江湖!

(because Zhou Shen's 江湖觅知音 is currently set as my alarm, heh)

[nnozomi]

I went to 东京 this week and realized that China has the 江湖 while Japan had 江户...

[grayswandir]

A longer phrase with 江湖 as part of it: 人在江湖，身不由己.

[presumenothing]

江湖川柯南 would, safe to say, be a very different manga XD

Tangent: kinda interesting that while most/all(?) CN speakers probably know what 江 means, it's one of those words that's generally fallen out of modern use aside from a truly impressive number of names – 黄江、长江、浙江、江南、江苏…

[petrea_mitchell]

Here's something to do with why I'm learning Chinese: 科幻大会

世界科幻大会！

[sam_gardener]

成都市。你要去吗？

I always think of this song

Re: 世界科幻大会！

[petrea_mitchell]

我会用电脑参加。

I'd love to go in person, but I'm not optimistic about it happening.

[reshiel]

!! Chinese sci-fi, by any chance? ♥ I have only scraped the surface but I've loved what I've read and watched so far.

In that theme, I'll go with 恒星, a more scientific term for 'star'. (+1: 冥王星 our dearly departed (from planetary status) Pluto.)


* Edited to add: I have since learned where worldcon is happening next year *facepalm* If you go, safe travels!

[grayswandir]

Oh, I just recently learned a bunch of 天文学 vocab from a sci-fi show. :D (Didn't learn Pluto, though!)

I really like the word for nebula, 星云.

[presumenothing]

The funny thing about 科 is that you get a bunch of uses corresponding (roughly) to science/sci- in English: 科学、科技、科幻…

…but then you also have 理科/文科/商科 where it's a general suffix for subjects?

Also, another fun-to-me thing: the way certain uses of 大 don't actually mean to imply a size/extent comparison, but just function as a note that Hey This Is A Big Deal (i.e. it's not like there's a 小会 that you need to distinguish this 大会 from XD)

[trobadora]

i.e. it's not like there's a 小会 that you need to distinguish this 大会 from XD

Hee! A mini-gathering should absolutely be called a 小会. :D

[elwinfortuna]

I picked this bit out by ear in Love Between Fairy and Devil just now and it amused me: 可笑!

[grayswandir]

My first thought was 好笑, but that might be too obvious, so I'll go with one of my favorite 可 words, 可爱. :)

[reshiel]

Following the 可 pattern, 可口可乐！It was once brought up in class as an example of good brand localization: it sounds like the original name, and also evokes 'delicious' and 'enjoyable'.

[presumenothing]

Literal parallel from the English construction! (laugh+able, 可+笑)

Related: 可喜可贺、可悲、可怜……

[elenothar]

I'm going with 龙飞凤舞, which I just came across because I was googling dragon chengyu for Reasons (TM) and I just really liked the mental image of applying that to calligraphy.

成语

[sam_gardener]

群龙无首 - because it's the only dragon chengyu I know （ 我真喜欢龙飞凤舞 ）

Re: 成语

[presumenothing]

Another one – 画龙点睛!

[grayswandir]

Oh wow, that's really cool.

The word/term it makes me think of is 舞刀, I guess because of the similar use of 舞 to suggest sweeping movements and flourishes.

[presumenothing]

It's a satisfyingly dramatic image! Related-ish: 龙凤胎, purely because also 龙 and 凤.

Tangentially, calligraphy makes me think of 文房四宝 aka 笔墨纸砚, and also 永 containing all the strokes ever.

[grayswandir]

One of my favorites: 對牛彈琴.

我爱那个！

[sam_gardener]

九牛一毛 So many cow chengyu!

[presumenothing]

Ha, this one comes along with 班门弄斧 in my head for some reason (and further on to 隔岸观火, in the vein of "doing this thing in this place" format)

[trobadora]

I can't play because the moment you said "post a bit of vocab" every single word or expression I've ever known instantly departed my brain. :p (Same thing happened with Wordle at one point - what do you mean five-letter words, I've never heard of any! *headdesk*) But I'm really enjoying reading all the comments on this post, so thank you a lot! ♥

[nnozomi]

I can't play because the moment you said "post a bit of vocab" every single word or expression I've ever known instantly departed my brain.
same here, on the whole. but likewise enjoying reading :)