Jun
13
2001
There’s this one little oft-used phrase here that …
There’s this one little oft-used phrase here that I find interesting. As everyone seems to know, “Ni hao” is Chinese for “How are you?” Since there is no Chinese for the “Hi” in “Hi, how are you?”, people here end up saying “Hi, ni hao?” The funny thing is, “Hai” in the fourth tone means “To hurt” or “To harm”, thus the phrase “Hai ni hao” means “Hurting you is good.”
This could be useful. For example, if I ever meet Coco Lee again, I could honestly say to her “Hi! Ni hao!” and really mean it.
I don’t see what everyone sees in Metafilter. Is there something wrong with me? I mean, yes, it is vaguely interesting on occasion, but is it really all it is cracked up to be? Am I missing something here?
