r/ChineseLanguage

I'm already at that stage of life where I don't really enjoy arguing with people anymore. But sometimes when I see really unbearable comments online, I still can't help wanting to roast them.

And every time that happens, I feel grateful that younger people came up with this absolutely savage phrase, and this is what I want to share with you today:

• 0 人在意 líng rén zài yì - No one cares

It carries a strong sense of sarcasm, and is often used to reply to bragging or narcissistic content, or those annoying "am I the only one who thinks..." comments. Basically, it means: no one cares about what you just said.

What makes it especially brutal is the use of the number "0", it feels way colder， shaper and more sarcastic than directly saying "没有人 méi yǒu rén, no one."

It's also often used together with this phrase to make the tone even stronger:

• 谁问你了？shuí wèn nǐ le? - Who asked you?

And there's this variation:

• 0 人问了 líng rén wèn le - No one asked (you)

These phrases come from an extremely savage copypasta. I don't know who created it originally, but it became widely popular:

>我有个小问题：谁问你了？我的意思是，谁在意？我告诉你，根本没人问你，在我们之中 0 人问了你，我把所有问你的人都请来 party 了，到场人数是0个人。誰问你了？WHO ASKED？谁问汝矣？誰があなたに聞きましたか？누가 물어봤어？

I have a small question: Who asked you? I mean, who cares? Let me tell you, nobody asked you at all. Among us, 0 people asked you. I invited everyone who asked you to a party, and 0 people showed up. 誰问你了？WHO ASKED？谁问汝矣？誰があなたに聞きましたか？누가 물어봤어？(different language versions of "Who asked you?")

Now you can understand why young people love using them, right? It's so brutal!

Let me give some examples of typical online exchanges to help you feel it:

• A: 拿到了阿里和字节的 offer，该选谁呢？好发愁。Ná dào le Ā lǐ hé Zì jié de offer, gāi xuǎn shuí ne? Hǎo fā chóu.
  • Got offers from Alibaba and ByteDance, which should I choose? So troubled.
• B: 0 人在意哈！Líng rén zài yì ha!
  • No one cares! Lol!

----------

• A: 真有人觉得这对主角很配吗？我不理解啊！Zhēn yǒu rén jué de zhè duì zhǔ jué hěn pèi ma? Wǒ bù lǐ jiě a!
  • Do people really think these two leads have chemistry? I don't get it!
• B: 谁问你了？0 人在意哈。Shuí wèn nǐ le? Líng rén zài yì ha.
  • Who asked you? No one cares.

----------

• A: 只有我不喜欢她的新专辑吗？怎么都在踩我。Zhǐ yǒu wǒ bù xǐ huan tā de xīn zhuān jí ma? Zěn me dōu zài cǎi wǒ.
  • Am I the only one who doesn't like her new album? Why is everyone downvoting me?
• B: 0 人问了，自己非要凑上来找骂。Líng rén wèn le, zì jǐ fēi yào còu shàng lái zhǎo mà.
  • No one asked, you came looking to get roasted yourself.

Finally, "0 人问" can also be used for self-deprecation or as a kind of disclaimer before posting:

• 0 人问，但请看我家的猫，超可爱！Líng rén wèn, dàn qǐng kàn wǒ jiā de māo, chāo kě ài!
  • No one asked, but please look at my cat, so cute!

Whatever the use, give it a try! Time to catch up with Chinese young people, hahaha!

Hello! I've been working on an online multiplayer Chinese word game called Danobang (大脑嘣) and wanted to share an update with r/ChineseLanguage. No signup is required, you can try it out directly here: https://danobang.com?game_lang=cmn

The rules are simple: Each turn players are given a random Chinese character (like "爱") and must type a word that includes it in ANY position (e.g. "可爱", "爱好", "恋爱", etc). You can submit answers with either raw pinyin or hanzi via an IME.

The game currently supports modes for simplified and traditional char prompts. If you'd like to customize gameplay further, I would recommend creating a custom room where you'll have more control over settings like difficulty, timer length, lives, cpu level, handicaps, etc.

I've added many updates since my last post (thank you for all the great feedback), but here are some notable ones:

• HSK 2.0 and 3.0 level support! This was requested before and lots of players have been using it to practice with specific character sets.
• Replaced single Chinese language option with separate Mandarin and Cantonese ones. There was some good discussion about this in my last post, and I decided to separate the options to avoid mixing unintuitive words and characters. The game rules and mechanics for each language option are exactly the same, the main difference is mainly with the dictionary and the types of words you can play. Word collection progress is also tracked separately for each language.
• New game mode: Word Chain! (接龙) In this mode players take turns submitting words that start with the last character of the previous answer (e.g. 天气 → 气球 → 球场).
• Bug fixes relating to hanzi input resolution (sometimes the hanzi you typed wouldn't appear properly as the answer, but now it should be way more consistent)
• Much much more, if you'd like to see the full changelog you can check out https://danobang.com/updates

The game is still very much a work in progress, so if you find any bugs or have any feedback please let me know! Thanks for reading ^_^

Learn 九牛一毛 (jiǔ niú yī máo), which literally means 'nine oxen and one hair.' It's used to describe something utterly insignificant. Can you use it in a sentence?

I’m pretty on and off with Duolingo and whenever I come back I like to restart my progress and do the placement test. They’ve done a lot of updates since I last used the app and updated a scoring system.

Prior to starting over I was at around 69. When I did the self assessment I pressed the fourth option, it put me at 60 which they claim is a B1 level. I aced the placement test, but the unit they had me starting on was content I’ve never learned before and was struggling to progress, so I started it again and selected the third option.

“I can have basic conversations” put me at a whopping score of 10 which they claim is EARLY A1 😭 I feel like I’m more at an early/mid A2 level realistically, so this definitely stung a bit.

I’ve been studying Chinese since Jan 2022 in my university classes, I haven’t taken formal classes in a while so my skills have been getting rusty and I’ve been trying to self study until I can re-enroll in more classes. I have other resources for learning Chinese like my textbook, Mango Languages, talking with Chinese friends, and online media for natural reading and listening, but I like using Duolingo as a way to keep my brain churning when I’m not doing an intensive study.

I feel like being at an A2 level is difficult; the beginner content is too easy, but the intermediate stuff is too difficult at times 🫠 Overall it’s not the end of the world, I’ll just have to keep skipping ahead until I get to a level I think fits me lol