More English Words that are ACTUALLY Chinese!

Wait, “typhoon” comes from Chinese and so does “paper tiger”? So what other English words actually come from Chinese? Well, we're going to give you the lowdown in this episode of Learn Chinese Now. So, a little while ago, I did an episode about English words that actually come from Chinese, but we were just scratching the surface with that one. Now, we always talk about words having Latin roots or French roots or whatnot, but there's really a surprising number of words that we use day-to-day that come from Chinese. So, let's get into them. But before we get started, if you like what we're doing on this channel, please remember to like, subscribe, and become a member by hitting the join button below. It will help allow us to do even more videos about weird words and their funky origins. And without further ado, chop chop. So, in English, we know that chop chop means hurry up, like something you tell some underling working for you. But what does it really mean? In Mandarin, there's a word called 急 jí, or hasty. In Cantonese, they pronounce it kap. Back in the 1800s, when Americans started trading with the Chinese, they noticed that when the head honchos in southern China ordered around their servants, they would tell them to “kap kap.” The sailors made the word into English as chop chop and brought it back to the States. By the 20th century, the word was even part of official military usage. Chop chop was here to stay. All right, so you might be asking why chop chop? Why not just chop? So you see in Chinese words are repeated to emphasize them. If you want to tell someone let's go, you might just say 走 zǒu. But if you want to add some urgency, you'd say 走走走 zǒu zǒu zǒu. Now, if someone tells you their plan and you agree with it, you say 好 hǎo. But if you want to emphasize your agreement a bit more, like you really crazy agree with them, you say 好好好 hǎo hǎo hǎo. So, chop chop makes perfect sense. Now, what about the word chopsticks? Does that also come from the same chop in chop chop? Sort of. In Mandarin chopsticks are called 筷子 kuàizi with the kuài 筷 character being a combination of fast and bamboo and basically means an item that has the characteristic describing it. So together kuàizi means fast ones. So how about chop suey? Same thing? No. Chop suey comes from the Cantonese word tsap seui, which in Mandarin is 雜碎 zásuì, which literally means odds and ends. Mmm odds and ends. So appetizing. Uh, excuse me, waiter. May I get your odds and ends, please? And that's why they never directly translated it into English. [Music] Very well. Very well. All right. So, what you just listened to is called pidgin English. It's when two groups of people don't have a common language and come up with a simple bridge language that they use to communicate. The word chop chop is a kind of pidgin English. But the thing is the word pidgin also comes from Chinese. So back when American traders were learning chop chop from the Chinese, they were trying to do business in China. The Chinese people back then just started to encounter English and they couldn't speak it very well. So when they were trying to say business, it came out as “pidgin.” So pidgin English just meant business English back in the day. So the word pidgin has nothing to do with the bird. It's just an old pidgin English word for business. Typhoon. So, typhoon is interesting because we're not 100% sure where it came from. Now, there's two main theories about where typhoon came from. The first is that it came from Greek. In Greek mythology, there was a giant wind monster called Typhon, who was the father of all monsters. He was a giant snake with 100 heads and he was so powerful that he even tried to overthrow Zeus. Of course, he failed and got thrown under a mountain. But then he was so angry that he turned the mountain into a giant erupting volcano. So, Typhon wasn't really a god of anything. He came to represent the violent destructive side of nature such as volcanoes, typhoons, and the like. All right, case closed, right? I mean, Typhon, Typhoon are so close and it's a giant storm monster, so obviously it has to be it, right? Well, think twice. There's a strong case that the word actually came from Chinese instead. In Chinese, the word for typhoon is called 颱風 táifēng. When the Japanese learned the word from the Chinese, they pronounced it taifū. Sounds pretty close, right? Now, there's the regional argument. So, when there's a huge storm near Florida, we call it a hurricane. But if there's a storm off the coast of Hong Kong, we call it a typhoon. It's exactly the same kind of storm, but we just use different words depending on the region. Let's take a look at the word hurricane. It actually comes from the Spanish word huracán, which was the name for an ancient Mayan god of wind, storms and fire. Therefore in English we're using the regional names for that particular type of ocean tornado storm. So if hurricane or huracán is used for storms in the US, it makes sense that typhoon or táifēng is used for storms in Asia. Case closed. Oh, paper tiger. Someone who's tough on the outside but weak on the inside. In China, this phrase is hundreds maybe thousands of years old. One of China's greatest works of literature, 水滸傳 Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn, or Water Margin, was written in the 12th century. It's about a band of brothers who try to rebel against a corrupt government. In the book, there's a section where a lady’s having an extramarital affair with a rich guy. The husband finds out and goes to the apartment where the two lovers are hanging out. He calls out, "Wifey, I'm here." And the rich guy immediately crawls under the bed to hide. She looks at the guy and says, 「見個紙虎，也嚇一交！」 jiàn ge zhǐhǔ, yě xià yī jiāo — which basically means, "This guy's just a paper tiger, and you're still scared of him?" But the guy who really put the term on the map was good old Mao Zedong, who loved to call any of his enemies paper tigers, whether they were his critics in China or countries that oppose communism like the United States. But lately, the term has been turned around and Americans now use it to refer to anyone who's tough on the outside but weak on the inside. Kowtow. All right, so sometimes you hear this in the news: so-and-so is just kowtowing to Beijing. But what does it actually mean and where does this word come from? So the word kowtow comes from the Mandarin word 叩頭 kòutóu. Although some people use the term 磕頭 kētóu. Now kòutóu literally means knock your head. Sounds great, right? But it basically means to prostrate yourself and tap your head on the floor, which in Chinese society was the highest form of reverence you could give to someone. So there were different grades of kowtowing. If you kowtowed to your parents or grandparents during your wedding to thank them for raising you, or maybe to a great martial arts teacher that you want to have accept you as a disciple, then you might just do a single kowtow. But if you were going to see the emperor, you would do the highest form of kowtowing, which is called 三跪九叩 sānguì jiǔkòu. Literally three kneels and nine knockings. Which means that from a standing position, you kneel down and then make your head touch the ground three times, then get up again and repeat the whole exercise two more times. All right. Now, you might be asking yourself, "So, if Chinese culture thinks kowtowing is respectful, why is the word kowtow such a negative thing in English?" Well, back in the late 1700s, the British sent an ambassador to China to present them with some gifts and hope to open up the country to trade. So, the British ambassador arrives at the Chinese court and then they tell him, "Oh, uh, by the way, you have to kowtow before the emperor before you try and talk to him." The ambassador couldn't understand it. Why should anyone have to prostrate themselves before a head of state? Do we not have rights? He didn't want to do it, but he really wanted the business. And he wasn't about to give up. So he tried to come up with a compromise. He said, "Emperor, now how about this? I will kowtow to you as long as you kowtow to a picture of the great King George in return." Well, I'm sure you can imagine how that went over. So, this was always a point of contention between China and the West, and Westerners have always thought of kowtowing as a kind of groveling in front of another person. Okay, so that's our five English words from Chinese for today, plus two bonus words, chopsticks and chop suey. Is there anything I missed? Anything we haven't gotten to yet? Do you want more words? Let me know in the comments. And if you like this episode, we'll search high and low for more words from Chinese that we use in English. All right. Now, I am the MC for Shen Yun Performing Arts, and I got all of you out there, our Learn Chinese Now super fans, a special secret discount on tickets, which you can find in the description below. Hint, use the code LCN. All right, until next time. If you enjoy the deeper meaning behind Chinese culture, folklore, legends, and strange true stories, then come explore more with me on Jared Tells Tales, where mystery, meaning, and the otherworldly still live on. Click the link to watch your first tale.