Meh, not bad...

This morning I had a brief conversation with someone in the elevator in Chinese. Actually, that's not true. Kevin had this conversation while I stood by, smiling and nodding, and letting them assume I didn't understand. It's anti-social, I know, but sometimes it's nice to not be expected to contribute to a conversation. I'll just let my blue eyes and light hair do the talking for me, thanks.

But since I did understand, I wanted to publish a paragraph or two about it. Hopefully if you or someone you know is studying Chinese, you can use this tidbit.

In Chinese, you can answer a question with 不错 bu cuo, or "not bad," the same way you use it in English.

"How was work?" "Oh, not bad."

"Did you like the fish?" "Yeah, it wasn't bad."

or my personal favorite:

"Do you understand Chinese?" "Well, not bad."

In English, this makes perfect sense. "Not bad" means, "Well, it's not great, but I can't complain. So yeah, not bad." We shrug and then say it with a slight pout.

After a few years studying Chinese, I've noticed the connotation in Chinese is quite different. When you say 不错, you ARE saying, "not bad," but you're saying it to mean that, "Well, yes. I can't think of anything wrong with it. In fact, it is so excellent that there is NOTHING BAD AT ALL about it. So yeah, not bad."

On the spectrum of good-great-and-awesome, 不错 in Chinese is toward the top by awesome, while "not bad" in English is barely even on the positive side of "meh."

For me, this explains why, after telling someone that my Chinese is 不错, the response is usually confused and awkward silence. I've since taken Kevin's lead and now describe my Chinese as 还可以 hai keyi, or "meh."