意思意思 (Joke)

I recently read a joke about the confusing Chinese phrase 意思(yi4 si).  In the joke the foreigner, who has learned Chinese for 10 years, failed the exam and went home in tears. I’d like to tell you the joke to see how much you understand it. It’s never easy to understand all the 意思 phrases for a non-native-speaker of mandarin. Neither is it easy for me to translate and explain them to you as my English is not so good. But I’ll try my best. Let’s do it just for fun. (To focus on the意思 phrases, I’ll give the rest part of the joke in English.)

A foreigner came to China to take an exam on Chinese after learning it tooth and nail for 10 years. The questions are as follow:

Please explain the following意思 phrases.　　
When bribing an official, Dummy and the official had a dialog that was very有意思(you3 yi4 si)　

　
Official：“你這是什麼意思？” 　
Dummy：“沒什麼意思，意思意思。” 　　
Official：“你這就不夠意思(bu2 gou4 yi4 si)了。” 　　
Dummy：“小意思，小意思(xiao3 yi4 si)。” 　　
Official：“你這人真有意思(zhen you2 yi4 si)。” 　　
Dummy：“其實也沒有別的意思。” 　　
Official：“那我就不好意思(bu4 hao3 yi4 si)了。” 　　
Dummy：“是我不好意思。”

The foreigner handed in a blank sheet and came home in tears.

Are you feeling very 頭大¹ with these phrases? Just read my explanations.

When bribing an official, the dialog between Dummy and the official is very有意思 (interesting)。

　　
Official：“你這是什麼意思？”

(What do you mean by that?)　

Dummy：“沒什麼意思，意思意思。”

(It doesn’t mean anything. Just a little something

to express the least of my humble sincerity.)

*Generally Chinese people like to understate to show their humbleness. Here the bribe would no doubt be of much value.

Official：“你這就不夠意思了。”

(You shouldn’t have. You’re underestimating me or

our friendship by doing this.)

 *When accusing someone of 不夠意思, you’re saying he’s not acting like a real good friend should. The official is showing hypocrisy by accusing Dummy for underestimating him to think that he would do things for him only after taking bribes.

Dummy：“小意思，小意思。”

(Just a little humble stuff to express my sincerity.)

* Dummy’s showing his humbleness too.

Official：“你這人真有意思。”

(You’re such an interesting person.)　

* After hypocritically showing his unwillingness to take the bribe, he showed a sign of diversion.

Dummy：“其實也沒有別的意思。”

(Actually I’m not asking for anything by doing so.

It doesn’t mean anything.)

*Now you see how people sometimes don’t mean what they say?

Official：“那我就不好意思了。”

(If you insist, I might as well take it and ask your

excuse for my seemingly daring and greedy act.)

Dummy：“是我不好意思。”

(It’s me that should be begging for pardon.)

*What else can I say but “hypocrites” about these two? However, such ”hypocrisy” is commonly seen among Chinese. You keep hearing them say不好意思 in daily life when they are getting some favors or gifts. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing to seem “hypocritical.” And here I'm not debasing it. Sometimes it’s just a way to show your modesty.

I hope you’re not so frustrated or with tears. I’d like to congratulate you if you feel these sentences are only小意思, a piece of cake, for you. And don’t push yourself too hard if you can’t handle all of them. If you do so, that will be沒意思(mei2 yi4 si), meaningless, without fun, for you to log on to my blog and read my stuff.

1.     頭大=头大: troubled. Please refer to my previous writing The deer on my heart for more information.