Take Away Chinese, where you can take some Chinese away, and experience progress day by day.
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Ni Hao Wang Shou Ting Sui Xing Hai Welcome to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Nihong Lin with Steve Hatherly, in the studio.
Hello Steve! Hello, hello.
It's nice to see you again, and I'm looking forward to today's show.
I think I'm gonna be learning a lot about, well, we're gonna learn some great vocabulary today, of course, as we always do.
But I'm gonna be learning, and I think our audience is gonna be learning something very specific and interesting about Chinese culture and society.
Oh, thanks to you! The reason we're having today's show is one time, during a show, you were talking about, hmm, there are being honest enough points in Chinese society, and those points can be used to, for example, in occasions where you need deposit if your points are not high enough.
Yet, if it's high enough, you do not need to pay deposit and put the deposit there to enjoy certain services.
That's fun. Remember you said that?
Yeah. Something about the credit system?
Yes. And that credit system is useful for a lot of different things and it is kind of a new creation in the Chinese society.
It's like we have two credit systems, one major big ones that's related to the important stuff that is not that fluctuated, unless you're doing something like owning someone a large amount of money and not paying them back, these kind of behaviors would hurt your major serious credit point system.
And, there's also this not that serious, yet useful, credit system online that each and every little action would affect that system or that point of yours.
Yet, it's used in situations like renting a bike.
You don't have to pay deposit if your credit score is high enough.
So, is this, remember when I was talking about the fridge that I couldn't open in the downtown hotel?
Is this because I didn't have any credit score at that time?
It could be. I think it was.
I think it was related to that.
And for our listeners, who don't know what I'm talking about, when I first, first, first, first came to China, I was staying in a hotel in one of the downtown areas and in the lobby of the hotel, they had this fridge.
And the fridge can be opened—well, first of all, it's a fridge to buy things like juices and— It's like a vending machine.
it's like a vending machine.
There was a QR code there and I thought okay cool I can buy something here because I have my WeChat set up so and I have some money in my account so scan the QR code but it took me to a mini program that I didn't recognize and I didn't know what was going on but I tried to navigate my way through it but when I finally got to the you know, you have to pay for this it said you don't have enough score and that was the English translation and I thought why is it saying score is this a bad translation from money because I do have money in the account so I was very very confused at the time and I think
that's exactly what it was is that I didn't have a built up credit score the one that you're talking about so that I couldn't make a purchase from that particular yes you couldn't enjoy the service like yeah Yeah, exactly.
And there are now many services that would require a high enough social credit score.
And with that, it's getting more and more convenient.
Not only that, sometimes for instance, if you purchase the stuff and you do not like it and you want to return the goods and get your money back with a high enough score, the system would deem that you are an honest person, and you would not return or refund your good for no good reason.
So it will give you your money back before the return of your goods actually arrive to the merchant.
Oh, interesting. Yes.
So a lot of perks and we're going to talk about it and also the logic behind it in today's Takeaway Chinese.
I've noticed that sometimes, Sometimes my wife will order something online.
She orders stuff online all the time.
But occasionally she has asked for a refund and she and I were both really surprised at how easy and how quickly that refund process took place.
Now I guess I know it's because her social credit score is good enough that it allows her to qualify for that.
Yes. This is a fascinating thing, isn't it, the social credit system?
It definitely is, and I think it has something to do also with the fast development of technology and people started to be able to trust each other because the cost of doing something wrong is getting higher and higher and the benefit of doing something wrong to gain profit is also getting lower and lower, so it's better to do the right thing because the right thing happens to be beneficial thing.
I think doing the right thing, of course as a person in general, is always a good rule to follow but here in Asia I find that, um, that virtue of honesty in a public setting or public space in society is really valued almost seen as more important than perhaps it is in the West. And you can argue with me about that statement because I'm not entirely sure.
It's Just kind of a feeling that I have. Let me give you an example.
I remember I signed a work contract when I was living in Korea.
In the contract it said, you know, if party A, me, makes a mistake during work and doesn't show sincerity in the apology, then that could be cause for termination.
I thought, oh that's interesting.
I've never seen a clause like that before.
So the importance was showing sincerity in the apology.
Not just the apology itself, but actually being sincere in the apology.
And it was at that time that I learned, like, oh this is a virtue. This is a trait that's really held in high regard in this part of the world.
Yes, and that is why the keyword for today would be Cheng xin.
So let me share that in the very beginning.
Cheng xin. Cheng xin.
stands for chongxie, chongxie means honest, honest, being honest and xinxin is like a promise and shoulxin for instance is to keep the promise so chongxin together is I'm honest and I always keep my promise, I'm oh, so it's both of those things together, together I'm honest and I keep my promise.
chongxin, chongxin, chongxin yes, so that is the keyword of today's Takeaway Chinese, If you're interested in Chinese culture and you want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is the show for you.
Stick with us for 30 minutes and you soon see the rewards.
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We've talked about honesty as a fundamental virtue in Chinese culture, it is deeply rooted it in Confucianism, traditional values and moral teachings, and it is regarded as essential for personal integrity, social harmony and trust in relationships.
Which is why I earlier said that there are two major types of honest or credit system.
One is the very important major ones, unless you owe someone tens of thousands of yuan and you do not return them, which hurt your major, big important credit system, which would cause, for instance, you cannot buy railway tickets anymore, you cannot purchase a plane ticket anymore, you can't buy luxury goods, you cannot loan to purchase for an apartment, something like this.
These are the major ones.
Yeah this is the credit system that would be comparable to the western credit score I think, not exactly the same, but comparable for sure, I think.
And those are the quite serious ones.
And there's this online credit system that's mainly based on different platforms you use.
For instance, your Alipay credit system and your WeChat credit system are two systems. And when you use these two payment tools, payment applications, they are scoring you in different ways.
And yet they are still quite useful and they can be found in different scenarios and we are going to dig into it.
So we already know the word 君和, being honest and keeping promises and let us expand it a little bit.
So 君 represents 君让, honest. so chong shi, honest and xin represents shouxin, shou means to keep, and xin is a xin yong or chong nuo it's a promise.
So shouxin, keep one's word. Yeah, I was gonna say to keep your word...
yes... yeah, okay, so chong shi, that's honest and chong xin is to keep your promise And being honest, so it's kind of like integrity and honesty.
So then why is it a different word to keep one's word?
Shōxin. Shōxin is exactly to keep your promise.
Whereas Chengxin is, to start with I think Chengxin is a noun, whereas shōxin is more of a verb to keep the promise.
And, chengxin is the kind of virtue a person can have. Got it.
And it's a shiouqin is the action of actually doing and keeping your promise.
Yes. And your promise can also be translated in Chinese to xin nong.
Xin nong. Yes. So xin nong is the credit or trustworthiness for your promise.
So shiauxin is also shiauxin nong.
So if you say, you're saying that this person is a person that is with credit, it's trustworthy.
This is a little off topic, but a question about Chinese people and how people react to certain things.
Because we know that honesty is one of the fundamental virtues in Chinese culture and we know that it's deeply rooted in Confucianism, as you said, then that means that people in society hold that in a high regard. So, my question is, if you were to question someone's honesty...
Oh, it's serious, it's a big deal.
Okay, right, that was gonna be my question, in a work setting, or...
It's totally huge deal.
If you say I do not believe you, or I do not believe what you just said, I think you're lying.
it's a huge accusation do not do that lightly that's exactly what my point was going to be i wondered that yeah okay that's a great thing to know and then conversely i suppose it would be a wonderful compliment to say to someone you're always so honest i always appreciate your honesty something like that yes but in chinese if you say I don't know i think it's because honesty is something so fundamental, it's something that we value so much, we see it, instead of a plus point, we see it as something that people should hold anyway.
So you don't get an extra reward, you don't get an extra cookie for doing something that you're supposed to do.
No, if you say you're a perfect person, you are a honest person, it's a compliment for a kindergartener, it's not really a compliment for your colleague.
I understand. Yes. And also in Chinese, we have xiangxin, that's belief.
xiangxin. Yes. And xingzhen, that's for trust. OK.
It's close, because they share one same character.
Yet, like believe and trust, there are different levels of believing something and trusting something.
Can you give me those two words again, for belief and trust?
For belief, it's xiangxin.
xiangxin. For instance, if you say xiangxiny, I believe you.
Of course, it's almost always referring to what you've just said, so I believe you.
I believe what you said.
Wei xiang xin ni, but if you say wei hen xin ren ni, I trust you.
xin zhen. Okay, so the first example, xiang xin ni, is if...
I believe you. ... if somebody says something and then...
I don't know, if they say it a second time you can say like xiang xin ni, I believe what you said.
Okay. The other one.
One more time with the pronunciation, please.
Xin zhen. xin jian.
xin jian. I trust you.
I trust you. So xian jin is a stronger meaning than xiang zhin ni.
Right? It is. Just like in English.
Yeah got it, mkay. And I've just said that if you say someone is an honest person, xi gout chung shi de ren.
By the way, chung shi is honest. It's an adjective and it means honest, so chung shi de ren.
Not exactly a okay so what's the word for sincere zhen chun zhen chun zhen chun zhen chun perfect zhen chong zhen means real cheng means so he's real he's honest he says things that he believes in not Not only because it's the easier thing to say at the scenario when he compliments you, it's not because it's easy to say, ahh you look great today.
Actually it is because they believe that you look great today.
Yes, they actually think you look great today.
It's the opposite of lip service.
Okay, jian cheong ni.
it's an adjective, so a sincere person or, you are sincere.
Remember when it's this kind of sentence structure, instead of saying you are in Chinese, we say you vary or this vary.
So nee -han, zhen -chung, you are very sincere.
Nee -han, zhen -chung.
Nee -han, zhen -chung.
So that's interesting though, isn't it?
Because if you say to someone, you are honest, then that's not a huge compliment because people assume you're supposed to be an honest person.
Of course I am. But if you say you are sincere, then that can be a nice compliment for someone.
Yes, because we can all tell a white lie sometimes.
Wow your hair looks great.
Like that? But if someone has the tag of being sincere, then you know whatever he or she says is from the deepest corner of their heart.
But it doesn't have to be a compliment.
It doesn't have to be… Sincerity isn't always wrapped in a pretty package.
But we talked about how important it is to be a honest and sincere person in Chinese culture and that explains how come we have a lot of different idioms talking about the importance of being honest. Okay.
There are serious ones which I would share and there are funny ones.
So let's start with the serious ones.
A Chinese idiom, it's actually quite easy.
YEN means to say something, AR means then, YO has or have, we talked about it, promise or integrity or trustworthiness.
So his words mean something.
The words are trustworthy.
So if you say something, the thing would come true.
Okay, so it's not that you can believe that person.
This is like, they are like a psychic somehow?
No no no no, it is you can believe this person.
Oh okay, it's as simple as that.
So in what context can I say to someone, Ye nar yo xin ni?
Nǐ yǎo yǎn ar yǒu xīn.
You should say things and actually mean it, and deliver it.
That's basically what you're saying.
Okay. smash smash to be a person one needs to keep their promises so then this is an idiom this isn't something that you would say to somebody like about them meaning like i know you i trust you your words mean something you can use it like that as well you can say you are one person that whose words mean stuff and And the thing about Chinese idioms is that when you use it in daily languages, there are certain idioms that you use more often in spoken language, and there are some idioms that you use much, much more often in written language.
Oh, okay, so which one is this?
This one, I feel like it's more used in written Chinese.
Oh, okay. a similar one would be dot yan bi xing xing bi guo so yan means say things, speech or words and bi means must xing is action so yan bi xing means if I say so I will do so yan bi xing yan bi xing yes and the second part of the idiom takes things to another level, xing bi guo xing already know is action, and guo stands for jie guo, results.
So when I do things, it will have effect.
There will be positive results because of my action.
If I say, we express it in English like this maybe, if I say I'm going to do it, I do it like that, but there's no there's no connection to a positive result.
The second part is if the entirety of the EDM conveys the idea that if you say something, if you say you do it, you have to do it, and when you put action in it, there has to be positive results.
Okay, so it's kind of like if I say I'm gonna do it, I'll do it, and the end result will be good.
I will deliver. I will deliver.
Yan Bi Xing Xing Bi Guo.
Yes Yan Bi Xing Xing Bi Guo and there's this one I must share I think I've shared it a couple of years ago and my co -host back then enjoyed it so much It's a funny Chinese idiom.
Also a idiom that is usually used in Britain language and in itself it is a Complete it's almost a complete sentence, which is why you do not use it with other words a lot But this idiom is shi yang ar fei Shi Yan ar fei, shi means to eat Yan is your words Ar means then and fei means fat It's like saying if you eat your words back, which means you don't deliver you Say it but you didn't do it.
You'll be fat because of it.
Okay, so the literal translate what are Okay, so R means then, okay So eat your words and get fat.
It's like you eat your word so much, too much that you're fat.
You've eaten so many of your words.
You broke so many of your promises.
Uh, you broke so many of your promises.
So shu yan arfei, shu yan arfei, shu yan arfei.
So when can I use this?
When somebody breaks a promise, I can just say shu yan arfei.
You can. Okay. So if I said, Hacking them with words.
Hey, you, we were supposed to have coffee at 2 p .m. and then you, oh I have a better example.
Steve, let's do our takeaway Chinese show at three o 'clock, and then it's three thirty, and someone who hosts this show says, ahh I'm sorry, and I can say, ahh, shu yan arfe, Yes, you can actually say that.
Perfect. This might be the most useful Chinese sentence I have ever learned.
I regret teaching you that already.
It's a Chinese idiom.
It was fun, and it's, I think learning these kinds of idioms would make learning the language also a bit more interesting.
So, question. Now, in this context, we were obviously joking, and when I said this to you, I was joking and you took it as a joke.
Can you use this idiom, in a more serious context, where you're not joking?
Of course. You can use it in sentences like, Yào zuǒ yāngr yǒxīn de jīn ziǒ.
So yāo zuǒ, you should be.
Yāngr yǒxīn, we talked about it.
Always keep their promises.
It's an adjective in this sense.
The someone or apostrophe S, jīn ziǒ is a gentleman, traditional Chinese sense of gentleman.
So one should be a gentleman who always keeps his promises.
Bú yào zuǒ, don't be.
Shi yàngr fei de xiào rēng.
Shiyan Arfei is break their promises.
Xiao Zhen is someone who is not a good person.
Okay. So don't be this kind of person who broke their promises.
Okay. How about this?
Like boyfriend, girlfriend are fighting because he canceled the date for the fifth time or something like that.
Then an angry sense can she say to him, Shiyan Arfei?
She can. But it will be too ...
What I'm trying to ask is does this idiom or does this sentence also hold a strong impact emotionally if you want it to?
You know, to be honest, I do not think this idiom is used in daily language that much, which is why I say it is mostly used in written language, and some idioms are not meant to carry too much emotion because they have too long a history background and using it in real life situation can be a little strange.
Okay understood. Thanks for the explanation.
Of course. You are listening to Takeaway Chinese with myself, Niall Honglin, and Steve.
We'd love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts via e -mail to LearnChinese at CRI .com .cn.
And coming up next let's talk about the credit system here in China.
Don't go away, so you'll take some Chinese away!
Welcome back to Takeaway Chinese!
I'm Yang Hongyan with Steve in the studio.
In today's society, honesty is more than just a moral principle.
Many services offered by private companies are built upon trust and transparency.
Individuals with high credit scores on different platforms would be able to enjoy different types of services and some of them are going to make your life much easier and make it very convenient for you to do all sorts of things.
This is gonna be a great learning experience for me because this is the type of stuff that I tend not to know about and that actually has nothing to do with China it has more to do with my personality it's like if you have a credit card and you don't know what the actual benefits of that credit card are that's me so please instruct and teach me about all the different benefits that could be had sure when you talk about credit card let's first know how to say credit card in Chinese oh sure credit card in Chinese would be xin yong ka xin yong is literally credit and card is a card ka xin yong ka are you
using two syllables there?
xin yong ka no, ka is one syllable and that is credit card and credit cards when you apply for a credit card I think it's universal not only in china depending on your previous purchasing records words, you would be granted different threshold of the money you can use.
That's common. Yet, here in China, since we use online payment system a lot, we use food delivery system a lot, we use online shopping platforms a lot, in each and every one of these platforms, there would be a credit score for you and when they expand their services to, let's say bicycle renting services, that's bike sharing service, power bank renting service or any kind of renting service.
If those credit score on those platforms of yours is high enough you do not need to pay a deposit.
Yeah and this is really important information to know, I think if you are going to be living in China, because I'll give you an example of a mistake that I used to make and now I don't make it anymore.
When you order a taxi or use a ride hailing service, at the end of the ride I wouldn't check it.
I would just put my phone in my pocket and say goodbye.
And then maybe like a day later or something, I would get a message saying you haven't paid for your ride yet.
And I realized, oh shoot, the mistake that I made was, I assumed it would just automatically take the payment away from my account, I didn't realize that I actually had to click pay for the ride.
That's right. But to avoid situations like that, you can change the setting to auto deduct to auto deduct.
That's what I do. Well, yeah, I forgot.
And again, right? So, but I mean, the reason this is important is because I'm I don't know, but I'm guessing this could have an impact on your score.
If you are always delaying your payments by a few days or something like that.
It depends on different types of platforms because there are more than one car -hailing apps here in China.
You have to read the specific clause of each platforms. Some platforms, I believe, would not punish you because of this.
Yet, if for instance, you rent a bike and instead of putting the bike back to where it should be parked you take it into a community or residential community area and leave it there where you're not supposed to then that would definitely affect your credit score and there are also occasions on shopping platforms say you purchased an item and then you return the item because you want your money back yet instead of having the clothes or the product, the way, well basically intact, you leave a stain on the clothes or something's wrong with the product you purchased and then you return it or you stamp
on it, something like that.
It's with enough evidence the merchants or the shop owner would report this behavior to the platform and that would affect your credit score.
and if it affects your credit score, it's going to impact your interactions or your dealings in the future and it would deprive you from enjoying the try before you pay service which in Chinese is xiàn yǒng hòu fù xiàn yǒng hòu fù xiàn means first or in advance or ahead of Yong means to use and Hou means later, after.
Fu is fu qian or fu kuan, is to pay.
So use it and then pay for it.
So what types of things can we use that for?
All types of things.
One I purchased online, I can even use this xian, yong, ho, fu shopping form or model, and I pay for nothing and the goods arrive.
And if I like it, I click.
I received it and like it, and then my money would go to the account of the shop owners.
Very nice. And if you don't, then you simply click return, and they will come and pick it up.
Yes, free of charge.
This is all because of your social credit score, your strong social credit score that you are allowed to do this because the vendor...
Trust me. Because they can see your social credit score and they say, OK, this is a trustworthy individual.
I don't need to worry about being scammed here.
Yes, and remember the service or the phenomenon that surprised you and your wife of returning your goods and getting your money back.
One, you do enough good things on the platform.
The platform would deem that even if they give you your money back in advance before you even send back the goods, they trust that you will send back the good, and they trust that you will not break the product before sending it back.
So in this type of system, whenever everything goes great, then it's just kind of like, well, this is the way things function in society on a daily basis.
But when things go wrong, it must be a big deal, because then you're going against the norm of how society normally functions on a daily basis, right?
And I think that is also why there are two, like I said in the beginning of the show, there are two types of these credit scores.
One is different from different platforms you use, different services you enjoy, and the major ones.
So if you make small mistakes on just one specific platform, it would not affect your life heavily.
But if it's the major stuff, then not good for you.
Yeah. Um, question then.
So it's not necessarily about how high the number is, with your credit score.
It's more about a good or not good.
Not good enough. Not good enough.
And in general, my feeling is that one, we are with the habit of doing the right things.
If we like the goods, we keep them.
If we don't like them, we at least return them well intact.
and we do not deliberately do not pay the taxi driver after so many days, we do not do it on purpose, we have a habit of doing things right, then we are awarded because of those right behaviors.
This just occurred to me right now.
You know those, you can find them in shopping malls or we have one at the gym.
Restaurants often have them, which is an amazing thing here.
external battery right and there's like a battery bank and then you go and then you scan the QR code and then you can get the, it just magically comes out of the slot and then you can charge your phone and then when you're finished you put it back.
The first time I did that it charged me I guess it was a deposit for the thing.
Then I noticed later and I said to my wife, oh that's different, it didn't charge me anything other than using it.
Is that because my social credit score so because I was a good boy yes then it said okay we don't need to charge you a deposit because we trust that you're just gonna bring this back yes and that is why not only on different platforms or in life we also have this expression in Chinese, we call it zàn zhèn píng.
One more time please.
Zàn. Zàn. Zàn means to keep something, to save something.
And zhèn píng, initially, standard Chinese, standard Mandarin, zhèn píng is like the quality of you, like whether or not you are a good person.
zhèn píng hǎo means this is a good person.
Zhèn píng pù hǎo. this person has some serious issue and it's fundamental about how he act in life.
So it's not something light.
Yet we're using it in, I think we're using it in a lighthearted way and we're using zhen pian as a intangible social credit, so when you do good things in life, when you help people, when you are being nice to your neighbors, when you take care of kids on the street, you are getting higher of renpian.
Higher of this kind of social credit.
And when you do those things we believe good things would happen to people who would sign renpian.
Karma! Yeah! Okay, this is really good information to know.
And it answers a couple of questions that I had about why some things were happening in my life.
Or weren't happening anymore.
So, I didn't know about this.
So I think the main takeaway, besides all the takeaway Chinese language points you can take away, is that once you're here in China, do good things and the society, platforms, company and everything would reward you.
And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Nihonlin with Steve here in the studio.
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