Dirty Chinese: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!" (Slang Language Books)

I am in my third month of studying Mandarin. I plan to visit a close friend who has recently moved to Beijing. This is exactly what I needed to feel comfortable about the upcoming trip (several months from now). It provides some very helpful cultural tidbits. Aside from that, it is one funny read! I laughed so hard at parts of this book that my cheeks still hurt. Kudos to the author!!!! Job well done. If every book I picked up was this entertaining, I would undertake a great deal more very challenging learning experiences (like learning languages). I read some of the paragraphs to my friend in Beijing and she is still laughing--plus, she verifies the information is dead-on correct. I'm an old lady and I don't have much use for the "pick up" lines--but if I get lucky enough to have someone use them on me, at least I will recognize them!It has been a long time since I've read anything that was written as well or had so much good-natured humor in it. Now my Chinese friend is laughing at more than my mistakes with the Chinese characters or grammar and we are both having lots of fun because of the great material in this book. I had been rather bored learning body parts--this changes everything! Most surprisingly, I already knew most of the words--just not how to put them together to alter their meaning just enough. I am convinced that one cannot learn Mandarin without understanding a great deal of the cultural differences between the US/Canada/Western world and Chinese culture. This little book is better than a history lesson in providing cultural insights and the humor makes the lessons stick. The stereotypes are dead on if you know anyone in China--it takes more than a little understanding to have the insight the author has in his comments; one has to be a purveyor of the human condition and part-psychologist, part-sociologist, part-anthropologist to gain the little tidbits of insight given in this tiny book. I am having difficulty even imagining the depth of knowledge this author has and then am blown away that he has been able to condense it so efficiently and with such great humor. I'd love to spend an evening with this guy just to pick his brain (especially if we were drinking and watching a steady stream of people pass by on whom we could comment). It would probably be the funniest evening of my life. This is MUST READ if you are American and have no Chinese friends and plan to visit China. Don't go without it!

I'm learning Chinese for a new job, and my classes cover the formal, proper language one would need and use in a professional environment (but really, who actually needs to debate nuclear testing in North Korea as a basic Chinese speaker?). But what to do when I'm walking down the street and someone rudely comments on my derrière? Or shoots another inappropriate comment my direction? This book is the best. Gives real-life examples of how slang is used in Mainland China. Supplemented my education to make me effective at the office, but also in the community. Colleagues constantly ask me to borrow this book. Even if you don't intend to use dirty Chinese (props to you), don't you at least want to know what people are saying TO you? Super useful, amusing little book.Warning-- some of this stuff is a wee-bit graphic. Would recommend for responsible adults. Had a 13 year old neighbor try to steal it and his dad called me demanding to know "who taught him XXXX."

In my studies of China during high school to try and uproot the basic understanding of the culture, although Mao Zedong was a farmer's son who rose to fame during the Communist movements of China and would usually pick and scratch at himself during interviews, I couldn't afford to get the school to pay for the resources of Chinese.However, the behavior of Mr. Mao Zedong would prove that he, too like most people worldwide, would have a vulgar side. This book has opened my eyes to the fact that even polite Asian societies can get down and dirty if things get wild.From sex to drugs to violence to abject disgust, you will find a way to get the point across when you're dealing with the Mandarin-speaking locals.I applaud the author for pointing out the fact they've garnered this info over the course of their time.

First two disclaimers, so that you can put my review into perspective: First, I have not read this book cover to cover yet; only the first couple chapters, so far. Second, my knowledge of "normal" and "polite" Chinese is fairly fluent, but not exceptional. I speak Mandarin routinely and generally effortlessly at home, and my vocabulary is fair-sized, but not really large.Given that background, my guess is that this book is about 70% an authoritative accounting of Chinese slang, and maybe 30% Westerners' impression of said slang. So, I think it's probably fairly successful in its stated goal, but some of it, I suspect, is just hyped up to give that impression.Some of the slanginess seems to me to be more in the English sentences used as examples than in the actual Chinese sentences/phrases they translated them to. That is, some of the English sentences are poised in 'street talk," when the translation to Chinese is pretty straight-forward and matter-of-fact (and accurate). So, if you were to use some of the translations presented here, you might think you're sounding like a gangster, when in fact you're really just sounding like an "average Joe" (or should I say an "average Zhou"!).But all in all, it probably is largely what it's claimed to be, and an entertaining read.

The authors provide exactly what the title promises-- a compendium of current Chinese slang. I'm a native English speaker learning Chinese, and the explanations of current conversational slang are a useful supplement to formal dictionaries. (I have also asked several native Chinese speakers their opinions, and they say that the book is on target.)Some of the other reviewers who gave the book low marks appear to have judged it based on its "dirty" or offensive language. Well, that's exactly what the book says it delivers! And, it gives guidance on which phrases are friendly and which are insulting.The overall tone of the book resembles what a youthful (say, college age) friend might use in coaching a newbie to China. For this book that seems appropriate.

Mandarin Chinese is my first language and English is my third.If I did not notice the names of the 2 authors, I almost thought that it is written by native Mandarin speaker cause most expressions and examples used in the book are down to the ground modern Chinese expressions and the book is not all about cursing and swearing, it also covers common mindsets of the Mandarin population in mainland China.In addition, lots of expressions in the book represents use of Mandarin in the northern part of China, particularly area around Beijing, which is a little bit different than Mandarin used in the south, like area around Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which means locals in those areas may not understand/use those expressions even though most of them are using Mandarin as their second language.

Unstructured, tries to be funny... failing most of the times. It's quite dissapointing as an slang book, it just covers part of it, there are several errors and typos. I just recommend it if you find it really cheap.

The content of this book is really helpful and instructive in turning a person with a good knowledge of text book, polite Putonghua in to a more socially adept speaker. The book is also often amusing and sometimes really funny, making the assimilation of the content much easier. Also helped me with new English slang terms, lots of which I had never heard (and I thought I was worldly).For anyone resident, or soon to be resident, in China, the words and expressions in the book will also assist in better understanding Chinese culture and its many contradictions.

Gutes Buch, wenn man chinesich Lerner ist. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Interesting and well done even if applicable "as is" only to English mother Language speakers. A "must have" for at least intermediate Chinese speakers