Adrianna Tan
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

There is a term in Chinese I think about. Sometimes we say ‘this person 会做人 / 不会做人’ (hui4 zuo4 ren2 / bu2 hui4 zuo4 ren2)

Broadly, it’s like ‘this person knows how to be a person / doesn’t know how to be one’.

Sometimes it is applied to some unwritten rules like ‘know how to bring a fruit gift to an elder family friend’. Or like ‘bring a tasty treat to your mother in law if she really likes food and you’re at a shop that sells her fave snacks get her some’.

But more broadly it means ‘someone who thinks of other people’.

My grandparents / parents often said they didn’t care about what my accomplishments were or weren’t, as long as I knew how to ‘be a person’, and how to be kind. I feel that’s important to me too.

#Chinese#Languages
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
@blogdiva@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

i like that it’s PEOPLE, without a qualifier. in Puerto Rico all the rules of etiquette and ethics revolve around being BUENA GENTE. good people alwaya visit with food in hand; especially if you drop-in, unannounced. good people look after all the kids in your neighborhood, not just your kids or the kids’ next door. and the list goes on and one.

so the implication of buena gente is that there are mala gente. in Chinese though, if they are not people, what are they?

@skinnylatte