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Thread: Words for foreigners...

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[quote=GRIZ326,231852]I looked up the word "foreigner" in my Wenlin electronic dictionary and found a number of different ways to say foreigner.

洋人 ocean/person - yángrén...which I imagine is like saying "he is from across the pond..." ...the pond being the Atlantic Ocean...
 
番客 (measure word)/guest - fānkè...that's kinda nice...but what the devil is a measure word in this case...bad guest, good guest, big guest, little guest?

番子 (measure word)/child - fānzi... there's that measure word again...and it is being translated as barbarian!  ...well I guess some parent's children are little barbarians rather than little angels.

红毛 red/hair - hóngmáo ... some of the first foreigners must have been from Ireland ;)  ...that is what the reference is, correct - ??? - foreign people rarely have the jet black hair of the Chinese.

老外 - lǎowài - foreigner or layman

外国人 outside/country/person - wàiguórén ... makes sense and usually pretty obvious

外人 outside/person - wàirén ... a stranger

外族 outside/people or nationality - wàizú ... people not of the same clan ... not necessarily a foreigner from outside of China

I just found it interesting how the characters are put together to derive meanings...[/quote]

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