一步一个脚印

Test your English and Chinese vocabulary level! See how many of these words you can guess. Today’s theme is interesting conditions. Here’s a tip: most of them (but not all) end in 病 bìng (“sickness”) or 症 zhèng (“disease”). Also note many of these are new and popular expressions in Chinese, and some do not have equivalent expressions in English. Good luck and have fun!

1. You are a young woman who acts like a spoilt little princess.
2. You are a man who treats woman like they are inferior to you.
3. You have many important things to do, but you keep putting them off.
4. You keep doing the same little meaningless things over and over again.
5. You find it very difficult to make decisions.
6. You are obsessed with keeping things clean.
7. You have a number of uncomfortable symptoms but you don’t know what is wrong with you exactly.
8. You are unreasonably jealous towards other people.
9. You are in love with yourself.
10. You are in love with someone so much that it makes you sick.
11. You believe everyone is out to get you.
12. You are a girl who, upon seeing two boys together, fantasises they are gay.
13. Your behaviour is very stupid andYou are so nice to everyone, even people who don’t like you. different to everyone else.
14. You are so nice to everyone, even people who don’t like you.
15. You are like a little kid and believe you are a character out of a cartoon or movie.
16. You did something bad, and now you are sick because of it.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

(no looking at the answers until you’ve made some guesses!)

Answers

1. You are a young woman who acts like a spoilt little princess.
   公主病 gōngzhǔbìng. Literally, “princess sickness”. No exact equvalent in English-speaking countries (yet). See the Wikipedia article for more information.
2. You are a man who treats woman like they are inferior to you.
   直男癌 zhínán’ái. Literally, “straight man cancer”. Again, no exact equivalent in English, but can be translated as “male chauvinism”. More information at the Wikipedia article.
3. You have many important things to do, but you keep putting them off.
   拖延症 tuōyánzhèng. Literally, “procrastination disease”. In English we would probably just say you procrastinate a lot.
4. You keep doing the same little meaningless things over and over again.
   强迫症 qiǎngpòzhèng. Literally, “forcing disease”. In English this is known as “obsessive-compulsive disorder” or simply “OCD”.
5. You find it very difficult to make decisions.
   选择困难症 xuǎnzékùnnánzhèng. Literally, “decision difficulty disease”. Roughly equivalent to the concept “decision fatigue” in English.
6. You are obsessed with keeping things clean.
   洁癖 jiépǐ. Literally, “cleanliness addiction”. In English we could probably call you a “neat-freak”.
7. You have a number of uncomfortable symptoms but you don’t know what is wrong with you exactly.
   亚健康 yàjiànkāng. Literally, “sub-healthy”. No exact equivalent in English-speaking countries (yet). Wikipedia translates it as “suboptimal health”.
8. You are unreasonably jealous towards other people.
   红眼病 hóngyǎnbìng. Literally, “red-eye sickness”. No equivalent in English. Note it can also refer to “pinkeye” or “conjunctivitis”.
9. You are in love with yourself.
   自恋症 zìliànzhèng. Literally, “self-love disease”. In English this is known as “narcissism” or “egotism”.
10. You are in love with someone so much that it makes you sick.
    相思病 xiāngsībìng. Literally, “pining sickness”. In English known as “lovesickness”.
11. You believe everyone is out to get you.
    迫害妄想症 pòhàiwàngxiǎngzhèng. Literally, “persecutory delusion”. This is probably a translation of the concept in psychology of the same name. You could also call it simply 多疑症 duōyízhèng, “paranoia”.
12. You are a girl who, upon seeing two boys together, fantasises they are gay.
    腐女癌 fǔnǚ’ái. Literally, “fujoshi cancer”. Here 腐女 refers to the Japanese term 腐女子 fujoshi, meaning a female fan of manga and novels that feature romantic relationships between men. With the addition of 癌, it refers to a girl who has an obsession about boys being in love with each other.
13. Your behaviour is very stupid and different to everyone else.
    脑残 nǎocán. Literally, “brain impairment”. No exact equivalent in English, though you could translate it as “brain-dead”.
14. You are so nice to everyone, even people who don’t like you.
    圣母病 shèngmǔbìng. Literally, “holy mother sickness” or “Virgin Mary disease”. No exact equivalent in English (yet), though you could translate it as having a “holy mother complex”.
15. You are like a little kid and believe you are a character out of a cartoon or movie.
    中二病 zhōng’èrbìng. Literally, “second-year-junior-middle-school sickness”. From the Japanese chūnibyō. No equivalent in English. Check out the Wikipedia page.
16. You did something bad, and now you are sick because of it.
    因果病 yīnguǒbìng. Literally, “karma sickness”. In English we would just say you were “suffering from bad karma”.