Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
on 12 Dec 04:45
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I feel like the author is exaggerating how the languages work, people say 对 and 好啊 in Chinese and “not wrong” and “not bad” in English pretty frequently.
In Chinese, affirmation is often compiled through negation:
没错 (méi cuò) = “not wrong” = Right
不差 (bù chà) = “not bad” = Decent
还行 (hái xíng) = “still passable” = Okay
没事 (méi shì) = “no problem” = It’s fine
In English, this feels bizarre. If something is good, you say:
Nice
Great
Perfect
Brilliant
You name the quality directly. You point at it. You own it.
In American positivity-laden, self-marketing, businessy English perhaps. But in the UK “not bad”, “could be worse”, “not wrong”, “can’t complain”, “I’ve had worse” and so on is often as positive as it gets, or at least was for a long time. American positive-speak gets on British people’s nerves; it’s perceived as boorish, boastful and unsubtle. And “no problem” is common in English all over. British people do say “brilliant” but only when they’re being unusually enthusiastic, or fake, or sarcastic.
10MeterFeldweg@feddit.org
on 12 Dec 05:46
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A German proverb translates like "No complaint is praise enough ".
An American friend who plays in a band called it the German compliment after her first gigs in Germany. Phrases along the line of “you were bit not as shitty as I thought” have been heard quite often and were really meant as a compliment.
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I feel like the author is exaggerating how the languages work, people say 对 and 好啊 in Chinese and “not wrong” and “not bad” in English pretty frequently.
i have never heard someone say “not wrong” other than a context like “not even wrong”
In American positivity-laden, self-marketing, businessy English perhaps. But in the UK “not bad”, “could be worse”, “not wrong”, “can’t complain”, “I’ve had worse” and so on is often as positive as it gets, or at least was for a long time. American positive-speak gets on British people’s nerves; it’s perceived as boorish, boastful and unsubtle. And “no problem” is common in English all over. British people do say “brilliant” but only when they’re being unusually enthusiastic, or fake, or sarcastic.
A German proverb translates like "No complaint is praise enough ".
An American friend who plays in a band called it the German compliment after her first gigs in Germany. Phrases along the line of “you were bit not as shitty as I thought” have been heard quite often and were really meant as a compliment.