Excited
Despite my ethnicity, I don’t know how to speak Chinese (in any dialect), but I do know a fair share of naughty cuss words in Cantonese and Hokkien thanks to family and friends while growing up in Malaysia. So when I saw this blog post on CNET Asia (disclosure: I work for CNET.com, the parent site), my jaw dropped in sheer horror, which then turned into bellyaching laughter. It seems that Francesco Logozzo, a developer at Microsoft, has come up with an “abstract interpretation-based static analyzer for modular analysis and verification of Java classes,” which admittedly sounds pretty boring, until you see what he decided to call it:
That’s right. Cibai. Non-Hokkien speakers might be scratching their heads as to why this is so shocking, but to put it bluntly, that’s like calling the application “Vagina” but with the much more offensive four-letter version. In Malaysia and Singapore at least, the word is often used as a catch-all swear word that replaces the f-word and other offensive terms like “bastard” and “dickhead”, and is rarely used in a literal way. As for this application, apparently the name stands for Class Invariants By Abstract Interpretation, and you can insert your own joke here about what “class invariant” means when it comes to female genitalia.
Needless to say, I immediately shared this link around to my Chinese-speaking friends and we were all extremely amused. Does this Microsoft developer know about this unfortunate meaning for the name of his application? I highly doubt it. But something tells me he’ll know about it soon enough.
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Sorry to post again, but to those Asian brothers and sisters who has no knowledge of Chinese or the Hokkien dialect, here's a video which demonstrate the proper use of the word in an English dialect commonly known as "Singlish". Since Nicole grew up in Malyasia, this exchange probably rings true to her or bring back found memories. Although I have many Singaporean and Malaysian friends, it is only due to this great video that I became aware of the fact that this word transends cultural background in Singapore - people of all ethnicities embrace this word with equal gusto and passion:
http://www.yo utube.com/watch?v=s3A_f4RcUT0 - NSFW!
Sorry to post again, but to those Asian brothers and sisters who has no knowledge of Chinese or the Hokkien dialect, here's a video which demonstrate the proper use of the word in an English dialect commonly known as "Singlish". Since Nicole grew up in Malyasia, this exchange probably rings true to her or bring back found memories. Although I have many Singaporean and Malaysian friends, it is only due to this great video that I became aware of the fact that this word transends cultural background in Singapore - people of all ethnicities embrace this word with equal gusto and passion:
http://www.yo utube.com/watch?v=s3A_f4RcUT0 - NSFW!
Sorry to post again, but to those Asian brothers and sisters who has no knowledge of Chinese or the Hokkien dialect, here's a video which demonstrate the proper use of the word in an English dialect commonly known as "Singlish". Since Nicole grew up in Malyasia, this exchange probably rings true to her or bring back found memories. Although I have many Singaporean and Malaysian friends, it is only due to this great video that I became aware of the fact that this word transends cultural background in Singapore - people of all ethnicities embrace this word with equal gusto and passion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3A_f4RcUT0 - NSFW!
For anyone offended by this video - I apologize in advance. :)
Sorry to post again, but to those Asian brothers and sisters who has no knowledge of Chinese or the Hokkien dialect, here's a video which demonstrate the proper use of the word in an English dialect commonly known as "Singlish". Since Nicole grew up in Malyasia, this exchange probably rings true to her or bring back found memories. Although I have many Singaporean and Malaysian friends, it is only due to this great video that I became aware of the fact that this word transends cultural background in Singapore - people of all ethnicities embrace this word with equal gusto and passion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3A_f4RcUT0 - NSFW!
For anyone offended by this video - I apologize in advance. :)
It's very widely used in every place were Hokkien or Min-nan dialect was spoken. In addition to SE Asia, this word is used daily by millions of Taiwanese as well. It's actually close to another word for Penis in mandarin Chinese too. It's just not a pleasant word all around.
Incidentally these kind of things happens with other Asians as well. In mandarin Chinese slang, Ji-Ji (pronounced Gee-Gee) is a childish slang word for penis, kinda similar to wee-wee. Imagine my shock/horror/amusement when this song was on the top of Korean pop charts for 9 weeks in beginning of this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eodFU4b237s
It's a great song and I love SNSD, but I can't help but smile when I hear certain parts of this song...
It's very widely used in every place were Hokkien or Min-nan dialect was spoken. In addition to SE Asia, this word is used daily by millions of Taiwanese as well. It's actually close to another word for Penis in mandarin Chinese too. It's just not a pleasant word all around.
Incidentally these kind of things happens with other Asians as well. In mandarin Chinese slang, Ji-Ji (pronounced Gee-Gee) is a childish slang word for penis, kinda similar to wee-wee. Imagine my shock/horror/amusement when this song was on the top of Korean pop charts for 9 weeks in beginning of this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eodFU4b237s
It's a great song and I love SNSD, but I can't help but smile when I hear certain parts of this song...
It took a few seconds for me to get the proper translation (when said it sounds more like JEE-BAI), but I finally got it and all I have to say is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. (Still giggling at this very moment.)
It took a few seconds for me to get the proper translation (when said it sounds more like JEE-BAI), but I finally got it and all I have to say is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. (Still giggling at this very moment.)
appropriate use of the "WTF" tag
appropriate use of the "WTF" tag
It also kind of sounds like "si bai," which in Mandarin means FAIL.
It also kind of sounds like "si bai," which in Mandarin means FAIL.
When I read about this, I had the same response: utter horror followed by sheer laughter. I wonder if they'll change this soon enough...;)
When I read about this, I had the same response: utter horror followed by sheer laughter. I wonder if they'll change this soon enough...;)
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