Líng
“这个人很要面子” in English please I want to get help from native English speakers. But maybe they can not read Chinese. So I am gonna desicribe it. 1. Peter made a wrong decision, but he will never admit it. 2. Jenny is very poor, but when other people ask her if she needs some help, she always refuses. 3. His company runs recently not well, but he lies to other, he is doing great bussiness. How will native speakers describe this kind of people?
Jul 31, 2014 1:20 AM
Answers · 4
Hi L Doble, I know what it means, but there is no direct translation that can go with it word for word because it loses all the connotations associated with it. I will tell you how to describe it though. First, literally, it means "he doesn't want to lose face". People from other countries will just understand this as "he doesn't want to feel embarrassed" or "he wants to take credit for all his actions". As for the examples given, here are my descriptions: 1. Peter is too stubborn. He'll never admit he was wrong because he doesn't want to seem weak and discredited in front of other people. 2. Jenny has to much pride to be helped by other people. She wants everyone to know she can manage herself well and succeed in life. 3. He's too embarrassed to admit that his company isn't doing so well. He wants to be held in high regard. Furthermore, as a bilingual speaker and teacher to Chinese students, I know that Chinese people like to "codify" and "generalize" actions into terms. This makes learning a language more complicated. In most cases, especially in English, you just have to describe in simple terms. Hope this helps.
July 31, 2014
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