Since I left China for the U.S. six years ago, I go back to visit once a year. And every time I’m home in Harbin, no exceptions so far, I find new elements added to the city’s appearance: a new highway, a new skyscraper or a new, gorgeous-looking shopping center. Along with these new developments in China, something else is changing — the language, especially the Internet language. As a Chinese native, sometimes I feel I’m lagging.
Five years ago, when I transferred from Purdue University Calumet to Boston College, my friend from high school left me a message online saying that I was a “校漂.” Having no idea what that word suggested, I asked him about it. He was surprised that I didn’t know it and explained that it meant getting into an average school abroad but using that opportunity to transfer to a higher-ranking one. But Google and Baidu (a Chinese search engine) both tell me the word refers to people who have already graduated from college but for whatever reasons still stick around campus instead of exploring the outside world. Maybe my friend was confused as well.
In recent years, new Chinese words have come out once in a while and become viral on the Internet. I’m always amazed that all of a sudden, everyone starts to “talk in a new language” when I’m still trying to figure out what these new words mean.
Here’re some examples: “雷人” (weird or shocking), “给力” (effective) and “吊丝” (poor people).
Some new words are created based on the pronunciation. For instance, “木有” (none) came from the word “没有,” same meaning, similar pronunciation but with a different Chinese character. Other examples include “小盆友” instead of “小朋友” for the word “child” as well as “神马都是浮云” (everything’s like floating clouds).
Some others come from English. For example, “沙发,” or a couch, now refers to the very first comment on a blog post. The reason? It sounds like the English phrase “so fast.”
Then, some are based on the appearance. Look at this one: “囧” (embarrassing)! Doesn’t it precisely display its meaning? This Chinese character did not exist years ago.
I’m often surprised by new words, and some of them made me laugh when I first saw them, such as the “sad face” above. I need to constantly update my vocabulary to keep up with all the changes that my native tongue is embracing.
With creativity and innovation, who knows what will happen tomorrow?
自从我六年前离开中国到了美国，我每年回家探望一次。每次我回到家乡哈尔滨，都会毫无例外地发现城市面貌有了新的变化：一条新的高速公路、一座新的参天大厦或一个新的华丽绚烂的购物中心。中国这些新发展正处在进行时，与此同时，还有另一样事物也在不断更新，那就是语言，尤其是网络词汇。作为一个土生土长的中国人，有时我竟然觉得自己跟不上潮流。
五年前，我从普渡大学盖莱默校区转学到了波士顿学院，一个高中同学在网上留言给我说我是“校漂”。这是什么意思呢？我毫无概念，所以就问他。他很惊讶我竟然不知道，于是他解释说这个词的意思是先申请进入一个一般的国外大学，然后借此机会转学去一个排名较高的学校。但是谷歌和百度都告诉我说，校漂指的是一些大学毕业生由于种种原因不愿意步入社会，于是留在校园附近。也许我的这个同学也有些混淆了吧。
这几年，时不时就会有一些新鲜词汇脱颖而出，在网络上广为流传。我通常会惊奇地发现所有人突然开始“用一种新的语言交流”，而我还在想方设法去弄清楚这些新词汇的含义。
这有几个例子：“雷人”（奇怪或使人震惊）、“给力”（有效、给与力量）还有“吊丝”（穷人）。
一些新词汇来源于它们原型的读音。例如，“木有”是由“没有”衍化而来，同样的意思，类似的读音，但是用了不同的汉字。其他例子包括用“小盆友”替代“小朋友”，还有“神马都是浮云”。
还有一些新词汇来自英语。比如“沙发”这一词，现在可以指某网络内容的第一条评论信息。为什么呢？因为这个词听起来像英文中的“so fast”。
此外，有些源于文字的外观。看看这个吧：“囧”！这个字本身不就万分恰当地展现了它的含义吗？几年前，这个词可是不存在的。
有时，一些新的词汇让我感到惊讶，而有一些词初次见到时则让我哈哈大笑，正如刚刚提到的那张“悲伤的脸”。我需要不断更新我的词汇，才能跟上我的母语发展变化的脚步。
有这样的想象力和创造力，谁知道明天会有什么样的奇迹出现呢？