Imagine you want to go to a concert, and discover that all the tickets sold out.What would you do in your country?

In China, we’ll probably go look for a 黄牛 huángniú 😎

黄牛 Ticket tout | YourMandarin

❗️Today’s post comes from @savvamarina_sova. You might know her already as the author of many YM videos in Stories. She works in a very special Chinese office as a professional interpreter (and problem solver), and always has a unique view on things. So we’re really lucky to finally have her here 💛

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黄 huáng – yellow
牛 niú – cow

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黄牛 huángniú – ticket tout 🇬🇧 (or scalper 🇺🇸)
Synonym: 票贩子 piào fànzi 🇨🇳

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So, 黄牛 huángniú is Shanghainese slang for a more common word 票贩子 piào fànzi, or ticket touts. These people buy high-demand music tickets, theatre tickets, or even train tickets, to resell them later – and earn on the price difference💸

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Literal translation for 黄牛 is ‘an ox’. You may wonder, what do an ox and a scalper have in common? Actually, nothing! But as my professor used to say, “There must be a 故事 (story) behind every word”.

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So the story behind 黄牛 tells us that in the past, people used ox carriages for public transportation. And people who drove these carriages wore yellow jackets, so the carriages got a nickname 黄牛.

Then trains and buses came into service, but tickets were really hard to get. That’s when 黄牛s found themselves a new job! Since they spent a lot of time at train stations and usually had ‘friends’ working at ticket offices, they could easily get a ticket – saving time and effort in exchange for a small tip 💴

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Later on, they just extended their ‘services’ to other types of tickets. So today, you will spot them on your way to any music concert, show, or sports event🏸

黄牛票 huángniú piào – a ticket from scalpers

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How would you say: ‘Tickets to Bruno Mars’s concert sold out, so now you can only buy a ticket from scalpers, for twice the original price”?

(Concert – 演唱会 yǎnchànghuì, sold out – 卖完了 màiwán le, twice the original price – 原价的两倍 yuánjià de liǎngbèi)

 


@silvanabianchi.arch: 👏👍🏻

@marthadianka: Calo in Indonesian

@yourmandarin: @marthadianka 👍 ‘calo’ means ‘yellow ox’ or ‘ticket tout’?😄

@chino_con_lulu: 我最讨厌黄牛!

@yourmandarin: @chino_con_lulu 嗯,我也觉得他们很烦人😤

@l00m4ever: Bruno mars 的演唱会的票卖完了,所以你就可以从黄牛买原价的两倍票😭😭

@yourmandarin: @l00m4ever 👍🏅Nice work! Imho it’s a tough sentence, Marina set the bar high😅 In your sentence, change 就 to 只 (only), 可以 (allowed to) to 能 (can)😉

@l00m4ever: @yourmandarin it was a really good sentence I tried many times to get it closer to the right one😁

@yourmandarin: @l00m4ever A possible option, how I’d say this: ”BrunoMars演唱会门票都卖完了 (现在)只有黄牛票 不过价格是蛮贵的,原价的两倍”

 

November 16, 2018

Written by YourMandarin

YourMandarin is an independent project created and run by Veronika Se. To date, it has been updated daily for 1039 days, received 17,771 comments, and has 20.9k followers.

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