2015年1月3日星期六

A “Cong1 Ming2 Jue2 Ding3 De5” Chinese Teacher



Mr Wang is a Chinese teacher who teaches Chinese in a middle school.
All his students speak highly of him. He usually seems to be extremely intelligent. Because he can read through his students’ mind by communicating with them. Never try to talk in his Chinese class. He can get to know what you are thinking about and what you want. Many other Chinese teachers use a word “聪明绝顶(cong1 ming2 jue2 ding3)” to describe him.
Actually, there is not a more suitable word to describe him like this one. It is a figure of speech here that is pun. How could that be? Because “绝顶(jue2 ding3)” in Chinese is literally equal to “秃顶(tu1 ding3)”. And that means “bald-headed”. Because Mr Wang has scant hair on his head, and he is so clever that people think he is “聪明绝顶(cong1 ming2 jue2 ding3)”.
As a mandarin teacher, I want explain “聪明绝顶” in detail. “聪明” means “clever” or “intelligent”. “绝顶” does not refer to the “bald head” but means “tiptop”. That is to say this phrase is used to describe a person’s wisdom that has reached the top of the peak. It is equal to the summit of something. “聪明绝顶” can be written as “绝顶聪明”.
Besides this phrase, there are some other words concerning “绝顶(jue2ding3)”. For example, “绝顶高手(jue2 ding3 gao1 shou3)” is a frequently-used phrase, which means “top-hand”.
When it comes to praise someone, there is another word I want to mention. Do you know “顶呱呱(ding3 gua1 gua1)”? it is almost equivalent to the English phrase “Well done” ,“Excellent” or “good job” etc.
“Tom, 你的中文已经顶呱呱了(ni3 de5 zhong1 wen2 yi3 jing1 ding3 gua1 gua1 le5)”, Tom’s Chinese tutor said to him. 

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