to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 3:33 PM
subject: My friend bobby got this dumb tattoo
A resident Japanese says it means “Green Vegetable”, so we have been laughing at bobby. We could never get him to say. One theory is "weed", slang for marijuana.
What do you say?
Thanks!
菜 indeed means "greens, vegetable, food dish".
Bobby needs to lay off smoking oregano, the gateway drug to catnip.
It's not often that I LOL at one of your posts. That recommendation is golden.
ReplyDeleteAs the page started displaying, I was looking at the photo and thinking "Wow, that's one scary vegetable".
Nice Raistlin's eyes tattoo, though. Someone really loves himself veggies and D&D.
ReplyDeleteIn Chinese "菜" could be used as an adjective that means weak, incompetent or unexperienced, a.k.a., green.
ReplyDelete"rookie" often translates to "菜鸟" in Chinese. "鸟" means "bird".
Vegetable. Wow!
ReplyDelete@Travis L: Yeah, that character means 'green vegetable' all right. It has the same meaning in both Japanese and Chinese. In Chinese, it's pronounced 'cai', fourth tone ('ch' as in 'change' and 'ai' as in 'bye').
ReplyDeleteThe term for 'weed' (as in 'unwanted plant'）is 杂草 ('za cao'), while 'weed' (as in 'marijuana') is 大麻 ('da ma'). Unfortunately for Bobby, what's written on his back is undisputably, 'vegetable'. 'Fall Ark' is also correct in pointing out the derivative term 菜鸟 'cai niao' (literally: 'vegetable bird', meaning a rookie or noob).
So, anyway you see it, Travis, I think your friend Bobby got a real bummer on this one.