Personality disorder
I was in a shop in China, and wanted to haggle for something that I considered too pricey, I decided to use a bit of paper to write the numbers on and haggle rather than struggle with Chinese numbers. I went up to a shop assistant and asked her for a pen in Chinese: Ni bi ma? The assistant looked at me terrified and shook her head without saying anything. I repeated my question several times but with no result. In the end I walked away bemused. After about 5 minutes I realised my mistake and walked back into the shop and sheepishly asked the same assistant: Ni you bi ma? Instead of asking "do you have a pen?", I've initially asked her "are you a pen?" I didn't buy anything.
Sent by: Jamie
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Yes, you are totally right. Bi, when pronounced with the 1st tone, can mean female's private body area, also, it can mean that a person is stupid. But this bi got these meanings in the last several years, you can consider it as a Mandarin slang. But be cautious when using it, if not 100% sure, ask people for help. They will tell you a lot a words with bi so that you will learn.
What Dave said was right. Maybe she thought you were talking about the female private part in the public.
The reason for the assistant looking terrified was because the word bi depending on the tone you used could mean force.
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The shop assistant could have looked terrified because bi said with the first tone in Mandarin corresponds to a less than polite way to say female genitalia! I speak from experience of being misinterpreted in this way!
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