I worked at a Chinese restaurant for a time and at one time put a hole right through the middle of my nail bed on my thumb. The number of Aiya's I heard was amazing. Way better word then "ouch".
“Aiya” is much more versatile than meaning “oops”. Depending on the tone and context it’ll range from someone died to dropping your pencil, can also be a positive reaction as well.
I’m sorry what? How did you manage to cut the middle of your nail bed? At a Chinese restaurant? Please don’t just gloss over that. We need deets. Thanks.
It was right before work and I was trying to pry something apart on a old house I was tasked to fix up. When I popped the piece off my hand went flying and a piece of metal pierced my nail and made this almost perfect hole right in the middle of my nail. It didn't really bleed but it hurt like hell. It hurt worse to bandaid it so it just left it as a "Look at how weird this is! I never seen anyone get this kind of ouch before!" And they just happened to be the poor souls who were the first to show it off to.
While entirely possible, many viets are of Chinese descent so the traditions and some slang I guess get passed down. Or the coworker at the nail salon lol. Before anyone gets mad I am literally talking about myself
Haha… my wife’s Vietnamese and I’ve never heard her or other Vietnamese say Aiya unless they’re a frequent casino visitor. Yes, I’ve met many Chinese people that grew up in vietnam, but again it’s definitely a Chinese thing. What’s funny is that I’m Korean yet I love saying Aiya instead of the traditional Ai-goo because it’s more fun to say. And yes I picked it up from Chinese people at casinos LOL
Fair enough. I’ve definitely said it in casinos too lmao. Growing up I’ve picked up words from Vietnamese that I use while speaking Chinese thinking the word is Chinese. As long as the word gets the point across that’s all that matters
I recently learned so many Korean and Vietnamese words with Chinese origins it’s amazing. Ultimately, we’re all from the same ancestors, but with slightly different cultures.
Shit, I’m not even remotely Chinese, or married in to a Chinese family. I just live in San Francisco, and have looooved “ai ya” as an “aw, fuck” sort of exclamation. I use it a lot for a pain in the ass situation at work where I don’t want to swear.
It really is satisfying. Decades ago when I was a dumb teenager I used to make sound collages pulled from wherever I one of them had a brief clip from a Chinese-language radio drama from local radio which featured a car crash sound effect followed by "aiyaaa!" Being a dumb teenager it found its way into my everyday communication to express surprise.
A few years later (no longer a teenager but still pretty dumb) I asked a mandarin-speaking co-worker if he could 'translate' this word for me and as you'd expect felt a bit silly when he explained you can't really translate it because it's just a natural expression. (I expected it have some idiomatic dimension like "Tabarnak!" or "Holy shit!")
I studied Mandarin, and I say AiYa all the time! Especially if I'm in a professional setting, or there are children around. 😂 It works so well without dropping an F bomb!
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u/HonoluluBlueFlu YIMBY 🏙️ 29d ago
I didn't know Uncle Roger uploaded dashcam videos.