(单词翻译:单击)
Hello again and welcome back to happy hour. This is the fifth day of the Chinese New Year and it carries a special meaning. I'm sure a lot of you have been sharing images of the god of wealth on social media today, because according to traditional beliefs, this is the day that we're supposed to welcome the god of wealth into our homes. 财神 or literally translated into god of wealth or god of prosperity. Apparently they come in all directions, mainly five, center east, west, north, and south. And they are in charge of different aspects of wealth. For example, some of them are about collecting treasures, valuables or profitability or generally attracting wealth.
So in today's episode, let us focus on money and wealth. In the early days, I have done two episodes on the topic of money, but those were very basic and quite short episodes. So today we're going to expand on that and share with you more expressions about riches and wealth. And also we're going to take a look at some of the most common sayings and proverbs in English. So on with today's show.
First of all, let me give you a list of words. Now listen carefully, cash, buck, quid, funds, capital, riches, bacon, grand, dough. Didn't quite catch that? I will do it again, cash, buck, quid, funds, capital, riches, bacon, grand and dough, all of these words mean money one way or another in English. Like in Chinese there are so many different expressions people use in daily conversation formal or informal to refer to money. For instance the word dough d-o-u-g-h, originally it means the flour you use to make bread做面包用的面团叫做dough, but because dough is related to bread, and bread is a daily necessity. So in slang, people would use the word dough to refer to money. Same idea you have bacon to bring home the bacon. It means to bring home money to support your family. This is the flexibility of language.
There are always more ways to say things. For instance when you're learning Chinese you learn 一元五角 you use 元and 角,but in daily conversation very rarely you would hear people say 一元五角 people would just say 一块五。In the same logic in English speaking countries it is the same, for example in American English instead of saying dollars people often say buck b-u-c-k to mean dollar. And in British English, instead of saying pound people can say quid q-u-i-d. And in British English you also hear people say this cost fiver or a tenner. A fiver is five pounds and tenner is ten pounds. And in both British English and American English you hear people say this cost me five grand. So here a grand means one thousand dollars or one thousand pounds, grand. These day to day expressions, the best way to pick them up is to maximize your input by reading more, listening to more materials and watching more materials and you learn it naturally.
So those were different ways of saying the word money. Since today is about god of wealth. Let's talk about how to express I have money. The very simple word you learned are things like rich or wealthy. But there are so many different ways in English to express similar meaning. You can say I am comfortable. Here comfortable if you're talking about money, it means maybe I'm not super rich but I live a very comfortable life and I can afford things that I want. I'm comfortable. Usually if people want to be nosey and ask me how much I earn, I would tell them I'm comfortable. Give them a very vague answer.
And instead of saying rich, you can also use words like well to do or well off. You can say he is well to do or well off. This means rich but not super rich. Alternatively, you can say someone is flush with money, flush f-l-u-s-h, this means they have enough they have a lot of. So flush with money, they have a lot of money. In slang(在俚语里), there is a very common expression loaded l-o-a-d-e-d. So if you say, oh, he's loaded, that means he is super wealthy.
We can also use this, obviously in a jokey way. You can say you bought another new car, you must be loaded. These are common expressions, but sometimes when we look at people like Jack Mar or Middle Eastern prince, people who are so so rich, we can say they are filthy rich or stinking rich. This is very interesting because filthy f-i-l-t-h-y this means dirty, but here it doesn't really carry a negative meaning, it's more as a joke when you say he's filthy rich or stinking rich, it's more like oh why can't I have what he has? (羡慕嫉妒恨的说这个人富的流油) He is filthy rich or she is stinking rich.
Now there are different types of money. There's the money you earn, there's the money that you were born with. So some people they're lucky enough to be born in a very wealthy family. Then you can say he or she is from money and that means they're from a rich family. By far we've been looking at very much spoken language. In written language you might also see words like affluent, a-f-f-l-u-e-n-t, affluent basically means wealthy but it's more written. So you can say they are from an affluent family, affluent family(富裕家庭)And talking about business, sometimes you use the word prosperous p-r-o-s-p-e-r-o-u-s prosperous usually is talking about a group of people and area or a business(使兴旺繁盛的意思) so she has a prosperous new business. For example we can also wish other people a prosperous new year. The noun form for prosperous is prosperity. This is also why we can call 财神 god of wealth, or god of prosperity.
So we've just taken a look at different ways to say money and different ways to say someone is rich. Now let's look at ten most common sayings about money. Saying number one, money talks, very simple. If you believe in the power of money in Chinese, you would say 有钱能使鬼推磨 in English, you say money talks, basically money is power and it gives you power to do pretty much anything you want.
The saying number two says, a fool and his money are soon parted. A fool and his money are soon parted. So if you're not smart, if you're stupid, then you're not going to keep your money for very long even if you have it, you will lose it very, very quickly.(笨人有钱留不住)a fool and his money are soon parted.
Coming on to number three, you know when you were growing up, older people especially your parents always tell you that it's very difficult to earn money. And they will tell you 钱也不是大风刮来的 Saying number three means something similar. It is money doesn't grow on trees. Money doesn't grow on trees. It means it's quite difficult to make money.
But how to make money, then how to keep money, like in Chinese, there are many sayings that are offering different tips. Saying number four is a tip from Shakespeare. (第四句来自莎士比亚) neither a borrower, nor a lender be. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, it basically means do not borrow money from people and do not lend people money. And this is the smart way.
Saying number five, says a penny saved is a penny earned. A penny saved is a penny earned, so saving money is earning money. Sounds familiar? This is a tip on not wasting money.
Similarly, saying number six says if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves. One hundred pennies would make a pound. So if you look after the pennies meaning if you look after small amount of money and save them, the pounds will look after themselves. You will eventually have a large sum of money(积少成多). If you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.
By far, we're looking at saving money and don't lend or borrow, but of course you also need to invest. Saying number seven is a tip on investment. Saying, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket meaning do not rely on one opportunity, try to find multiple opportunities.
Saying number eight tells you nothing ventured, nothing gained. This means if you don't take risks, you might get nothing(不冒险就没有收获,有点像我们的不入虎穴焉得虎子)This can serve as an investment tip. Obviously, higher risks might lead to higher returns.
Now we're coming to the last two sayings about money and these two are general attitudes towards money. Number nine says money is a good servant but a bad master. A good servant, but a bad master. If we can make money work for us, that's very good. But if we let money rule our lives, they become terrible masters(金钱是善仆,也是恶主). It's all about how you see it and how you use it.
The last saying of the day is very similar to something that we say in Chinese. This is you can't take it with you when you die or when you go. You can't take it with you. Basically we can't take any of our wealth with us when we leave this world (生不带来死不带去).
Those were the ten common sayings about money in English. In the end I just wanna say in the New Year perhaps a lot of us are still going to try very hard to make more money, that we're still going to have money related anxiety, still gonna be anxious about money; we perhaps will still be jealous of people who are stinking rich. Fortunately the best things in life are free and it all depends on your own prospective. And on that note on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, let me wish every one of you a very happy and prosperous new year. I'll see you next time. Bye.
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