laowhy86

What is "Chabuduo"?

Added 2018-05-25 13:18:45 +0000 UTC

Hey Laowinners!

A word Winston and I throw around all the time is "cha bu duo" or 差不多。

You can pronounce it like cha (as in cha cha) boo dwoh.

This word literally means, "almost", but I like to think of it as "good enough".

This phrase is thrown around in daily speech in China more frequently than please or thank you. Why is that?

Well, Chabuduo culture in China is so pervasive, that it really controls daily life in a way. Example: Constructing a building, walls are askew, floors don't line up. Chabuduo. Job done.
The blind tactile tiles on the sidewalk lead to an open sewer. Well at least they are there. Chabuduo.

Spend $100,000,000 on a new stadium for a 3rd tier city that never gets used. Well, whoever got the money for the project in the first place is well off, and the construction workers did their job. Chabuduo.

It's very noticeable in translations to English, as you can see in the above signs. There are typically only a few positions for government translator, and they are usually given to the children or relatives of government officials. This was witnessed first hand, as I had to get documents for my daughter legally translated, and the women who was the head translator (who had a very bad attitude), couldn't speak a lick of English, and was using the government mandated dictionary to, word by word, translate each part of the document.

Were there mistakes? You bet. Chabuduo.