# Newbie | Very Cool, Very Ok

An episode of [ChinesePod - Beginner](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1489328856), 11 Mar 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/109bf914/podcast/play/116611889/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-9%2F7c4af733-facd-0484-cdd6-e17ae6b45cf9.mp3

If you're a foreign student in China, or planning to be one, you should probably learn the word for "foreign student." And since all our listeners are good-looking, the word for "handsome guy" might just come in handy as well. Learn all this and more in this Chinese lesson. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1634

## Transcript

[0:23] So around 10 years ago, I was treated to dinner by a British
[0:26] lady and she asked me how the food was and I said it was OK.
[0:32] Of course since then I knew that OK didn't mean the way OK means
[0:37] in China. This is Qi with Chinese part.
[0:43] And today we're talking about English words that are commonly
[0:46] used in China such as cool and OK.
[0:49] So stay tuned because this show is going to be very cool, and
[0:53] also in the Chinese sense, it's going to be very OK.
[1:07] You might know Xiaomi. Xiaomi is one of the tech giants
[1:10] in China. They make phones, TV's, laptops
[1:14] and smart wristbands. A few years ago, the CEO of
[1:17] Xiaomi Legion held a presentation in India.
[1:22] Hello. How are you?
[1:28] Indian Defense? I'm very happy to be in China,
[1:33] to be in India. Do you like me for I do you like
[1:44] me Banned. OK.
[1:48] OK. We have a gift for everyone.
[1:56] We will give A everyone free B band.
[2:07] And here comes the line that makes him so famous on the
[2:10] Internet. Are you OK?
[2:16] Are you OK? Thank you.
[2:20] Thank you. We will give everyone.
[2:27] Of course this has led to a countless number of parody
[2:30] remixes and videos of Legion's speech.
[2:33] What he was trying to say here though, by saying are you OK is
[2:38] more likely. Are you guys happy with it?
[2:42] The point I'm trying to make here is OK in China is not as
[2:46] much as a neutral affirmative as it is in other modern English
[2:50] speaking countries. Rather, it's just a substitute
[2:53] for good. For how in China we also say
[2:58] jaga, oh, oh, OK, is this good or not?
[3:03] Notice that we split OK into two into O&K because normally we say
[3:08] how, how good, not good, meaning is this good?
[3:13] And of course we also have the word koi, which means can, may.
[3:18] And when we use kui in the question, we say kabu kui.
[3:21] We take the first word of kui ku and say kabu kui.
[3:25] Is this possible? That's why when we incorporate
[3:31] OK into our Chinese language, we can also do the same.
[3:35] We say oh, OK, basically meaning the same as Kabukai.
[3:39] So basically what Leijen was saying was I give you free
[3:43] wristbands kabukai OK PO OK habu hao.
[3:48] And hence in his own Chinglish way, Are you OK?
[3:53] Are you OK? Thank you.
[3:57] Thank you. The singer here is called.
[4:10] He's one of the most famous man to pop singers.
[4:19] The title of this song is called OK.
[4:22] The main idea of this song is that it's OK to be single, it's
[4:27] OK to be alone. You soon hear the line heading
[4:32] OK with hen obviously meaning very, very OK.
[4:38] Now in English, we don't normally say something's very
[4:41] OK. It's like an oxymoron.
[4:44] You can't say something is very OK.
[4:46] You say something's very good or something's very bad.
[4:50] If you're saying something's very average, you're actually
[4:52] using hyperbole. So very average actually means
[4:56] very bad. So see more and OK, OK, see more
[5:19] loneliness. Loneliness is very OK, eager and
[5:24] one person, IE being alone. Being alone is very OK.
[5:31] And the final one is more like the OK we use in English
[5:35] sequence. You're OK.
[5:36] If we're used to it, it's going to be OK.
[5:39] Greetings everyone and welcome to Chinese Pod Trivia.
[5:47] Our first question is how long will it take you to become an
[5:50] intermediate tiny speaker using the Chinese Pod app?
[5:53] Is it A the rest of your life B you should already be an
[5:57] intermediate speaker C3 months or D Chinese Pod has an app you
[6:04] should already be in. That is incorrect.
[6:08] The correct answer is C3 months. That's right, head over to
[6:11] chinesepod.com now to register for your access to over 4000
[6:15] lessons. Get the Chinese Pod app now on
[6:18] Google Play or the App Store. So next time if you hear someone
[6:32] from China saying it's very OK, don't be surprised.
[6:36] He or she is probably making the same mistake as I did in the
[6:39] past. Next up is the word called low.
[6:45] LOW, and it's another Chinglish word.
[6:57] On Zhuhu, the Chinese question and answer website, basically
[7:01] the Chinese version of Quora, I see a very adorable question
[7:05] being asked. He says Qinji Qin Khan Weibo XI
[7:09] bin. I was watching a video on Weibo
[7:12] Yoga Waiguenucheng shuang shuang shuang.
[7:15] There is a foreign girl who said LO is a Qinglish word.
[7:19] Well, I actually just played that clip.
[7:25] Qinglish, this person on Jihu continues to ask Ting Tian Khan
[7:31] try and put the toy win. Today I was looking at Trump's
[7:33] Twitter. Sure Obama Singh weighs a new
[7:36] low. He said Obama's action was a new
[7:40] low. And then this person asked if
[7:44] this word is a Chinglish word, she will show you Where.
[7:48] Does that mean The way Chinese people use the word low has been
[7:54] exported to outside of China? And the answer is of course no.
[8:01] There's this English teacher who answered in English for this
[8:04] person. It's a new low means someone's
[8:07] behavior is even worse than any other behavior.
[8:10] There's a new lowest level of bad behavior, another person
[8:14] answered in Chinese. And I think it's very well put,
[8:18] he says. Han Yu Jing Jung, the low Sheni
[8:21] Sujidi Ping Wei Cha. Low in contemporary Chinese
[8:25] culture describes something of low quality, something of bad
[8:29] taste. A simple example would be if you
[8:32] say I feel low today, then that would mean I feel sad today in
[8:36] English. If you say that in Chinese the
[8:38] exact same way what Indian do the Disney hello, then that
[8:42] would mean the way I walked, the way I talked, the way I dressed
[8:45] are of a cheap quality or in bad taste.
[8:53] In India, they used the word prepone to describe to move to
[8:56] an earlier time. So basically the exact opposite
[9:00] of postponed. So now that you know prepone,
[9:03] don't you think it's such a convenient word to use?
[9:06] And this just shows that language is living and it's
[9:09] always changing. The final word I want to talk
[9:15] about today is cool. By cool, I mean COOL, and I also
[9:20] mean the Chinese word cool. Cool in its original Chinese
[9:24] meaning means cruel, brutal, oppressive.
[9:29] Now in English, one of the meanings of cool is to show no
[9:32] friendliness or enthusiasm towards a person or an idea.
[9:36] So for example, every girl I like is cool or cold towards me.
[9:44] Ouch. And by strange coincidence, it's
[9:47] very similar to the Chinese word cool.
[9:51] So if we say in Chinese needs a Matoy word, I'm a cool.
[9:54] Why are you so cool to me? Why are you so cold towards me?
[10:00] Here we could try to explain the usage of cool with the Chinese
[10:03] word cool. Because if you're cold to me,
[10:06] you're also cruel to me. Although in a strict Chinese
[10:09] sense, we don't usually say cool on its own, we add word tan
[10:13] making it tan cool to describe cruel.
[10:16] So here it's more likely that in the sample sentence that the
[10:19] person is using the anglicized meaning of the word cool, which
[10:25] means cold in English. Cool's other meaning is
[10:29] obviously fashionable, which kind of carries an opposite
[10:33] meaning of the Chinese usage of the word low.
[10:37] So informally speaking, when we use the Chinese word cool, we
[10:40] are using it as the way we use it in English.
[10:45] There's even a new Chinese folk app that we all use nowadays.
[10:49] It's called Kushin, literally meaning cool and shiny.
[10:54] We use Kushin when we want to talk about something very cool,
[10:57] very fashionable and very forward thinking.
[11:03] Of course, Chinese words and Chinese vernacular inspired by
[11:08] contemporary English culture doesn't end here.
[11:11] But our time is almost out. I really thank you for
[11:14] listening. My name is Qi.
[11:16] And with my shows, I'm going to show you things about Chinese
[11:19] culture that is not very obscure but interesting.
[11:23] I'll see you next time. Jiang Chen.
[11:37] Yue. OK.
[11:40] Ji MO Hen. OK.
[11:42] Yi Guan. OK.
[11:44] XI Guanzhou. OK.
[11:47] Jiang Chen. Yes.
[11:48] OK. Song Ji MO Han OK loneliness is
[11:52] very fine, very OK. Ji MO loneliness eager and OK,
[11:58] being alone is fine. Ji Guan getting used to it.
[12:03] Ji OK, you'll be OK once we or you get used to it.
[12:10] Han Yu Yu Jing zhong the Lo Daibiani SU Ji di Ping Wei cha.
[12:17] In the Chinese context, low represents something of low
[12:21] quality or of poor taste. Needs a mathuiwa jamaku.
[12:28] How could you be so cruel to me? As usual, Chinese Pot provides
[12:45] an extensive selection of learning materials for this
[12:48] lesson on its website, www.chinesepot.com.
[12:53] You can access this lesson directly with the lesson number
[12:56] 4320. So just go to www.chinesepod.com
[13:01] slash 4320 and you will find a transcript, vocabulary and much
[13:06] more The link again www.chinesepod.com slash 4320.

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