新词新译：留级生/糗事/牛皮癣/三低男/植入式广告/桌游/人才抄底/白菜价/银色浪潮/撞脸

留级生
repeatedly failed bidder
The Chinese term originally means a repeater or a student who fails to progress to the next grade in school. Here, it refers to those who have repeatedly failed in their bid at auction, such as Shanghai's monthly auction for car license plates.

糗事
faux pas, gaffe
Young people use this Chinese expression to refer to those occurrences that embarrass one or both parties, either because of a slip of the tongue, improper act or misunderstanding.

牛皮癣
street spam
The Chinese term literally means psoriasis, a common but annoying skin disease. It is now often used figuratively to describe usually shoddy printed ads or signs unsightly plastered on street walls, trees, utility poles, telephone booths or other public places.

三低男
three-low man
The term refers to men who keep a low profile before their wife instead of being a male chauvinist, pose low risk of income problems because of steady, though not high, wages, and set low limits on their wife's freedom.

植入式广告
product placement
This refers to the practice of intentionally showing the brand of a product in a movie to promote it in an unostentatious way. For instance, in the popular movie “If You Are the One,” certain brands of cell phones and an airline company are displayed.

桌游
board game
Board games didn’t gain popularity in China until recent years. The Chinese expression literally means a table game.
 
人才抄底
recruit talents at bottom price
Some employers regard the global recession as a great opportunity to get high-quality professionals for a relatively low cost. Several overseas recruitment efforts have focused on overseas Chinese talents, more of whom are willing to work in China.

白菜价
dirt cheap
In China, if someone says that a product is being sold at the “cabbage price,” he means it is as cheap as dirt. Cabbage is usually regarded as one of the cheapest vegetables in the market.

银色浪潮
silver tide
The term is a metaphor of a social phenomenon as the aging population is expanding rapidly in Shanghai and other big cities around China.

撞脸
doppelganger, look-alike
The Chinese term literally means “clash of faces,” which refers to two people who look very much like each other.

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