Speaking Chinese - What kind of ke4 are you?

Welcome to speaking Chinese series, today’s topic is “ke4”. If you had any experience of taking a public vehicle in China, you would have heard words from stewards or vehicle broadcasting, “亲爱的乘客们……”(qin1ai4de5 cheng2ke4men5 – dear passengers). As well when you step into a store, stop assistants will say “顾客你好”(gu4ke4 ni3hao3 – hello, customer ). So what do these “ke4” mean?

In Chinese, “客” refers to a person who is doing something or a role someone is playing. For example to learn to speak Chinese, if someone call you “乘客”, either you are in a vehicle right now or you are going to get in one. You are now playing a role of a person need to go somewhere by public vehicles, and when you step into a store, you become a “顾客” because you are supposed to be someone who is about to buy something there - “顾”(gu4) has the meaning of patronizing.

With the development of science and society, the word “客” is more widely used because many new kind of “ke4” is coming up. A well-known example is “黑客”(hei1ke4 - hacker), which actually comes from the English word “Hacker”. “黑客” refers to people who make destroy with computer virus. By the way, “黑客” is not exactly the same with hacker; I think it is more like “Cracker” - a vicious branch of hackers, and how the meaning went different is another story.   

There are other new “ke4”s in Chinese coming up in recent years, for example “威客”(wei1ke4) -  who shares knowledge, information and experience in web to earn money, or “群租客”(qun2zu1ke4) – people who cannot afford their rents so to share rooms and rents with a group of people.

So what kind of ke4 are you right now, a “乘客” in a bus, a “顾客” in a store, or secretly a “黑客” in internet?  Isn’t it enjoyable and funny to speak Chinese, or it is a little different for you? Welcome to visit my blog to learn to speak Mandarin.

Source: http://tubsir.canalblog.com/archives/2014/12/24/31194979.html