耳屎 - ear shit

ear shit

The Chinese government has made great strides in recent years to improve the quality of hygiene across China, with endless "no-spitting" campaigns and entertaining billboard posters. But how do you explain the fact that everyone in China has shit in their ears? In fact, while in English we enjoy using over-complicated names for commonplace things, in China, people are much more direct. "Ear shit" is in fact just ordinary ear-wax. Similarly, the dirt in your eyes in the morning is called "eye shit" (眼屎) and your snot is, surprise surprise, known as "nose shit" (鼻屎). Quick! Clean the shit out of your eyes and carry on studying!

耳屎
ěr shǐ
ear-wax

Your comments

  • James (14 Dec 09)

    While this chinese term is really direct and clean. There are also many complicated terms in chinese. Thanks for sharing this :)

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