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It's not just Asian people, but with all the people with slanted eyes. That's basically what "chino" means in Spanish, someone with slanted eyes regardless if the person is black, white, yellow or whatever. A black person with slanted eyes and no connections to China at all will most likely receive the nickname of "el chino" or someone will tell you that your eyes are "chinos".
Other than that description it means nothing else and this could be the most difficult part for Americans to understand, especially if it's their first time. Why? Because in the USA these types of words aren't descriptive and have a deeper meaning. Case in point, you call someone chinese and an American will think someone from China. In fact, you call Chinese anyone not from China and the American will think and feel that is wrong. Yet, you call someone chinese in Latin America and people will not think that the person must be from China in any way or form, it's simply a description. Similar descriptive words exist for other groups such as "hindu" to anyone that looks like people from the Indian subcontinent whether they are from there or not and a bunch of other words.
It's known in Latin America that Americans are touchy regarding these things and those that don't know will quickly notice this upon meeting Americans and seeing their reactions when this happens. In reality, Americans and Latin Americans are apples and oranges when it comes to this, but often enough it's assumed that the usage among both groups is and means the same when it doesn't.
That may be how it is in Latin America, but it's a blatant double standard. Here in the US, most Americans tend to dump all hispanics into either Mexican/Puerto Rican or Dominican, as those are the most numerous groups here. I've known many Latin Americans from several countries over there. I KNOW for a FACT, an Argentine would be HIGHLY offended to be called Mexican. Same with Colombians, Panamanians etc. So it's not just Americans who are "touchy" about this.
That may be how it is in Latin America, but it's a blatant double standard. Here in the US, most Americans tend to dump all hispanics into either Mexican/Puerto Rican or Dominican, as those are the most numerous groups here. I've known many Latin Americans from several countries over there. I KNOW for a FACT, an Argentine would be HIGHLY offended to be called Mexican. Same with Colombians, Panamanians etc. So it's not just Americans who are "touchy" about this.
Here in Ceará, in the Northeast of South America (a part of the world that we recently discovered after the first round of the elections that many Brazilians don't want to be part of Brazil - but that's another subject) there is a particularity that emerged in recent years of calling all East Asian people as "coreanos" (Koreans). Japanese, Chinese and Korean people are all called "coreanos" by some people here.
Stop lying. In Brazil, all asian people are called Japanese. A Korean is called "Japa!" (a "***").
That may be how it is in Latin America, but it's a blatant double standard. Here in the US, most Americans tend to dump all hispanics into either Mexican/Puerto Rican or Dominican, as those are the most numerous groups here. I've known many Latin Americans from several countries over there. I KNOW for a FACT, an Argentine would be HIGHLY offended to be called Mexican. Same with Colombians, Panamanians etc. So it's not just Americans who are "touchy" about this.
Americans might mistake a person for Mexican, or wrongly assume that somebody is Mexican. But they would never go on calling a person Mexican if they knew they were from El Salvador. If they do, it's extremely rude if not racist.
The same with assuming that Asian people are "Chinese".
Languages aren’t rigid, especially the colloquial/informal speech, which ultimately may influence the standard form. Words and meanings change very fast through space and time, words themselves can have various meanings at the same time, and such meanings can have blurry boundaries even within a region. Moreover, translations word to word between languages are often imprecise. The Spanish word for “whale” is ballena, and “dolphin” is delfín. However, while in English dolphins are a kind of whales, in Spanish delfines are NEVER whales. So you shouldn't expect chino and Chinese to exactly match their meanings. Languages are twisted...
Sorry, but in Spanish "Chino" means Chinese. The words are not false cognates.
It's just that the ignorant custom of calling all asian people Chinese has become the norm in Latin America.
I KNOW for a FACT, an Argentine would be HIGHLY offended to be called Mexican. Same with Colombians, Panamanians etc. So it's not just Americans who are "touchy" about this.
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There seems t o be a large European descendents in Argentina and they are rather class/race conscious,Asians are not well regarded .
I watched a movie called Live in Maid,where this divorced woman has not paid her maid for more than a year,she tried to pawn her teapot,she has not paid her utility bill,she started taking bus instead of cab and ate in a Chinese restaurant with cheap resin chairs and table and she ordered a dish of bean sprouts !
She sells some kind of facial treatment in beauty salons but people are not buying,I guess thats her only income.
Sorry, but in Spanish "Chino" means Chinese. The words are not false cognates.
I didn’t say that. You should read more carefully. The example about whales and ballenas not being exactly the same is more than clarifying about the topic. Then I gave further examples about words about places and people that have changed their meanings, emphasizing in how linguistic processes work.
You asked a question, I tried to answer. Unfortunately you had drawn your own conclusion in before, so the question was just a bait for your pre-established claim, that it’s because Latin Americans are a bunch of ignorant pieces of sh*t. As answers didn’t go that well, you just kept nitpicking random sentences, omitting the bulk of the responses, and repeating the same phrase as a broken record. Who is the ignorant, I wonder?
This is not for you Tritone, as you aren’t interested at all in gaining any knowledge about anything. I mean, you think of yourself as an authority in colloquialisms in low profile Brazilian states, bashing statements from the locals, and I’m afraid you weren’t even being sarcastic…
Whatever, the word “chino” is a bit more complicated in Argentina, and I guess in Andean countries too, because “china” is also a Quechua word for “female” which spread throughout the countryside in colonial times and entered the Spanish lexicon of the region. So the wife of a gaucho was usually called, the china. As marriages among male settlers and female indigenous were rather common, they further propagated the image of a china as a mixed/indigenous woman with slanted eyes, which then clashed with the urban/formal idea of chino/a, associated with a people from very far away that looked kinda similar, and consolidating the expansion of the term, at least in informal speech.
Anyway, I doubt it was a major contributor to the idea of chino being any Asian or any person with slanted eyes, as the concept is widespread in many regions without quechua influence, but it shows once again how intricate languages can be.
By the way, the word achinado does formally exist in Spanish:
achinado, achinada adjetivo
1. [ojo] Que es alargado, como el de las personas naturales de China. "tenía los ojos claritos, verdicastaños y algo achinados" 2. [persona, figura humana] Que tiene las facciones u otra característica física semejantes a los naturales de China. "cuando se daba maque auténtico se cubría la madera con tierra roja o morada, y sobre una capa de barniz se pintaban figuras achinadas doradas y policromadas"
That may be how it is in Latin America, but it's a blatant double standard. Here in the US, most Americans tend to dump all hispanics into either Mexican/Puerto Rican or Dominican, as those are the most numerous groups here. I've known many Latin Americans from several countries over there. I KNOW for a FACT, an Argentine would be HIGHLY offended to be called Mexican. Same with Colombians, Panamanians etc. So it's not just Americans who are "touchy" about this.
I think you’re comparing apples to oranges. You are using words in their nationality definition and applying it to “chino” which in this case isn’t used as a nationality.
Of course calling a Chilean Bolivian or a Salvadoran Nicaraguan or a Colombian Venezuelan they will quickly correct you. Not only are those terms used to mean nationality, but that is the only meaning to them. Anyone that isn’t from Colombia and you refer to them as a Colombian will tell you they aren’t from there.
The way “chino” is used in this context is akin to how skinny is used by Americans (well, by everybody, lol). A person can be skinny regardless of their nationality. That is simply a descriptor, similar to “chino.”
Americans do have a term to lump Latin Americans together, it’s called Hispanic (and a few other terms). They don’t go around calling all Hispanics Puerto Ricans, only those that are from Puerto Rico and/or have heritage from there are called Puerto Ricans.
This is an abstract concept and that could be the reason why some English speaking Americans have a difficult time fully grasping that in this context “chino” doesn’t mean that you are from China. I can’t think of a word in English that has two meaning and each have no relation to the other one, particularly a word that can be used as a nationality and as a descriptor. This could also be the cause of the confusion. I think every English word to mean a nationality has no other definition or uses.
It’s apples and oranges to used words meaning nationalities such as Colombian or Peruvian and compare them to “chino” as used in the context of this thread. Also, it’s completely incorrect to assume that “chino” as a descriptor is the same as “chino” the nationality. Granted what I already mentioned, in English the word Chinese has one meaning only and that is a person is from or has heritage from China. In Spanish it has two different meanings and the point of this thread is to know how Spanish speakers use this word essentially so English speakers can understand. The very first thing English speakers must do is forget the rules of English when trying to understand the rules of Spanish or any other language.
Maybe this help to realize that the rules of English have to be completely ignored when trying to understand another language, in this case Spanish.
English: I dropped the cup.
Spanish: Se me cayó el vaso. (Literally: “The cup fell from me”).
Notice the difference? In English it’s clear who’s fault isn’t that the cup fell, but in Spanish it seems that the culprit is the cup itself since the literal translation to English makes it seem that the cup fell on its own.
Then comes the question: How can an English speaker use the Spanish version in the literal sense as if the rules are the same as in English? You can’t. You have to forget English and its rules. They don’t apply in Spanish at all and Spanish speakers will use the Spanish language according to the rules of Spanish, not some other language.
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