How to say someone is a DINK or slave to a child

By That's PRD, July 28, 2015

族 (zú) and 奴 (nú) are employed in various ways in modern parlance to talk about different types of people. Sound like a native Mandarin speaker with these handy phrases.

族 (zú)

1) 上班族 (shàng bān zú): ‘shàng bān’ means ‘go to work.’ Shàng bān zú indicates someone who works on a weekday. Example: nǐ shì shàng bān zú ma? (Are you a shàng bān zú?)

2) 啃老族 (kěn lǎo zú): refers to those not currently engaged in employment, education or training. These people are aged between 23 and 30 and prefer to rely on their parents. Example: tā shì gè kěn lǎo zú, yǐ jīng sān nián méi gōng zuò le. (He is a kěn lǎo zú, he hasn’t worked for three years.)

3) 丁克族 (dīng kè zú): from the English acronym DINK (dual income, no kids). Example: tā shì dīng kè zú. (He is a dīng kè zú.)

奴 (nú)

1) 孩奴 (hái nú): child's slave, i.e. parents working hard to indulge their children. Example: yuè lái yuè duō de fù mǔ biàn chéng le hái nú. (More and more parents are becoming hái nú.)

2) 房奴 (fáng nú): mortgage slave. Example: wǒ de fù mǔ shì fáng nú. (My parents are fáng nú.)

// Courtesy of Taipei Language Institute (TLI), one of the top 10 language school globally. To find out more about their Chinese language learning courses, contact 0755-2161 8221, email tlishenzhen@126.com or visit www.tli.com.tw. Listing.