砸锅卖铁还借钱
“we sold everything and borrowed money”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
不瞒您说啊 那想当年我们刚开始 做印刷的时候
“To be honest, back when we first started printing,”
砸锅卖铁 还 借钱
“we sold everything and borrowed money”
只能买一台那种 孔式的打印机
“only for one dot matrix printer.”
“We put every single penny we could scrape together on the line just to make it work.”
Sharing past extreme hardships is a common way in Chinese culture to establish credibility, resilience, and personal worth when networking or doing business.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to sell everything one owns; to scrape together every last penny
A vivid four-character idiom used when someone commits all their resources and makes extreme financial sacrifices for a goal.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“you should've sold everything and bought better cloth.”
“We can't afford it no matter how hard we try!”
“My parents sold everything to send me to college.”
“You destroyed their livelihood, so they're bound to take it out on you.”
“you knocked down a wall and found money.”
“Taking advantage of the situation.”