咱自己家的事 要是让外人掺和的话
“This is our own family's business. If we let outsiders interfere,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
咱 自己 家 的 事 要是 让 外人 掺和 的话
“This is our own family's business. If we let outsiders interfere,”
“wouldn't we just be airing our dirty laundry? But”
“Keep quiet and handle this internally; don't embarrass our family in front of outsiders.”
A deeply rooted traditional Chinese value that domestic conflicts and embarrassing internal scandals should never be exposed to outsiders to protect collective family honor and face.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
one's own family matters; private internal affairs
Use when drawing a boundary between private family affairs and matters appropriate for public scrutiny.
to meddle in; to get involved in
A common colloquial Northern Chinese term often used with a negative connotation when someone meddles where they do not belong.
Marks a conditional hypothesis, softening the statement while setting up the negative consequence.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“So you must be clear about my family.”
“as a family matter. How do you not see that?”
“From now on, you take care of everything related to her.”
“Even if I tell you the whole story of our family, you won't understand it.”
“The family business is your business. Your business is my business.”
“Okay, let's… Oh. Make yourself at home, I guess.”