他这两个提议馊归馊
“His proposals are rotten, no doubt,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
小人
“Such a cheap shot.”
他这两个提议 馊归馊
“His proposals are rotten, no doubt,”
但真是要让他成的话
“but if he actually succeeds,”
“They are dirty tricks, but we can't deny they might actually work.”
Chinese strategic discourse often distinguishes between morally clean methods and 'sou zhuyi' (underhanded schemes) that nevertheless achieve concrete results.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
lousy, rotten, half-baked (of ideas or plans)
Literally meaning spoiled food, colloquially used as in '馊主意' (terrible idea or dirty trick).
despite being...; as ... as it is
Used in the 'X 归 X, 但是...' pattern to concede an undeniable negative quality before pivoting to an unexpected upside.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I-I came up with this terrible idea.”
“I have a proposal. See if you are willing to accept it.”
“It's all because of my silly idea.”
“They're interested in your proposal.”
“Isn't it killing two birds with one stone?”
“I felt like it was just everyone abandoning their principles to play nice.”