TIL that the Chinese (mandarin?) word for dementia is basically "dumbass" and people with symptoms are embarrassed to seek treatment.
TIL that the Chinese (mandarin?) word for dementia is basically "dumbass" and people with symptoms are embarrassed to seek treatment. (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)[1]
submitted 3 years ago by DoctorDanDrangus
[–]Amannelle 7 points 3 years ago Yeah... on one hand, Mandarin makes it really easy to understand what something has been thought of culturally (for example, 忙, "mang", or "busy" literally means "heart death", because of the daoist idea that working too much was bad for the body and mind). Heck, "peace", or 安 is literally a woman inside her house, showing the cultural mentality of a woman's place. On the other hand, Chinese makes it really hard to progress into new ideologies due to the fact your words still literally mean other things.
People in China are often embarrassed to seek treatment for any mental disorders. It is very stigmatized there (as it is in most of the world, to be frank).
[–]super_cool 3 points 3 years ago
Don't be frank, just be yourself.
[–]Freakingtimbush 1 point 3 years ago
Unless you're Frank from It's Always Sunny.
[–]xgrhaj 1 point 3 years ago
It's less "dumbass" and more "retarded". Which was used for intellectual retardation in English language even these days. Either way, I'm not a fan of either one of the words.
I actually quite like "sugar urine disease", consider it was first noticed when people with it were noticing ants accumulating near their urine. "Diabetes", i.e "the great thirst", is not exactly accurate to what diabetes is about anyway.
[–]prot0mega 1 point 3 years ago*
It's called "老年痴呆", literally means Old-age (related) retardation. It used to be a neutral technical term but then used as insult. Just like "moron", "imbecile" and "idiot" used to be valid descriptors in the psychological community.
