Slang and swearing often top the list of what people want to learn in a foreign language. But is this curiosity actually helpful for learners, or just a fun distraction?
In discussion forums, question apps and from personal experience, I have noticed a strong and persistent desire to learn slang in foreign languages.
Beyond being fun, is this helpful? If so, how? If not, then why not?
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Why are people so interested in learning slang and swear words?
The only type of words or expressions that seems to be even more popular than slang is profanity, although the two could arguably belong to the same category.
Personally, I don’t really understand this and have never felt the need to “learn some slang” or learn how to say “#$@&%*!” in Chinese.
Perhaps it’s a desire to become cool by using “cool” words, and if being cool is part of your goal, then learning slang makes sense.
Perhaps it’s just curiosity about interesting expressions, although many other forms of language are equally interesting but generate much less interest.
Or perhaps it’s a yearning to escape the oh-so-boring textbook and get in touch with the “real” language, a flirt with the subversive and dangerous. Also, this seems to be following my advice for beginners to leave the classroom: Three things I wish I had known as a beginner student of Chinese: The time machine, part 1.
Three things I wish I had known as a beginner student of Chinese: The time machine, part 1
All these reasons are valid, of course. I’m not going to tell you to stop trying to be cool or avoid something you find fascinating. Why are you interested in learning slang? Please leave a comment, especially if your reason is not covered above!
Things to keep in mind when learning slang in Chinese
Since many students find slang interesting, let’s have a look at some things to keep in mind when learning slang in Chinese.
First and foremost, there is nothing magical about slang. It’s just like other words and expressions, except very colloquial and often used in more limited contexts, which makes slang less useful than standard language.
This does not mean that you should never learn slang. It just means that you are usually better off focusing on other things first.
After all, if there are three near-synonyms for something, you probably want to learn the most common and universally used one first. Then you can learn other ways of saying the same thing, regardless of whether they are more or less formal, regional, or something else.
I’ve written more about which words to learn here: Which words you should learn and where to find them
Chinese slang is limited in several ways
Slang tends to be more limited than standard language in several ways:
- Time: Slang changes much faster than standard language. It tends to be spoken or, if written, informally in chat or messaging, which is not preserved and does not last as long as printed language. This means that the slang you learn now will be obsolete fairly soon. Using old slang is a sure way to generate laughs and appear very uncool.
- Region: Slang is very dependent on where you are. Of course, some slang works almost everywhere, but in general, slang works best close to where you learnt it. Why learn a region-specific informal term instead of the universal, standard one?
- Social groups: Slang works differently in different groups. Beijing taxi drivers do not use the same slang as youngsters who spend more time online than offline. It is also incredibly hard to navigate the maze of social associations of words and expressions, so getting it right is quite difficult.
- Age: People of different ages grew up using different words. Think about how it works in your native language. It is very unlikely you use the same slang as people much younger or older than you.
Using slang outside its proper context can lead to confusion and, in some cases, offence. This is especially true for swearing, but I think I will save that topic for another article.
In general, though, do not swear in Chinese (or any other foreign language) unless you really know what you are doing (and you probably do not). It is extremely difficult to swear correctly and with tact as a second-language learner, and getting it wrong can have negative consequences.
Learn Chinese slang, but do it in context
Looking at the above limitations, a purely rational learner might conclude that learning slang is not a good idea.
However, I want to make it very clear that this is not actually what I am saying. My point is that slang should be treated for what it is: informal spoken language limited to a certain context
That is true for all language. It is just that slang is by its very nature more dependent on these factors than standard language is.
My advice is that you should definitely learn slang, but only when it comes up naturally in the context where it is used. Learning vocabulary from lists is rarely a good idea. The same advice as for other areas of the language, in other words!
Slang is like normal words, just less useful
If quick progress in Chinese is your goal, you should focus on learning the most useful language first. This is almost never slang, unless you’re learning Chinese in a highly unique setting.
If you are studying Chinese in your own country, learning slang as a beginner or intermediate learner is more or less pointless. You will have little chance to use it, and if you do so later, it might already be out of date or inappropriate for some reason. It also takes up unnecessary effort that could have been more wisely spent.
Learning Chinese slang is easy when you need it
The final argument against focusing specifically on slang is that once you already have a solid foundation in the language and can converse at a reasonable level, learning slang becomes quite easy.
Sure, if you start spending time with people who use more slang or start watching certain films or TV shows, it will be difficult at first. However, since you have already learnt the structure of the language, adding extra words and expressions is not a problem.
What does duāng mean anyway?
If you have wondered about the cover image for this article, featuring the made-up character duāng, written as a combination of the characters 成 and 龙, it is a good example of internet slang.
Duāng is a sound effect made famous by Jackie Chan (whose Chinese name is 成龙) in a shampoo advert. Although it has no real meaning, official character, or even status as a valid syllable in Mandarin, it went viral in 2015 and was used to mock over-the-top special effects and exaggerated claims online.
While most people would probably still understand you if you used this word today, it is no longer in use and now stands as a fun and interesting example of the fleeting nature of internet slang. You can read more about duāng on Wikipedia here.
Conclusion
I assume that most people who want to learn slang don’t do so because they think it is extremely useful, but rather because it is interesting or to spice things up a bit.
Perhaps there is little overlap between regular readers of this site and people who obsess over learning slang in foreign languages, but if there is, and you are reading this, please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below!
Editor’s note: This article, originally published in 2017, was rewritten and republished in October 2025.
7 comments
I would definitely agree that slang is of little use for temporal and geographical reasons. Some language learners seem to be fascinated by slang that is either uninteresting or so regionally restricted as to be of little practical use. In Mandarin, it seems that some people regard PRC slang as the only “real” Mandarin, much as one hears (or even reads!) English learners’ use of US regiinalisms like “wanna” or “gonna” as if they were standard everywhere, instead of the restricted regionalisms they really are. Use 幹兒 inTaiwan, for example, and watch people fall about laughing. ?
I always try to learn the most common slang and obscene words in a foreign language so that to avoid unintentionally offending people of making them feel uncomfortable. One can easily pick up a new word from a movie or on the street and re-use it without ever realizing that it could be very offensive. Maybe this is not a big problem if you mainly use the language for informal communication, but if you use it for business then not knowing what not to say can be a disaster, in my experience.
A lot of why Americans learn a second language is to be ‘cool’. Not because it’s actually useful. They don’t want the boring essentials, they want the flashy parts. Thus, they can show off their insider knowledge. It’s intoxicating to a certain kind of person who isn’t learning the language for reasons of dull practicality. Being able to sling around slang is a mark that you’re not like those other sheeple. Even today people talk about old and busted memes like grass-mud-horse like it’s some kind of secret society handshake.
I would put slang and chengyu in adjacent, though not identical, categories. The sentence from the article “This doesn’t mean that you should never learn slang, it just means that you’re usually better off focusing on other things first” could apply to chengyu equally as well. The most significant difference would be that chengyu tend to last longer than slang, although it is conceivable that some of today’s slang could be considered chengyu in the future, such as 不明觉厉 or 十感然拒。
I think people wanna learn slang to sound lax and not so “formally trained”
And especially on the internet there is a crazy amount of slang used all over the world. I believe prc internet users use slang to fly under the radar of censor bots. So if one finds themselves on a Chinese server they might be super confused? But that’s kind of a special case I guess.
Maybe if one had a gaggle of Chinese friends and their friend says something they don’t quite get. People don’t like to constantly have to explain what they meant.
I once had a foreign professor who’s English was pretty good but us students had to be particularly careful not to throw around any slang terms he wouldn’t get (I exclaimed “THATS SICK” when one of my peers showed me a picture I thought was cool. And was met with an extremely furrowed brow and interrogation of what the heck I was talking about ) this is in the Midwest mind you so many slangness all around. It’s in our blood.
Dunno where I was going with that////
Slang/ swears are usually just cooler to say also, like more fun. I dunno, people think they’re cool when they say something bad in a different language.
I do agree that slang changes too often to really be useful. But when I think of slang, I mostly think of idioms and short hand words (like ain’t) that many people use in everyday speech that are not just fad terms.
Also people just like to know when others are talkin shiet :p
ALLSOO the person who says gunna and wanna are only regional? I.. can’t imagine an American to have never said those two. I’m honestly shocked and my whole world is crumbling around me.
We need a slang word for slang I’ve used it too much.
Personally I love Chinese slang.
And even though sometimes you might not be able to use it yourself, I still find it useful to understand it. Otherwise everyone will be talking about 卷、摸鱼、牛马 and you’ll be completely clueless.
Yes, that’s a good point! Understanding slang is considerably more important than learning to use it actively. However, I think my point is that the same argument you just made about 卷、摸鱼、牛马 can be made about any words in the language. It’s hard to know which words would be suitable to compare with as that depends on your level, but for most learners (I’m explicitly not saying “you” because I don’t know anything about your learning situation) there are certainly other wrods that they don’t understand either and that are much more commonly used.