Phrases and vocabulary to survive your parents’ nagging during the vacation
Everyone needs a break sometimes. For students, the vacation is a well-earned rest from all-nighters, exams, and dull lectures, as well as a time to catch up with family and friends back home.
Yet having to take care of their kids all summer can be tough for parents. Every September, when elementary and middle school students return to school, parents celebrate with memes like “mythical beasts returning to the cage (神兽归笼 shénshòu guīlóng).” The feelings of relief can cut both ways: According to a 2020 survey from Capital Campus Press Union, a media arm of the Communist Youth League, over 85 percent of 1,622 college students in China said their parents nagged them during the holidays.
Conflict between parents and children can be triggered by numerous tiny things. As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder—or in Chinese, “distance creates beauty (距离产生美 jùlí chǎnshēng měi).” The rapid change in parents’ attitudes from nice to nagging during school vacations have caused some internet users to exclaim, tongue firmly in cheek: “In just a few short days, my vacation showed me the fickleness of human kindness (假期短短几天让你感受到人情的冷暖 Jiàqī duǎnduǎn jǐ tiān ràng nǐ gǎnshòu dào rénqíng de lěngnuǎn).”
Offering comfort
Many college students are living away from their parents for the first time, and the distance from home may be such that they can only see their families once or twice a year. After such a long separation, most students expect to be greeted at home with a warm hug, their favorite dishes on the table, and unusually attentive parents:
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Tough Love: Chinese to Deal With Your Parents’ Nagging is a story from our issue, “Upstaged.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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