介绍:
Xiaohua: This week we’re going to talk about something that I think Mark you’re going to be interested in again: what men say when they first start dating and what they actually mean.
Mark: You say I’ll be interested. I know what men say when they start dating women, cause I’ve probably said them. But I’d be interested to know what women say and what they mean. But hopefully we’re doing that one next week. But yes. So what men say and what they mean. Listen up girls. You can learn a lot about us here in this bit now. OK. What’s the first one?
Xiaohua: I’ve got a lot going on right now, so I’m not really looking for anything serious.
Mark: Yes, I think generally you know, from my perspective as a man, we just say what we mean, don’t we? Well, let’s find out. According to the research, and this is not according to my own experience, Xiaohua, this is not me, but apparently it means “I’ve got profiles on a million dating sites. I want to have the option to date you if I want, but I also want to have the option to date 30 other women if I want to.”
Xiaohua: OK. 所以当男人说……不太重要。
Mark: This is a bit mean, isn’t it, really?
Xiaohua: But I think this is to be expected from men when they say they’re not looking for something serious. There’s another thing that I think women don’t quite understand when men say that to them, what they actually mean. That is: I don’t care. You look great in whatever you put on.
Mark: Now we’re entering a minefield for men. We have to be very careful with this kind of thing. If a man says “I don’t care. You look great in whatever you put on.” It seems that what we mean is that “We’ve watched you try on 16 or 17 different outfits, and if we have to wait any longer, we’re going to snap!”
Xiaohua: Is this true?
Mark: Do you know it is true, I mean, eh, now I am speaking from my own point of view. There’re very, very few sorts of clothes that women don’t look great in, whatever the woman actually. In my estimation, anyway, I think women look great in any clothing really.
Xiaohua: But you know what they say in China, they say that straight guys usually don’t have a great sense of beauty. So if your boyfriend is kind of impatient at what you choose to wear or what you look great on, that means they’re straight, so you should be happy about that.
Mark: Well you know, we’re drifting into the world of general broad stereotypes, and why not, cause we do it so well, don’t we, that sweeping brushstrokes of humanity and so forth. Of course that’s not a general rule, and the thing is, though, you know, why can’t women just choose a bit more quickly? Why?
Xiaohua: Because the process of choosing outfits is such a pleasure. But of course, I know maybe not for their boyfriends.
Mark: Yes, it’s an activity in itself I suppose, isn’t it?
Xiaohua: Let’s move on.
The next one that women get fooled all the time is when men say “no you don’t look fat!” what do you guys mean?
Mark: Yes, I want to demonstrate something to you. Ask me that question now, go on.
Xiaohua: Mark, do I look faaa…
Mark: No! So it’s not just about saying no, it’s about how fast you say no.
Xiaohua: I barely said the word fat. Alright.
Mark: “NO!” If you leave a big gap, oh dear, you’re going to be in trouble. We will have a terrible day and you will make sure we do.
Xiaohua: Let’s go to the next one that both men and women have been guilty of. So when men say “sorry, I’m just now seeing your text.”
Mark: Oh my goodness, this is a terrible one. This one comes back to haunt me two or three times a week, I think. You get a Wechat message or perhaps a text message or email. And then you think oh yeah…okay…I can’t be bothered to reply to it. I’ll reply to it later. Coz you are not sure how you want to reply maybe. And then just as you are about to reply to it 4 hours later, they call you on the phone. And they say did you get me message? Of course you did. And then you have to lie and say you didn’t, don’t you? What can you say to that question? Yes, I did and I totally ignored it, which is the truth. Or, oh yeah, I just saw it just now. I haven’t checked my messages all day.
Xiaohua: So don’t get fooled by that, girls! And guys! I think it can happen on both sides.
Mark: Yes, I think that’s a universal one, isn’t it? We’ve all done it.
Xiaohua: And the next one I think is strictly limited to guys. Guys like to say “It’s up to you” to girls all the time.
Mark: Well, cause we don’t care. What we want is a quiet life. That’s the key golden rule of being a man. We just want a quiet life. We actually couldn’t care less what you wear. We don’t care what we’re having for dinner. And we couldn’t care less what restaurant we go to. But we do care about what TV we watch.
Mark: That’s our domain I think really. We can be a bit picky about that.
Xiaohua: I guess having slammed men for so much I think we should give them some credit for telling the truth. Shouldn’t we?
Mark: Yes. The last one we are going to talk about is what do men mean when we say “I like you”. What do you think that might mean?
Xiaohua: I have no idea because I know when women say this it could mean a zillion things.
Mark: It could mean anything if a woman said it. When a guy says “I like you,” it means “I like you.” Cause we are straightforward and simple creatures. And we really just generally say what we think.
Xiaohua: That makes it a lot easier on us girls, Mark. And I have to say “I like you Mark.” But that could mean anything.
Mark: And I like you, which means what it says.
Xiaohua: Thank you. And that brings us to the end of this week’s Word of the Week.
