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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary

A Chinese volunteer figurative speech

In Dutch we have a saying "een Chinese vrijwilliger" (literal translation: Chinese volunteer) which we often use figuratively. When we use it in that way, we imply that we are going to pick someone out of a crowd, very often against his will. I, for instance, use it when I ask my pupils to read out loud and nobody is very willing to read out loud. The figurative meaning is in fact the opposite of being a volunteer.

Now I wonder whether English native speakers also use "a Chinese volunteer" in the figurative sense. Or do you use another nationality?

Thank you

Tine
  

Top answer

No, English does not use that idiom or the phrase with another nationality. I cannot think of special phrase. Such a person is an unwilling volunteer or a forced volunteer .

— Mister Micawber

  • No, English does not use that idiom or the phrase with another nationality.
  • I cannot think of special phrase.
  • Such a person is an unwilling volunteer or a forced volunteer .
  • ).
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9 Answers
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No, English does not use that idiom or the phrase with another nationality. I cannot think of special phrase. Such a person is an unwilling volunteer or a forced volunteer. They have been chosen by a sort of reverse 'Hobson's choice' (q.v.).
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It may not exist as a noun, but as verb, "being shanghaied" basically means the same thing.
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When I was in Belgium, the topic came up and a French speaker said they use BLACK volunteers, but I don't know exactly how they phrase it.
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You get it wrong .. "Chinese volunteer" is a system to pick someone to do the task if no one wonts to.
you say "OK if no one wonts to do it, wets use the Chinese Volunteer".
Then, the first person to speek (usually asking "what is that ?") is assigned the task.
This works good for conferences and meetings, where you the people are not very familiar with each other.
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AnonymousYou get it wrong .. "Chinese volunteer" is a system to pick someone to do the task if no one wonts to.
The problem with that is that we don't use the expression in English.
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I quite like this expression. I think we should adopt it in English, provided it isn't offensive to the Chinese I guess.
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I'm a Belgian reader of this forum and am working for an American company. I used the same expression last week in a team meeting and then realized I had translated Dutch into English. After reading the above details about this expression, I'll be able to explain it to everyone. So thank you for that ;-)

I would like to add something to the origin of the expression. It seems the expre
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I am a student from Hong Kong who's been studying in a Flemish school for years, when the term came to me in class I was not necessarily offended but totally confused. And when I googled the term it brought me here. To be frank, even as a 'sort of Chinese', though we don't share exactly the same history/language/culture with China, I found this term a bit of a bizarre which stands from a very

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I don't think the expression is used outside of Dutch speaking countries in Europe (basically only The Netherlands and Belgium). The closest I can think of is maybe "forced volunteer", but to take the mick, it does sound a bit "forced" to use it like this. Maybe people can just translate it and use it in English vocabulary as well.

I personally hate this expression with a dying passion a

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