Monday, March 05, 2012

You're special ... so what?

Somehow 特殊 or 特别 just doesn't carry the same set of positive connotations that "special" can in English. (Particularly American English and its descendants, I suppose.) The Chinese doesn't carry any particularly negative connotations, it's just ... not so special. Something is an exceptional case. Okay. No big deal.
Considering how all of those are [seem to be] born from similar etymologies, I guess it's probably a product of cultural and social attitudes more than a linguistic thing.

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