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Is it cold in here?:
Today I learned that "gung ho" is from Chinese and that I've been wrong about its meaning for decades.
94ssd:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 24 Mar 2014, 17:54 ---Today I learned that my garage door is so obsolete that I can't get parts for it, and that keeping spares is of limited value since a typical garage door mechanic won't work on something so far short of contemporary safety standards.
--- End quote ---
My aunt moved into a new sub-divison and within a few months almost everyone's garage doors had become crumpled. The developers fronted the replacements to avoid a class-action suit.
Here's your learning dose for why they were able to threaten a lawsuit, I looked it up because I wasn't 100% sure myself.
--- Quote ---The second type of implied warranty is the warranty of good workmanlike construction. This warranty requires that a home or unit will be constructed in compliance with local or state building codes and with non-defective, high quality materials. Pursuant to the warranty of good workmanlike construction, the developer-builder warrants that the home or unit is free from latent defects of a substantial nature caused by a failure to construct the home in a skillful manner.
--- End quote ---
GarandMarine:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 09 Apr 2014, 16:09 ---Today I learned that "gung ho" is from Chinese and that I've been wrong about its meaning for decades.
--- End quote ---
What did you think it meant/where it came from?
Method of Madness:
I've always heard it as an adjective meaning enthusiastic about an upcoming endeavor. "Bob was gung ho about the project."
GarandMarine:
That's kinda like the modern Marine Corps usage, where it's used to describe an enthusiastic or motivated individual or unit in addition to it's traditional place in Marine Corps terminology as a battle or rallying cry. It can also be used with a slightly sarcastic bent to imply one is TOO motivated/enthusiastic.
As Akima said else where the translation works out, but is still probably terrible Chinese. From what I understand "Gōng hé" is a shortened version and slogan of the "gōngyè hézuòshè" (工業合作社) or Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which was abbreviated as INDUSCO in English. It entered usage with the Marine Corps courtesy of Major Evans Carlson, famously of the 2nd Marine Raider battalion in WW2, sayeth the Major: "I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all the soldiers dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over. I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Cooperatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together-Work in Harmony...." from the 2nd Marine Raiders the term spread through Marine Corps culture and language, with the help of touchstone pieces like the movie "Gung Ho" about the 2nd Marine Raiders, and it's now a firmly entrenched part of Marine culture and vocabulary.
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/gungho.html
This short paper however suggests that even what I learned is off, and that the Major was primarily inspired by the Chinese 8th Route Army, who themselves used to the term. *shrug* we were taught the above about Gung Ho in boot camp, even as we learned what it meant, I've never heard the bit about Carlson's time with the 8th Route Army before.
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