(missed the window)
ETA: She did genuinely like the guy, because he was really a great person and boss, and she was speaking of him in a positive context. That’s part of what threw me, since she was speaking well of him, and used a term that just seemed wrong to me.
Sometimes, when used as a term for endearment, one doesn’t even have to be that skin color to receive it (as someone who has been called “negrita” and “negra”).
Yeah, they’re used kind of like honey, or baby in English.
No, never heard it.
Sorry if I might have offended you, but that’s the situation. Panama has a much better economy than Colombia, so there are a large number of illegal Colombian immigrants here. As in the US, illegals mostly work in “fringe” activities. A large majority of the prostitutes here are in fact from Colombia; there are a few Dominicans and others. Relatively few are Panamanians, since the economy is pretty good and they can get better jobs.
Here in Panama, I have been told that it is considered rude to refer to a person as “negro/a.” However, it’s apparently OK to say “negrito/a,” at least among friends. The “proper” word for a black person is “moreno/a”; I met a woman whose nickname is “La Morena.”
Considering that we’ve had at least one native speaker (Nava) say it is correct, I don’t know why you would come in here and say that you “don’t think so”.
Note that the question was not whether the term is technically correct, but whether it is common usage, today. It is common usage, today.
And…?
vivio en asia por quince años.
some spanish-speaking people today may believe it sums up all asians but they’re woefully ignorant, same as those who seem to have coined the term “pacific islanders” for some asians.
NB: i disagree with nava on some points, like how castillians pronounce double-L.
So? We’re talking about what slang people use in Spanish Speaking countries.
But that’s not the question. Of course we know that all Asians aren’t Chinese. But “chino” is still used commonly in the Spanish speaking world to mean “East Asian”.
Even in the US, you will find quite a few people who will assume anyone who looks East Asian is Chinese.
It’s my girlfriend (barranquillera), actually, who takes the offense. (I call her “morena”; she calls me “mono.”) And as of today, she’s decided to call all the hookers on Sunset Boulevard “panameñas.” So there.
[at john mace]
go back to what nava and colibri wrote. ‘chino’ according to them is an abbreviation of ‘chinito’ or chinese-looking features, particularly the eyes. even if we assume that all far east citizens appear to have ojos chinito, calling them chino on that basis is at best a loose term since ‘chino’ or ‘de china’ are real terms that mean ‘chinese.’
It’s like you’re posting in a different thread.
The answer to the OP’s question is “yes”, not “I don’t think so”, as you are claiming. That is all.
the question is “is the word ‘chino’…” not “are all ‘chinito-eyed’ people…”
so we’re not talking about what a whole lot of people think, we’re talking about a word meaning. ‘chino’ accurately translates to ‘chinese.’
Do you understand the difference between denotation and connotation?
yes, i think so.
So what? That has nothing to do with what Spanish speakers call Asians.
Again, irrelevant to how the term is actually used, which is the question.
Of course, she actually knows what she’s talking about.
Fine with me; I’m not Panamanian. I’m only reporting here. Of course most colombianas are not prostitutes, and I’m sure that few if any of the hookers on Sunset Boulevard are Panamanian. The fact of the matter, however, is that nearly all the girls who hang out at the hooker bars and work the massage parlors and strip joints in Panama are colombianas. Well, at least in the high end places. Your girlfriend can take solace in the fact that colombianas here are considered top of the line. 
why do people sound irritated? i hope it’s just my ignorance. but as one implied, the word chino has an exact denotation but connotes something else to a lot of people.
Then there’s mulata, as in “bueno pa’ gozar, mulata.” Is dark/nonwhite skin coded as sexy in some cultures?
In Sudanese Arabic and in Persian, they use the word for ‘green’ to refer to dark-skinned people. In Sudan and Persia, there are lots of traditional love songs to dark-skinned (“green”) women who are perceived as sexier. Could Spanish culture have picked up something like that from Muslim cultures? Are there other cultures who do this?
The point’s already been made repeatedly. There’s no need for you to belabor it.
[QUOTE=mac_bolan00]
go back to what nava and colibri wrote. ‘chino’ according to them is an abbreviation of ‘chinito’ or chinese-looking features, particularly the eyes.
[/QUOTE]
I never said that, or anything like it. I said that “chino” was often used for people who looked Asian, and that’s it. “Chino” is not an abbreviation of “chinito,” rather, “chinito” is the diminutive of “chino.” It does not necessarily refer to Chinese looking features or refer particularly to the eyes.
People “sound irritated” because you really don’t know what you’re talking about, but insist on talking about it anyway. You are posting inaccurate information, and misrepresenting what others who do know what they’re talking about have said. You are only contributing confusion to the thread.
I would suggest that you not call someone from the United States a gringo to their face.
I guess I have the benefit of working with only college-educated Mexicans (when working in Mexico), and have college-educated wife and in-laws. The standard term used in this crowd is almost always “asiático”; whereas “chino” is reserved for China. I would have thought that in general (not just amongst professional people, that is) that there’d be a lot more awareness of the differences in light of China being to Mexico what Mexico was to the United States in the 1990’s (the loss of manufacturing, etc.)
In Yucatan, it can also mean “curly-haired”. Obviously, this is almost mutually exclusive with “Chinese/East Asian”. I was told it’s a different word (with same spelling), derived from some Mayan word; but someone upthread (Johanna?) mentioned how it can be used elsewhere to refer to someone with “some African appearance”, perhaps particularly kinky or curly hair, and that this does indeed seem to be the same word, with semantic development from “Chinese” to “Asian” to “Non-European” to “African”.