Sit on the Sofa!

This is the inaugural post on Qingdaonese.com, and in keeping with local customs, I’d like to declare that I sit on the sofa! Which ordinarily is not always something to shout about, but in China it means to be the first poster of a comment on a blog or bbs. So, in this case, I am actually not sitting on the sofa. That esteemed honor would go to the first poster of a comment to this entry. So, if you are the first one to post a comment below or on any other China-centic website, you might want to shout out “坐沙发上!”

First posters commonly shorten this to just “沙发”, or “sofa”. Extending the metaphor even further (deeper?), the second poster will write “板凳”, meaning “wooden bench”, which is the step down from the sofa, and the third poster will sometimes write “地板”, or “floor”, and the fourth “下水道”, “drain” or “sewer”. However, some sites aren’t too keen on people running amok and just writing “sofa!” all over the place, and if you are a registered member of a site, you may be in for some form of censure for that. The sofa post is made more acceptable by writing additional comments, and in the case of those who don’t have anything else to say, it suffices to add something like “oh yeah!” or “thanks!”

Sofa, anyone?

For an example of a first poster. see here.

Photo Credit @ jobarracuda