It all started when @cinicism commented that the party candidates on the Channel 8 political debate show used a lot of 成语 or Chinese idioms (Idioms = 4 words, Proverbs = many many words kind).
Eager to participate in this Chinese discourse, I asked:
"Got use 人山人海？ @miyagi & I only know that one."
I even sent out a few choice sentences using this 成语 we knew:
1. 政府要解决我国的人山人海问题。
2. 有一些集选区需要五到六名候选人，很人山人海。
Miyagi reminded me we also knew 不三不四 and 乱七八糟.
He showed off with this:
政府要解决我国的不三不四问题。
Howlian right? Before we knew it, others piped in with way more complicated Chinese sentences, like this one from @EYE_DEAS:
虽这次选举有点七上八下，行动党还是十拿九稳。
Wah, that was very hard leh. I told @EYE_DEAS:
你用的华语太深奥了。我们抓不到球。
Miyagi added:
又有华语又有numbers...真jialat. 应为我们的mathematics 也有问题。
We were also reminded by @gaoguaiking
搞怪王这次破例不搞怪：”人山人海” 这成语不可用来形容人口繁多的意思。#sgelections 此成语是用来形容人潮非常汹涌、非常多的意思。
So even our use of 人山人海 was not right. Miyagi and I wish to state that we stand corrected.
I did stress the wife out a little, asking her to translate some of the Chinese tweets I was getting. Miyagi didn't even dare to ask his wife.
I have to say though, so far, the three 成语 that Miyagi and I know have been surprisingly useful for Singapore elections discourse: 人山人海，不三不四，乱七八糟。
Our Chinese teachers would have been proud.
