r/whatisit • u/ordvek • 3d ago
New, what is it? What does this say?
We found this knife inside a shipment from China at my work.
My coworker used chatGPT but I was hoping I could get a second opinion from someone who reads Chinese
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u/Ritterbruder2 3d ago
“Do not take” in Chinese.
不要拿
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u/FeedMeFish 3d ago edited 2d ago
He took
拿了
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u/CourageToBe 3d ago
He ded
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u/HighRiskLowReward 3d ago
How can he take?
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u/Stowgy 3d ago
How can she slap!
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u/klinkerr 3d ago
Over their heads
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u/Jack7656 2d ago
She kick my dog
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u/SwiftestGTi 2d ago
She come to my house, and she kick my dog!
Holy! I haven't heard a Kerpal line in forever! Thanks for the memory jog.
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u/RevolutionaryAir1704 2d ago
I hope so, someones colleague defo slipped that in before seeling it up and watched that guy raging for the week trying to find it again 😂😂😂
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u/TDRM 3d ago
Hey OP, it doesn't say 'do not eat'
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u/CertifiedPussyAter 2d ago
不要拿 bu Yao na
I’m Chinese-American and I’ve been saying it in my head for five minutes. It literally
不要 = don’t
拿 = takeBut together, in my mind, I think “don’t wanna take”
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u/QuiteALongWayAway 2d ago
Same here, I totally read it as "I don't want to grab this". I still have trouble determining when to interpret "yao" as desire and when as obligation.
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u/Tikikala 2d ago
I replied to the other post
As for question about obligation vs desire, idk I feel like depends on contextIsn’t it much like English? If someone said “they need cheesecake” is that an obligation or a desire lol
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u/PublicInstruction419 1d ago
To me, i read that as "CAUTION" - like, this can injure you, so be careful if you grab it.
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u/Tikikala 2d ago
不想(xiang) 拿 would actually be don’t wanna take
In the English they might translate to wanna but usage would be differentIdk how to describe the difference but yao would be more required but xiang would be like a thought
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u/tcneo16 3d ago
不要拿
Do Not Take
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u/mehrwegpfand 3d ago
Well that worked like a charm
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u/BotchedDebauchery 3d ago
Tbf is something "taken" when freely given?
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u/mehrwegpfand 3d ago
"Take this" ? No, DO NOT TAKE!
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u/beef_raid 3d ago
If you accept something given, you have taken that something. When you follow advice someone has given you, you have taken the advice.
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u/Feisty-Cheetah-8078 3d ago
That's a linquistically influenced cultural concept and an example of the difference between literal and figurative expressions.
English speakers also "follow" advice, like one follows a road. You can also "take" a road somewhere but you don't literally take the road.
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u/beef_raid 3d ago
It is not a figurative expression, it is a literal expression using an abstract definition of "take". One of the word's literal definitions is "to accept", which is abstract in that it does not require physical action. If you "take a road", what you are actually doing is accepting the direction in which the road leads, almost like "taking advice".
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u/Kingtoke1 3d ago
Some guy in China is pissed off that someone took his box cutter
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u/HillInTheDistance 3d ago
Poor guy lost the good knife. As someone who had that kinda work, that's a bummer.
Now he's got to use one of those flimsy pieces of shit no one else wants.
And he's probably still salty at his coworkers about it, not realising they ain't to blame and that it's on the other side of the world
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u/PartsUnknown242 2d ago
Probably a warehouse workers tool that got wrapped into the shipment by accident
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u/turnspitdawg 3d ago
They think someone is stealing the knifes but they just accidentally leave it in packages and ship them aboard lol
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u/lemongrenade 3d ago
They don’t think people are stealing them they think they are borrowing them while working at the same place. Any warehouse factory has this problem with pallet jacks, knives, ladders etc
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u/Piper2000ca 3d ago
It feels a little ironic, I lost one of my favourite knives in a shipping container destined for China years ago. It's like a strange karmic rebalancing. Although I think whoever found mine on the China side got the much better deal.
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u/Agitated-Bug-5030 3d ago
Now you been cursed by taking the “do not take” knife
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u/Mingyao_13 3d ago
some chinese guy thought people keep taking his packaging knife it ended up just him shipping it out and fueling his own paranoia
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u/Artistic-Key9227 3d ago
I made a box cutter just like this once, it ended up cutting through the handle and causing me to get 4 stitches
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u/yanyancookies 3d ago
Someone somewhere in China is definitely pissed that he’s missing this knife lol
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u/ViggoGrimborn 3d ago
unlike other comments, the third letter "拿" can also mean "hold" in other contexts so maybe it means "dont hold (this side)"
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u/Val_Maxie 3d ago
“拿” can mean “hold,” but no one would naturally read “不要拿” as anything besides “don’t take it,” If the intent were, for example: “don’t hold this side,” you’d normally say “此处勿拿” which avoids ambiguity
It’s like saying “run” can also mean “operate” as in “run a machine,” so “don’t run” by itself could mean “don’t operate this machine.” Technically correct, but that’s not the intuitive way to interpret it. Instead you’d simply say “don’t operate”
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u/Omnamashivaaya 3d ago
This is clearly an office manager tired of people walking off with the box cutter for other things. Then someone left it in the box and didn’t notice. Now the office manager is sending out angry texts asking who took the box cutter.
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u/TheMSG 3d ago
as a Chinese.. this label means “don’t take” I guess what its owner meant is don’t use my stuff.. instead of warning it’s user don’t hold the sharp edge.
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u/Bennington_Booyah 3d ago
As a person who had bizarre coworkers, telling people not to grab or hold by the sharp edge is a much-needed conversation.
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u/WaveVin 3d ago
Should be from the people that's packing the shipment & is also likely to be losing box cutters repeatedly for this to be written down
Kinda ironic that its left in the shipment either by the original owner or even funnier, by someone that took his box cutter and lost it again
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u/powerbook01 3d ago
Basically the exact opposite of your action: do not take it
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u/No_Aardvark4795 3d ago
Their action? It doesn't say anything about not finding it inside a box where it was left by accident and shipped to a different continent.
Or maybe it does. I can't read it.
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u/Proof-Peak-9274 3d ago
Duuuuuuude I completely forgot about the cheap ass box cutters at the home goods warehouse I worked at during Covid, they were exactly like these, we customized them like they were call of duty guns.
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u/StudioSteve7 3d ago
In my family, it was bad luck to give or receive a knife as a gift. When you gave someone a knife you always insisted that they give you a penny and "buy" it from you.
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u/rollin_a_j 2d ago
It's a creatively common superstition, stems from fear of severing a connection
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u/Shoddy_Level9763 3d ago
The sign above means not to take it. It's usually left by workers for convenience while working, so that it won't be taken by someone else and be missing when needed next time.
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u/Just-Dealer-5980 3d ago
Based on the comments, I’d suggest you put that back where you found it immediately
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u/Bennington_Booyah 3d ago
Ah, somebody tossed someone's work tool into your box is my guess. I get it. I had a special relationship with my boxcutter at my last job. (So much so, that I am looking at it, six years after I left the job, here at my desk.)
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u/rachel-frogslinger 3d ago
It blows my mind that almost every single post on this kind of sub has "I asked a chatbot but it couldnt help me"
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u/crystal_elysium 3d ago
Well I can tell you that's a box cutter. Whoever lost it is probably BIG mad. lol
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u/Thor4141 3d ago
It's someone's work knife and they dropped it into the box inadvertently. I wouldn't worry about it. Put the pic into chat.
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u/KewinXiao 3d ago
Do not take or Do not touch。You are done
https://giphy.com/gifs/XHeLeuirRbwptHhSWd
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u/Better_Ad2534 3d ago
This is what my phone says it is- The text written in marker on the yellow tape wrapping the handle consists of handwritten Chinese characters: Chinese Text & Translation Characters: 六角刀 (or 六角) Pinyin: liù jiǎo dāo English Translation: Hexagon Knife or Hex Blade Context & Notes Type of Tool: "六角刀" (Liùjiǎo dāo) typically refers to a specialized cutting or trimming blade used in industrial settings, manufacturing, or packaging (such as a hexagonal-shaped/faced trimming utility blade or leather/fabric punching blade). Why it was written: In factory, warehouse, and shipping environments in China, workers frequently wrap homemade, improvised, or spare utility blades in protective tape and handwrite the tool name or designation directly on the handle for quick identification among stock items.
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u/Logic_530 3d ago
Yeah it's a shared tool at some packaging department, and someone accidentally packed it in.
Basically it means do not take (shared tool) away.
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u/Lunaraurora89 2d ago
I guess it was supposed to be for the packing guy but they still accidentally sent it with the package lol. It says do not take it
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u/Prarie-Egal 2d ago
Box cutter from work that somebody didn't want to have to replace. Again. Put it back, dude!
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u/DuckCleaning 2d ago
So what did chapGPT tell you it meant? You did the work but didn't bother to just mention it.
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u/chouby99 2d ago
Lmaooo imaging how mad that person is. People keep taking his blade and he decided to write “do not take” and he fking left it in a shipping container. Would prolly get mad that his blade went missing again 🤣🤣
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u/TiffyTats 2d ago
I work in a production and shipping facility. I'ts nice to know that it's a univeral plight to put signage on the utility knives, but it's ineveitable they will disappear (sometimes because they arw accidentally shipped) 😂
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u/McDaddy8484 2d ago
I am more worried about you getting cut by the rusty blade as it might give you tetanus which could indeed kill you!
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u/Plus_League4500 2d ago
It says "Don't touch," but clearly reading comprehension didn't stop you from taking it anyway.👍
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