Chinese Idiom - To Read One's Face Color?! - SMART Mandarin

Chinese Idiom - To Read One's Face?!

There's a Chinese idiom we say 看人臉色 （kàn rén liǎn sè）

in Chinese. And according to Chinese dictionary


看 kàn - to see, look, read, watch

人 rén - people or person

臉  liǎn - face

色 sè - color or complextion


So literally it means " to read one's face color",

but the closest meaning in English might be 

"at one's disposal". 


Let's take an example in Chinese

我們拿老闆的薪水，就得要看他的臉色做事。

wǒmen ná lǎobǎn de xīnshuǐ, 

jiù dé yào kàn tā de liǎnsè zuòshì



Direct translation

(we receive our salary from the boss, so we have to 

read his face and behave whatever makes him happy)



People usually show their emotions on the face, so if you

wanna know a person's mood, then reading his face is a 

good way to go! 


According to the example above, one needs to read his 

boss's face, knowing the boss's mood then take actions 

that whatever makes the boss happy.


So we'll be coming up with a video talking about 

this interesting idiom again soon!

We hope you like today's idiom!

Keep up the good work! 

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee