John: Welcome to this week’s edition of RoundTable’s word of the week. This week we’re looking at the word “Pick-up Artist”. After the video went really really popular about, you know, the guy picking up girls with nice cars in Sanlitun, we thought it’d be a good chance to take a look at some English word related to a popular pastime for some men. So, a pick up artist is a man who trains in the skills in art of finding, attracting, and seducing women.
Heyang: 所以我们今天聊的搭讪大师或者是搭讪艺术家，就是一个非常善于和女生搭讪的男生。
John: And so the use of “pick up” in this context actually is actually slang for making a casual acquaintance with the stranger in anticipation of sexual relations. It actually dates from a least World War II.
Heyang: So you’re actually saying that sexual element is always involved in this?
John: When we’re talking about picking up a girl, yeah I mean, as an adult, you go to a bar and you pick up a girl, and that means you’re taking her home, probably to have intercourse.
Heyang: Oh I thought it would be more innocent than that.
John: No
Heyang: Something like you know starting a relationship and you needed an icebreaker.
John: No I mean in in that sense it’s a little bit different. Certainly picking up a girl may lead to a relationship. But the point of picking her up at a club or a bar is not, in fact, necessarily thinking in the longer term. And so part of picking up a girl is having a wingman. So, a wingman is a role that a person may take when a friend needs support with approaching potential partners in order to pick them up.
Heyang: 有可能就是，这个男生带着另外一个男生。 另外这个人是当托儿，帮助想要去猎艳的这位得手。
John: In general a woman’s wingman will help her avoid attention from undesirable partners whereas a man’s wingman will help him attract desirable ones. Right, and so what happens a lot of times with the wingman, the wingman will befriend or talk up the target’s partners while the person who is trying to pick up the girl will talk to the girl herself. Now all part of this process, part of the pick-up process, is to hit on a girl. And basically this just means a flirting with her in order to initiate sexual attraction and more discussion.
Heyang: So is this quite a strong phrase that has sexual connotations again?
John: So again I mean like you consider I’m flirting with a girl, I mean that can be anything from innocent to we’re having a bit of fun to, you know, I’m actually trying to pick her up. Now when you’re hitting on a girl, that definitely means that you’re trying to pick her up.
Heyang: Ok, we’ve got that clarified. And also when you try to pick up a girl you need to come up with a line. An opener. What is that called?
John: Exactly. So those are called, well as you might have guessed, pick-up lines, sometimes they’re also called chat-up lines. That’s basically just a conversation opener trying to engage an unfamiliar person in an actual conversation for romance or perhaps even dating.
Heyang: And that can be very difficult.
John: Exactly. So the thing is pick-up lines are commonly used by men who pick up women. They can be very straightforward, they can be very subtle, they can be very tasteful, they can be very brash as well. But novices pick up artists are advised to avoid standardized hackneyed lines. For example, are you an interior decorator? Because when I saw you, the entire room became beautiful.
Heyang: Eww, cheesy！
John: Or, do you have a Band-Aid because I scraped my knees falling for you.
Heyang: Eww, kindergardenish and gives me goose bumps.
John:Exactly, so if you’re a potential, or thinking about becoming a pick up artist, you want to pick up some girls, get a wingman, hit on them, get some pickup lines, just don’t use those. But that’s all the time we have for this edition of RoundTable’s word of the week, thank you so much for joining us and we’ll see you next week.