The cultural usage of 骂 mà makes it tricky to translate adequately into languages that don't behave the same way.
It is usually for bad or unacceptable behaviour or a misdeed.
Mostly for telling off / disciplining those below (in the hierarchy: generation-wise, age-wise, position-wise), but not always. It can be a wife telling the husband off for doing something she doesn't approve of, like coming home drunk, or not helping her out with the chores.
I see in more than one mainland Chinese drama series (on YouTube) that gate keepers often tell people off for returning after the gates are shut, or for ringing up the porter's lodge for someone after hours (without first finding out why -- it might've been an emergency). Late = stupid, for not sticking to the rules. Default action to take: 骂 mà.
When I asked a bus driver in 1998, in the small bus terminus by the 嘉義 Chiayi / Jiāyì (S. Taiwan) train station, if his bus was going to 後湖里 (Hòuhú-lǐ, an area in the suburbs), his response was, "Can't you see it says on the front that it's going to 水上 Shuǐshàng?!!?". To him, it should've been obvious to me (looking like one of them, and speaking fluent Mandarin) that the destination on the front of his bus was 水上, which is in the opposite direction to 後湖里. I was therefore, stupid, and deserved to be told off. Default action to take: 骂 mà.
An English-born student of mine who'd worked in China for years said a year or so ago that yes, Chinese people do indeed 骂 mà people a lot.
As you can see, 骂 mà happens a lot. It was one of the reasons I decided not to accept one of the two translation jobs I was offered at two different universities in Fujian province in S.E.China. I'd gone there during the Easter break, job seeking in anticipation of being retrenched in London in the summer. A question put to the woman (mid-20s / early 30s?) at the train station ticket window earned me a ticking off, because like the bus driver in Chiayi, she thought it was a stupid question, as the answer was obvious. A brief enquiry presented to a city bus driver another day also netted me a ticking off. I decided in the end that I couldn't face so much grumpiness on a regular basis over an entire year.
Ah, an antidote story to prove that it wasn't me being a shrinking violet. A woman from mainland China was doing her Masters degree in Nottingham (east Midlands). She told me how touched she'd been when, one day, she asked a bus driver if his bus was the right one for place X.
Her account (my words from how I remember it): "The bus driver told me no -- to get to place X, I was to catch bus Y. He then proceeded to give me directions for where to catch bus Y: down the street this way, turn left at the junction 10 yards on, and there's the bus stop for bus Y."
She added, "Not only was he so patient and kind, which wouldn't happen in China, but no one in the queue building up behind me throughout this conversation complained -- they just patiently waited until I had my needs attended to. This wouldn't have happened in China. In the first place, the driver would just tell you his bus is not the right one, and expect you to go away, leaving you to your own devices. The people behind would also start to grumble loudly that you're holding them up."
The most common translation for 骂 mà is "to scold". I think it's used a lot in Singlish (Singapore English, which is a form of English based on Chinese in syntax, vocab and usage of language).
(From googling) to scold: Quote To speak to someone angrily or harshly because you disapprove of their behavior. It typically involves reprimanding or chiding someone (often an adult scolding a child) for making a mistake or doing something wrong. Unquote
British English doesn't use "scold" much. More "to tell sb off / to get told off / to get a telling off / to tick sb off / to get ticked off / to get a ticking off". (sb = somebody)
(From googling)
Quote
In British English, "scold" is understood but rarely used in everyday speech. It usually sounds formal, old-fashioned, or is strictly used when an adult is correcting a young child or an animal.
For typical, everyday situations, native speakers in the UK prefer to use different, more localized terms depending on the context:
- Telling off: The most common, everyday term for reprimanding someone (e.g., "The teacher told me off for being late.").
- Giving a bollocking / Rollicking: Highly common and colloquial British slang for a very harsh or angry telling-off.
- Giving a talking-to: A milder, more diplomatic way of saying you had a serious conversation with someone about their bad behaviour.
- Reprimanding / Admonishing: The preferred formal terms used in professional workplaces or written contexts.
Unquote
