A Chinese Joke 中国笑话:学问无用 Knowledge is Useless.

学问无用

老王第一个儿子是经济学学士,第二个儿子是工商管理硕士,第三个儿子是博士,第四个儿子是小偷。

第四个儿子是小偷。

邻居问老王:你怎么不把第四个儿子赶出去呢?

老王说:不行!他是唯一有在赚钱的,其他几个都没工作…

With Pinyin:

xué wèn wú yòng
学问无用

View this Joke–Knowledge is useless (in PDF)

lǎo wáng dì yí gè ér zi shì jīng jì xué xué shì dì èr gè ér zi shì gōng shāng guǎn lǐ shuò shì dì sān gè ér zi shì bó shì dì sì gè ér zi shì xiǎo tōu
老王第一个儿子是经济学学士,第二个儿子是工商管理硕士,第三个儿子是博士,第四个儿子是小偷。

lín jū wèn lǎo wáng nǐ zěn me bù bǎ dì sì gè ér zi gǎn chū qù ne
邻居问老王:你怎么不把第四个儿子赶出去呢?

lǎo wáng shuō bù xíng tā shì wéi yī yǒu zài zhuàn qián de qí tā jǐ gè dōu méi gōng zuò
老王说:不行!他是唯一有在赚钱的,其他几个都没工作。

Vocabulary 生词

ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition
ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition
1 学问 學問 xuéwèn learning; knowledge; Classifiers:
2 无用 無用 yòng useless; worthless
3 lǎo prefix used before the surname of a person (e.g.,老王)or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity; old (of people); venerable (person); experienced; of long standing; always; all the time; of the past; very; outdated; (of meat etc) tough
4 (prefix indicating ordinal number, e.g. first, number two etc)
5 一个 一個 a; an
6 儿子 兒子 ér zi son
7 shì is; are; am; yes; to be; variant of ; (used in given names)
8 经济学 經濟學 jīng xué economics (as a field of study)
9 学士 學士 xué shì bachelor’s degree; person holding a university degree
10 第二 èr second; number two; next; secondary
11 個, 箇 individual; this; that; size; classifier for people or objects in general; variant of
12 工商 gōngshāng industry and commerce
13 管理 guǎn to supervise; to manage; to administer; management; administration; Classifiers:
14 硕士 碩士 shuòshì master’s degree; person who has a master’s degree; learned person
15 第三 sān third; number three
16 博士 shì doctor; court academician (in feudal China); Ph.D.
17 第四 fourth; number four
18 小偷 xiǎo tōu thief
19 邻居 鄰居 lín neighbor; next door; Classifiers:
20 wèn to ask
21 wáng surname Wang; king or monarch; best or strongest of its type; grand; great
22 you (informal, as opposed to courteous )
23 怎么 怎麼, 怎麽 zěn me how?; why?
24 (negative prefix); not; no
25 to hold; to contain; to grasp; to take hold of; handle; particle marking the following noun as a direct object; classifier for objects with handle; classifier for small objects: handful
26 gǎn to overtake; to catch up with; to hurry; to rush; to try to catch (the bus etc); to drive (cattle etc) forward; to drive (sb) away; to avail oneself of (an opportunity); until
27 出去 chū to go out
28 ne particle indicating that a previously asked question is to be applied to the preceding word (“What about …?”, “And …?”); particle for inquiring about location (“Where is …?”); particle signaling a pause, to emphasize the preceding words and allow the listener time to take them on board (“ok?”, “are you with me?”); (at the end of a declarative sentence) particle indicating continuation of a state or action; particle indicating strong affirmation

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