A friendly and funny Chinese word to address foreigners

In Chinese, there is another word for "foreigners" except the common sayings "外国人 (wài guó rén)" and "老外 (lǎo wài)", it's "歪果仁 (wāi guǒ rén)", which literally means "crooked nut". It is a homophonic word, which is more like a friendly, amiable and humorous appellation for foreigners.

"foreigners"在中文里除了常见的"外国人"和"老外"之外，还有一个同样意思的词，就是 "歪果仁"。这是谐音的说法，更是一种对外国人友好、亲切、幽默的称呼。

As a cyberword, "歪果仁 (wāi guǒ rén)" sounds so adorable that it's not only widely used on the Internet but also among the traditional media. The most common word "老外 (lǎo wài)" makes people feel more amiable than "外国人 (wài guó rén)", while "歪果仁 (wāi guǒ rén)" sounds more humorous than "老外 (lǎo wài)".

"歪果仁"作为网络词汇，听起来很可爱，不仅在网上被广泛应用，在一些传统媒体也被运用开来了。原来最常见的词是"老外"，"老外"比"外国人"让人更有一些亲切感。而"歪果仁"听上去比"老外"更增添了一层幽默感。

The reason why people use "歪果仁 (wāi guǒ rén)" is that they're getting more contact with foreigners. In addition, when some foreigners call themselves "外国人", whose pronunciation should be "wài guó rén", they pronounce it "wāi guǒ rén" (歪果仁) incorrectly.

"歪果仁"的出现，当然是因为中国人和外国人的接触和交流越来越多。另外大家也发现，很多外国朋友在自称自己外国人的时候，发音不是很标准，都说成了"歪果仁"。

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