折腾(zhe1teng)

A few months ago, I learned a new Chinese word from Hu Jintao （胡总). In a speech on how to face the current crisis, Hu said (according to his interpreter): "Don't sway back and forth, don't relax our efforts, and don't zheteng." The interpreter had no idea how to translate this on the spot so I looked for the paper edition. According to danwei, the official translation rendered zheteng into English as "don't get sidetracked." Get sidetracked from what? nciku.com translates zheteng as "to spend freely; to squander" Throw these translations into the speech and they make even less sense than "don't get sidetracked."

Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao's heir apparent, used zheteng in a speech when he was in Mexico last month:

“有些吃饱了没事干的外国人，对我们的事情指手画脚。中国一不输出革命，二不输出 饥饿和贫困，三不去折腾你们，还有什么好说的.”

“There are some foreigners who had eaten their fill and had nothing better to do, pointing their fingers at our affairs. China does not, first, export revolution; second, export poverty and hunger; or third, zheteng you. What else is there to say?”

Now zheteng is a transitive verb, making "get sidetracked" no longer a possibile translation. I was satisfied with the China Digital Times' translation: "cause trouble for you." But then I saw this translation (vulgar) of both transitive and intransitive uses of zheteng, which would fit both Xi Jinping's and Hu Zong's speeches perfectly.

Sometimes it takes a couple months to learn even a common Chinese word.