How can I mildly describe a person who is kind of overweight in English?
My daughter is studying in an international school. One day, one of her classmates read to others her entry which mentioned one of their foreign teachers. She said in Chinese: “Miss Cecelia胖胖的，但是非常美丽”. In this moment, Cecelia happened to be classroom and heard her name. She asked a boy to tell her what the girl wrote about her. The boy only knew to translate “胖” into “fat” but he had a vague idea that it would offend their teacher. So he tried his best to make Miss Cecelia happy by adding many many “little” before “fat”. His translation was: “Miss Cecelia is little, little……fat, but she is very beautiful.” However, Miss Cecelia got angry before she heard the second half sentence. She accused the girl of using impolite word to offend her. The girl felt wronged, because in Chinese using the adjective “胖胖的” is a very kindly way to describe an overweight person.
Can you tell me how can I mildly describe a person who is kind of overweight in English?
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How can I euphemistically describe a person who is overweight in English?
My daughter is studying in an international school. One day, one of her classmates read to others her entry which mentioned one of their foreign teachers. She said in Chinese: “Miss Cecelia胖胖的，但是非常美丽”. At this moment, Cecelia happened to be in the classroom and heard her name. She asked a boy to tell her what the girl wrote about her. The boy only knew how to translate “胖” into “fat” but he had a vague idea that it would offend their teacher. So he tried his best to make Miss Cecelia happy by adding many many “little”s before “fat”. His translation was: “Miss Cecelia is little, little……fat, but she is very beautiful.” However, Miss Cecelia got angry before she heard the second half sentence. She accused the girl of using impolite words to offend her. The girl felt wronged, because in Chinese using the adjective “胖胖的” is a very kindly way to describe an overweight person.Can you tell me how can I mildly describe a person who is kind of overweight in English? One can say they are putting on weight. This way, no kgs are mentioned. It might be just 0.02 grams or 22 kgs! Their imagination will do the work.
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People also have a right to not like unwarranted comments about their bodies though, specially if it's something society already shames and highlights enough, like not-being-thin. A solution could be explaining to the child how some topics and adjectives are touchy, as often they are used as insults and found funny, like her cheeky schoolmate did, making Miss Cecilia feel uncomfortable.
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In the west there is not a great way to do this without people getting offended. It is silly because if you are overweight you should be able to accept it without getting offended by a kid who also tries to call you beautiful.
While people become easily offended by things of this nature, some people don't mind the word 'curvy' or 'full figured' or 'plus sized.' "Big and beautiful" might be ok as well. Saying Miss Cecilia is big and beautiful would probably not be as offensive, but it sounds like the kid was trying to say something along those lines to begin with.
-Curvy
-Full Figured
-Plus Sized
-Big and Beautiful
Hopefully some others can add some more to this list
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