My ex-partner Gene told me a great story from when he went into Communist China in 1971 shortly after Nixon's "Ping Pong Diplomacy" trip when we re-established business relationships with them. He was sent over to manage the electrical installation of a new MDF plant being built from the ground up.
A lot of the components were coming from Russia, and they had a 50-60% out-of-the-box failure rate. So he implemented a 100% inbound test program for all electrical components, i.e. circuit breakers, contactors, light fixtures etc. As he would find a device that didn't work, he put a string tag on it that said what was wrong and if he couldn't tell, he just wrote N.F.G. and tossed it in a pile. The Chinese workers, not accustomed to wasting so much precious stuff, went through the piles to try to salvage or get replacements from the Russian suppliers. One day they approached him with one of his NFG tags and asked, through his translator, what it meant. He said "No F##king Good", waiting for their response. They just nodded politely and left. 2 days later the translator came to him and said "I can translate the first and last word, but I am having trouble with the middle word". He had apparently never been taught slang but because they are taught to respect their elders he hadn't admitted his problem on the spot, chosing instead to research it. So Gene made a circle with his forefinger and thumb of one hand, then passed the middle finger of his other hand through it rapidly in succession. The translator copied the motion, nodded in acknowledgement again, and walked off. About 1/2 hour later Gene walked by and saw him in a group of translators apparently debating the meaning of this hand signal with puzzled looks. Then one of the Chinese electricians walked over and they showed him the sign. He burst out laughing because HE understood immediately! Turns out the term NFG translates into Chinese slang almost verbatim!
