How do you "know about things" in Chinese? What's the easiest or most common way?

Question

我对中国的地理知识还了解得不太多。

This is quite a complex way to say "I don't know too much about geography of China".

• How do you say it easilier?
• I'm sure you can use both 知道 or 了解. But is 对 the only correct translation of "about" here? Can you say it using 关于?
• What would be the most common way to say it?

Answer 1

Too many wordings vary from person to person, I'm just to name a few here.

① 我对中国地理知之甚少

② 关于中国地理，我了解不多

③ 我不是很懂中国地理

④ 就中国地理而言，我不怎么了解

⑤ 中国地理的话，我不太清楚

⑥ 我没有怎么了解过中国地理

⑦ 中国地理我涉猎尚浅

⑧ 我对中国地理只是略有了解

⑨ 我没有深入了解过中国地理

All these wording above are common actually, and yours isn't so bad either.

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③ is the most concise one within just 9 characters.

I myself would prefer to use ① or ⑦ which are sounds more literary and well educated.

• 知之甚少——知：know; 之：it; 甚：very, much, more than; 少：little
• 涉猎尚浅——涉猎：dabble, dip；尚：still；浅：shallow

There's a difference between the ③ and ⑦, you must be noticed there's no wording such as '对' in ⑦, and the subjective '我' has been moved latter, this will concise the sentence but it's not a formal use, yet still can be used in colloquial.

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Speaking of 'know about things', there are many more expressions.

• 略知一二：Just know the first point and second point of something literally, which means merely knows a little.
  But this can also be used for modest, someone actually knows a lot with a low-profile attitude
  
  

• 半桶水：half bucket of water
  This wording derived from '一桶水摇不响，半桶水响叮当' which means a full of a bucket of water makes no sound, whereas half a bucket of water is easy to make noises loudly.
  
  It refers to someone who is really erudite won't display too much, while someone who wants to pass for erudite and usually showing off their knowledge.
  
  So '半桶水' can describe someone as a dabbler, or as a self-effacing wording to oneself. Say '我就是个半桶水', means 'I've learned less(about this)'.

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Here are some other common idioms in which you can drill down if you wish.

• 略知皮毛
• 学艺不精
• 才疏学浅
• 一知半解
• 不求甚解

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Lastly, as for the 'about', '对' is not the sole answer, we use it a lot just for convenience, if we say something with '关于', it's likely to say 'pertain to' instead of 'about'.

Answer 2

我不太了解中国的地理

我不太熟悉中国的地理

You can replace 对 with 跟 or 和 if you like.

Answer 3

I think your sentence is good and clear. Only 16 characters. Keep it.

I might change it like this：

我还不是很了解中国的地理知识。(still 14 characters)
I still don't know much about the geography of China.