In Chinese, there is a word (verb) called "管" (pronounced "guan"), which, when translated to English in a dictionary, means "control", "care", or when paired with another word (理), means "management".
However, in English, those above mentioned words mean, and are used, in the following ways:
"Control" - to have the power or say over something eg the police have the power to arrest criminals
"Care" - to be concerned for someone's wellbeing eg like "I care about you because you are my friend" or how nurses care for their patients, but also "Why do you care, what does it have to do with you?"
In Chinese though, "管" is not "care" in the sense that you are concerned about someone's wellbeing, it is closer to the use of the word "care" in the context of last example in bold above, or what a person is doing when they are NOT "mind[ing] your own business". It can mean "control" but you wouldn't always use the English word "control".
"Care" as used in the bold example is the closest thing to the word "管", but when used, it can give the wrong impression that the person is caring, when it does not mean this at all (see very end of this question for 2 examples).
So I am looking for a different word in English if one exists. Here are some examples in which the word "管" could be used in bold:
- "Mind your own business". In this case, although the English word "care" is not used, "管" is used in the Chinese equivalent, and the English word I am looking for, is what a person is doing when they are NOT minding their own business.
- "Are you telling me what to do?" Same as above - when a person is bossing another person around and telling them what to do, you say they are "管" (the English equivalent here should be a present participle, and used like "guan-ing") the other person.
- "The government doesn't care what colour your car is, as long as you have car insurance."
- "If there is an issue with the website, you should tell the IT department and not us in the Sales department; we don't care about this, the IT department looks after this." OR "Why did you report the broken URL to Sales, they don't care about this, you should report it to IT.". Note: You would not use "control" either, because in English, that sort of implies someone has formal authority over something, eg controlling what content goes on the website, when it is more about whose responsibility it is to look after this.
- "This is not something you should "concern yourself with"/"control/管"."
The following examples are situations where I have not thought of a suitable word, and "care" would obviously not be appropriate:
(angrily): "You always [care] about me!" ie "you always boss me around and tell me what to do".
(malignant, telling people who micro-manage, are bossy, not minding their own business, or are too strict a parent): "You [care] too much." and not the benevolent "You are too kind and care about people too much, which is why you get hurt all the time."