The term Laowai literally means “old outsider”. Many Chinese will try to explain that the character 老 (Lao) signifies respect, such as what is used in the Chinese words for teacher (老师 – Laoshi) or boss (老板 – Laoban). However, to be fair, the Chinese word for rat (老鼠 – ...
does hong de = hongse de? Both 红的 and 红色的 means "red" as an adjective. It only depends on the habit of the speaker. The Chinese tend to use several different words to express the same concept in different context. It's really hard to learn that even for native speakers I'd...
More in general, you usually can't just match an English word to a Chinese word and then use them the same way. You have to really learn & understand what the Chinese word or particle does, what its function is. And then you can think which English word does the same thing, that's...