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From twomadexplorers:

at 00:17:59

so, yeah, we don't really, uh do the Century egg, type of a thing. oh my God, look at these, guys. very interesting.

They also frequently use the words "kind of", "sort of", "type of" throughout the video.

at 00:07:52

these, here, walnuts, oh, lots of walnuts, preserved stuff, fermented, looks like kimchi cabbage, kind of.

So can I sum it up like this? -"kind of", "sort of", "type of" is like "approximately ", "type of a thing","sort of a thing","kind of a thing" is similar to "something like that", the former indicates the adverb, the latter indicates the noun.

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This sort of expression is very commonly used in informal speech.

In more careful speech it would be "We don't really do/make things like century eggs" and "It looks like a kind of kimchi cabbage". Adding sort of, kind of etc. at the end of a sentence to mean "...or something like that" is very informal.

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  • So, at the end of a sentence, 'type of a thing' has the same meaning as 'sort of'?
    – Mr. Wang
    Commented Jul 30 at 8:20
  • Yes, it can do. As I understand it, making 'century eggs' is a very specific process, which is why I expressed it as '[some]thing like'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 30 at 8:45
  • @Mr.Wang Re "looks like kimchi cabbage, kind of," I think the best explanation is that "kind of" means "somewhat." The position at the end of the sentence is just coincidence here; they could just as well have said "looks kind of like kimchi cabbage."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jul 30 at 16:25

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