After a long, 24+ hours trip, I'm back in Hong Kong since this Wednesday. Feels great to be home, and it's nice to see my family again! Although these last 3 days were interesting; I was still working on a theory paper and wasn't getting ANY sleep at all. It was a strange cognitive dissonance of being home doing work like I were still in the US.
And this is going to be the first of many-to-come little "column" that I'm stating called "I <3 Cantonese"! My sister and I were watching "East Palace-West Palace" the other night (a series of political/cultural satire drama in HK) that mentioned strange idioms in HK Cantonese. And just now at the market I heard at least 5 other sentences...
So here it is, my new column. I'll introduce one of such sayings/idioms every time, in both its original Cantonese transcription, a written Chinese transcription, and English translations (point-to-point, and "poetic" if needed). ALL OF YOU can guess what it really means, and I'll tell you the actual context and meaning next time. Go wild with your guesses (esp. Linguistics friends)!!!
My inaugural idiom:
Original: 攬住老婆嗌賊 [抱著老婆喊賊]
Translation: "Hold your wife and scream burglar"
What does that mean?
Comments (1)
I have no idea...