March 2012
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February 2012
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astolpho asked: Hello :) I started Learning Cantonese recently and i absolutely love your blog. it is a god send. :) That was the main thing.hehe but would you happen to know where i could find a tone reference. hmmm i dont know how to put it really. in one of your posts you refer to both deaf and dragon being pronounced with the fourth tone. Also any tips for help with tones would be unbelievable if you get some...
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抌錢落鹹水海
抌錢落鹹水海 (dum cheen lauk haam sui hoi), literally translated as ‘throwing/discarding one’s money into the salt water sea’. It seems to mean something along the lines of investing unwisely/carelessly. I’m assuming it relates to how things cannot grow in water with high salinity (take the Dead Sea, for instance).
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In Cantonese, stubborn is 硬頸 (ngaang geng) which literally means stiff/hard neck.
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Quick Post!
Hello followers!
I apologize for the inconsistent posting lately. I’ve been super busy with work and with spotty internet as well. I’ll get back on schedule tomorrow. :)
I’ve also added two pages for easier browsing:
Resources
Tags List
Enjoy! As always, comments/suggestions are welcome.
January 2012
21 posts
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Things to say during Chinese New Year (in...
thestateofn:
恭喜發財 - Gung hay fat choy - Good fortune to you!
身體健康 - Sun tai gheen hong - Good health to you!
龍馬精神 - Long ma jing sun - May you have the dragon’s vigor and the horse’s vitality!
大吉大利 - Dai gut dai lei - Good luck and much profit to you!
新年快樂 - Sun neen fai lok - Happy New Year!
利是逗來 - Lai see dow loi - Give me money.
LOL @ “Give me the money.” The first two...
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During the night and some of today, in New York 落雪 (lawk shyut)! It snowed! To snow in Chinese is literally having 雪 (snow) descend.
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Telephone Soup
電話 (deen wah), literally “electric speech”, is “phone” in Chinese; 講電話 (gong deen wah) is to speak on the phone.
Funny enough 煲電話粥 (bo deen wah juk), literally “to boil/make phone congee”, means to talk for a long time on the phone, referring to how long it takes to make congee.
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Lots of violence! (or not)
The “打” in 打電話 (daa deen waa), to make a phone call, literally means to strike/hit. 打 is used in other phrases as well to signify a certain action associated with the object, such as 打字 (daa zhi), which means to type (with 字 meaning letter/character). When you 打牌 (daa pai) or 打麻雀 (daa ma jerk), you’re playing mah jong.
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When someone helps you 洗塵 (sai chun), literally wash dust, they are welcoming you (back). So, if you’re back from a trip, someone might greet you and say, “Hey, tonight we’ll help you wash the dust.”
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Greed goes deep.
Someone who is greedy is 貪心 (taam sum), which literally means greedy heart. 貪 can be used as a verb to mean wanting something, with the connotation of the ‘want’ being excessive.
December 2011
16 posts
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More translation games with mother:
me: (in english) envy, evious
mom: 白車 (baak che)
me: ......ambulance?!
(sidenote: 白車 literally means 'white car')
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Melting gold.
金融 (gum yong), literally translated as “gold melt” is the Chinese phrase for finance or banking.
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我食鹽多過你食米
… literally means ‘I eat salt more than you eat rice’ (ngau sik yim dau gau ley sik mai). More eloquently put, it would just be “I have eaten more salt than you have rice.” The idiom is used to compare a difference in life experience. Obviously no person goes around avoiding rice and ingesting insane amounts of NaCl - it’s to say that this person has gained so...
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