Cantonese 101 (or rather...201)

So last week I decided that Cantonese 101 was too easy for me...and it was boring me. That, and the sinsaang (teacher) convinced me to go to intermediate bc they needed students.

So I was sitting in class and I asked Cream (she likes icecream, so she picked her English name to be Cream) how to say what I want when it comes to getting a haircut:

layered: seui keuih (colloquial term)/chahng chi (more formal term)
uneven bangs: seui yam
sideburns (for the guys): dik seui

AND, I learned some colloquial Canto:

yauh gon seui: play mahjong <-- the literal translation means "swim (yauh) dry (gon) water (seui)" -- bc when you play mahjong, to "shuffle" the tiles, you make a motion like you're swimming

sik gai daan: get a zero (on an assignment) <-- literal translation means "eat (sik) chicken (gai) egg (daan)" but it means to get a zero on a HW assignment...bc the shape of an egg looks like a zero :-p

fai lou: to fail <-- literal translation means "fat (fai) man (lou)" but it means to fail a class; get an F

jyu pah: ugly girl <- in referring to food in Cantonese, it means porkchop (jyu means pig) but if you're talking about a girl and you think she's ugly, you call her a porkchop :-p

ngauh pah: ugly guy <- same as jyu pah but it refers to an ugly guy (ngauh means cow/beef)



IDIOMS: Chinese people love idioms (or proverbs). Here are a couple:

sin fu hauh tihm - means first you experience something horrible when doing it but after doing it, you feel better. "fu" means bitter and "tihm" means sweet. and "hauh" means something like after
EX: you don't like to study (or the act of studying is so horrible/bitter) but after doing it, you feel better that you got work done (a "sweet" feeling)

The other way around works too:
sin tihm hauh fu - means that you get what you want, but after getting it, you don't feel so good about yourself

jo yih yahp yauh yih cheut - literal translation means "left (jo) ear (yih) enter (yahp) right (yauh) ear (yih) exit (cheut)"; it's like saying "in one ear, out the other" - like you never listen
***My dad says that one to me alot :-)


Romanization is hard. I haven't yet figured out how to put the accent marks using the computer....OH, and Cantonese used to have 9 tones, but there are only 6 taught now


I was researching stuff for my imaginary travel paper to India (for one of my classes). I got distracted by the news @ www.chinadaily.com.cn

http://english.cri.cn/2946/2008/01/24/189@317176.htm (hits close to "home")
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-01/24/content_6417023.htm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-01/24/content_6417048.htm (**btw, the Olympic mascots are adorable! I took a picture with one hehe)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-01/24/content_6418454.htm