Cantonese !!

[skylee]

It seems that this expression has been used a lot in my office lately whenever we are required to write something that is really just a waste of time (i.e. everybody knows it and the information is readily available on dedicated websites). We describe this situation as 阿媽係女人.

Mother is a woman, meaning writing / saying something that everyone already knows, stating the most obvious. For example, 寫埋啲阿媽係女人嘅嘢 - write things that everyone knows already (such as "education is important").

[chiuyan]

One of my friends from Hong Kong visited me recently and her son kept saying

"我load唔到" or more like "我lou唔到" to mean he couldn't remember something or think of something. Obviously based off the English phrase "Cannot load", I am not sure how common that expression is, but the first couple times he said it I didn't know what he was trying to say

[skylee]

I used this today - 人好化學 (life is fragile). 化學 means fragile, not durable, easily breakable.

PS - it has just occured to me that for someone who does not know that this is Cantonese, 人好化學 might appear to mean "people like chemistry".

[Michaelyus]

I hadn't heard of 化學 with this meaning before - when did Cantonese start developing it? 生物化學 becomes a really fatalistic subject in that case!!!

[skylee]

Re 化學, take a look -> http://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=7009012000709

但為甚麼「不耐用」會與「化學」扯上關係？

原來賽璐珞(Celluloid)製品起初推出市場的時候，標榜為「化學製品」。但這些製品卻不耐用，容易破爛，故「化學」一詞淪為笑柄。

後來，廣東人將詞義引申，稱「不耐用」、「不牢靠」的東西為「化學」。

[querido]

I'm starting Cantonese now.

I'll be deciding whether to stay in our little subforum or to switch to a different site. :-(

[Meng Lelan]

I trust skylee will be a useful resource to you, querido!

[querido]

Yes, but I bet she's busy too.

Learning Cantonese is a lonelier place to be. I'm lucky to have a tutor and her family.

[skylee]

執笠 = 停止營業 / 結束營業 / 停業 / 倒閉 / 公司破產 / 清盤

[skylee]

搵食 / 搵銀 / 搵錢 = 工作賺錢

搵食 = 找地方吃飯

搵嘢食 = 找東西來吃 / 找可以吃的東西

[querido]

Skylee:

You said in #45, in reply to #43, "I hate cantonese writing too".

Would you please share some more thoughts about that?

[skylee]

A. It is not standardised so there are different ways to write the same thing. And we were / are not taught how to write it, so it is hard to do it. My friends, when they text me in Chinese, usually write in standard Chinese as writing in Cantonese is actually not easy unless you have trained/ practised to do so. And we were all trained to write in standard Chinese instead of Cantonese at school.

B. Other Chinese people who do not understand Cantonese are unable to understand it. Not too long ago I pasted on this website something I had written in Cantonese (it was originally a text message and I use Cantonese/English when I text my friends) and kenny同志 said he didn't understand it. (See attached jpg)

[querido]

Thank you skylee. I'll spend some time with that image.

[skylee]

扭六壬 / 扭盡六壬 - think of all the possible ways to try to succeed in doing something (not necessarily successful).

 

A friend and I were texting each other about booking hotel rooms.  I texted " 不停搜尋，好嘥精神（押韻㗎）" and she replied "扭盡六吟, this rhymes better, with the 'm' at the end."  And I immediately pointed out that 吟 was a typo.  It should be 壬. 

 

Here is a detailed explanation on 扭六壬 -> http://www.cantoneseculture.com/page_TalkCantoneseDialect/page00007.aspx

[Kobo-Daishi]

Surprisingly, I was able to read the post that Kenny had problems reading.

 

I guess my Cantonese is a lot better than I thought.

 

The only thing I had a problem with was the type of cancer. But figuring that it was probably a transliteration, I was able to guess the type based on the pronunciation of the preceding characters.

 

And this even though Sky used 渠 instead of the more common 佢 in her post.

 

I think I knew 渠 from a thread at the Sheik Cantonese Help Sheets web site. A discussion on using the correct characters instead of the bastardized Cantonese creations.

 

That it's 渠 instead of the Cantonese creation 佢, 無(无) instead of 冇, 來 instead of 嚟, 畀 instead of 俾, and a whole slew of little things like that.
 

Kobo.

[skylee]

人真係好化學。喺Tate Modern 有個瑞士/意大利/巴西藝術家Mira Schendel嘅展覽。介紹話：渠1988年6月確診肺癌，7月24號就死咗。當然渠年紀大（69歲）都有影響嘅。

而渠後生嗰陣生活都幾艱難，無端端就變成難民，流離失所。

[skylee]

煲無米粥 (cook riceless congee) - dream/plan (talk) about something that is not likely to happen given the current situation 幻想(並談論)難以實現的計劃，例如沒有對象卻計劃婚後的生活、沒有工作和儲蓄卻計劃環遊世界等。

[skylee]

落單 - place order in Cantonese, though it means this in Putonghua -> https://www.moedict.tw/#%E8%90%8C

I was watching a film with the sound turned off at the hairdresser's. I read the Chinese subtitles and was on full standard-Chinese reading mode. And then this term came up in the subtitles and it made no sense at all. But half a second later I realised that it was supposed to mean place order. I have no idea why those translators like to mix up Cantonese and Standard Chinese. I don't know if they are even aware that they have mixed up the two.

[Tommie C.]

 

 

any more?    i mean i want more.  

 

 

One of the best websites for learning Cantonese (phrases, dictionary, forums,et al.) is at http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk

[skylee]

早買早享受，遲買平幾舊。

Buy something (especially high tech products like cell phones and similar gadgets) early and you get to enjoy it early. Buy it late and you can pay a few hundreds less.

平 = 便宜 = cheap

舊 = 百 = hundred

In Cantonese 受 rhymes with 舊， so the saying sounds quite nice. And it makes perfect sense.