This year is the first summer for ages I’m not going north and I don’t like it! I want to go to Xinjiang in August. Meanwhile if you’re going anywhere in China this year and →
In yesterday’s article I advised people who are trying to learn Cantonese to become like a child again. Those little buggers know how to pick up languages all right! First they say “da da da, ba ba ba” for a while, testing the equipment as it were, and then they plunge right into it.
If they see for example a ball and know what it is, they will then tell you that it’s a ball. “Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. Mommy! Ball. Ball.” etc until you’re ready to down a double gin and tonic without tonic. (Ball: 球 kau, or 波 bo)
What they are doing is forcing new neurone paths in their virgin brains. And biology knows that this is best done through repetition. The first “Ball.” sends out a delicate, hesitating little feeler, which grows thicker and sturdier each time they repeat the word, until it’s a strong and solid neurone path and they’ll know the word ‘ball’ for the rest of their lives.
So why don’t we adults learn languages as easily as children do? We could, if we employed the same methods as they instinctively do. But by this time we’re adults and know better. We know it’s embarrassing not to master something 100% at once.
I said yesterday that the thing I hear most often from new students is “I’m crap at languages”. The second most common thing is “I don’t want to make a fool of myself”, alternatively (for the more extrovert) “I’m not afraid to make a fool of myself.”
But I wonder: How can trying to learn a new thing possibly be described as making a fool of yourself? If a foreigner in your country is trying to learn your language, do you laugh at him and call him fool? Of course not. So why do you feel you yourself are being a fool?
More tomorrow! I’m really warming to my theme here. Exercise: Next time you’re in a bar, point to all the bottles one by one and say 啤酒!(beh jau – beer). After 20 times it will have entered into your long-term memory. Then you move on to a new drink! You’ll be fluent by midnight. That’s the beauty of adult language learning. You can be like a child again – with beer.
Here is my fine hound Lasi, rocking the look with a handmade collar from Ciao Puppy. When I named her Lasi, it was meant as a knowing pun. In Cantonese, La Si (拉士) comes from English and means ‘last card’. When I adopted her I also thought she would be my last dog. Oh well.
But my plan backfired! Everyone thinks I’ve actually named her after another dog, the film star Lassie! Ahhrghhhh, like I would name anything or anybody after anything else. I’ve only had three dogs so far but only one of them has been successfully named: Piles. (A pain in the arse.)
Talking of backfire, taxis and buses. So English or other foreign words with the letter s in them inevitably become something 士 si or 斯 si in Cantonese. So bus becomes ba si （巴士) and taxi becomes dek si （的士). Fair enough. But for ages I wondered why HK people, when speaking English, called them “bas” and “tess”. Bus, bas, right? But how did ‘taxi’ become “tess”? Then it dawned on me. The logic was that if a word ended in ‘士 (si) in Chinese, it must end in -s in English, like ‘bus’!
Thus super well pleased with my powers of reasoning, I took Lasi for a walk.
I’ve just come back from a rather brilliant yam cha at Holly Restaurant in 東涌 (“Tung” [Dung] Chung), followed by shopping for tomorrow’s Dinner For Spares. (Yes I’ve started a new scheme: Come as you →
I had forgotten how much I like making films, and how those I cast in the various roles grow to hate go on to mega-stardom. Take one of the girls in this Halloween-themed film for →
USA! A land of Christmas and interestingly decorated cafés. A land of truck stops and rolling hills, big roads, big cars and big trolleys for people who are too fat to walk. The first time →
Yesterday was so exciting for me. First I met my web master, the excellent Michael who has changed the very site you’re looking at for the better and given me so many good ideas, and →
People! I can’t recommend Newark Airport enough! A mere 20 minute drive from downtown Manhattan, (or 12 hours’ drive from Shaker Village Kentucky as the case may be) is this place where, unlike JFK and →
You will forgive me for my thoughts and feelings straying somewhat from Cantonese recently. It’s all about the Spanish now. Now, for example, I’m in Cuernavaca which interestingly means Horn Cow. It’s a beautiful, hilly →
Let me just say, any town where this is the central post office has my vote! Yesterday as we were driving and walking around downtown Mexico City, I shouted out loud with joy several times. →
Thank you for not being an arse? That was my first reaction. Then I thought: That doesn’t make sense. Why would someone put a sign saying Thank you for not being an arse on their →
How long does it take to make and edit a 10 minute film? The answer is: Two years and eight months. Not bad!
Woo-hooo, after weeks, months and SO much hassle with the company I paid to reformat and spread my book (it’s now just in pdf exactly like the format I sent them and I had to →
Wah! So exciting! Here is the true story of what went down in old Guangzhou that fateful day in July.
Tibetan Prayer Flags Chinese Prayer Flags
Here is Peter (ah-Dak) who’s been taking Canto lessons with me for some months now. When we went on our first trip to Guangdong province together at the end of last year, he immediately went →
If I told you I’d been to a demonstration in the mainland with thousands of people but all the police did was put up some barriers and stand around holding hands, would you believe me? →
Although it’s written in simplified characters: Cool! As! Bro! 涼！ The Cantonese language is under threat, and people all over Hong Kong and Southern China are banding together to show those Mando imperialists that not →
The debate about Canto rages on. Now mainland officials are weighing in, in an about-turn saying the government would “release a policy outline and new regulations to boost Cantonese cultural heritage.” So it’s all over →
… when one of my victims spake up. I was just sitting around writing a blog entry the other day when: Wallop! Kristian, who’s currently in Norway working on the Norwegian Coastal Express (Hurtigruta) and →
Ahhrghhhh … When I set out to make Cantonese a world language, I was mostly concerned with Hong Kong and its people – the way they look down on Cantonese (their own language!!!) calling it →
I never thought I would write about football here. Or anywhere. I’ve just watched England being decimated by Germany in record time and it was not a pretty sight. The commentator kept saying: “Here is →
拆 －CHAI. The ugliest word in the Chinese language. (Cantonese: Chaak) It means Knock Down. Demolish. Tear Apart. Chinese people joke about living in 拆拿， Chai Na, Knock Down and Take. When I went to →
