IMPORTANT!!!
When you click on the link, scroll down to the alphabetical archive and click on C. Then you’ll see both my programmes.
This isn’t strictly about Cantonese and it certainly isn’t about me, but I want to introduce a new radio programme I am making on Radio Lantau: Resident Voices.
The programme is about Lantau people but I hope it will have universal appeal.
The first show is about Sarah Rigby who is my Cantonese student and lives just up the road from me.
She was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a particularly aggressive and nasty brain cancer, in 2011. This is her story about how she, not only fought back using non-violent means, but lived to write a book about her experiences.
Tune into Radio Lantau to listen to her amazing story!
癌症 – Aam jeng (cancer)
廣東話學生 – Gong Dong Wah hok saang (Cantonese student)
腦 – Lou (brain)
The 15th of April was the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s tragic demise, and I wanted to commemorate in style, with the old roof garden decked out in its finest gear, and with a live orchestra.
It was a hoppingly successful party and people really loved the live music. Too bloody right, as they cost heaps.
Anyway – then I had an idea. Here I am with this huge roof garden, almost 700 square feet, overlooking the South China Sea, but only do about five parties a year! What a waste. This roof (and the rest of the house) is actually an excellent party venue for everyone.
There’s lots of room to dance
play and sing with gusto
and I can cook Sichuan or Norwegian food, all served impeccably, whether sit-down meals or buffet
(that’s right, those are my live-in butlers).
You don’t want the hassle of having your party at home, and hiring a hotel or event room for events is so expensive and also boring! Here in Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Gaff, a.k.a Lo Uk Tsuen Country Club, your guests will have a unique experience no matter what the occasion. Near beach and hiking paradise, Lo Uk Tsuen Country Club is the perfect party venue for every bash!
We can do up to 50 people, and can provide Bagpipe Player, Irish Band, String Orchestra and African Drum Band. En suite hotel room provided. Come to Pui O for that special day, for the memory of a lifetime.
Have you read ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell? Splendid book, absolutely fascinating. Eye-opening, funny, full of a-ha moments, it spurs you on so you have to get up at 5am to finish it, having started at →
To give or not to give up? Last week one of my students was almost … not close to tears exactly but … what’s the word? Oh yeah, ready to use a blunt weapon. She →
It’s not a rare occasion for Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau to go to Shenzhen and have clothes made, as well as buying fake Ray-Ban’s. But no trip to Lo Wu Shopping Center has →
It’s Christmas Extravaganza number 3! Please forward it your friends so we can get some viewing figures here. And Merry Christmas, hoi hoi hoi, 聖誕快樂！
How to learn Cantonese: By doing the above. Carefully sliding down, into the water, then swimming. In my first post about this topic a couple of weeks ago I used the swimming analogy – how →
I’ve realised for many years now that learning a language, especially a language like Cantonese where the locals’ resistance to foreigners (Caucasians) acquiring their language can take on epic proportions sometimes, is about personality, not →
So I have this book, right? Don’t Joke On The Stairs. The title is based on a sign I saw in Gansu once, in the staircase of a language school. “Avoid the exchange of jokes →
This is your last chance to see anything swine flu related for a long time. That sickness is well and truly gone in a big cloud of tiny rocks from inside the Etna something jökull. →
The woman is outside her house (or maybe somebody else’s house, but let’s just presume.) Straight forward, right? You know woman 女人 (leui yan), outside 出邊 (cheut bin) and house 屋企 （uk kei). But as usual, →
Ahh! Back from another trip to my ancestral home, Guangdong province, cradle of Cantonese language and civilisation. The government must have been working overtime the last month, or since I was there last, to drum →
Guangzhou has been my favourite big city in China for years, certainly after the government finished the destruction of Beijiing in the name of the sacred olympics. Two weeks ago I was there again, probably →
Come with! Come with!
Here’s a missive from 2008, just after the sacred Beijing Olympics when I finally could get a visa to China again: Not that I smoke joints anymore but I do get disillusioned sometimes about my →
Are you going into mainland China on a tour (with me for example), travelling for business or going there anyway? Even if you’re driven around by a personal guide, waited on hand and foot by →
Hello, my name is Cecilie (pronounced “Cecilia”) and I’m a China-holic. And Hongkie-holic. I’ve been living here for more than 20 years and speak, read and write Cantonese and Mandarin fluently. More than 20 years →
Why fiddle around with airport security, hours in taxis to and from airports, being in a place with only other tourists and leaving gigantic carbon footprints every time you go even on a weekend trip →
嘩！今日好大霧呀。Wah! Gam yat hou daai mou ah. (“Wow! Today well big fog ah”) – My but it’s foggy today. Oh, and if you’re surprised that it’s foggy, you could say: 咦？咁大霧嘅？ Yi? Gam daai mou geh? →
