Я Студентка!!!!

That’s right, to sympathise with my clients’ plight and understand once again what it is to learn a language from scratch, I’ve decided to learn Russian.

That and the fact that I’m going to Kazakhstan in the summer.

I’ve only had one lesson so far, but it seems pretty straight forward – everything is different from English and with lots more consonants. And I have to say, to bang my own drum a little here, comparing my Cantonese course with other courses, the one I’m taking live and the CD Berlitz one I bought at Dymocks, I have to say my Cantonese course is holding up quite well.

Like, when you arrive in Kazakhstan for example – is the most important thing to be able to say “I’m a doctor, are you an actor?” Of course, if you accidentally had your arm cut off or something, you’d want to be able to ask bystanders if they were a doctor, but apart from that …

In the Berlitz course, after hello and thank you, comes “I don’t speak Russian.” So … if you can say that in fluent Russian, wouldn’t that just confuse people? Hello, I’m not Russian, I’m a tourist (you don’t say!) … then straight to transport and of course professions.

I’m sure Berlitz methods are tried and tested and with millions of fans, but personally I’ve never arrived in a new country and felt an urgent need to ask people if they are an actress, or tell them that I’m a tourist. They kind of get that.

Now my Cantonese course, on the other hand, starts with being able to order beer. And other drinks! And then onto food. I like my course. It also contains 63% less violence than other courses.

I think you should take it – today!!!

CantoNews 5 Live From Roof!

Hello everybody, welcome to my roof!

I normally arrange Sichuan dinners and lunches there, but this time it doubled as a recording studio for the best Cantonese news currently available on cassette! (And telex.)

Talking of cassette: Meet Cassette!

Here is the sacred programme, CantoNews 5 live from my roof.

Cassette opens up old wounds by mentioning ah-Sa, my old co-host from RTHK and we talk about taking photos (like the one above – pure art). The words below are from the actual programme – please give it a listen!

自己 – Ji gei (self, own)
上個禮拜六 – Seung go lai bai luk (Last Saturday)
座飛機 – Cho feigei (Take a plane)

Naked Cantonese Is No More

                It is with great sadness I must inform our irate but faithful listeners that Poddie Castie number 200 is soon coming up, and that it will herald →

Old China Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Last weekend again saw me in my beloved Shenzhen to shoot some of the last scenes for the upcoming Cantonese teaching DVD called DWD 2. Yes, the ultimate in the latest teaching technology, in colour. →

復活節快樂！(Back to life festival happiness!)

Hoi hoi, it’s that time of year again when I look in my diary/calendar and re-remember what Good Friday is in Chinese: 耶穌受難節： Jesus experiences difficulties-festival. (Yeso sau laan jit.) Oh what joy. And really →

Late Lunch With Canto!!!!

Wei, wei, are you doing anything this Saturday? Or: Are you doing lots of things but have two hours free to learn Cantonese in the afternoon? Join Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau’s YAM CHA →

西麗湖

There’s a place formerly ‘just outside’ now in Shenzhen called 西麗湖, Sai Lai Wu,West Beautiful Lake. It’s a kind of resort in that there are rooms and some trees around it, as well as a →

搶!

I learnt a new verb today. A taxi driver asked me “有冇 搶香蕉呀？" Yau mou cheung heung chiu ah? (something like that) – Have you CHEUNG bananas? I thought it meant ‘hoard’ but arriving at →

Old Film Buddy Rears Not So Ugly Head

Yesterday we did a live show on RTHK with ah-Sa shivering with fear as usual – what would I say this time? Last time I said “screw you” about the evil students castigating our dear →

Я Студентка!!!!

That’s right, to sympathise with my clients’ plight and understand once again what it is to learn a language from scratch, I’ve decided to learn Russian. That and the fact that I’m going to Kazakhstan →

Native Canto Speaker Berated For Bad Mando

I never – EVER – thought I’d say this, but I want to say something in defence of the Donald, our chief executive. And that is that I was appalled to read the paper today →

Learn Cantonese This Year

You know, you don’t have to commit to a whole awful hour a week. No, you can take Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau’s three hour crash course! Perhaps even a crash course sounds too →

Don’t Leave Me!

This morning I had some people from my village coming over for a dose of Cantonese, and since it was raining dog shit (落狗屎 – lok gau si [raining heavily]) we discussed the weather, well, rain, at length. I think ‘raining dog shit’ is so much more descriptive than ‘raining cats and dogs’, don’t you? In fact the only people I’ve heard actually say ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ the last 20 years or so, have been Hong Kong and mainland Chinese trying to learn English.

Anyway, the talk eventually turned to DON’T (唔好 – m hou) as in 唔好意思 (m hou yisi – ‘sorry’) and I remembered the film above that I shot in the USA two years ago. Towards the end it’s full of, as in absolutely packed with, 唔好(m hou – not good/don’t)！ And there’s some Grand Canyon and stuff.

Don’t go! 唔好走呀！(m hou jau ah!)
Don’t leave me! 唔好離開我！（m hou lei hoi o!)