Let’s Meat, You Cow

I’m fortunate enough to live in a place with water buffalo all around. This morning when I took my dogs for a walk, I reflected on how the rain makes the water buffalo 水牛 (seoi au, water cow) look so much better than for example mud.

My dog hates rain and was fighting hard to stay indoors but I showed no mercy. How about the buffalo? Do they love water no matter what direction from which it comes? Or do they feel miserable standing there going a darker and darker hue, their hides presumably shrinking?

I also thought of how uncomplicated Cantonese is. Cows are just cows. No need for buffalo, bull, ox, heifer, calf, bovine, cattle and all the other words English uses to express what’s essentially the same thing. And ‘beef’? Naw. Just 牛肉 (au yok, cow meat).

So once you know the name of the animal, 雞，羊，豬 (gai, yeung, jyu, chicken, sheep, pig) or whatever, you can just add the word 肉 (yok) to make it the cooked food, and order away. No need to learn totally new words. And talking of ‘chicken’, what’s with the hen, rooster, cock, cockerel and what not? In Cantonese, 雞！Gai! will do. (But it does also mean ‘prostitute’…)

My students always laugh when I tell them the word for cocktail, 雞尾酒 (gai mei jau, chicken tail wine.) Chicken tail wine, ha ha! But what is it in English, eh?

Think about it.

Back to the mighty water cow, here’s an ode I wrote to its glory:

You can learn all the Cantonese words you need about food and eating and beautiful animals by taking lessons from me; crash-course, regular weekly session or skype! It’s all here in the language bureau.