SUNDAY – Go Home! 返屋企

Last night I started watching the third season of Orange Is The New Black, an American show about life in a women’s prison. The first two seasons were pretty riveting in a ‘far too many women but good drama’ kind of way (although there are enough guys there to get the inmates pregnant) but now they’re running out of steam.

So instead of following the story, I let my thoughts drift to Cantonese and yet another way where it’s completely different from English. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best thing you can do if you want to learn Cantonese, is to forget all about English. Not on a permanent basis, you understand. That would be impractical. But as you’re uttering the Cantonese words, never think what it would be in English and then translate. It’s never what it would be in English.

Let’s take the word go. For example go to prison. While we all know what it means, it sounds a little like ‘go to the cinema’ or ‘go to church.’ In Cantonese it’s 坐監 (cho gam – sit prison). And go to the cinema; to do what? Paint it? Shoot down 12 people watching Batman? In Cantonese it’s 去睇戲 (heui tai hei – go see film). More accurate, wouldn’t you say? So instead of always reaching for the ‘go’ word, think about what the action is in Cantonese.

But when it comes to stuff that is actually to go, like going home, it gets really interesting. Instead of 去 (heui – go), Cantonese, in what I call the four big fans, uses 返 (faan – return).

Go home 返屋企 (faan uk kei – return home)
Go to work 返工 (faan gong – return work)
Go to school 返學 (faan hok – return study)
Go to the mainland 返大陸 (faan dai lok – return big landmass)