Another Petrashune Down

A sad day in the country club today! My banjo teacher, Austin, （亞天，Ah-Tin) came for his last Cantonese lesson/to provide banjo lesson. We recorded the instrumental to our next Cantonese Bluegrass music video (don’t know what the song will be about yet – any suggestions?) and talked about when he was leaving. He said 三個日(saam goh yat, Three Pieces of Days).

Yeah, isn’t it typical! This happens to all students of Cantonese I think. When you finally get your head around the classifier 個 (goh, meaning ‘piece of, item of’) and can use it with ease and confidence 我有兩個香港朋友 (O yau leung gah Heung Gong pangyau – I have two HK friends) 俾六個杯我呀，唔該 (bei luk goh goi o ah, m goi, give me six glasses please) – suddenly there are these nouns that don’t have classifiers!

Primarily 日 (yat, day) and 年(lin, year). So unfair, but there you are.

The funny thing is, it’s the second Petrashune I lose in one year! (一年， yat lin). Is that carelessness or what? His older brother Adam was my banjo teacher before, before he had the crazy idea of going to the USA for good.

Last jam with Austin! That’s also unfair. Oh well, at least I have the video: