I did one blog a while ago in play script format, that I
know a few of you liked. I thought I’d wheel it out again for this Canto conversation
I had today. I said in today’s sister post that the people on Tung Lung Chau
were pretty friendly, and either had no English or were much happier letting me
stumble over my Canto than most people in the main island.
I was very pleased to go into the pictured café, and have a
chat in Canto alone and get what I wanted…and then it all got a bit beyond my
abilities.
Where I write ‘blah-di-blah’
below, this was my hosts saying stuff I didn’t understand. There’s quite a bit
of it.
ME: Hello
MAN: Hello
ME: A can of coke and a bottle of water please
WOMAN: Wah! You know how to speak Chinese!
ME: Haha, a little, a little.
WOMAN:
Blahdiblahdiblah Chinese, wah!
ME: Er…haha…er?
WOMAN: HAHA, blahdiblahdiblah speak Chinese!
ME: Er…I speak a little Cantonese…er…I am English person
WOMAN: Ooooh, blahdiblahdiblah English blahdiblah, waaaah!
[MAN brings my coke, rescuing me from being stuck for what
to say]
ME: Thank you. How much?
MAN: 18 dollars
ME: Wah! Very cheap! 18 dollars…[I pass him dollars].
WOMAN: [apropos
nothing] Very hot! [it was]
ME: Too hot, too hot, ah!
WOMAN: [suddenly
inexplicably animated, she spots my iPhone and points at it and then into the nearby
undergrowth repeatedly] blahdiblahdiblahdiblaaaaaah!
ME: [having not caught
even one word, I am stuffed] Erm…er…I…
MAN: [follows his wife’s
example, pointing and very excited] Blahdiblahdiblahdiblah cow blahdiblah!
ME: Cow?
MAN+WOMAN TOGETHER: Cow! [man
pushes the point home by miming horns on his head and snorting]
ME: Er…[looks where
they are pointing. No sign of a cow. Or beef?]…Where cow? Why cow? No cow!
WOMAN: [flapping her
arm now and nodding] There is
cow, blahdiblahdiblah [points at my phone]
ME: [Admitting defeat]
I’m sorry I don’t understand…er…
WOMAN: [looking
annoyed now] You blahdidblahdiblah there is cow blahdiblah.
ME: [desperate now]
Don’t know, er, understand, er, I…[trying
to change the subject I sip my coke] Ah, is very cold!
WOMAN: Hmph.
Silence. I drink my coke while they look at me.
No idea what that was about.
But still, at least they, after a fashion, let me try to
speak. I had the same old depressing problem when I got back to the island
hours later, where they have an odd, Parisian-esque reluctance to let you speak
the local lingo. Here is how my chat went with a street fruit seller. The bits
underlined are in English.
ME: You have not have lemons?
MAN: YES
ME: One lemon how much?
MAN: FWEE DOLLAAA
ME: 3 dollars. [gets
wallet out rummages for coins, counts them out] One, two, three dollars.
Thank you.
MAN: FENK YEEEEW
Sigh.
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