Month: November 2019

HONG KONG SLANG

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Céline Geliot

During my first day as a waitress in a French bar in Hong Kong, almost all my non-French speaker colleagues spontaneously answered Je ne parle pas français which means “I don’t speak French” when I told them that I was French. But they lied to me. As days passed, I could hear them speaking French as real French people do. They knew every single French insult. They also used French colloquial expressions, most of the time completely out of their context (which was very funny); probably because they just liked to repeat them for fun without caring about their meanings. I tried to teach them words that could be more useful like un verre or s’il te plaît (“a glass” or “please”) but it did not work.

My conclusion was that when a language draws our attention but is also too difficult to learn, it is indeed funnier and easier to learn some slang words and colloquial expressions.

Here are a few Cantonese slang expressions I have been taught by young Hong Kongers:

1. Diu (屌/𨳒)

Diu is a common Cantonese profanity which expresses dismay and disapproval in the same way that the English word f**k does. Originally, Diu means “penis” but it has evolved as a verb with expressions like Diulei! (F**k you!) and its highly offensive version Diu lei lo mo! (**** your mother!).

2. Puk gaai (仆街)

Puk gaai is a very common Cantonese curse word. It literally means “falling into the street” and has different actual meanings depending on the context:

a. Puk Gaai! I lost my phone.

    Damn! I lost my phone.

b. It was in your puk gaai bag the whole time?!

    It was in your bloody bag the whole time?!

c. You are such a puk gaai!

    You are such a prick!

d. Go puk gaai!

    Go to hell!

“PK” is also frequently used in virtual contexts.

3. Gong ni di (講尼啲)

Here are some sentences which Hong Kong locals could respond to with Gong ni di?!:

a. Wow. You look really good in your new jeans.

b. Hey! Have you seen my new iWatch 4?

c. Don’t forget to give me my 500 HKD back tomorrow.

d. Do you know that turtles also have a lower shell called a ‘plastron’?

The literal meaning of this idiom is “say these things”. It is the cantonese way of saying “really?!” or “seriously?!”


 Source: https://morganalyseblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/warped-tour-

4. Sing Leh (升呢)

The slang sing leg comes from the gaming culture and means to “level up”.

It is used in many ways to enthusiastically express a positive change or improvement.

For instance: “I found a job. Sing Leh!”

5. Gau Gung (狗公)

Example of situation:

Sara: Seriously Tom, stop spending all your time on Tinder! You told me last week that you were dating Carla. Remember? the Spanish girl…?

Tom:  Carla is not my girlfriend. She is a friend with benefits.

Sara: I was right. You really are a gau gung.

In Cantonese, the customer of a prostitute is called a gau gung. This slang expression is also known to qualifya man who is ready to get all the girls that he can without caring about who they are. It literally means “dog guy” as referring to the idea of a man who just sniffs around everywhere like a dog.

Fun fact: this colloquial expression exists in French slang too! (un mec en chien).

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/535435843167767847/?autologin=true

6. Mei mo lui (美魔女)

It means “beautiful witch” and defines the hot older ladies or cougars of Hong Kong.


source: https://www.programme-television.org/news-tv/Malefique-M6-Ensorcelante-Angelina-Jolie-4647583

7. Sau Pei (收皮)

The literal translation of Sau pei is “collect skin”. Close friends use this slang when someone is bragging or bluffing. It is a way to ask him/her to “save it” and stop talking, in a rude manner.

Example:

A: Dude. Do you remember the blond girl we met last weekend?

B: You mean Mary? Of course. Why?

A: I think she’s really into me.

B: Sau pei la!

Addind la makes sure the message is clear.

In other words, sau pei la means: “Stop, just shut the **** up!”

8. Fahn Tohng (饭桶)

Food plays a huge role in the Chinese and Cantonese cultures, so much so that it is also used to insult people! The literal meaning of Fahn Tohng is “rice bucket”. It is used to describe someone who is useless based on the fact that this person only knows how to eat and to hold rice in their stomach and do nothing else


Sources: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/woman-yelling-at-a-cat                      https://www.shutterstock.com/search/rice+bucket

9. Farn xu (番薯)

Calling somebody a farn xu means calling them a sweet potato. It is not sweet as it means that this person is neither very witty nor very clever.


Sources: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/825143962956628387/?lp=true
https://www.weaverstreetmarket.coop/spicy-sweet-potato-and-kale-saute/

References:

Youtube channels: Carlos Douh, Off the Great Walls, South China Morning Post.

https://sites.google.com/site/hkcantonesedict/home

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_profanity

http://unseenhongkong.com/2017/06/10-must-know-cantonese-slangs/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/hong-kong/articles/8-colloquialisms-unique-to-cantonese/

English used as inclusivity: Variations between Hong Kong and Australia

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Casey Morrison

In my experiences so far in Hong Kong I’ve noticed that even though English is one of the recognised languages, as with most places, there are varying degrees and social settings where English is used. Local Hongkongers code switch between Cantonese, English and Konglish (a merging of both Cantonese and English) which can allow for broader inclusivity between Cantonese and non-Cantonese speakers. As a native English speaker, I wonder then how and to what extent this overlapping of languages happens? Within University and other academic spaces more intricately phrased English conversations tend to happen when compared with the English used in the streets of Hong Kong. Casual conversation in stores or at food vendors tend to use much more simplified language and with frequent hand gestures to enhance meaning of speech. Despite these different degrees of English, communication is still occurring. Depending on the social setting or the audience, Cantonese speakers also switch between Cantonese and English in order to interact with listeners better. I have experienced Hongkongers speak in English to me then turn to speak Cantonese or Konglish to their classmates seeking translation or clarification. In this circumstance, I am able to understand some of their dialogue because of the incorporation of English words. Inadvertently culture and language are being shared and understood.

So how does English in Hong Kong compare to English used in Australia?

Australian Cultural Diversity Image retrieved from: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/10/why-has-multiculturalism-worked-downunder/

Although Australia is a very multicultural, cosmopolitan community, English is the main mode of communicative speech. In a public setting English is used to encompass everyone and it is only in private settings or in small same-culture groups that other cultures use their native language. In this way, English becomes the inclusive language spoken in Australia. Because Australia has many different cultures and languages interwoven within the very fabric of the country, if every culture was to speak their native language/s in public settings our society would become exclusive and confusing. Compared to Hong Kong where English and Chinese (Cantonese, Putonghua, Mandarin) are the officially spoken languages, Australia could potentially have over 200 languages being commonly spoken. Therefore, as English is the most predominant, is it by default the official spoken language and all people who choose to immigrate to Australia must prove competency in English when sitting the Australian Citizenship test, “The test assesses your English language skills and what you know about Australia and Australian citizenship” (Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, 2019). With this in mind, it’s very interesting to look at how English impacts and shapes the way that societies interact and communicate. In order for me to interact with locals in Hong Kong in their own language I would need to master 2 to 3 languages, whereas if I was to talk with every culture in their native language in Australia, I would need to learn more than 200 languages. 

In Hong Kong during the 1970’s English was established in the “…creation of ‘modern’ Hong Kong society…” and even as ‘Chinese’ was seen to be an official language during this period, textbooks within classrooms were still written in English (Bacon-Shone & Bolton, 2008). This allowed for students in Hong Kong to be immersed in and live the English language. This is in contrast to Australia’s teaching and learning of secondary languages where, as outlined by the Western Australian Department of Education (n.d.), “Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian and Japanese” are taught in Primary Schools, but as an independent subject unrelated to other subjects. This approach allows for a broader scope of language and cultural learning however, non-language lessons are still taught in English and outside of the classroom it is hard to practice a foreign language in everyday life. 

Bilingual Road Signage Image retrieved from: https://yp.scmp.com/over-to-you/columns/article/108582/face-should-all-hong-kong-schools-be-bilingual

As can seen in this image, multilingualism is inherent in Hong Kong life, allowing English speakers easy access to day-to-day living in Hong Kong because signs, menus and even road markings are translated into English alongside the Cantonese characters. Our multicultural environment is something I cherish about Australian culture however, if we were to facilitate the same level of language incorporation as Hong Kong, it would be very difficult, if not impossible to include every nationality and language represented in Australia. Even if only 30 of the more common languages were adopted as official languages in Australia, exclusive cultural groups would be fostered and language barriers and hierarchies would arise, which would not be in the social interests of Australian communities. 

Bilingual Street Sign Image retrieved from: https://www.hk-victoria-peak.com/how-to-go-to-the-peak-hong-kong-from-mongkok.html

English is a unifying language that enables numerous nationalities to be included at both global and national levels. Hong Kong incorporates English alongside the official Chinese languages, as a secondary language, to deepen global interactions and participation of people in society. On the other hand, in Australia, English as the primary and predominant ‘official’ language in our society means that all Australians regardless of culture, background or primary language are able to communicate through a common language. 

Despite English being used in different ways its implementation in both countries is used to create one thing…

Inclusion for all.

References

Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. (2019). Immigration and Citizenship.          Retrieved from: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview

Australian Government Department of Education. (n.d.). Languages in Primary School.    Retrieved from: https://www.education.wa.edu.au/languages

J, Bacon-Shone & K, Bolton. (2008). Bilingualism and multilingualism in the HKSAR: language      surveys and Hong Kong’s changing linguistic profile. Open University of Hong Kong           Press: Kowloon, Hong Kong. Pp 25-51.

Chinese Idioms

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Vanessa Ng

As a HongKonger, we may all be familiar with Chinese idioms. (FYI, Idioms are groups of words in a fixed order that have particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own.) Among all diversified kinds of idioms, it’s found that many of them are relevant to animals while their meanings are not necessarily related to animals. 

Below are some examples of Chinese idioms.

1.「對牛彈琴」

Translate word by word: playing piano to cows.

Translate as a phrase: talking to someone who will never understand.

2.「九牛一毛」

Translate word by word: nine cows with one feather.

Translate as a phrase: just a small part of the whole. It is similar to ‘a drop in the ocean’.

3.「羊入虎口」

Translate word by word: a sheep goes into a tiger’s mouth.

Translate as a phrase: the weak is in a difficult situation.

4.「殺雞儆猴」

Translate word by word: killing the chicken to warn the monkey.

Translate as a phrase: warning someone by punishing the others.

5.「偷雞摸狗」

Translate word by word: steal the chicken and touch the dog.

Translate as a phrase: refers to some illegal behavior, especially stealing.

As we can see, it actually has nothing to do with the animals mentioned above.  Simultaneously, there are English idioms which are related to animals as well.

The elephant in the room
Source: https://www.inc.com/lee-colan/identifying-the-elephant-in-the-room.html

1. ‘The elephant in the room’It is an idiom for a controversial issue which is too big to be ignored, just like an enormous elephant in a tiny room, but that everyone tries to avoid mentioning because it may be embarrassing and will even cause conflicts.

The lion’s share
Source: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/idiom-the-lion-share-vector-5938115

2. ‘The lion’s share’

It means the largest portion of something. It was derived from the plot of a number of fables ascribed to Aesop.

Hold your horses
Source: https://commongroundinternational.com/learning-english/idioms-what-do-they-mean/

3. ‘Hold your horses’

It actually means ‘wait for a moment’. It is a way of telling people to wait, to hold on or to stop. It was suggested that this phrase was originated from a period that horse transportation was commonly used. 

Let the cat out of the bag
Source: https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-origins-of-the-phrase-let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag.htm

4. ‘Let the cat out of the bag’. 

It means to reveal a secret without intending to.


Source: https://www.redbubble.com/people/badweatherahead/works/27591837-let-sleeping-dogs-lie?p=art-print&rel=carousel

5. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’

When people say, ‘let sleeping dogs lie’, it means not to discuss things in the past which may cause further problems now. It shares the same theory as not to wake up a sleeping, peaceful dog since it may get angry or bite you if you do so.

As we can see, most of the idioms, both Chinese and English, do not share a direct relationship with animals even if they use it within the phrase. Some may just be used because of the symbolic meanings. Yet, I still find them cute, do you?Idi

The Interesting Facts Behind Hong Kong’s Street Names

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Cicely Fung

Although Hong Kong is a small city, the roads and streets are very intricate and complicated. There are more than 4,000 streets including public streets and private streets without constitutional names. The names of the streets are also multifarious. As Hong Kong was once a British colony, some street names were named after British places, the former governors and the English dignitaries. Also, some of the streets were named after places or cities in China. This combination of eastern and western cultures has become part of Hong Kong’s distinctive culture. Besides, some street names are named after some auspicious words or terms. Many of them are named after the rise of various industries and the development of local communities.

Photo retrieved from: http://m.discoverhongkong.com/us/shop/street-markets-and-shopping-streets/index.jsp

Among these numerous street names, have you ever paid attention to them when you passed through them? The first thing you have to notice about the street names is their pronunciation. However, some of the street names are complicated and difficult to pronounce, and even the Hong Kong people do not know about them. So, to test your knowledge of the pronunciation of Hong Kong street names, play the video below and make sure you know how to pronounce these difficult street names:

Why are these street names in this video considered to be hard to pronounce? As you can see, plenty of street names in Hong Kong are named after British people. For example, in the video, Bonham Road and Chatham Road are mentioned. These two streets are named after the governor and director of public works of the Hong Kong Government. Bonham Road, in Cantonese, is 般咸道 (bun1 haam4 dou6); Chatham Road, in Cantonese is 漆咸道 (chat1 haam4 dou6). These names seem to be normal as the Chinese names are directly translated from English. However, the reason why Hong Kong people may pronounce them wrongly is that they are actually wrongly translated! The truth is, the translator had forgotten the cunning silent letters in English. The “h” is one of the silent letters, therefore, they should be pronounced as Bon-am Road (般南道 bun1 naam4 dou6) and Cha-tum Road 漆潭道 (chat1 taam4 dou6). As a result, Hong Kong people may find it difficult to pronounce them in both English and Cantonese. Even you are a native English speaker, you might make a mistake too!

Rednaxela Terrace in Hong Kong
Photo retrieved from: https://www.theloophk.com/city-culture-guide-7-quirky-hong-kong-street-names/

Speaking of wrongly translated Hong Kong street names, Rednaxela Terrance is famous for making no sense as a street name. When you look at the word “Rednaxela”, you may wonder what word exactly it is. In fact, this is not a proper English word. The street was originally named Alexander Terrace. However, Chinese is used to read from right to left. Thus, the signwriters wrote “Alexander” to “Rednaxela”, and created this street name due to the misunderstanding of letter order. If you find it difficult to pronounce it, try to read it in Cantonese, which is 列拿士地臺 (lit6 na4 si6/si2 dei6 toi4).

Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong
Photo retrieved form: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lan_Kwai_Fong_Road_Sign.jpg

Besides using English names to name the street, Hong Kong street names are also made by Chinese and then translated to English. Lan Kwai Fong (蘭桂坊 lann4/laan1 gwai3 fong1), a famous place in Central, which is popular for clubbing, dining and drinking. In Cantonese, Lan Kwai Fong literally means ‘orchid cinnamon square’, which actually means ‘streets filled with orchids and fragrances’. The name suggests different kinds of funny stories behind it. Some say the fragrant smell refers to the flower shops, some say it refers to the prostitutes, in the timing when Lan Kwai Fong was a red-light district. Some may even say it is called 爛鬼坊 (laan6 gwai2 fong1), which 爛鬼 means bad foreigner, which is really impolite. No matter what the street names directly means, it shows how the Cantonese street names are directly translated to English and Hong Kong’s special culture in making names for streets.

All in all, Hong Kong street names show its unique culture including the combination of eastern and western cultures. Through Hong Kong street names, you could find a lot of interesting facts, mistakes and the history of Hong Kong. If you want to know more about Hong Kong, I strongly recommend you explore the amusing facts about the street names. After that, you would definitely understand why Hong Kong is famous for being an international city.

References:

The Secret Stories Behind Hong Kong’s Street Names

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/hk-magazine/article/2038263/hong-kongs-top-8-wrongly-translated-street-names

‘Putonghua or Cantonese to teach Chinese Language in Hong Kong?’

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Eunice Man

Putonghua or Chinese? Schools have been considering such question regarding the use of language as their medium of instruction to teach Chinese language since 2008. As the Hong Kong government launched the “Scheme to Support Schools in using Putonghua to teach the Chinese Language Subject” in the 2008-2009 school year, both primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong were supported to try out teaching the Chinese Language Subject in Putonghua. Till the 2015/16 school year, the percentage of primary schools in Hong Kong adopting the scheme was greater than that of secondary schools no matter they were having a full adoption or a mixed mode of using Putonghua to teach the Chinese language, as shown in the photo below.


Figure 1: A survey on the Use of Putonghua as Medium of Instruction to Teach Chinese Language in Schools of Hong Kong

  So, how well can Hong Kong people speak Putonghua when Cantonese is undoubtedly the “mother tongue” of Hong Kong people? Play the video and you’ll see: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4d3GF5Wvc0

Figure 2 : Hong Kong celebrities speaking Putonghua compilation

Clearly, from the Hong Kong celebrities, we can see that Hong Kong people are used to speaking Cantonese than Putonghua as they seldom use Putonghua to communicate when the mother language of Hongkongers is Cantonese. Since they don’t use Putonghua in their daily lives, how can they speak good Putonghua? And when they are unable to speak “good” Putonghua in a Cantonese-speaking society, speaking Putonghua becomes a fun activity to joke around. In Hong Kong, although Putonghua can be regarded as people’s second or third language, people don’t usually speak Putonghua in a serious manner but a fun tone. The video below is one typical example:

Figure 3: Hong Kong people being tested to speak Putonghua on street

This video challenges random Hongkongers to pronounce and guess the Chinese words by only looking at the Putonghua pinyin. Mostly, people are not confident in pronouncing the words out loud in Putonghua and they somehow are embarrassed and shy to speak the language. That’s why, they would rather regard speaking Putonghua as a jest as they won’t be using the language in daily lives. 

  In order to enhance the Putonghua speaking ability of Hongkongers and to perhaps facilitate the learning of the Chinese language, the government planned to educate the future generation with Putonghua since they are young. But, what are the pros and cons of the scheme?

  For the pro, obviously, using Putonghua as the medium of instructions at school can effectively raise the level of Putonghua speaking ability of students in Hong Kong. Being taught with Putonghua all day long at school, students can get used to listening and speaking the language and thus, they can better communicate with each other in Putonghua without feeling shame. They may even treat the language more seriously and stop speaking it like a joke.

  However, can students’ knowledge in the Chinese language really be enhanced by learning it through a different, or non-mother tongue language? 

  The fact is, Hong Kong people use Cantonese to communicate in everyday life. Compared to Putonghua, they are more familiar with Cantonese, and can understand things more easily in Cantonese than Putonghua. If students suddenly have to switch to another language to learn Chinese, they may not thoroughly understand the meanings or messages that the words or passages aim to bring about as there must be differences in the expression of meaning as well as pronunciation of words between the two languages. For example, the following picture shows the difference in pronunciation of the words 的，地，得 in Cantonese (red words) and Putonghua (blue words). As you can see, the pronunciation of the three words in Putonghua are the same while that in Cantonese are totally different. These words each stands for a specific meaning, however, they are pronounced as the same in Putonghua. Not being the mother tongue of Hongkongers, Putonghua might be confusing for students to express their feelings or opinions. This shows that Putonghua might not be a better language for Hongkongers to learn Chinese.


Figure 4: Example of difference in pronunciation of Cantonese and Putonghua

All in all, using Putonghua instead of Cantonese to teach the Chinese language seems to remain a controversy. However, I would say since Cantonese is the mother tongue of Hong Kong people, it would be best if students in Hong Kong could be taught in the language which they are most familiar with so that they can fully understand the meaning of words and passages written and spoken in Chinese. 

References

How do Cantonese and traditional Chinese act as a recognition of Hong Kongers?

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Janis Ng

“If you want to kill a city, you kill its language.”  Language is a matter of identity.  The interrelationship between language and identity is inseparable.  Cantonese and traditional Chinese are language use of speaking and writing respectively.  Up to this day, Cantonese is still acting as the city’s mouther tongue in Hong Kong.  While traditional Chinese is an official language of Hong Kong.  However, recently some people may argue that both of these spoken and written languages can be replaced by Mandarin and simplified Chinese.  So, what makes them special to represent the identity of a Hong Konger?

  The majority Hong Kongers speak Cantonese as their daily communication tools, is spoken by 89.5% of the overall population.  As the city grown more developed, Mandarin has grown massively in Hong Kong.  Mandarin even become the medium of instruction in many primary schools’ Chinese subject.  However, Cantonese is still standing firm in its premium stage.  Although Cantonese and Mandarin share some words, they have different lexicon, grammar, sentence structure and pronunciation.  And this make them mutually unintelligible. Cantonese’s origin is in Guangdong.  The pronunciation used in Hong Kong Cantonese and Guangdong Cantonese are slight different.  From the 1970s to the 1990s, Cantonese became popular due to the exportation of its language and culture.  People gradually spread the culture via Hong Kong martial arts films and cultural celebrities like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  If you would like to take a deeper glimpse into the Hong Kong art culture, it is better for you to know Cantonese.  Cantonese is a tonal language that has six more tones than Mandarin. The pitch helps you to understand the meaning of the words.  In Cantonese, we have“nine sounds six tones”, gau2 seng1 luk6 diu6九聲六調. 

Figure 1: Kongish

Nowadays, the new generations in Hong Kong use Kongish in their texting language, which is a blend of Cantonese and English, and they use it as a recognition of their identity. Konglish is a double-entendre that make absolutely no sense if you just read it literally.  I am sure that only Hong Kongers can read it.  From Figure 1, it is a conversation between friends, and they are trying to make a time to hang out together.  The first line, “blow blow water with me la” is something like a lead in to start a conversation with your friends.  “blow water” means chit chat, pronounced as “Chui Sui”.  You can imagine the picture of spitting saliva from your mouth while chatting with your friends.

Cantonese is a language of resistance.  Once there is threat to the development of Cantonese, Hong Kongers would preserve it in any possible ways.  In 2010,  the public in Guangzhou initiated a protest to oppose the proposal of changing part of the programming on Guangzhou television from Cantonese to Putonghua.  After the mass protest,  the plan was banned.

In 2014, HKEDB released an article on its website that stated Cantonese is not an official language of the territory.  This caused massive demonstration against what was seen by opponents as an offence to Hong Kong identity and independence. The article was immediately deleted from the website in order to stop the public relation disaster. Cantonese speakers have proven super proud towards their linguistic heritage.

  On written level, traditional Chinese act as a recognition of Hong Kongers. The traditional form of Chinese makes more sense than the simplified one in presenting the real meaning of a Chinese character.

Figure 2: the word “love” in Chinese

Both characters in Figure 2 is the word “love” in Chinese In traditional Chinese, there is a ‘heart’ in the middle of the character.  However, the simplified form of “love”, is without “heart”.  How can we love heartlessly?

  Even the written language of Hong Kong and Taiwan are both traditional Chinese,  they have their uniqueness created by their own language environment. 

The  traditional Chinese of Hong Kong & Taiwan

Although they are different in writing, they are mutually intelligible.  However,  they will be more comfortable to read the text in their own variety style.  

  To Hong Kongers, traditional Chinese is not only structurally beautiful but they have their own specific meaning for each character.

  Cantonese and traditional Chinese act as a recognition of Hong Kongers in terms of their special meaning that only local will fully understand.  It is a heritage of Hong Kong that all citizens would try their very best to preserve.

Translations between Chinese and English in Hong Kong

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Tiff Lau

Since Hong Kong has been one of the colonies of the British, English has become one of the language that commonly used by Hong Kong people. We can see many Chinese-English translations in Hong Kong, almost everywhere. From restaurants’ menu to their signboard, from notice on the streets to street signs, from schools to public locations. Nearly all posted notices in Hong Kong have Chinese-English translation.

Most of the restaurants in Hong Kong have menu with English translation as there are people all around the world in local society. However, the translation might be ridiculous and totally not having the same meaning as the Chinese version. For example, this menu from a restaurant in Hong Kong have some special translation. 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/tokit.channel/posts/1507108756028309
@tokit.channel 陶傑Channel

It is obvious that the English translations in the menu is directly translated from Chinese, like “夏門炒米粉”, its English translation is “Summer door fried rice noodles”. “Summer door” refers to “夏門”, which should be translated to Xiamen, a city in Mainland China. And the one “秘制梘水粽“ is translated to “Secret soap water dumplings”, but the term “soap water“ cannot convey the meaning that is the exact same as the Chinese version, “梘水” is a kind of ingredients that made of water and ashes of different plants, but not exactly “soap water” that is inedible. This is very common in Hong Kong as people in the old days learn English by directly translating English into Cantonese according to pronunciation. In Qing dynasty, Hong Kong people learn English through Mondegreens as shown below. 

Source: https://lihkg.com/thread/494965/page/1

As you can see, Hong Kong people tend to translate Chinese into English by Transliteration or chop the phrase into smaller parts and directly translate them regardless of the original meaning.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1857209/dont-treat-me-potato-ten-english-signs-hong-kong
11 Sep, 2015

There’s another way for Hong Kong people to translate Chinese into English, they try to keep the same meaning but failed. It is very common for Hong Kong’s organizations posting notice with two languages, and there are many accidents due to the mis-translation of English. Like the one outside the police office, the Chinese version has a typo and the sentence structure made the notice misleading. The word “系絕” should be written as “系統“, which means “system”. The original meaning of the notice is to inform citizens that more time is needed for reporting cases as the computer service is suspended. So the whole sentence should be written as “警察（的）電腦更新，系統停止使用，（市民）報案需要更多時間” the words in brackets is the content that have to be added so as to fulfill the context. As for the English version, it is completely wrong as both the grammar and word usage are not probably used. It should be written as “The Police computer service is suspended due to system updates, more time is needed for citizens to report cases.” In order to convey the original meaning.

The same thing happens everywhere, this can be called “Hong Kong English” as it is a unique form of English that only exists in Hong Kong with the influence of local culture and Cantonese. “Hong Kong English”, or you can say “Kongish” is a form of English that mix English with Cantonese. The wrong translation between Chinese and English in Hong Kong can be related to “Kongish”, as the wrongly translated English version is having the problem of grammar, sentence structures and word choices. These are all affected by the grammar of Cantonese. The difference in grammar and sentence structures, and the habits of native Cantonese speakers when they speak or write in Chinese lead to the development of “Hong Kong English”. 

Source: https://boon-ying-lee.blogspot.com/2018/08/honglish.html
李本瀅

In conclusion, Chinese-English translation is very common in Hong Kong society due to the historical background. However, some translations are not fully correct in terms of contexts or grammar. The English translations in Hong Kong are affected by unique local culture, the language habits, the formation of Cantonese, and the way people learn English in the old days. And the differences in English and Chinese version are mainly due to the difference of language usage in words or forms between Cantonese and English.

The Use of Transliteration in Kongish

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Phoebe Ko

Kongish is a new language formed in Hong Kong that mixes English and Cantonese. This language can be seen among Hong Kong’s youngsters, and especially the one with a higher education level. Kongish can be formed by different methods, such as literal translation and transliteration. This blog will focus on the use of the transliteration in Kongish, which only appears in text language, and will investigate the reason that people use this language.

An example of using transliterated Kongish in text messages.

Transliteration in Kongish refers to the process of transferring a word from its Cantonese pronunciation to English alphabet. For example, Kongish users may text ‘Hor yee sik farn lah’ (可以食飯喇), which refers to ‘We can eat now’. Each word in the above example refers to a Chinese word and is romanized by its Cantonese pronunciation. This kind of text language follows Chinese grammar, but not necessarily the Jyutping, a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Under the Jyutping system, the word ‘yee’(以) should be written as ‘ji’, where the ‘j’ is pronounced as /j/. However, Jyutping is not taught in schools and we seldom write Kongish according to Jyutping, same as how we do not write English in the International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA). Instead, this type of Kongish should be pronounced like an English word. English speakers can be able to pronounce the Cantonese words by looking at the Kongish version of it, but not understand the meaning of it. Therefore, using this new language actually requires knowledge in both English and Cantonese. For example, the word ‘dim sum’ is also formed by the transliteration of Cantonese. English users can be familiar with this phrase, but do not know what the word ’dim’ and ‘sum’ means. People who speak both Cantonese and English can, however, understand this word easily by pronouncing this Kongish word. The origin of the language is unclear, but according to the above investigation, it is most likely formed due to the bilingual social background of Hong Kong.

Transliterated Kongish can only be understood by people with prior knowledge in both Cantonese and English. The above sentence means ‘Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times’.
(Photo credit: https://www.instarix.org/tag/kwongfukheunggong)

A reason that people use this new language for texting can be to form a discourse community. As mentioned at the beginning of this blog, Kongish is usually used by the younger generation in Hong Kong, especially the 90s and 00s, who lived in a bilingual background since they were born. People can only be able to understand Kongish with prior knowledge of English and Cantonese. Under the education policy in Hong Kong, top schools in Hong Kong are transferred into English as Medium of Instruction School(EMI Schools) which most subjects in these schools are taught in English. It creates a unique language phenomenon in Hong Kong that people from EMI schools can be able to manage both languages. Kongish then becomes the unique language that these people use, while excluding others who do not have the same educational background as they do. Some may say that Kongish is a flaunt of the users’ language ability, but it seems more like a formation of a discourse community which people uses this language to communicate with others that have similar background and values as they do. It also brings Hong Kong people a sense of belonging as there are historical reasons behind the formation of this language and also Hongkongers will understand this language.

Kongish is a product of bilingualism in Hong Kong and should be treasured as it shows the uniqueness of the city. This is a culture among Hongkong youngsters to use this language to communicate, and it helps to build their identity. If you want to join this discourse community, fai d hui hok lah (Quickly go learn it)!

How a Hong Kong Accent is Formed

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Victoria Chan

Most of the English learners in Hong Kong admire a British accent. When Hong Kong people can speak in British accent naturally and fluently, they always receive compliments such as “ Wow! Your English is so good!” or “ I love your accent! It is so beautiful!”. Most of the people deem British English as the standard English. In other words, people who is not able to speak in British accent are regarded as having low proficiency in English. The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English. It has a long history of learning English as a second language. Under this circumstances, why Hong Kong accent still exist despite its wide use of English?

When Hong Kong became a crown colony of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong people needed to learn English because the colonial government announced English as the official language of Hong Kong. Hardly could the Hong Kong people learn English at that time due to the difference between Cantonese and English. Moreover, education in Hong Kong was not popular due to the limited expenditure to schooling by the local government. In other words, Hong Kong’s proficiency in English was low as the government failed to provide proper assistance to the new language policy. Under this circumstance, the Hong Kong people needed to learn English by themselves. 

The main use of English was to communicate with English speakers in Hong Kong during the colonial period. Therefore, the most efficient way to learn English was to simply imitate the pronunciation of English through speaking Cantonese. The following figure is an old Cantonese book which aims to teach Hong Kong people English daily expressions through speaking Cantonese.

Picture 1: The book cover of an old Cantonese book which teaches English
Source: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8421
How Hong Kong people learned English speaking in the past
Source: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8421

The title of the book is “ 自學英語不求人“ which means “ Self-learning English without asking anybody”. It shows that Hong Kong people couldn’t receive efficient English education despite the issue of official language policy. From the above picture, it shows how Hong Kong people learnt English at that time. The writer helps the reader to pronounce the English expression through generating a Cantonese sentences which has similar pronunciation with it. For example, “ 打孻亞見 Daa Laai Ah gin” for “ Try again”. Although it is written in traditional Chinese, the imitation doesn’t make sense if we pronounce it in Mandarin. The reader has to pronounce the Chinese sentence in Cantonese in order to imitate the English pronunciation. Moreover, these Chinese sentences are neither grammatical nor related to the English expression. It only helps the readers to generate the pronunciation of the English expressions. The Hong Kong accent is formed because the learners don’t imitate the pronunciation of a native speaker. On the other hand, they find their own way to pronounce English with the help of Cantonese.

Not to mention that English education in Hong Kong focuses primarily on reading and writing, the accent is not important if the speaker can use a wide range of vocabulary to express his or her ideas. A study on phonological awareness and oral language proficiency in Hong Kong by the University of Hong Kong discovered that the tone of first language will contribute significantly to second language. The reason why English accent of Hong Kong people differs from British is because of the difference of subsyllabic levels (rime and phoneme) in English and Cantonese. If children fail to develop phonological awareness (developing across levels of different phonological units) in early age, their accent of English will be similar to the tone of Cantonese. 

After discovering how Hong Kong accent is formed, we can also explore the method to improve our English accent. The sooner the children learn phonics of English, the higher phonological awareness they can achieve. In other words, the best way to improve English accent is not about imitating the pronunciation of each word, but to understand and to acquire the whole system of the phonics of English. This suggests that there is a need for reform of English learning in Hong Kong. Instead of pushing children to learn difficult words in a very young age, we should teach the children phonics before spelling. Thus, we can help our children to immerse themselves in English completely as their mother tongue.

Use of foul language in Hong Kong

Posted on by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Marco Tsang

If you have lived in Hong Kong for a certain period of time, you may have noticed that people use curse words in their daily conversation all the time. Despite the use of foul language or slang words may be seen as rude and impolite by most of the people around the world, we cannot deny that the existence of foul language is one of the most important elements in constructing a language. Some may have misconception that swearing in daily conversation is the result of poor education and lack of self-cultivation. However, the fact is that the use of foul language is common among HongKongers in different social class. Sometimes we may see an elegant lady who dressed properly and definitely coming from the upper class in Central swears on the street with her friends. Swearing is part of our language and there is no judge about the use of it. 

Picture by Luke Cross

The five most common Chinese characters used by Hong Kong people, when pronounced in Cantonese, are diu (屌), gau (鳩), lan (撚), tsat (柒) and hai (閪). They are considered censored language and forbidden to use on television and broadcast. The first one diu means literally ‘fuck’ in English language. When it is placed in the first of the sentence without other phrases, it expresses the idea of anger, shock, and excitement etc. But the meaning would be changed to disgrace, disrespect and insulting if a subject ‘nei’ (you) is included. Using diu is the most common way of cursing in Cantonese. Yet it is accepted by society to use diu even on TV shows in Taiwan as it has the different meaning of ‘cool’ in their usage. Tracing back to the origin of this word, diu was referring to the male reproductive organ and it has evolved as a verb in 1900s. While diu being the most recognizable vulgar word, the other four words either means sex organs or have a negative meaning. These five words are five strong and powerful vulgar words in Cantonese but it has become more popular and usual in the usage of Cantonese.

Photo retrieved from: https://thestandnews.com/society/%E9%BB%9E%E8%A7%A3%E8%AC%9B%E7%B2%97%E5%8F%A3-%E6%B7%BA%E8%AB%96%E9%80%99%E5%80%8B%E5%9F%8E%E5%B8%82%E7%9A%84%E7%B2%97%E5%8F%A3/

The existence of foul language enriches the attributes of our language. Swearing is the way of indicating the intimacy between friends or in different social groups. It is not hard to find secondary school students, construction workers or even senior workers in an international company using foul language to communicate with their classmates, friends and colleagues. It is a way of establishing the bonding between individuals and it could address the relationship of ‘pal’, ‘mate’. However, this form of showing closeness is restrained between peers or people with similar age only. Of course it is not appropriate to curse with parents, teachers, superior who have a higher social status than us when it comes to swearing.

Photo from the movie Vulgaria (2012)

Swearing is just natural feature of our vernacular which allows us to express our emotions. According to the journal from Language Sciences, it stated that swearing is not a result of limited vocabulary. It is an indicator of healthy verbal abilities instead of covering for language deficiencies. It is what makes our vernacular special and different from standard Chinese language. It should be preserved as it shapes the identity of us being a Hongkonger.

See reference:

https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2131022/foul-language-hong-kong-its-not-what-you-say-how-you-say-it