CANTO PLUS

Every Step Make Progress?

2012-01-23T12:48:00.002+08:00

This Chinese New Year I start to receive greetings on my Facebook in Traditional Chinese characters. Like this one...

步步高陞 / bou bou go sing

Roughly translated means: Every Step high progress?

Whatever the meaning, I make a note to learn this for future Chinese New Years.

Melbourne Dockland's News

2011-08-28T17:39:00.001+08:00

With the already large Chinese community in Melbourne, I wasn't surprised to see some Chinese characters on the masthead of a local paper: the Dockland's News. What did surprise me is that the characters were traditional Chinese characters. Lets see if we can work out their pronunciation.

道克蘭之音 / dough huck larn gee yum / Dockland's Voice'

The current wave of immigration and students is from mainland China. I'm wondering why they wouldn't use simplified Chinese characters? Anyway,as mentioned before, you might as well put in the extra effort and learn both.

Better Than Nothing

2011-06-26T18:17:00.001+08:00

Kindly handing over some cash to Mrs B the other day. Her response in Cantonese: hou gwo mou

Hmmm! From the tone of her voice, I can sense that's not exactly "thank you honey, you're the most generous husband in the world."

A little digging on Cantodict and I find out what it means;

好過冇 / hou gwo mou / better than nothing!

Cheeky cow!

Happy Fathers Day

2011-06-20T15:07:00.001+08:00

These annual events come around a little too slow for me to remember. Maybe I'm just a little slow?

Whatever.

So just to remind myself, the Cantonese Chinese way of wishing someone a happy fathers day is;

父親節快樂 / foo chun jit fai lock / Happy Father's Day

I might be slightly late this year but I'll be ready next year.

You can even here the pronunciation on YouTube.

Butter Fruit?

2011-04-22T10:44:00.002+08:00

Friend Muz mushes a ripe avocado onto a freshly toasted slice of wholewheat bread. The tastiest and best two ingredient meal ever made? Pretty close. Now if I can just work out the traditional Chinese characters for Avocado, I should be able to get the message across to our Cantonese speaking Indonesian domestic helper.

Cantodict to the rescue again;

牛油果 / ngau yau gwo

牛油/ngau yau = butter

and

果 / gwo = fruit

Again, Cantonese translates very literally and makes so much sense. Perhaps we should replace English with the much more practical Cantonese?

Miss High Maintainence in Cantonese

2011-04-10T10:59:00.003+08:00

Another great Cantonese learning resource is flagged in this morning's South China Morning Post (Mormon wins fans with humorous take on Cantonese slang, Sunday, April 10, 2011).

Sugar Urine Sick

2010-11-06T15:17:00.003+08:00

Caught up with an old friend last night who I hadn't seen for around ten years. He was dramatically thinner. "How did you lose all that weight?" I asked.

"Type II Diabetes, unfortunately" was his answer. I went on to ask him what the word for Diabetes is in Cantonese. It turns out to be a really literal translation;

糖尿病/ tong niul beng / sugar urine sick

It just struck me how descriptive the Cantonese version is and how much more useful it is than the English version. After all, the name Diabetes doesn't really tell us anything, does it?

Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

2010-10-29T14:57:00.001+08:00

Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Cheong Ming Street, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

2010-10-29T14:02:00.001+08:00

Ceong Ming Street, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong

2010-09-04T11:55:00.002+08:00

雲咸街 /one hum guy / Wyndham Street

I never thought I'd be writing out street directions for my Chinese wife but that's what happened last night. She was going to join us later for dinner and wanted me to write out the address for her. I punched the restaurants name (Wagyu) into Google and found a website with the Chinese address on it ready for me to transcribe. Learning to write traditional Chinese characters has been a long and slow journey but at least now I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Yung Kee Roasted Goose

2010-07-14T08:59:00.003+08:00

Another bitter family dispute, another chance to learn a few Chinese characters. This time it's the brothers who run the very popular Yung Kee Roasted Goose restaurant in Wellington Street that are in the news. What are the traditional Chinese characters for Yung Kee and how is it pronounced? Lets find out:

鏞記 / yung gay / Yung Kee

威靈頓街 / why ling dun guy / Wellington Street

燒鵝 / seal gnaw / Roasted Goose

Surname: Lo

2010-07-07T13:13:00.002+08:00

How's this calligraphy? Picked up another surname over at Jaspas today. Only a few hundred more to learn...

Isabella Kau & Patrick Leung

2010-07-07T11:34:00.001+08:00

Glamour couple Isabella Kau Hung-ping and Patrick Leung have been in the news these past few days. Both have surnames I can't recognise. Time to find what the traditional Chinese characters are and how to pronounce them in Cantonese:

寇鴻萍 / kau hung ping / Isabella Kau

梁廷將 / leung ting keong / Patrick Leung

The third character in Patrick Leung's name is not correct - it has the gold radical in front of the character above - but I'm unable to find it, yet.

Fevar Club has been mentioned in the articles as well but it doesn't have a Chinese name that I can ascertain - it's barely even an English name!

Central China Real Estate 0832.hk

2010-07-05T11:56:00.002+08:00

Watching the local TV this morning while slogging away on the StairMaster, I see that Central China Real Estate (0832.hk) is in the news. What's are the Traditional Chinese characters and how do you pronounce this company's name in Cantonese? Lets find out:

建業地產 / gin yip day charn

建業 / gin yip refers to construction business

and

地產 / day charn refers to property business.

All pretty common characters given the explosion of property development in China.

Foxconn

2010-06-20T15:30:00.002+08:00

Foxconn has been in the news recently for a spate of suicides by workers at its huge factory/dormitories across the border. Foxconn is famous as the company that produces iPhones and iPads for Apple. Since it's going to be discussed quote a lot, it's time to learn Foxconn's traditional Chinese characters and how to pronounce them in Cantonese Chinese:

富士康 / foo see hong / Foxconn

foo see hong literally translates into rich and healthy but it looks like they've just transliterated the Chinese sounds into English.

Percival Street

2010-06-18T16:37:00.002+08:00

Percival street is located between the Times Square shopping mall and the back of Causeway Bay.

Pronounced in Cantonese as Bore See Foo Guy

Hang Lung Centre

2010-06-17T18:17:00.001+08:00

Smartone sent me email directions in traditional Chinese characters for an English class on how to use my new phone (Nokia E72). The building name in the address was as follows;

恆隆中心 / Hang Lung Jung Sum / Hang Lung Centre

But when I go there, the building name (photo above) wasn't quite the same. What going on? Looks like Hang Lung have opted for simplified Chinese characters. Also looks like we'll have to learn both if we want to get around Hong Kong unassisted.

The Hang Lung Centre is located at 2-20 Paterson Street, Causeway Bay. My wife spends a lot of time in this building visiting fashion wholesalers and there's also a bunch of travel agents in here as well. The Smartone service centre and training room are on the 17th floor.

Old Chinese Proverb : Return Of The Prodigal Son

2010-06-17T08:35:00.002+08:00

I heard this old Chinese proverb quoted at a Toastmasters meeting this week;

浪子回頭 / long zi wui tau / return of the prodigal son

I've got a feeling this is a pretty common proverb so might be a good one to learn.

Broadwood Twelve

2010-06-14T18:19:00.005+08:00

More junk mail in our snail mail box today from Midland Realty - looks like the new building on Broadwood Road, the one that towers over Happy Valley, is ready for sale. Perhaps we can turn their junk into a lesson and learn something useful?

樂天峯 / lock tin fung / joy heaven peak

With someone offering HK$330 million for a pair of duplexes, I guess it might feel like a joyful heavenly peak if you could afford to live atop this monolith!

Update 08 July 2010 - The Standard published a full page show flat review with photos today. Also found out the development has 76 units and was developed by Hopewell Holdings. Show flat 39A is 1,653 square feet.

Costin 2228.HK IPO

2010-06-09T09:20:00.005+08:00

The flood of IPOs continues. Today's candidate is Costin. Lets hope it doesn't end up Costin you some hard earned dollars. Lets see if we can decode the name and work out how to pronounce it in Cantonese;

海東 / hoi dung / sea east

清新 / cheng sun / new and fresh

材料 / choi leal / materials

So if you bark hoi dung cheng sun choi leal to your Cantonese broker, hopefully he'll know you're referring to Costin.

Cheers!

2010-06-09T07:25:00.004+08:00

Got a good laugh last night when I praised some fellow drinkers about their drinking prowess with the following phrase;

千杯不醉 / chin boy but joy

Literally, thousand cups not drunk

Not a bad phrase to have in your arsenal if you're out drinking with Cantonese freinds!

Goldwind 2208.hk IPO

2010-06-07T09:36:00.004+08:00

Another stock offering another chance to learn a few Chinese characters. Today's lesson courtesy of GoldWind. Unfortunately, they've used simplified Chinese characters (a growing trend) in their marketing material. We'll have to convert them back to traditional Chinese before we can work out how to pronounce them in Cantonese.

新疆 / Sun Geong / Xin Jiang

金風 / Gum Fung / Gold Wind

科技 / For Gay / Technology

marsh Road

2010-04-07T19:42:00.000+08:00

Mount Parker Road

2010-04-05T13:18:00.001+08:00

This road winds it way uphill and meets the HK trail at Quarry Gap (Tai Fung Au). So what do the the character mean and how to pronouce them in Cantonese?

Suen Kai Cheong

2010-03-05T08:11:00.001+08:00

Today's lesson courtesy of Mr. Suen Kai Cheong.