the english language barrier
December 19th, 2005 by salasem
as we all know, most of us learn english by the time we open our eyes inside the nursery when we’re born.we can’t speak yet but we display the proper facial expression whenever someone from behind the glass window makes a remark. -look at him he’s so cuuuute!! he looks like his dad!!!- we turn red-well…not because of blushing but because of anger- imagine your dad is anything from pleasant looking…like spongebob.:D -she’s got beautiful eyes like they’re talking and all that- the eyes stare back doubling their sizes.the baby’s probably shocked with all the faces rammed on the window glass pane ogling her. yup, we understood english even if we can’t talk yet!!! living in a foreign land has helped me a lot in my language skills. you see, being an alien will test one’s capability to blend in comfortably and learning the local language/dialect will surely make life easier. there is however, an unfortunate case here in hongkong. most of us know that hongkong was under british colonial rule for 156 years. that’s a century and half of the empire clamping its paws on the southern chinese island city. when i got here, i coudln’t believe my ears when speaking with the locals. 25% of the people i have had a conversation with, only managed a partial command of english!!! it was disappointing if you consider 156 years of english rule coming to an end with only a handful of people being able to speak the language fluently or a good enough command of it at the least. however, as i spent the following years later, i found one thing disturbing apparently. now, i am a foreigner, right? so hong kong people, who have cantonese as their major tool of verbal communication, shouldn’t and will not adjust their tongue for english speaking-people like me. it should be the other way around. and so i embarked on a language course. nope, not the hourly tutored ones where people go on weekends and spend 3 hours of saying this and that.i did the best thing possible. i talked with my officemate-a locally-born good-enough-command-of-english hongkie( my slang term hong kong people). i asked him to teach me a cantonese word a day and by friday a sentence comprising those words. not only did i learn 5 words and a sentence a week, i didn’t spend a single cent doing it!!! now i can talk to virtually anyone as long as it is a simple conversation and not involving too many technical terms. the chinese language is based on figurative interpretation of things. for example: "foh"- fire "gey"- box
if you put them together "foh gey" so you get fire box. which in modern english will mean…LIGHTER!!!
now try this one and combine it with "gey"
"sheong"-photo
there are several combinations possible, that’s why, chinese characters are numerous. hell, there may be more than 50,000 of them. but only a few thousands are used. i know how to read and write about 20 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA so i may write a book now in chinese consisting of one pathetic page. half of it will probably contain a picture of my "mao zhai" (cat)
before i learned some cantonese(gwong dung wah), i had so many funny incidents regarding my chinese illiteracy and some hongkies’ english boo boos.
one unforgettable one was when i was calling in sick one day.
i phoned the office and the receptionist answered the call.
-weiii
-hi. good morning. is dennis there?
-dennis? dennis….not here.
-oh. alright….this is gary….i am sick and wont be coming to wo….
-oh. gary not here. ba-bye
CLICK!
most gwai lo( white ghost-white caucassian male) that i am acquainted with wouldnt care learning cantonese but i guess they’re not that interested. that’s why when they tell me stories about them having a hard time shopping or telling a taxi driver where to go, i just have a smile on my face knowing i wouldn’t have the same problem anymore.
pag co ngo yao hey mong kam do yan hok ying man wak je chung man
yan yan hoi sum.
but i still have hope that a lot of peole will learn how to speak english,chinese and everyone will be happy. 
