My parents are from HK. Naturally I'm cantonese. I didn't always know how to read and write and even understand the chinese language. It basically started around grade 9. My dad had started a business in China and I had to visit there for 6 or 7 months at the end of Grade 8. I was so bored that i decided that i would just learn chinese. I drew these grids on paper and practiced all the time. My sister didn't do the same...i guess she just wasn't as interested as i was although i would have to say that next to me...all the other "kids" in our family has the best chinese skill. Anyway...a couple years later in high school i started to hang around other kids that were asian and things just started to pick up. For whatever reason, i started to listen to chinese music a lot. Oh the memories...the music back then was so much better than the crap you get nowadays..i'm talking about cho mang (grasshopper) with their "so sad" song and the "you are everything" tune. I actually even got into Lai Ming and Cheung Hok Yau. It's oldy moldy but come on...who can forget jacky's classic gee seung yut sung gun lay jow??? Or mui teen ngoi lay dor yut seh? i mean...that was the shit. Aiya....going on a tangent.
Anyway...it started with that. That's how i learned chinese. Karaoke and 1 dozen bud (sometimes green tea and chivas)
But what is really interesting is that throughout all these years of talking like this to my cousins and my friends, I've come to realize that this "chinglish" language is a language that we came up with all on our own. So commonplace that even mandarin, korean, japanese friends even say the same things.
There are certain factors that make this hilarious. Jooksing's uses the 's factor. We tend to use the " 's " everywhere we can if it's plural. We use it in the word Jooksing's, bui's (cups), deep's (plates), dung's (chairs), sau mut's (gloves), lang lui's (pretty girls) and Ju pa's (pork chop's) That to me is a new language.
Ever notice the "mm" factor?? why do we add an "mm" to things we are trying to say no to. example: mmwant ar! = i don't want it! mmcare ar! = i don't care mmjump! = i'm not jumping.
Or how about the really funny swear words that we attempt to write out on paper. Those are always jokes. Classic but funny. Some of those examples are yeet hay = hot air (which i have no idea what it means but i shouldn't eat it cuz it will give me zits), pook guy = fall on the street, ding lay gor fai = hit your lung
Till this day I still dont know what the fuck that means. you try to explain to all your white friends that it actually means fuck you...just to get them off your back when all of a sudden you had to explain what pook guy was. i had a hard time with those two. I mean....you don't wanna tell them what it really means or they'll think chinese people are retarded for telling you to fall on a street or hit your lung so they just mean fuck you. In fact...every swear word meant fuck you to me when i was young. hahahahaha...that is funny.
Anyway...How about you guys? what do you guys think? We should start our own Jooksings school and start teaching. Tell me about your stories. Please leave some comments. I'd love to hear your stories and share them.
Chris.
Peace.