Patjew

I hope this doesn't upset anyone, I just love the story so much I want to post it here. If it gets yanked, so be it.

My Favorite Moment In Hong Kong So Far

Last week I hopped in a taxi to take me home from the train station. I told the driver my address and he didn't understand it so I told him the name of my apartment complex instead- "Bamboo Grove".

He responded with something like "ban da eight bamboo reef" in a very heavy Chinese accent.

"Sorry?" I said.

"Ban da eight bam boo reef!"

"No," I said, "78 Kennedy Road. Bamboo Grove, please."

"Yeah! Ban da eight bam boo reef! You know, ban da! Yeah..."

"Ban da?", I asked again.

"Yeah! Pee-Ay-endeeay."

"What???"

"You know, ban da! Pee-Ay-endeeay. You know?? Chinese cat!!"

"Ohhh, 'Panda!' 'P-A-N-D-A' Right, I know what that is. What about them?"

"Yeah! Ban da eight bam boo reef!"

"Ohhhhhh. 'Pandas...eat...bamboo...leaves'."

"Yeah..."

"That's right, they do eat bamboo leaves"

"Yeah..."
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For the rest of my life I will refer to pandas as "Chinese cat".

(And before anyone gets upset, yes I do realize that his English is much better than my Chinese.)

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Bertil

That wasn't demeaning to anyone. People who purport to speak the same language sometimes can't get on the same page. Those people are sometimes called "married" people.

Hope all is going well over there. Find a spot to watch some football this weekend.

In case you haven't heard, there's quite a game at 6 pm Eastern Standard time on Sunday.

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FloridaHerb

I know Hong Kong has a ton of bootleg DVD's available.....any chance Three Games to Glory IV is out yet? I'm loving these sequels....

Patjew

All is well, thanks.

Yeah, I heard about a big cricket match next week. Can't wait.

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RayClay

Hey Patjew. That's about all I have to say.

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Patjew

You mean FOUR Games, right?

Here they call it FGTG. I watched a bootleg director's cut and it was awesome.

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Tucker

HAHAHA that's hilarious.

smg93

that's funny and no I wasn't offended at all. That's what happens when two cultures collide!

Kdo5

Well it would be FOUR games to glory if we won the superbowl.

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Kasmir

A panda is actually literally called a "bear-cat" in Chinese, i.e. xiong2 mao1 in Mandarin, written 熊猫 in simplified Chinese script -- but I don't know how to either say it in the Cantonese dialect or write it in traditional script, both of which are predominant in Hong Kong.

I could tell you numerous similar stories of my own Mandarin mispronunciations...