My Learning

I asked you last week to post something about using English outside the classroom.

Here's an example showing you what I did.

In the South China Morning Post every Sunday there is a short article about a Chinese idiom.

A previous week had 少見多怪 (siu2 gin3 do1 gwaai3) which means 'amazed at things seldom seen'

It comes from a saying by Mou Rong of the Han dynasty (206BC – AD220) who wrote in a book that “Those who saw a camel said it was a horse with a swollen back" from which we get the above saying.

Using those four characters I can then build my vocabulary.

For example:

少 siu2 little, small, tiny
見 gin3 see, observe; visit
多 do1 many
怪 gwaai3 (this is difficult and can have many meanings such as gone off)


More useful is to make short phrases such as:

少少 siu2 siu2 a little
多謝 do1 ze6 many thanks
下星期見 haa6 sing1 kei4 gin3 see you next week
怪物 gwai3 mat6 monster

Links Cantonese Help and SCMP

What about you?

What would we do without it!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. More cartoons which are free for use at we blog cartoons.