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?