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Hong Kong I
Nov. 10th, 2011 05:54 pmSo, I promise to do a run down of my Hong Kong trip as soon as I manage to get the photos off my memory card and onto something one of the computers in my house can read. There will probably be two different posts - one with general 'look, this is cool' stuff on it, and another food one, because as Hong Kong is such a mish mash of different food types, I decided to keep a photo diary of anything I or Doug (or Clare when she was with us) ate, and was for the most part successful.
However, I'm not at that point yet, but there is something I can post about before the photos are available. Mainly, language.
One of the things that struck me about HK was how perfect a place it is to learn Cantonese in a hurry. HK's first langauge is Cantonese...and it's second is English. Resultantly, it gives you the experience of being immersed in a language with just enough English on the side to provide a safety net if you get hopelessly lost. I went with no Cantonese at all, and by the end of the first day, had enough to be giving a cab driver rough directions. (I didn't know enough of Hong Kong not to end up on the opposite side of Hollywood road that I needed to, but damnit, the effort was made befroe I resorted to bleating in English and pointing at a map.) I'd love to go back having gotten a decent ear for the language and a few key phrases along with a well thumbed dictionary and watch how fast my language skills grew.
As an additional, nearly everyone out there speaks at least one or two words of English, and most of them speak it passably to admirably well. With some notable exceptions - films. There is a particular branch of society out there tat likes remaking western hits (mainly rom-coms) with their own actors and language and, unsurprisingly, their english isn't so great. Check out the blurb on the back of a DVD for their equivalent of 'The Wedding Planner', called 'Perfect Wedding':
( Read more... )
The above was all printed in comic sans, and yes, as soon as I can get the photos onto here, you will have photographic proof.
In a city where every taxi driver I met could hold a decent conversation in English, not sure why they pressed forward with such an awful translation.
And then, there are their films where the English is fine (or at least understandable), the storyline is just plain odd. While browsing their kids section, I found a porno that some gittish previous customer had obviously dumped there, and moved back to it's correct shelf...but when I glanced at the back, couldn't help but take a snap of the blurb for posterities sake because...this is weird. It's really really weird:
( Read more... )
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm loving the out-of-left-field micropenis. And again, yes there will be photographic proof as soon as I can get my photos on here.
However, I'm not at that point yet, but there is something I can post about before the photos are available. Mainly, language.
One of the things that struck me about HK was how perfect a place it is to learn Cantonese in a hurry. HK's first langauge is Cantonese...and it's second is English. Resultantly, it gives you the experience of being immersed in a language with just enough English on the side to provide a safety net if you get hopelessly lost. I went with no Cantonese at all, and by the end of the first day, had enough to be giving a cab driver rough directions. (I didn't know enough of Hong Kong not to end up on the opposite side of Hollywood road that I needed to, but damnit, the effort was made befroe I resorted to bleating in English and pointing at a map.) I'd love to go back having gotten a decent ear for the language and a few key phrases along with a well thumbed dictionary and watch how fast my language skills grew.
As an additional, nearly everyone out there speaks at least one or two words of English, and most of them speak it passably to admirably well. With some notable exceptions - films. There is a particular branch of society out there tat likes remaking western hits (mainly rom-coms) with their own actors and language and, unsurprisingly, their english isn't so great. Check out the blurb on the back of a DVD for their equivalent of 'The Wedding Planner', called 'Perfect Wedding':
( Read more... )
The above was all printed in comic sans, and yes, as soon as I can get the photos onto here, you will have photographic proof.
In a city where every taxi driver I met could hold a decent conversation in English, not sure why they pressed forward with such an awful translation.
And then, there are their films where the English is fine (or at least understandable), the storyline is just plain odd. While browsing their kids section, I found a porno that some gittish previous customer had obviously dumped there, and moved back to it's correct shelf...but when I glanced at the back, couldn't help but take a snap of the blurb for posterities sake because...this is weird. It's really really weird:
( Read more... )
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm loving the out-of-left-field micropenis. And again, yes there will be photographic proof as soon as I can get my photos on here.
