Thursday, April 28, 2016

STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN CHINESE!

For some unfathomable reason, while I was in the kitchen fixing myself some steamed pork and plum vegetable, my apartment mate turned on the news.
She never watches the news. Like many Americans, she prefers to not immerse herself in complicated stuff.

The news was in Mandarin.

There is only ONE person in this two single persons household who understands a lick of Mandarin, and it isn't her. No offense, but she would have a hard time with proper city Cantonese too.

Maybe she's getting in touch with her ancestral culture.

Which is a good thing.

?


Problem is that as soon as I was finished in the kitchen and had returned to the television room with my beverage, plate of rice and dish of steamed fatty pork -- 蒸梅菜扣肉:五花腩,乾梅菜,花雕酒,薑片,五香粉。-- she went into the kitchen to fix herself some pasta with a fancy Italian sauce, leaving her news program on. All the way through my delicious meal I had to listen to the quacking sound of Mandarin, as, not knowing how committed she was to the program or when she would come out of the kitchen, I decided not to change channels. Though I would have preferred Cantonese.
Maybe the sound of Mandarin is precious to her?
Lord only knows why, but it's possible.
That makes precisely one of us.


Not only did I get to see an intoxicated moped rider get into a fight near an apartment fire, but I also got inundated with advertisements for products I cannot imagine much use for. Finger-nail tonics. Ear cleansers.
Seaweed infused hard liquor.
Fat Koreans.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

2 comments:

Jacky said...

點解正宗廣東女仔鍾意聽普通話新聞呀?Maybe三藩市冇粵語新聞,但係有咁多個廣東佬,應該有啲呀!
佢唔識聽普通話,仲似狗聲,佢應該有第個原因,話唔埋佢啄住緊你呀?

The back of the hill said...

其實三藩市有三四個粵語新聞臺。
我猜她開了電視機,揀錯節目。
對於普通話,她一詞都眞唔識聽嘅啦。

Search This Blog

SAN FRANCISCO IS TOO DANGEROUS!

A few years ago, my regular care physician and I had an informative talk about kangkong (ipomoea aquatica), sidetracking from my tobacco use...