THEY'RE NOT SHAPED RIGHT

Statement by the apartment mate: "You can tell elderly Cantonese women what to do, but they ain't gonna do it". Shortly after which she said "I think I hate pudgy men who are into theatre". Both of these in descriptive mention of her hours yesterday doing a regular volunteer thing.

Fifty pound sacks were involved. As well as Protestants.
And a number of Toishanese individuals.

"Some people were there but they really didn't do much."

She's a person of Toishanese ancestry who understands more Chinese than she lets on, is not elderly and not into theatre.
For your information, I am none of the above. Well, technically Protestant, yes, but not observant. Not a believer, more a scoffing atheist.

Anyhow, she's "Toishanese". According to a visiting East Coast medical man, no one understands the Toishanese, their dialect is strange and weird. Which I would have disputed, except that I really didn't want to talk to him, because like many East-Coasters he was an arrogant know-it-all prick.

[台山人 Toishanese (people): Chinese from four large districts outside of Guangzhou in Canton Province, who speak a language related to Standard Cantonese, but with some Southern Min correspondences. Also their overseas descendants. Sometimes called 四邑人 (Toi: 'hlei yip ngin'; Cant: 'sei yap yan'); Mand: 'si yi ren'.]



Chinese, as a linguistic phenomenon, has hundreds of dialects and accents, spread over several distinct Sinitic languages that differ from each other in grammar and vocabulary, and are extremely diverse phonologically. As an example, the Shanhainese language is as different from Beijingese as German is from Dutch and English. Yes, one can map similarities and general rules about the differences, and show how they both derived from an ursprache, but that is of little practical use in comprehension when faced with someone speaking the "other".

In San Francisco Chinatown, a slim majority speak Toishanese, which is a Cantonese dialect. But of the Chinese-origin people in San Francisco, a slim majority are from Guangzhou or Hong Kong linguistic origins, though they may not speak their grandparents' native tongue. Other versions of Chinese spoken here are Mandarin, in several goofy accents (as a common second or third language, but also by most Northern Immigrants as a home-tongue), Min Nan, Hakka, Shanghainese, and even Zhongshan Min Yu (中山閩語 'jung saan man yü'), which began deviating from its nearest relatives several centuries ago.


Broadly speaking, Mandarin or Standard Cantonese will allow you to communicate with eighty percent of Chinese speakers here. If you are conversant in both, that's nearly one hundred percent.
That is, of course, a generalization.

Often one can tell where someone is from in Chinese by their accent. But not always. At one of the chachanteng in Chinatown, a waitress for years was convinced that I had grown up in Hong Kong, because of how I spoke, whereas in reality I learned the language from movies.

One must make allowances for white guys speaking Cantonese, even if they occasionally sound like goombas from gangster flicks, because, after all, they are freaks of nature, and it's miraculous that one can understand them in the first place. Their mouths, you know. Not shaped right.


Chou Yunfat snarling at the prison guard in 'Prison on Fire' was a formative linguistic influence. Pretty much all of Chou Yunfat's oeuvre was formative. The hero-gangster; a man on the bad side of the law, but possessed of gallantry and chivalry, a righteous man despite his situation.
Plus, of course, it's difficult to order food when you don't know what it is. Or to purchase books on seal-script (篆書 'suen syu') or I-Hsing pottery (宜興陶 / 紫砂 'yi heng tou'/'ji saa') and Sekwan ware (石灣窯 'sek waan yiu').
So reference works and dictionaries were acquired.

[From Wikipedia: "Zisha is a mixture of kaolin, quartz and mica, with a high content of iron oxide. It is mined principally at Huanglongshan and Zhaozhuangshan and has a somewhat sandy texture. The process of preparing the clay is lengthy and was traditionally regarded as a trade secret. Typical firing temperature is between 1100C – 1200C in an oxidizing atmosphere."]

I'm an opportunist. I like getting what I want.


Native speakers of Cantonese usually appreciate another person being able to communicate. Mandarin speakers less so, and American-born English speakers often not at all.

Their ears, you know. Not shaped right.



A GENERALIZATION, LIKELY TO OFFEND

American-born English speaking Chinese sometimes have a chip on their shoulder, and mental blocks. They are like second generation Dutch Americans in that regard, or arrogant East Coasters.

Outside of Chinatown I seldom use Cantonese.
Dutch comes in handy once in a blue moon.
A few other languages, extremely rarely.





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