SOUNDING A BIT MORE SO

No meatballs. Very disappointing. But evenso. I had scoped out the menu when walking by the first time, and had seen lions head meatballs over rice (獅子頭飯 'si ji tau faan') as one of the offerings. So after some necessary purchases I went back and went in. Turns out that today they didn't have it. So I ordered something else and enjoyed my lunch anyhow. Not bad. Not exceptionally good. But above mediocre in a pleasant environment. The waitress was determined to understand my Cantonese even though she only spoke Toisanwaa.
My Toisanwaa, in case you hadn't noticed, is awful.
I can sort of understand it.
Sometimes.

There are four restaurants in Chinatown that offer Toisanese cuisine. I do not know how different that is from standard Hong Kong Canto, as I have never been in them. There's that dialect, you see. And usually native speakers of Toisanwaa take pains to explain that they don't speak Japanese or Mandarin or whatever that mispronounced gibberish is that I'm attempting to speak, please talk English.

My track record with speakers of that dialect is not very good.

About as bad as with Americans from the interior.


If I really wanted to be considered a foreigner I would have moved to the suburbs or beyond years ago. See, in standard Cantonese no one will say "you have an accent, where are you really from?" They can plainly see that I am not a local from their place. It stands out like a sore thumb. But at least I sound like a real human being.
I've never been sure of that in English.

The entire rest of the country beyond certain cities is like the America of the teevee series King Of The Hill. With folks who ask "so are you German or French" after I explain that I'm an American who grew up in the Netherlands (which I then have to clarify isn't Denmark or Norway, you dumb redneck). They're easily flummoxed. And they love pizza.
That's from Europe also, ain't it?

Some Toisanese assume that a white guy conversing in Cantonese is actually trying to speak Mandarin. That probably explains the "sheh sheh" (謝謝) of the waitress when I left.
Which was very cosmopolitan of her.
And courteous.



It's easy to understand why Toisan people are a bit "wary" of foreigners. Their experience with those people is that they're pirates or drug dealers, plus invaders, tax officials, and commissars. You know, the Dutch, English, and Mongols.



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