My Wife The Gweilo

There's been an interesting dynamic taking shape in my marriage lately, a weird cultural thing that has taken root and has become the source of great fun for me and what must be the source of, at the very least, some small measure of embarrassment for The Girl.

See, in her job here in Hong Kong she deals exclusively with either mainland Chinese people or westerners. All of her friends here are mainland Chinese as well. Rarely, if ever, does she come in contact with a true Honger. So, as a result, she doesn't know the slightest bit of Cantonese other than to reply "jo san" (good morning) back to the doormen in our building on her way to work.

I, on the other hand, both at work and socially, interact almost exclusively with Hong Kongers and I know at least a little bit of Cantonese; enough to say certain things that need to be said from time to time, anyway.

I have to say, it's weird to occasionally feel more Chinese than my wife is. Of course I rub it in whenever possible. Just the other day we were trying to get off a crowded train and she, trying to push past people to disembark, was trying to say the equivalent of excuse me ("n-goy") but is really saying "My guy! My guy!". Laughed so hard I damn near missed our stop. Bless her heart, she tries to be one of us...

Here are a few more of her Cantonese faux pas from recent weeks... ("ng" just sounds like "n")

"Dodgy" = Daw-je (thank you)
"Joes Toe" = Jo Tau (goodnight)
"In silent hay" = ng-sai-haa-hay (you're welcome)
"Cheap so high bend over"= Chee-saw-hai-been-doa (where is the bathroom?)
"Gay doctrine" = Gay-daw-cheen (how much does it cost?)
"Laid gay ho or more"= Lay-gay-ho-a-ma (how are you?)
"Gawdy Helmet yeah" = Gaw-dee-haw-mot-yea (What is that?)

"Gay ho" = Gay ho (I'm fine, thanks) *She always gets this one right for some reason*

Next week we're going to work on how to haggle with shopkeepers ;-)