Cute Hong Kong Sayings

Having lived about a year in Hong Kong, I still cannot understand Cantonese, except for the occasional word/phrase that sounds almost exactly like Mandarin, i.e. dun ee dun (wait a minute). (I won't be using proper pinyin spelling in this entry.) One of my friends reassured me that one day everything will just make sense. I hope that day comes soon. I DO know how to say the following in Canto: my address, hi, bye, good morning, have you eaten yet?, yes, no, over there, here, please, thank you (used when someone provides a service to you), thank you (used for all other situations), etc.

Because of its unique history, Cantonese in Hong Kong has adopted many English words. Even written Chinese in Hong Kong is different, because some words use characters for phonetic translation. My Chinese teacher, originally from Beijing, said that she couldn't understand the newspapers in Hong Kong because some of the characters didn't make sense. It took her awhile to be able to comprehend the mix of traditional Chinese + phonetic characters that sounded out English pronunciations. 

Some of my fave Cantonenglish words include:

BB (baby - my absolute fave)
Dik-sieee (taxi)

Haa-Lo (hello)

Baah-see (bus)

Buh-bai (bye - I still can't get used to grown men saying this since in the US its usually kids who say bye bye ^c^)

Aircon (air conditioning)

-La (phrase added to the end of sentences to add emphasis - I just love it!)