So I reiterate here, the bill is dead.
The story of this great city is about the years before this
night. Hey everyone, it's a new episode
for Hong Kong. That was me gasping for air
because it's so fucking hot. I'm your host Mohammed Magdi,
sitting here with my beautiful guest and some other guy.
Let's of course. Let's go with the guy when he.
Went with beautiful. I was like, whoa, no.
Then he said guest. I'm like, oh.
Yeah, on the inside. On the inside, that's what
everybody says. That's what my colonoscopy said
as well. Beautiful.
On the inside, I'm like, that's what I want to hear.
Vivek, how are you doing, man? I am melting, I'm sweaty that I
have turned on the air con. Oh.
Yeah, this is the one you know? Yeah, this is the one you know.
It's very hard. Yeah.
Vivek has the AC on. Yeah.
When I've given up on just the fan, like normally I'm a fan
guy. And so I'm just like, OK, keep
the fan on as much as you can. It's going to save the
environment, save you bought the bills and everything.
And then today I walked up, I literally walked up from Central
carrying a whole bunch of stuff and I was like, I'm sorry, guys.
Those birds, the turtles. I'm sorry.
Yeah, a few. You're gonna have to dive in.
Yeah, exactly. I'm really.
You don't reincarnation side. Yeah, reincarnation.
Come back as a human next time and you understand what I'm
going through. Yeah, So I'm struggling, man.
Yeah, this is probably like we obviously Rebecca and I were in
Australia for most of March and April, but this is the first
like heat wave this year, right? You were here the whole time,
Lindsay, first of all. Yeah, Lindsay is back on on the
podcast. Hi, Lindsay.
Welcome back. Hi, thanks for having me back
again. Excited you were.
You were in Hong Kong the whole year, right?
Like you didn't really leave. Yeah, no, I've pretty much been
here. Yeah.
Is this the first time it gets like really hot?
You guys kidding that this is hot, but this is nothing like
Hong Kong. Summer is coming.
July. July.
Yeah, no, I know, I know. I'm just saying this year
because we missed, maybe there was another heat wave that we
don't know about. There's like a few days here and
there, but now I'd say this week has been pretty bad because it's
like humid, you know? Yeah.
Today it rained a bit. And this is the killer.
When it rains for like, let's say 20 minutes, yeah, the floor
is wet and the sun's like, hello.
Yeah. And it's like, team.
Yeah, that's the worst. 97% humidity.
To do this, yeah. I mean, for every Asian parent,
they're disappointed they're like only 97 in the next 3%.
What's going on here? I want water in the air.
Which is whack because I was walking my dog last night after
2:00 AM and it was like showers so.
Oh yeah, pouring. Yeah, yeah, pouring a
thunderstorm. So to go from that to like heat
in the. Morning.
You know what causes this whole climate change is all the the
number of trees that they chopped down.
You know what they chopped down Trees for?
Paper. What do they use paper for?
They publish books. Got me.
Yeah, but that's OK. It's all good as long as the
books are what? How many books have you sold
very quickly? I don't.
Want to talk about it anymore? This is a good to say because I
want to go it. The book is called Hong Kong
Slang. So what better way than
immediately talk about something negative so you can easily use
the Hong Kong slang terms and make fun of it.
Yeah, Yeah, of course, every the the slang term, everybody knows
the swear words. That's the easy one.
So let's not even have to go there.
But Lizzie, why Hong Kong slang? Is there any specific reason?
Was this the thing that you've always struggled with?
Was it something you loved? It's definitely something I
loved. With everything I write, I try
to focus on an area of Hong Kong culture, of Cantonese culture,
to be celebrated. I think the language itself is
so funny. And I'm not going to write a
dictionary. I don't claim to be an expert in
speaking Cantonese. I can speak it, but badly.
But I, I just think that Hong Kong or Cantonese slang is so
funny and inventive and, you know, there's so much wit and
hilarity and it's just awesome. And I think it's ever evolving,
right? So you pick up these new phrases
and I guess when I was, I used to play rugby a lot.
So with my rugby teammates especially, they were all
predominantly Cantonese speaking.
They would just say things and it my Cantonese is, is OK, but
it's so literal. So I would like translate it
literally in my head and I'd be like, what do you mean?
You know you've poked a fish ball with your finger.
Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, or like you've got a fried
kale for your leg. There's all sorts of weird
things that I was like and I just fascinated by it, so I
decided to write a book on it and try to put like English
equivalents in there too, so that people could have fun and
see just how clever and funny. You know, like how you could
impress someone, like if you lift you throughout one of these
slang terms out of nowhere, like you kind of go to the whole Joe
son and bam, you're going slang term and like, whoa, what's
going on over here? Like they would never see that
coming. Exactly.
So the one with the poking of the fish fish ball.
OK, Mohammed, I'm going to let you try to guess right.
The canteen's phrase poking of the fish ball.
Don't you that what do you think it?
Actually poking a fish ball? Yeah, basically like a fish
ball. Like the food?
Yeah, OK, so now you're playing some sort of sports.
OK OK yeah, and and some. And someone says oh man, I poked
a fishbowl. What do you think the?
Story like some sort of a bullseye.
Like I nailed it. You nailed it.
Something was a bullseye. You would say there was a
bullseye sort of ish but not in the positive.
Oh, not in the positive. Yeah, it's not a good bullseye.
Like you're in pain. Yeah, you're in me, I see.
What do you think? Have a guess?
What do you think when someone say that I'm poked the fish
ball? Maybe someone got like a black
eye, like someone got hit. You're on the right direction
with the whole with with basically, it hurts you.
It's not a good thing. You don't want to poke the fish
ball. Oh, OK.
Like hit the hit your balls, like your balls.
Yeah. Are you close?
Yeah, he's close, close, close. But it it it's not your balls
that are being hit. OK, so you hit someone else's
balls. But then like it's.
Getting weird. This is what Mohammed, that's
his. You know, I was trying to give
them all the hints you could for any other person, they'd be
like, oh, do you mean like when they're playing sports?
Unless the ball bounces and they hit it by.
Well, that was the ball. My balls.
Yeah, that's basically me. Like you, when you're
translating everything literally, I'm like, what do you
mean? There is a ball and you hit it,
you broke it. Yeah, So what?
Is it so literally look at the picture right?
So basically this you do you want to explain this one?
Sure, it can be like I'm playing rugby and I I reach for the ball
to catch it, but I like stub the ball with my finger or.
Poke the ball. Wow.
OK. It really hurts in English.
You say like you stop your finger or something like that,
but it's kind of like you're poking the stick through the
fishbowl. Yes, yes, yes.
Yes. OK.
So but your finger doesn't go through the ball, obviously.
Wow, OK, but it that seems very specific to like some sports
that would require catching a ball, right?
You can. You can.
Yeah, rugby ball, basketball, soccer ball, anything that
requires a ball. Basically, but it's more about
sports generally. I mean, think about the
situation where you would actually have that happen other
than sports. Like, what are you doing at home
when you suddenly poke your finger into a ball that is the
shape of a basketball, you know? Like so it's it's used to
describe pain. Yes, describe the stubbing of
the finger into a ball sphere. So this is the fun thing with
Cantonese is that they can't just be like, all right, I stub
my fingers like boring. I don't want that.
I want. To give you a visual.
Yeah, give me a visual. Let me feel, Let me, let me
relate to it. I think it's, that's what I love
about Cantonese slang, is that it's always got something,
something fun to it. It's not just like telling you,
oh, you are doing the bad thing. Yeah, that's boring.
Like tell it to me in a fun way. You fucked up, you know?
Yeah. But that's just, you know, still
conceptual. It's boring.
Yeah, it's very. Forgetful.
Or I could say like you're a big headed prawn.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, You know,
like, for example, a Cantonese, what I love as well, when they
insult you saying you're stupid because Annie Lou was asking me
that time, how do you say something someone stupid?
I'm like, well, this classic one is Baci, right?
Like it's just stupid, right? But that's like, that's too
basic. There's no fun too.
Yeah, it's crazy stupid. Not Baci chi scene, you know,
you've got that one, but then you've got the one where the
parents tell the kids. Like very rarely, the parents
tell the kids, you know, like Baci guy, because the reason is
it kind of blame the parents for you to be Pachi, as in you'd be
stupid. Yeah, it's my genetics, right?
So you know what parents like to do, They say which means did you
eat something wrong, that you're so stupid?
And that's like shifting the blame.
Like, did you fuck up? Yes, yes.
You know, like I, I gave a you. Removed the responsibility.
Exactly. Yeah, it's so funny.
I like the parent ones, the parents telling the kids it's
very inventive. Like that's another one there.
Like if you call your kid like, useless, you could be like, oh,
you're like a piece of rice or a bowl of rice, Yakovan.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just like, just there.
Just like what's the Yeah. Or like completely useless kids,
you can tell your kids, oh giving birth to chasse you would
be. Oh, better than you.
Yeah, we have something similar in Arabic actually.
Now I want to like do this in Arabic.
Oh, you should. So what's the equivalent to
franchise you into Arabic? I'll struggle but.
I mean The thing is that obviously with Chase you being
pork, I think Arabic, they won't be using the pork equivalent.
Yeah, probably not cool. I'd rather have a lamb kebab
than have you as a kid, you know, something like that.
We usually we say the leg of a table.
I don't know why. Leg of a table.
Yeah, it's like leg of a table would be more useful, yeah.
Than you I mean, see that again shows you the severity.
Cantonese language doesn't do something like, you know, leg of
a table. Hey, I want to hurt you, but I
want you still feel, you know, usable, right.
This is literally saying you are like a barbecued piece of pork.
Yeah, it's better than you. Like think about what situation
would you kind of go like, hey, you know what I I wouldn't mind
being worse than a piece of BBQ pork.
What situation could you think of that one person would say,
you know what, actually, that's a better place to be.
Barbecue pork? Pretty good.
I don't know. I mean, that's why.
I mean, why would you want to be worse than that?
Like to. Me as someone who does not eat
pork, and to me that, that's a horrific visual already.
So yeah, that's the. Worst, unless you're a bunch,
you're in front of a bunch of halal cannibalists, then you'd
want to be the. Barbecue pork, that is true.
Then you're like, hey, you can't eat this, you know, look at me.
It's just like like kind of less but Muslim exactly only eat each
other. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Must be hello.
Yeah, exactly. Must be.
Hello. They got they got the imam
praying on the side to make sure they edible.
Like don't pray. No, don't do it.
So Hong Kong slang, OK, let's come back to this because I love
the fact that there's a book teaching basically non casting
speakers to learn about Hong Kong slang because this is
something that could totally pull people close to each other.
In other words, it, you know, like the typical, let's say
someone learns one or two sentences.
You know, Josan is very nice. You know, it's like people went
out of the way to learn. But going Hong Kong slang, it's,
it's a point of where you're really learning the, the street
lingo. And that's such a different game
because in school, they're not going to teach you this stuff.
No, teachers are not like, hey, all right, this is what you
write in the exam. But when you go home, you tell
your mom that, right? So I used to have a joke before
where I used to learn my Cantonese from going to the
building security guard. On the first day, I asked him a
question. He said, yeah, the second day.
By the third day, he was pissed off.
And that was the day I learned a Chinese foul language.
And basically his way of teaching me is like, I'm going
to teach you these words, but you tell it to your dad.
But it's about your mom. I'm like, this is pretty cool,
you know? Yeah.
So Cantonese swearing is always, almost always.
You swear by your mom, but you don't say him in Arabic.
Yeah, but you don't tell your mom.
You tell the dad. It's usually like you tell the
give. Me an example.
No, just like do it a little more.
It's like basically from your mother, but it's very rarely
would I be like telling your mom that because your mom's the
subject in the swear? Yes, yes.
I'm not saying that delay you. Know so no one swears at the
woman how do you swear at a? Local mom who?
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I know.
But if you're just the mothers are exempt.
So now that you're a mother. I know I'm good now.
You're good, that's what. Leave me alone.
Yeah, that's what you have because Hong Kong sign, what you
can do, you can touch me. Exactly.
Touch me. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, but that's. Not as powerful, I guess, if
you're like, yeah, if you're saying Delomo to another, yeah,
like, okay, yeah, yeah, exactly. Fine.
But again, Delomo is like fuck yeah, exactly, exactly right.
Yeah. And we also know why.
Your mother. There you go.
You have that as well. But OK, so coming back to this
is the key. So Lindsey, you say you used to
play rugby, right? And a lot of them were Cantonese
speakers. Now, clearly just that sport
itself. For any local person, they'll be
like, Oh yeah, I can imagine them doing a lot of slang and
everything. But did you find it was more
slang or more foul language? Just the casual chitchat banter.
Oh, a bit of everything really. I would say.
And I, I never officially learnt Cantonese because I was, ever
since I was really little, I played rugby and my team mates
were always just speaking. So my Cantonese is really
informal and sometimes I don't even realize.
So I'll be talking. That's why in a lot of business
settings I just pretend I don't speak any Cantonese because it's
just not worth me saying something terrible.
But I'd say a lot of slang was being thrown around.
Obviously when they spoke to me, they tended to drop the slang
just because they're speaking like slightly easier Cantonese
to me. But I'm in a team full of like,
you know, 20 something year old teenagers, like this kind of
group of society. So of course they're speaking
loads of slang. And every time I heard a new
one, I just like loved it. And I wanted to know what, what
do you mean? And then I have a Cantonese
teacher. I do a lesson once a week.
Just since I wrote Sunset Survivors, I had to do a lot of
interviews with people in Chinese.
So I started learning because I was like, well how am I going to
talk about bird cages or stuff if I don't know enough of.
Fixing umbrellas or. Yeah, so I, I started doing
these lessons and so actually the book is written by myself
and my Cantonese teacher. We're just really good friends
now are. Your own Cantonese teacher.
Yeah, so wow. We're just good friends.
Who is not an author? She's well now she is.
Oh, now she is. So that's her first book.
That's her first book, but basically I didn't want to write
the book entirely by me because I don't think I have the right
to write 1/2 Chinese book. That's not fair.
I need someone that's first language is Cantonese, right?
So together we did it. So we worked together.
She told me a lot of new as well.
So we tried to focus on current slang and then some classics as
well. Yeah, that are sort of timeless,
but we work together. So I focused on more on the
translating into English and coming up with the best sort of
English equivalent. And she focused on the more
Cantonese side. But in doing so, I learned all
of these, right. So like you said, if you're in a
cabin, other guys like Joseon, you know, Yeah, I'm not a lot.
You all right? You can be like, yeah, look,
I'll see you, you know? Yeah.
It was a good point.
Like instead of just say, you know, English, you say like, oh,
it's raining. There's a dog.
Right, right, right. Chinese it's like you say, it's
raining dog shit. Right.
Yeah, yeah. Like you.
Said it's more excited. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Then they're like, oh, you speak a little bit and they're like,
oh, do you know any other swear words?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what you want to know,
right? How often do you run into this,
like at the cab, like when you say something back, Obviously,
because people can mistake you for a full white person.
Yeah. How, how tired I am.
So sometimes I just like lean into that Guilo side and yeah,
yeah, totally. Don't speak any.
Yeah. Or if they're talking on their
phone. Yeah, you can hear sometimes,
like about you. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let
it go for a while. Yeah, I'm gonna find.
Feeling aggressive? I can say it but.
Yeah, like, oh, they're like. The train like that.
Yeah. So I'm like, yeah, like, oh,
damn, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In general, people are just harmless.
They just, they just don't assume that you speak it right.
I'd say the biggest compliment about if you do speak some
Cantonese is when if you try and speak it, people don't say
anything like just nothing like that.
They just go with you speaking it and then they speak it back
to you. Obviously it's not my first
language, people can tell that, but if they just keep talking to
me in Cantonese, that's the biggest compliment for me to be
like, OK, you respect the fact that I'm trying and like you're
going to let me go for it. And also, just, yeah, if someone
Chinese spoke to me in English, I wouldn't reply to them in
Chinese because I'm like, oh, you speak decent English and
you're showing that to me. I'm not going to discredit you
by like, let me speak to you in my terrible Cantonese.
It's better than like, no? I see that, yeah, I used to live
in mainland and it's a lot. Obviously like just size wise,
there's a lot more foreigners learning Mandarin and all of
that. And I see that it's always
strange when someone goes to a store.
Clearly the store clerk speaks fluent English.
Yeah, and they just want to get on their business.
And the foreigner with their fucking 5 Mandarin words.
Yeah. Just try.
Yeah. And the guy is like, how can I
help you? It's like, yeah.
And I'm like, please stop. Yeah.
It's so crazy. And the other person just not
interested in practicing is that can I just get your order?
Sometimes they're actually not even Chinese people.
It's just the words like, you know, American born Chinese or
whatever. Yeah, like working in like a
fancy restaurant. And the foreigners are still
trying to with the Chinese. I'm like please please stop.
I lived in Paris for six months when I was younger and of
course, everyone, they were all students trying to learn French,
right? Yeah, In Paris, everyone speaks
English. You're going around, you're
like, okay, bonjour, yeah, I should take whatever.
And they're like, yeah, you can have your coffee here.
Yeah, you're. Like, okay, yeah, they're.
Like you need to learn more French.
I was like, okay. You get annoying people
sometimes like hey, let me give you a book idea because I'm
about to give you one. Do it, I love.
It wow like conversations taxi, like you just sit in a cab and
like see what they're saying on the phone.
Yeah, it's a good one. Isn't that great?
Like I just pulled up a story from my friend who is in a cab
the other day. I'm just reading it verbatim.
The cab driver. Oh, just the best driver
conversation ever. He's on the phone talking to his
body, talking his body out of leaving his wife for.
Some. For some college girl he met
online and the cab driver is pretty sure his body is being
scammed. Dude, you're ugly and you don't
have much money. She's not trying to keep me with
you. Of course you think she's
compatible. That's all part of the plan.
She's perfect. I started, my friend goes.
I started laughing. He's like every.
Even my customer thinks you're retarded.
Oh, you know. Some Ashley Madison stuff right
there. That's very funny.
Oh man, I can totally see like A twist coming.
The guy that she's having an affair with or something drives
an Uber. Like I hate Uber drivers.
Yeah, true. Yeah, if you just scammed right
over drivers, yeah, double whammy.
Double whammy, man. Keep that story because I'm
actually compiling just a really like a fun book of it's called
Taxi Tails there. You go.
That's exactly, Oh my God all. Right.
Funny things that. You're already ahead of me.
All right, I'm sending you this one.
Wow. That's crazy.
And if any listeners have any other tails, yeah.
Send to free, send it over. We'll pass it over, yeah.
There's some funny ones, like, you know, one guy told me that
this cab driver, he was so interesting.
I was speaking to him in English, but he also told me
that he spoke French, Italian, German.
He just loves languages, right? And some guys got in his cab one
time and they were speaking Italian in the back.
And he was so nervous because like he could understand, but he
didn't want them to to know that he could understand because
apparently, well, the way he described it, he was like they
were mafia, you know, they were talking about some really like a
secret deal they would. He wasn't just fantasizing The
Godfather. It was a fantastic story.
There was. But he was like, yeah.
And he's like, part of me was thinking I should drive him to
the police station. What am I gonna do?
Again. Yeah, yeah.
So he's like, no, just drop them off.
Yeah, awesome. Like, that's what the power of
language, right? So I mean, that's I'm not trying
to teach people Cantonese with this book, but even a few little
bits and pieces can open a lot of doors.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, but also like that, as you said, is when you speak
certain Cantonese, people reply to you in Cantonese.
It's kind of them saying, oh, I think you are qualified enough
for me to converse to you in this language.
Yeah. Secondly, tax drivers have must
have the craziest tales ever. They have had all sorts of
people in their cars, for example, from celebrities to
like drunk people to drunk celebrities, which has been like
half of like the paparazzi and stuff.
The gossip, something going on like with all these celebrities,
like oh, cheating on someone else when they were drunk and
the taxi driver had the dashcam. Who they went home with.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Oh my God, they must have like the crazy.
But The thing is, I feel that the taxi driver is probably just
so numb to that with a lie. I just want to go home.
What about that cab driver that found like $10,000 in a suitcase
in the boot of his car like a few years ago?
Do you remember that? And he was like, well, I think
he gave it in because. What an idiot.
Yeah, maybe it was 20,000. Dollars.
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, yeah, like.
Double idiot. Yeah, no.
He kept 10,000 dude. See, it could have been 20,000.
He gave 10,000. That's funny.
He's like, I found 10,000. That's so good.
I guess it's better than nothing.
Yeah. Exactly right.
Yeah. Where did the other 90,000 go?
I don't know. Was that was loyal?
Yeah. Where's my reward?
Yeah, exactly. My.
Reward, reward 20,000. He's like, yeah, I.
Think if you if you give something like that in, if
nobody claims it for a certain amount of time, you keep it.
Yeah, but I don't. Think you want to be known as
the guy that kept that money in case?
No, it's the same like the lottery.
People like you don't want to be known like having this much
money. Oh yeah, yeah.
That, but you don't want like the crime Lords coming for you
because then you're going to be like, oh, sorry, that was my
$20,000 right, right drug money that I left in your cab.
Right. I mean, that's a really good,
smart way to do money laundering.
Like you, unless you have $100,000 trying to declare, you
don't declare. You claim you've lost it.
File a police report. And then after a while, like,
oh, someone found, you know, somebody else.
So like I work with Muhammad where you've picked up 100,000.
I don't know you. I lost 100,000.
I don't have to do taxes for 100,000.
Muhammad doesn't have to do tax for 100. 1000, right?
Yeah. This is how we think.
Yes, it is for criminals, this is.
Just an episode in a row when we're talking about something
illegal on the biggest podcast. Exactly.
Yeah, exactly. Why not?
Probably not. We just stopped.
Last week, to recap if you was last week's episode, we were
talking about credit card fraud and by the way, someone in the
podcast group told me to tell you that there is nothing
illegal about. So to recap, credit card fraud
through Cotton On, what you do is that you basically buy stuff
on Cotton Island. Apparently, at least last time I
went to return, they actually give you cash back, which means
you can keep the credit card points because they don't refund
you via the credit card. Sweet.
Exactly. Yeah, that's what I was saying.
I'm like, I'm just gonna keep doing that and use the credit
card points. And my friends who works in
financial services actually said that that's there's nothing
illegal about this because they're just using the refund
policy. You'd have to buy a lot of denim
shorts to to make that work out. Yeah, exactly.
But you can just go, you know, I don't fucking have a job.
I would go to every. Store another pair of shoes.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you can also you mix it up,
you can go to like like they have I think 30 days return
policy. So you just keep it for a bit.
Yeah, yeah. Just keep, you know, stuff,
stuff at your place and then just like go back after like
three weeks after they forget about you.
These are some hot tips, Thanks. Yeah.
Thank you. Yeah, Yeah, exactly.
But I was looking at the book, actually, while you're writing
it. Did you go into the history of
how the origin of these phrases came?
Because some of them are really funny.
I was just looking at the one that says Konchi.
I'm probably messing up the tones, but literal public toilet
meaning a woman that has had sex with a lot of people and
seemingly has no standards. And then there is an example and
then English equivalent village bicycle.
Yeah, but I'm wondering where did the phrase come from?
Maybe not this one, but did you go into?
Not necessarily for this one, there wasn't necessarily.
I mean, that's just quite literally.
Yeah, a toilet that people, yeah, random people use a lot,
right? Please unzip.
Yeah, it's also very strong straightforward 1.
Yeah. But there was, there was a lot
of them that had like a lot of the historical context or there
was a story that went back or there's sometimes there's
several. They mentioned here the stories.
We don't mention them, they didn't apply to all of them and.
You don't wanna leave some. Hours, yeah, some had them, some
didn't, but what we're doing is kind of those that did, we sort
of talk about them when we have the book launches and book
things like this, but we'll mention a few of them.
There you go, here's your chance.
Think yeah. I mean, yeah, go for it.
So let me remember when. You hear about this book, it's
really good. Yeah, go through.
Remember we did the Samsung ad last week.
It actually has these phrases the the Samsung Galaxy AI can
now translate. It does, yeah.
Amazing that. Yeah, yeah.
We were just, yeah, we're just shooting an ad for Samsung AI,
and it actually translates the Hong Kong slang.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some of the slang, I was like,
yeah, they it's, it's in their system as well.
That's amazing. OK, let me can.
You just feed the whole book into the system.
Maybe it already has that, maybe what you need.
I guess if your book lives online somewhere.
I mean, I'll put it this way, like it's a matter of time
before let's say Samsung and all these people kind of connect
with you and do some sort of campaign with the crossover.
Where's the Hong Kong slang versus that gassy AI think?
Yeah, and maybe if they want some humor.
I mean, it's funny, we we did A at the launch we did like one,
this is not APC term, but one super Guilo and one like local
Hong Konger and sort of suggested like what's read out
one slang to the other and tried to get them to guess what they
were talking about right. So an English speaker that has
no concept of Cantonese would would have to read out the the
English equivalent. Yeah, right.
That's for the Chinese one. And then you gotta guess what it
is. But it's fascinating to see what
people think things are. Like do that now.
Yeah, exactly. That was Rebecca.
You haven't read the book. Ladies, all right, welcome to
the show. This is, of course, Hong Kong.
Special edition. I'm reading the meaning right,
so I'm not reading the literal. Well, OK, you don't read it,
we'll read one to you maybe, and then you guess what it is.
OK, so. OK.
You try that and then we'll try
one reverse where I'm trying to guess what you're referring to.
Yeah. OK, we'll try that.
All right. Why?
Don't you try them on this. One, this one.
Yeah. OK, OK, OK, So I'm supposed to
read him the literal, right? Yeah.
OK. Basically to have one foot on
two boats to have one foot. On two boats, two birds, one
stone. Thing no, it's kind of yes ish
the concept. Was like Oh no, maybe two be
hesitant. No, no, no, no.
Yeah, but one foot. One foot on two boats.
So basically one basically one foot on, there are two boats in
total, one foot on one the other foot.
Yeah, that's what I was. Showing the image.
Yeah, maybe show me the image. Yeah, I could, I could.
OK. But only look at the image,
right? Don't see it, right?
Yes, yes. So right over here, you see
that? That's the image OK.
OK, so you're listening in on two different conversations.
Are you involved? In if you're good, I mean you
are involved and if you're good at what you're doing, then yes,
you would be listening to conversations.
But generally if you do it tasking of sorts, if you're
doing this sort of thing, it's very unlikely you'd be such a
nice person to listen to two conversations.
You probably not even listen to either, but when I revealed you
want to tell what I'm referring to.
But like, think about like when when one person has one foot on
one boat and one foot on the other, right?
Like think about what the concept could be.
Yeah, you're split between two things, 222.
Two. Yeah, yeah.
That, that's on the right direction.
You're not fully. Dedicated, but give me a
situation. Give me think about the
situation. You saw the picture just now.
OK, You saw the picture just now.
What do you think the situation is specifically referring to?
To have your one foot on one boat and the other foot on the
other. Huh.
Boat. Yeah, specifically boat.
Not just anything. The boat is just a metaphor.
Yeah, just to have it right. Yeah.
So it's a boat.
Can be anything. Yeah.
Yeah, Yeah. All right.
Well, tell me because. All right, Yeah, I need to.
Know okay so basically this would be cheating in other
words. Yeah, okay.
I was pretty close. I was like, yeah, not being
like. Multitasking doesn't.
Yeah, I was like, yeah, I'm like.
No where. The where multitasking is a form
of cheating. Cheating is a form of
multitasking. Wow I mean a lot of people hung
are cheaters then man. I mean cheating all day, right?
As a mother, my God, you just non-stop.
I'm just going to take that out of context and that would be the
sound bite. Yeah, great.
Nice guy. I'll cheat all day.
Actually come divorced and over there.
Yeah. So you're splitting your time.
You are cheating or two timing or right.
Right to have more than one relationship.
Yeah, two. Yeah, yeah, Your feet on
separate boats. So technically the idea is you
won't really survive in the long term.
Yes. You can't really go anywhere
with this. But like, you enjoy it while you
can't. So when you're bored, you go to
this side. You when you bored at that side.
Yeah, you have that. All right.
OK, I tell you what, How about this more.
You really won. Yeah, the give.
Me the literal. Give me.
Give me the I think. Give me the literal.
Let me try to get you just translate.
It OK give me the meaning just. Have to give you the.
Meaning. Give me the meaning.
Let me I. Did you nominate 1?
All right, let me tell you we. Start off with an easy one.
Yeah. Am I giving you the?
You're giving him the if you give me the.
Literal then I'll probably already translate into Canadians
and know what it is. Skype means it's fluid, yeah.
So OK, let's rule. No, no Meaning.
Meaning Meaning meaning. OK, to be cuckolded or a man
that's being cheated on. Oh.
OK, OK, OK. I think I already know this from
past experience. It's called to wear a Talot
mole. It's like the green hat.
To wear a green. We actually, I knew that too,
because we even did a sketch in China because it's in.
Mainland. We did a sketch in China with a
foreigner walking around with the green hat not knowing what
the significance is, so I would. See, that's one historically.
Like you would make a green hat if you would, yeah.
Yeah, that's why Luigi never got the Princess.
Actually, the hat, yeah. Like the guy that you got me,
man. There is a there is a scene
where the main character and me, both of us are wearing green
hats. I cannot know what it means.
Yeah, he knew. He learned, and I didn't.
And we're just, like, standing next to each other in a urinal.
And I'm a stranger to him. And he just started telling me,
like, it's OK, we'll get better. Yeah.
And a urinal. And I'm just, like, my only word
is creep. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. All right, let's try this.
Another one. Let's go one more.
Yeah, let's try. Let's try.
So to get rejected or an English equivalent, we would say like to
get pied. To get rejected, Bay and Fay,
would it be like to let someone fly you?
Not in that sense, but more relationshipy.
Yeah, a sick like MO. Yeah, eat the lemon.
Yeah, yeah. You're good.
Yeah, it's all right, man. Clearly it shows my level of
Cassidy is not that polite. All right, actually.
I have one for you. Yeah, yeah.
Last one. Meaning a preference of dating
or having sex with western men only.
At Guimui Guimui sengat IIIIA very gong lo Kong.
Lo, even more horrendous. Yeah, more.
It's, it's the literal. It's very visual.
This is probably one that I was like oh do I put this in this?
This, I don't know. Yeah, I'm trying to think that
like specifically like Guilos basically, right.
Yeah, so it's actually, I would make it a little easier for you
because I'm just conscious of the time.
Yeah, it's something. The literal has something to do
with eating. I think young, huh?
Nice. Yeah, nice.
OK, OK, well there you go. So like, yeah, this is a fun
thing #1. It's so fun.
It's. A fun thing, right?
Number one, it's. Actually, this game that we just
played is really fun, too. Yeah.
Obviously we're promoting the book, but aside from, like,
learning about it, this is a fun game to just.
Yeah. Like, I think what you should
do, you should have a new edition of the book, like Hong
Kong Client Game Edition with just one page extra.
It's like with the rules in front.
Yeah, the same exact. Book, you know, turn into a
drinking game. Yeah.
Yeah, we think like cards and stuff.
Like that? Yeah, you kind of guess it and
make it seem like one of those learning cards.
People actually make the mistake of thinking they actually
learning proper Cantonese, right?
Let me learn some Cantonese. Yeah, flash cards.
Yeah, flash cards, you know you have those.
Actually I want to translate like translate to the audience.
What does that? What does that mean?
The last one Because we didn't. Say young Chung.
So basically eat is sick, right? Yung is western and Chung is
sausage. Yeah, yes, eat Western.
Sausage and even the the the graphic is pretty funny.
Yeah, the cartoon or the illustration?
I'm just. Showing Oh my God, it's.
Like, actually a Chinese girl. Yeah, sausage.
Like a really long sausage. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Sorry, it was my it was my rugby
teammate that actually did all the images.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Nice. She.
Sent me that one in the family. Yeah, I tried to, yeah.
That's really good. No, but OK, so coming back to
this, the Hong Kong slang thing #1 is this is like one of those
phrase a day things that I could see.
I can still see this becoming a calendar like 365 days a year
and every day. What's the slang for the day?
And you know, like, let's say Toastmasters Hong Kong, they'd
love to have like the word of the day.
You have to keep using it. That should be the thing.
You know those classic Chinese calendars that you know?
Yeah. Yeah, with the big number of
green ones, they. Just add that to the.
Yeah, exactly right. That's the slang of the day and
you have to see how much you can use, which will be funny because
then I'm sure someone sometimes when someone gets sick young
child. Oh.
It's my lucky. Day in the office.
Like, no dude, no, no. No, no, no, the boss said.
Why is it we're not going to draw?
Hey, I'm sorry. We got to get the cock done.
You're the only foreigner here. Yeah.
Help us out. Yeah.
What is the story behind the cover graphic?
So the cover is true. It's like basically I want to
say not a chick, that's a cock, right?
Like a chicken. Chicken.
Oh, it's not like necessarily a man like a male.
OK, so it's chicken talking to a duck and both of them are having
question marks over their heads. Yeah, So they're trying to talk
to each other, but they don't understand each other.
I see. Which is Kaitong app Gong or
maybe? Kaitong app gong which?
Is oh. So this is one of them as well.
OK, I see. Oddly enough, you know the
beginning opening tag of that Samsung ad, That's me saying,
hey everyone, this is an example of Kaitong app Gong.
Literally me saying that way. And then so we did this ad where
MO is in a century egg store trying to buy century eggs.
He's having the argument saying like century is 100 years and
the guy's like, because in Chinese is a teen seen Dimes
with 1000 years. You know, they're arguing.
And I was like, this is an example of keto Knopcom where
they don't really get each other.
Yeah, that was the beginning. So there you go.
That's so funny. Which?
Again, see. Makes sense.
She's got it on her cover. That was the first opening
night, which is exactly the explaining the typical two
people cannot communicate with each other, which all the keto.
Knopcom was a very famous Michael Hay movie.
Yeah, that was a very good movie as well.
It's a comedy. Tell me about the movie.
Dude way too long ago man. I was like a young boy at the
time. Oh, so it's like a very.
Old classic. Did you watch it, Linda?
I didn't, but I should watch it soon.
Yeah. Basically it's like two people
there sort of on two different wavelengths.
Or like whether that's because of a language or because of
exactly that situation, like the English and the Chinese doesn't
match up. You know, two people just
discussing the same thing but not really getting through to
each other. Yes, yes.
So that's kind of a comedy. The front cover as well, because
it's like, well, this book hopefully will yeah, stop that
I. Mean think about the different
situations you could have this for example, number one, this
could be a great hamper gift of like someone who's new to Hong
Kong be like here's the book you want to go learn the actual like
Ngoi and Joe sons and this is the book without survival
skills. Yeah, for sure exactly.
Now this is the book you want to say when you go to let's say,
the Cha cha hang. And when you say that, man, you
will, you'll be getting, I don't know, a free bowl of soup or.
Something all right, Don't go crazy.
No one is giving you anything free.
That's true. That was just me endorsing
certain problems. All right.
So is there an equivalent to like, slangs in Arabic?
That's. Oh yeah.
It's actually a very like similar thing.
It's such an old language. So what, rich?
What's the term for two people who cannot communicate with you?
Just like the cover over here, the duck and the chicken.
Oh, I have to think I haven't lived there for 12 years.
Fair enough. Like obviously I speak it
fluently. Yeah, off the top of your head
any any slang term you can think of.
Right now I would have to look up a couple and then I would get
back to you. You guys talk amongst each
other. OK, so the weather, Yeah,
really. Go more.
All right, so basically, again, for everybody here, there's a
whole bunch of these. How many like this is like how
many there's like easily, Yeah, there's more than 100 terms
right over there. So right over here, that's
already 130 a year that you could be playing this game.
And the best part is I guarantee after 100 pages, you go back to
the first page. That's where you get to test
your Cantonese level. Have you actually learned and
used it? Have you really professionally
been able to apply this? And I think will be really cool.
For example, like for example, phone fake a like letting over
the airplane. That's so let someone not brush
them off, like kind of back out, bail on someone.
Yeah. And I think that in itself, if
you suddenly message someone out of nowhere when you're bailing
on them and you say I'm gonna have to phone fake AI think they
can't be mad at you. Yeah, they're like, wow, dude,
that's amazing. Yeah, I know you knew that.
Yeah, exactly. I accept the apology.
Yeah. Don't worry.
Don't come to the wedding. Yeah.
Exactly. It's fine.
I mean, I'll marry someone else. I mean, you're supposed to be
there, but fine, you know? Who can too?
Yeah, exactly. I'll take that right.
Yeah. A lot of us, like a lot of
people back home, especially the older generation, use a lot of
like sayings like to describe situations.
Yeah. And it's it's just gorgeous.
Like how much they can actually like milk out of one.
Like this one is about all of it is about marriage and one
directly translates to whoever doesn't use.
It's obviously all the sayings rhyme, right?
So in Arabic they rhyme. So it doesn't, it doesn't matter
what I say in Arabic you don't understand, but it translates to
if you don't get married with your cheeks, you get married
with your ancestors. Basically means like if you
can't use your looks, lose your money.
Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, there's so many of
them. One simply says the bride is
tall and the door is short. It basically means the bride
like she is out of his league. OK.
Yeah, yeah. No go, I thought.
But I. Mean no like you're getting
married but she's tall and the house is small so the door is.
Short Wow. Is there a Cantonese equivalent
for out of someone's league? No, I don't think so.
I think I can't think of the if someone's ideal league.
No, I I have never heard of that.
I I can't think of that one. Yeah, I don't even know that.
One and this one says pluck your your birds feathers before they
fly away to somewhere else. Oh, get what you can while you
while. No, it's basically pluck their
feathers so they don't go and cheat on you.
Oh yeah, like the feathers. So they don't fly.
Go somewhere else about the relationships.
Yeah, well, this one. That's why I thought all your
things, like make sure the ladies can't go nowhere.
Yeah, hold them down. Yeah, that's basically it.
That's it. Hold them down by plucking their
feathers. Another bird, one in Cantonese,
is like a no legged bird, a bird with no legs.
What is that? I don't know actually.
A bird like or someone that doesn't want to commit to
anything. Oh.
OK, OK, OK. Women or something?
Like that. Oh, yeah, I see.
Yeah, I guess it's like like a plan with no legs, Like it's
quilted in English, right? Yeah, but like a bird like
flying around and never lands on anything because.
It has no legs. Yeah, it's like.
Basically never. Wanting to, yeah, that's pretty
similar, yeah. There's like a lot of bird ones,
a lot of ghost ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
One of my favorite ones that recently actually came out, and
I believe maybe five or six years ago was on the news when
one of the reporters was asking this person about some toys or
some Comic Con whatever. And the guy told the reporter,
like Lasiktiv teet man, like you don't know a piece of metal.
And that became a new slang phrase that everyone says,
Lasiktiv teet, man. And it became so great that even
like even Samsung has it. It's in their system, really.
Yeah. Yeah.
So. How much are they paying you to
keep mentioning them? 10 times, yeah.
Yeah, I didn't get a. Because like when I did, when I
do my research, I'm like, Oh my God, they got these phrases.
Well, this is that's impressive. Super current.
Yeah, that's super current, you know, but I think like those I
guess phrases. AI it's like constantly updated,
right? Like there is like a new movie
and there is now a new slang. But there seems to be new slang
all the time. All the time, yeah.
Every time I learn one my friend's like God that's so old.
Yeah, yeah. He's such a my friend's like.
Lindsay Yeah, exactly. I went.
Back home for the first time last year in five years and Oh
my God, I felt like my friends just looked at me like it's
right to hang out with my friends.
And I'm using the phrase like, not just like from five years
before, but actually the phrase that I knew from 12 before I
left. I thought they were still hip
and cool and Oh my God, they laughed at me so much.
But it also made me feel like shit because I'm like, Oh yeah,
I don't live here anymore. Like they're using different
words. And I'm like, why is this a bad?
I actually have to be like, why is this a bad word?
And they're like, oh, it's probably from this movie.
You're not here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's why you need a book like this Hong Kong slang right over
there to stay above the time you need the Arabic slang.
You need like basically every sort of slang you.
Should do the Arabic slang one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That would be a real fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK. Yeah, Just call my friends,
like, yeah, exactly. Just catch up with a lot of them
and be like, hey, So what do you guys use now?
Yeah, That could be really useful for like, yeah, someone
who's, like, learning a little bit or like even a tourist was
trying to like, blend in and impress the locals.
But I think that's the thing with Cantonese, see, now every
language, obviously the second lesson you will learn is a is
this foul language? That's always the go to thing.
Of course, that's like many language though.
Yeah. But I think Cantonese, just like
Arabic, I think the slang is so unique because it's it's such a
street lingo with Cantonese, right?
And it became a thing where people just start saying that.
And that became the term, for example, in Cantonese, we try to
always shrink the words down. So instead of chasu chi Gai farm
Basi chasu and the chopped chicken rice, just go chakafan.
So you actually take just enough words to get.
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, just enough words
to get what I'm saying. So it's always shrinking as much
as you can to kind of get to the point.
You know, it's one of those things.
And I think that's what I appreciate.
The language is Hong. Kong efficiency like you don't
say though, yeah. And exactly the point, Yeah, if
I said like, oh, I got a bail on you, I'm really sorry about
that. It's kind of like, oh, you know,
too much talk. What you did is straight up you
just build on me. Just, you know, you let me out,
you know, kind of a thing. So I think that's what sign
does. Like straight up, let's go to
the point. The core point is I can't
understand you. That's it.
It doesn't matter. Like we can't be like.
Like Cantonese as a whole, isn't it Because I think a lot of
English people that try to speak Cantonese or learn Cantonese,
you try to apply the same like politeness strategy.
So in English you say, I'm so sorry.
Would it be possible if I could do this, all this conditional
and stuff, right? And if I like I used to try and
do it in Cantonese to be like, oh moisi, oh hoyi, like doesn't
really work like it's super to that point, like.
You're just annoying people, you know?
Actually, what do you want, man? Like, you know, I just want to
I'm really sorry to bother you, but you know, really nice of you
could pay like what the fuck do you?
Yeah, yeah, I just. Say it.
Probably why English speaking people think that Cantonese
people are really rude. They're not being rude, they're
just saying they just translating it from the Chinese
into English, right? I think the one thing with
Cantonese that it's kind of it's so slangy that you can't be too
polite when you're too polite. It's too pretentious.
It's like, OK, something's going round, right?
This can't be right, you know? You're being too nice to me.
Yeah. What?
What?
What it? Is hilarious that the language
is known for not being too polite.
It is. I think it's just the way it's
been used. Because of course, yeah.
Yeah, and but think about like, honestly, like when even.
Let's be honest, we kind of know that half of this stuff is
bullshit anyway. How's it going, Emmanuel?
Good day. You know, I was like, shut up.
Nobody cares, right? Yeah, but it became a thing
where in Kathy's people were willing to accept that.
Dude, let's not waste our time with this shit.
Let's just come to terms and all agree that this is unnecessary.
Let's get to the point, which is why when people actually do have
conversations, and I think that's the one thing I
appreciate about Canton is that when you actually have a deep,
genuine conversation, people will know.
They'll know that they're like, dude, this guy's really talking
sense. He's like, he's not just saying
random stuff because he really means it.
And I think which is why the whole thing about even like the
you and everything, the way you say it signifies your
relationship with somebody. What you genuinely mean.
It's not just like fuck you was like, no, no, there's much more
to it. Like one of my jokes was again
with a bunch of friends when they show up and let's say you
show up late, they all in unity. Go deal, right?
It's a. Very, very long deal.
So the length of the deal is equivalent to the length of your
relationship. You know, if you're on the
street and you bump to a guy, what is it like that's super
short? And you learn from that.
You learn that it's the way you say it that makes the
difference. It's not so much the word
itself, like deal with that thing, which is why, again, it's
like in English, you have the absolute fucking lutely kind of
stuff. But like in you got the MO LAN
young, you know it means so different more like not useful.
And MO LAN Young is like fucking useless like MO Young is.
Literally the word for like Dick.
Yeah, right. Yeah, Like, yeah.
No Dick use. Yeah, no Dick use yeah.
You know, but to say Li MO Young, yeah, it's kind of like,
oh, you're not very useful, right?
You say Li MO London was like, you're fucking useless, right?
It's so great. It's.
More playful. It's like even though you're
adding the swear word, it actually is like, holds less
weight, Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
You know. That's something I enjoy about,
like, stuff like this, is that you can actually add something
like a rude word that makes it more jokey.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And yeah, do you guys have other examples of that?
OK, so one of the jokes they had before that I really like, but I
don't translate English. I'm trying to say this.
One of the jokes is what? Hong Kong International Airport,
a male toilet, right, And you're supposed to think of a phrase.
It's a engagement quotation line.
She Internet. Okay, yeah.
And basically the phrase is malando Yao.
What that means is malando means it has everything.
Okay, that's the same term, but literal translation means mutt
is what Dick is LAN, and then toyo is has.
So the Hong Kong International Airport mail toilet has all
sorts of Dicks, right? Yeah, I see.
So that's perfectly on the word, Yeah.
If I heard that, I would only understand that version, I
wouldn't know the formal version.
Oh yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's all.
You know, so I'd be like, well, that's kind of weird.
Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I'm like, oh, I get it.
Because has all sorts of Dicks. Ah, you know.
But that's like a lot of why I started writing this book,
because there were so many occasions where I was like, I've
understood, but I've definitely understood incorrectly.
In my head, the literal translation does not compute.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
That's the thing. Like when people tell you this
stuff, you sound like shit. I want to ask them, but it's
kind of weird if I don't because I'm going to completely
misunderstand what they really mean.
And I'm going to do the wrong thing and they're going to come
back and be like, why the hell are the chickens and eggs and
ducks talking? The fuck is wrong with this?
You. Know totally like I remember one
of the first things in rugby that took you Dan thing was one,
but then the other thing was like Tao Gailan right.
So it's like oh, if you get like a dead leg or in super British
language you'd call it like a Charlie horse.
Like if you get hit in the leg really hard, for example, you
get like a dead leg. So the Chinese version of that
is my friends would be like, oh, I've got like fried kale, fried
Chinese vegetables. Do you know what I mean?
And I'd be like, what? Yeah, and they'd.
Be like, tell the coach. Tell the coach I've got a fried
vegetable. And I was like, are you hungry?
Excuse me, Coach Candy has a fried vegetable.
I don't know what that means. Yeah.
So you're saying that in Cantonese?
Yeah, this is the saying is that like, and I was like and I would
just like say, I don't know. What?
Well, the coach of Chinese, right?
So I would just like passing the message along, be like, why is
someone on the floor over there? Oh, she's got a dead leg, but
she's got some fried vegetables. I already know what that means,
but. But that's kind of like what
sparked the interest in it. Yeah.
That's the deeper level, yeah. Just seeing the deeper level of
a language where it's the local, local, local.
Super, yeah, I think a lot of what I try and write about
Sunset survivors is getting to know Hong Kong.
Old, old Hong Kong, old history industries, right.
Then I wrote Welly, the Wild War, which was just a kids book
introducing young kids to Hong Kong stuff, food, right.
Mainly, right. And then there's this one.
But a lot of what I do is centred around this idea of
being a like a third culture kid.
So I grew up in Hong Kong. I feel like I'm from Hong Kong,
but I don't think I know enough about Hong Kong to to call
myself a fully Hong Kong person. But I don't really have anywhere
else that I would consider myself being.
From Yeah. You might relate.
Same area. Yeah.
But so I think that that the way I look at it is you only protect
what you love. You only love what you
understand. So if I can help more people
have a greater understanding of Hong Kong culture in whatever
way, then you do feel more connected to it.
Certainly writing these books has brought me a lot closer to
Hong Kong. I have a much greater
understanding of my own home. I don't think I'll ever be fully
accepted as a Hong Konger. I don't look Chinese.
I'm a quarter Chinese, 26% according to my DNA test.
But so I I've stopped sort of caring that people are like my
LMA and they're like no, no, no, I'm like I'm from Hong Kong.
No, no, no, no, originally, originally, right, Right.
Damn. I don't know.
Like my mum is originally Macanese from a cow, but she's
lived here for like 5 generations.
Her family have been here. My dad is British, although
mixed but mainly British, yeah, but has lived here since he was
5 so I don't, yeah. Everyone's just from here.
Yeah, yeah, I've never lived anywhere else.
I don't really understand. But anyway, so the next book I'm
writing, which is super interesting, I've been
interviewing and maybe you guys can come into this, but it's all
about third culture kids. So other people, just some like
myself and Vivek as well. But also, you know, there's a
lot of people in Hong Kong, there's army families that have
lived in like, you know, 11-12 different countries that are now
calling Hong Kong home, but they don't really have this concept
of home that's, you know, formed as much missionary families.
I interviewed this guy from the Pakistani community in Hong Kong
who is so ingrained in local culture and life that he's just,
you would just think he's Chinese.
Like he's speaking to him everything he's Chinese, right?
But of course people don't accept that, right.
So it seems to be that it's really only like certain Asian
countries you have to be Chinese by blood to be accepted as
Chinese. Whereas if someone in the UK,
for example, that maybe looked Asian, looks Chinese, the Prime
Minister, sure, yeah, yeah. He would be like, where are you
from? And if he's like London, you
wouldn't be like, no, no, originally he's from London.
I've moved. Past that, like, I guess maybe
like 20-30 years ago that was still the case, yeah.
But now it's like, yeah, if you're from New York, same
thing. It's like, all right, just some
black person from new. York totally the end or like.
A Latino person looking. Chinese in Canada or where are
you from? Vancouver.
Sure you're from Vancouver exactly.
Question that. Of course, you're from
Vancouver, right? Do you think Hong Kong would get
to a point where it's more of that that's more accepted?
Because our friend Cassie Thomas, the same thing.
Cassie is born in Hong Kong. Yeah.
And she's. Yeah, Yeah.
And she's fully white. Yeah.
And she just says I'm from Hong Kong and it's the same thing.
Yeah. Yeah.
Just like, huh? It's it's difficult and I'm
people are always going to be like, oh, no, you're American or
you're English or whatever it may be.
What, what passport do you hold? Right.
And actually hold both, But they're like, duh.
So you're English because I hold that one.
I'm like OK. They're just waiting for you to
confirm whatever they have already decided that you are
right. But I feel like people are much
more comfortable putting you in a box, right?
And if you fit the box, OK, boom, they can just leave that
they just they. Otherwise, yeah, people, like,
don't like what they don't understand, right.
Like, exactly what do you mean? You're from?
Yeah. Why do you speak Cantonese?
This is confusing. It's weird, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
So that's why I'm interviewing all these people.
And I think it's fascinating because like I interviewed two
siblings, They both grew up in Hong Kong and they're originally
Irish. But you know, they, they both
kind of are from Hong Kong their whole lives, right?
One of them said I'm from Hong Kong.
The other one said I'm Irish, even though I've never actually
lived in Ireland. But it's just like certain
things that have happened in their life and things like this,
just they claimed that whether you claim the passport country
or the host country as your own. But I just think this whole idea
of being a third culture kid in Hong Kong is super, super
interesting and that the different ways that we think
about it. So that's kind of where I'm
going. But I think all of these things
and trying to celebrate Hong Kong culture is to be like, OK,
sure, you might not be accepted as a Hong Konger yourself, but I
do think you will gain a hell of a lot of respect from learning
more about Hong Kong culture if you actually pay some time into
it. Yeah, I wanna go back to the
taxi driver thing because while are you interview actively
interviewing them? I'm sort of just like, I just
put it out there. While you go like collecting.
The stories. And then it'll be like, kind of
like a toilet book, you know what I mean?
Right, Right. Yeah.
But yes. Why?
Do you have some more? No, I would like to them to know
that they're not very nice people.
Most of them in general, Like they're actually like, you know,
for all the travelling and everything.
Hong Kong is like I, I hate to say, but it's true.
Like they're notoriously bad. Sure.
And like if. You've been in this taxi.
You know, when they like drive like that, like up and down, up
and down, like a like a rabbit is driving you like what are you
doing, you know? And it's also like, this is
still a rich place. Like I mean obviously everyone
has their struggles and everything, but like there are
much poorer place and people are struggling even more and the
taxi drivers are not as bad. It's something very unique to
Hong Kong taxi driver. Like you should write a book
about how terrible they are. That's my idea for the.
Book I get like half, half the book is like the passengers
stories and then half the book is the taxi drivers, right.
So every time I go take a cab, I always ask the guy any funny
stories? Like, have you ever had any bad
passengers? Yeah, good passengers, yeah.
And the story's been pretty, pretty good, you know?
Yeah, just very, very grumpy people.
Yeah, you know, cab drivers saying like, oh, this couple
having an argument in the back and the stuff that he can
overhear. Yeah.
He's nice. Oh, then you just pretend you
don't speak English and you can keep on the act in it.
Just to make sure, when you do the taxi driver book, make sure
there's an audiobook version so they can listen to all the
drivers and they're like, guys, you got to listen to this one.
This is go to chapter 3 right now.
This is this is talking Us. Yeah, I remember that time.
Call that guy up because it was his story.
There is a guarantee mentioned on the podcast before for a
while ago, he he had a taxi driver that was like, I think he
said something racist like to another tech or like a passenger
off the road or something. And then our other friend Tim
was trying to get the tech riling up the taxi driver, and
he just said something like a very specific phrase about
Indian people that I think he shared on the podcast.
And is it OK? Yeah, he never go back to India
or something, right? Yeah, so the taxi drivers be
abusing, abusing like an Indian person, a passenger or whatever.
And then our other friends like, tell me more about Indians.
And he just went on. And then Gang said he said one
specific phrase that is very long and it's just like,
horrible. But he said it was like, I also
like, just like, beautifully racist.
Yeah. It's just like, how the fuck did
you come up with that for? Some reason, like sitting within
that car with all the doors and windows shut, they just feel
like they can say anything. They want, right?
No. One's recording here.
Now they probably are on that. Exactly, but it's their.
Own car, they can say whatever they want.
I mean, there is a slang phrase that Chong and fought kind of
made famous for one of the movies where I think he was
specifically talking to an Indian person, but he was he was
saying that Pangyao fando sick too.
Like he was telling you like, hey, man, go back to India, you
need a banana. And that became like.
I remember it. I think the English was yeah,
6262. 62. Yes, I think the English was his
browner than my asshole and it smells as bad.
It could be Wow and. I think that is the exact
equivalent. To that, yeah.
Yeah. But that became a phrase.
And every now and then I would actually joke if I'm holding a
banana and stuff and I look at you on my higher high.
Yeah, I know. I know what you're thinking.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking.
You know, like they're like, I wasn't thinking that until you
pointed out like, oh, and you are now.
Controlling people just. Holding.
I'm so OK with it like. That that asshole one is like,
so poetic you can't even be mad, right?
Exactly. That's why.
I'm why it's too shy. Nice.
Exactly, Yeah. Smells just as Spanish.
Exactly, so that's what I mean. Learn to accept Hong Kong slang
and you will live a better life here in Hong Kong.
I mean, in general also, I think we might have mentioned it with
any recently on the podcast. It's like, it's fine if you're
like, it's all in jest. Like if you're making fun of
each other. Yeah, as long as you're not
trying to like, you know, offend.
So unless you, you know, mentioned someone's mom, that's
when everyone said, all right, man, calm down.
Yeah. But like, the the racial stuff,
I enjoy it, you know, not being, you know, a white person myself
or whatever. It's just.
Like, yeah. But like if it makes me laugh.
Yeah, yeah. Imagine if you could turn around
to that guy and give him one back.
Exactly. He.
Would. Love exactly.
If I had your book, I would just well.
There we go. Exactly.
Wait, wait. Give me a minute.
Yeah. Page you know you have like
posted notes on it. This is for the taxis, the green
ones for these guys, the red ones for those guys.
Like, wait, wait in a second. Yeah.
Your mom is Kochi. Yeah.
Yeah, it'll be funny people like, that's actually true.
Nice. Let me tell you about that
story. Like, damn it.
Yeah. So how do people find your book,
Lindsey? Well, you know, after writing a
very serious book in Sunset Survivors and then writing Welly
the Wild Boar for Kids, I was a bit worried when I was coming
out with this one. I was like, am I about to
destroy my reputation here or is this OK?
But the fact that it's celebrating Cantonese culture,
right? And I think it's actually been
quite successful. I think because people do enjoy
like learning about this. And it I think because it
applies to like Cantonese speakers and English speakers as
well, because it's got both sides.
So my local friends have like really found it funny to see
what the English equivalents are.
And then my like white friends, western France have found it
really funny to see what the Cantonese is.
Yeah. So I mean, it's it's fun, right?
So we play a lot of games with it.
It's like it makes people, you know, cool in their offices.
They can go and say a couple of silly things to their colleagues
and stuff and be like Lindsay, that nice one on that Kong tea
or whatever, like, yeah, that helped me out, like things like
that. So it's been it's been really
good. I think we'll do another kind of
party or or something with it, but.
Amazing. And how do people buy it?
Where do buy it from? A lot of bookstores around Hong
Kong so you've got Bookazine God, it's available in the
airport in God as well. So nice good little souvenir if
you're leaving Hong Kong or going somewhere and want to give
people a little taste of Hong Kong, but.
You said that you self published and I would like to talk to you
about this because it's very interesting that you made that
decision. However, we're out of time, so
that's going to be on the Patreon.
All right. So patreon.com/hoho Pod, when
you hear Lindsay talk about self-publishing her book, this
is the first time you're self published, right?
Yeah. But also we're on Patreon every
week. It's a very good way to support
the podcast. And we're we're moving to a
video soon and we'll get you back on because we are picking
our good looking guests and there is like five of them.
So I'm going to let. Your other guests know that,
yeah. Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, we'll get you back on with the next book hopefully.
What what is your do target date?
I've got a couple of books coming out.
One is a sequence to the The Wild Boar one.
It's about a porcupine called Pickle, just likes Hong Kong
transport. And then you got Taxi Tales and
you got the third Culture Kids one, so hopefully by the end of
the year. That's a very quick turn around
because this one is just last last year, right?
Christmas. Yeah, that was Christmas.
Yeah, it they are pretty straightforward to write, like a
kids book, straightforward to write.
But then my illustrator is working incredibly hard and
she's very talented. She was a student at KG Five.
I was giving a talk on Sunset survivors and then she showed me
some of her work and I just thought it was awesome.
So she ended up, I asked her if she'd like to illustrate the
kids book because I tried to support Hong Kong is like people
growing up in Hong Kong and working in Hong Kong.
And I feel like when I was very new to writing, people gave me a
a chance to do some work. And that was, I really respected
that and I really admired that and I was really happy.
So I tried to do that. So yeah.
And then she went off to uni and now she's working for Line Rock
Press, doing all the. Graphics and stuff.
There. So that's kind of cool.
Lindsay, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.
I really enjoyed chatting with you and enjoyed the picking at
the book and seeing this, all the fun phrases, guys, everyone
pick up a Hong Kong slang from wherever you get books from in
Hong Kong. Lindsay Fardi, I will talk to
you on the podcast on the Patreon.
Thank you. Thank you.