Malaysian Chinese are good at languages and dialects. Most of us speak English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese, Teochew etc...... Even if we don't speak other dialects we could understand roughly what other trying to say.
I remember a joke told by my friend about an experience her Hainanese mother encountered. It happened many years ago.
One day her mother went to a shop in Port Dickson to buy a badminton racket for her. She told her mother she wanted the brand "Blue Bird", in English. The mother not knowing what is the meaning of 'Blue Bird' told the shopkeeper the same thing the daughter told her.
The Hokkien shopkeeper who unable to speak english and hainanese, asked her twice in Hokkien : "Lam Chiau Piau"? (Blue Bird brand?). He was trying to reconfirm with her what she actually wanted.
'Lam chiau' means 'blue bird' but it sounds close to the word penis in hokkien and I think may be in hainanese dialect also.
The mother was very angry with the shopkeeper and scolded him for being rude to her before she left the shop angrily. She was still angry when she reached home and told the daughter what had happened. The daughter told her the actual meaning of 'Blue Bird' and they were laughing away.
Bongkang....
10 comments:
hahah same as when i used BLUE TOOTH...
not really vulgar, but they were scratching their head if they don get it..
Me, thanks for dropping by, you have a great blog.
I dont mean vulgar. This is a real story.
Hehehe....that's funny! I was talking to my friend in England and I said knob and in door knob, but to her knob is a bad word. Strange eh!
Haha! That's what we get when we do direct translation!
Thanks for linking to my blog. I've linked back to yours too. :)
Happy Merdeka!
Tammy - I am not good at telling joke. You must see how my friend exagerated. I laughed non stop.
josette, You know those days women are more conservative and most man talked a bit rough, so it sounded like scolding and embarassing my friend's mum for nothing.
haha... luckily i kno both of the dialect. i'm a hainamnese speaking hokkien. wahaha...
Dear Molly,
Just dropping by to say hello... Oh dear... Blue Bird in Hainanese sounds exactly like an an expletive... in Hokkien...
LOL :)
Rgds
HAAAAAAA! Can't help laughing. There is more examples like: -
1) The English word "Look" is similars then the Hakka language - deer.
2) The Hokkien "EM SI LA" (no) is so similar then the Hakka language - Not dying.
HAAAA.
Does Cardiff City football club-the Bluebirds-
have a problem? Abo
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