Hong Kong has two official languages: Cantonese and English. Because it was a British colony you hear a lot of British English like "cueing up" meaning to get in line. But there is some English language usage that seems fairly unique to Hong Kong.“drink driving” In Hong Kong nobody has every been arrested for drunk driving but plenty of people are arrested for drink driving.
“chopped” Occasionally we read in the paper that somebody down in the Mong Kok area was chopped meaning they were cut by an assailant. This stems from the fact that historically the weapon of choice among the violent set has been –go figure- a meat cleaver. But even when the assailant uses a knife and we would call it a stabbing, they call it a chopping.
“In hospital” People in Hong Kong are never in the hospital. They are simply in hospital
“in university” Likewise, young people are not at the university, they are in university.
“soccer pitch” One of my favorites Hong Kong-isms is soccer pitch. Soccer pitch simply means soccer field. I rarely hear anybody refer to it as a soccer field, though.
“lift” In case of fire take the stairs. Do not take the lift. This is a British thing.
"In hospital" and "in university" are very British. Some how them seem to have lost the article "the".
ReplyDeleteThat should be joining the queue and football pitch. How about rubbish bin, or bin (trash or garbage for you?) There's also biscuits (cookies) and petrol.
ReplyDelete