Ellie Enchanted part 1 of 3

It’s pretty exciting when we have out-of-town guests come to visit and we get to introduce them to our adopted hometown. But I was extra excited as I waited for my kid sister Janna and her sixteen-year-old daughter Ellie to arrive. It had been on the calendar for almost a year, and I was pretty jazzed when I went to meet them at the airport.

But, I was also a bit nervous. Not because of my sister –I knew that she’d enjoy herself no matter what- but because of my niece. I had high expectations for her time in here. Hong Kong is a pretty awesome city with a little something for everybody and it doesn’t really require a hard-core sales presentation from me to win people over. But with that said, I was really hoping that my niece would get bitten by the same bug that had gotten a hold of me.

Ellie is a very intelligent teen, she’s well read, and she tends to hang out with a pretty diverse crowd at school. So I knew that the potential was there. On the other hand, she is a teenager. And a girl none-the-less. How was I supposed to figure out which parts of Hong Kong would capture here imagination and make her fall in love with this city?

I figured that there was going to be some shopping involved. A lot of shopping, probably. Hong Kong is famous for both its high-end and its discount shopping. This made me even more nervous. I have uncovered a lot of the secrets that this city holds, but shopping is one thing I know next to nothing about.

Fortunately, the success of Ellie’s trip wasn’t falling entirely on my shoulders; team VanNoord was on the task. Operation Win Ellie Over was underway.

Gazetted

I have a little extra bounce in my step; it's shaping up be a very good day. I just found another English word that is unique to Hong Kong. Okay, okay. It’s a somewhat common English word of which one of its usages is unique to Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, most of the public beaches are classified as gazetted or non-gazetted.

Normally, the noun gazette refers to an official notice or bulletin. Dozens of newspaper around the English-speaking word are named Gazette including the hometown newspaper where I grew up: the Kalamazoo Gazette.

But in Hong Kong English, gazette has a very different meaning. Here, a gazetted beach is one that is maintained by the government for public use. A gazette beach has its water tested regularly, has life guards on staff, has its swimming area enclosed in a shark-proof fence, and has public restrooms.

Considering that the original meaning of gazette refers to a bulletin or notice, it is not hard to image how the meaning evolved over time to mean that the water was safe to swim in and life guards were on duty.

Thanks to my friend and fellow word-nerd, Becky Su who pointed out this one to me. Let the word hunting continue.

Jack

Gazetted joins the Hong Kong English Wall of Fame:

Shroff (payment office, from Hindi)
Godown (warehouse, from Malay)
Nullah (river, from Hindi)

picture: one of our favorite things to do in Hong Kong is to hike to this beach and camp with friends. Ironically, it is not a gazetted beach. No life guards on duty.

Looking at the Man in the Mirror

My students recently completed self-portraits for their art class. They were so good that when they were hanging up, I could actually go through and identify most of the artists based on their self portrait.

So talented, la.

Can you match the artist with the portrait?

Look Mom, I'm (blog) famous!

Email from my co-worker Fabian:

I was at Island ECC church this past Sunday with two friends who introduced me to Cherith and Richard and we performed the usual pleasantries.

At the end of the church service, Cherith turns to me and says, "Now I know why your name sounded so familiar. I read about you on Jack VanNoord's blog."

You, my prolific writer friend, are renown.

-Jack

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