Learn To Speak Chinese
Dear Rock \M/
It might surprise you to learn that in Hong Kong and Taiwan (places where I was born and raised respectively), it is a common self-mocking joke to refer to locally-flavoured English as "Chinglish".
There is nothing humiliating or abusive about the word. It is only self-referential humour. Just like Singlish! The Singaporeans are actually proud of their Singlish and see it as a point of folk identity! (And yes, they call it by that very name - "Singlish" - which goes to show that such terms have no negative bearing on ethnic pride.)
As for the word "Ching"... the demeaning word is "Chink" with a K. "Chinglish" is only a fusion of the words "Chinese" and "English", with the G coming from "EnGlish".
Finally, of course we don't worship native speakers.
MY note to fellow Chinese people: Let us NOT go down the path of African-Americans and Jewish-Americans... let us NOT be hypersensitive about every little detail. Learn to have a sense of humour. By all means... oppose prejudice, fight against racism, fight for equal opportunity. But do it, as we have done successfully, by PROVING ourselves and NOT by squawking about perceived injustices.
Okay, my comment on the original joke is that "hu flung dung" doesn't really work because "fl" and other similar consonant do not exist in any modern Chinese dialect.
Perhaps "hu pu dung" would be better. (Who poo dung?)
Meant to say...
"because 'fl' and other similar consonant CLUSTERS do not exist..."
I don't believe the consonant clusters ever existed in any of the Chinese dialects at any period of time. This could be the very reason why alot of Chinese have troubles when it comes to these "fl" or "pl" etc things, in which cases they pronouce more like 2 syllables.
BTW, being a Chinese myself, BRAVO on Some Penguin's points about racism.
Plus, I dont even think "chink" is as a derogatory term as it might sound unless u make a BIG deal out of it. To me, it's just a vocal imitation of "Ching" (the last monarchy dynasty when vast chinese emigrated to the states). The fussy attitude toward it is more embrassing than the word itself.
peace
I personally think that only ABC and CBC would know your so-called sense of humour.
As a 100% Chinese, I 'm sorry I cann't go along with your thought .
Do you ever try this, ask a native speaker to call himself "死鬼老", then tell him what it exactly means and see what happen, it is so much fun, and that is a sense of humour, you should have to try it.
I am from Hong kong I never hear people use the word "chinglish".
I am not trying to strike up racism, I said "everyone in the world is equal",
Did you read that?
AT and Some Penguin please tell your father and mother about the useage and meaning of "chink" and "chinglist", I vouch you will be rewarded by something really awesome.
cheers
Oh btw, why do we have to mock ourselves in front of a native speaker?
Are we street perfomancers?
In real life , Did you see a native speaker would mock himself in front of a Chinese?
If you expect the respectability form a native speaker, you should speak in friendly way, not mocking yourself with your race.
Learn how to be a human being.
"Do you ever try this, ask a native speaker to call himself '死鬼老', then tell him what it exactly means and see what happen, it is so much fun, and that is a sense of humour, you should have to try it."
Done that. Explained that. Got a couple of laughs, nothing more, nothing less.
"Oh btw, why do we have to mock ourselves in front of a native speaker?"
Sorry, but I have NEVER mocked myself in front of native speakers. In fact, I showed them up by doing BETTER than them on English exams (SAT= 800+800, GCSE English= A*, and A-level Eng. Literature= A). HAH!
Now, this is MY way of holding my head up.
And don't you dare say that I am not 100% Chinese.
I am neither ABC nor CBC nor BBC. Like you, I was born in Hong Kong. The only difference is that you stayed in Hong Kong whilst I moved to... Taiwan, which is even more Chinese than HK.
Sorry for triple-posting! Just a few more things...
"Please tell your father and mother about the useage and meaning of 'chink' and 'Chinglish'."
They know what those words mean; in fact, I learnt the word "Chinglish" from my parents -_-.
To AT:
Thanks for your support!
By the way, I think I read somewhere that most linguists believe consonant clusters existed in Archaic Chinese dialects (Zhou Dynasty= c. 300 BC and earlier), before the tones developed. I can't remember the reasoning behind such a theory, but I'll look it up ^^
abc,I think you are misled.
This article is to taech a non-english speaker how to spaek English in a fast way.
For example,
You are not very bright - Yu So Dum
Yu So Dum is how to pronounce You're so dumb.
They have arrived - Hia Dei Kum
Hia Dei Kum is Here they come.
Am I right?
to Some Penguin yeah, just keep your head up homie. lol
and wow. i can hardly imagine what chinese was like with all these consonant clusters and without tones. lol. That must have been a whole different language.