When she finally opened the door, she was wearing a yellow silk cheongsam with pink lychee patterns on it, holding a cup of Oolong and said,"Chop-Chop! Come on in!"
"Sorry to bother you this late but I just want to ask you about..."I noticed that there was a blood stain on her collar, so I asked,"did he beat you again?" She checked it with a mirror but then quickly said,"oh, no, no...it is just ketchup, I was eating chips the other day..."
Poor lady, she was probably brainwashed by her conservative mother that all ugly truth of the family should be kept as secrets. "So, what brings you here again?"
I know, what a strange story! Please try to find the words that you think are from Chinese.
Highlight here to make the answers visible!
Did you find 9? Excellent!
1. Typhoon
2. Mahjong
3. Silk
4. Cheongsam
5. Lychee
6. Oolong
7. Chop Chop
8. Ketchup
9. Brainwash
I didn't know brainwash had a Chinese origin...
ReplyDeleteHow about
ReplyDelete'Long Time No See'
I think this comes from the Cantonese 'ho loi mo gin' and I guess was brought back to the UK by the colonial types who'd been living in HK. The sentance structure is definitely not English - I'm pretty sure it's from the canto.
Maggie
Emilie, it was surprising to me too! The word has something to do with the Korean war too. There are actually many sites talking about the origins of "brainwash", just google it!
ReplyDeleteMaggie, oh yes of course! It sounds awkward in English indeed! In fact, many of the loan words were from the British colonial period in Hong Kong.