Chinese phrases and loogies....SO LO-KOH!

So my week is coming to an end. It's Thursday night, and my buddies were trying to inspire me on a blog topic. For those of you who know me, you'll know that I'm a pretty laid-back, silly guy, so amusing blog posts are a must for me. So to tickle your funny bone, I thought I'd write about some of the local phrases I've learned so far.

The local dialect is a little different from other parts of China, which is pretty much true in any country (yes, even the US...yeah I'm talking about you texas). For example, when I take a cab I say "hai den yi yuerr" where the locals understand as the hospital near my hotel. However, when I was first taught this phrase, I was told to say "hai den yi yuenn" which is the correct pronunciation, but ridiculously confusing to local cab drivers. The local accent in Beijing basically changes words to end in a "err" rather than an "enn," so "tsing hua nan menn" becomes "tsing hua nan muerr" which is the phrase I used to get to work every morning.

Another phrase which I completely butchered on my 2nd cab drive was "chen mien dyiah toe" which means "make a u-turn" or "turn around." Now to set some context, I had a friend in college who had an enormously large head, and we always called him "dah toe," meaning "big head." On my morning commute I always end up on the opposite side of the street, so a cab driver will usually ask, what I suspect to be, "what side of the street do you want?" Since I had never used the correct phrase for "u-turn" in my life (nor had I practiced it), my brain naturally sent a signal to my vocal chords to say "dah toe" to the cab driver. You can imagine how awkward it got in the cab after I said "big head." I immediately felt embarrassed and moronically said "turn around...err...other side." I wish I bought the Rosetta Stone language program for Chinese before I left.

Tonight I went to another local dining spot, which again to my advantage, is walking distance from the office. Kunan, Yiteng, Allan and I indulged ourselves in 7 dishes, which were basically awesome. The kung pao chicken was glorious, and would put Panda Express to shame, although some may disagree (James Lee). Here are a few pictures of the guys after dinner.

Yiteng, Allan, Kunan

Yiteng, "Ehl-burt," Allan

So one local habit that I noticed in Beijing is to snort and hock the biggest loogie that you can, spit it on the ground, then step on it like you're putting out a cigarette or doing an imaginary hokey-pokey dance. Apparently this is a "so loh-koh" (so local) habit, which I think is kind of disgusting. I think some of these guys are actually sucking their brain through their nose by the sound of things. I'm starting to think that boogers are good for the concrete, as one of my cab drivers blew his nose and threw his tissue out the window. I can't promise anything, but this is probably one habit that I might just leave for the locals.

Before I conclude this post, I just wanted to let everyone know one thing. When I talk in a Chinese accent, I'm not doing it to belittle or make fun of Chinese people or their accent, because Korean people have a funny English accent as well. All I'm saying is that "it's funny....but it's not a reason to hate somebody." - Dave Chappelle