The Different Expressions Between Mainland Chinese and HongKong Chinese
       Hi! I'm David. Since I have been to HK for two months,I have found some different expressions between Mainland  Chinese and HongKong Chinese . Here are my ''RESEARCH FINDINGS'' .  :)

       Having different words of the same meaning

                  Mainland      HongKong 
                        空调         冷气机
                        钱包          银包、荷包
                        公交车      巴士
                        出租车      的士
                        扣篮           入樽
                        草莓           士多啤梨（口语）
                        摩托车       电单车
                        圆珠笔        原子笔
                        吃火锅       打边炉
                         欧冠            欧联
                         欧联            欧霸
                         洗手夜        碱液
                         沐浴露        碱液
                         胶片            菲林      
                          橡皮擦       擦胶
                          下课           落堂
                          教室           班房
                          服务员       侍应（正式）
                          逃课           走堂
                         志愿者        义工
                          警察           差人（非正式）

     Having different meanings of the same word                      
电话：内地日常语言中，通常专指固定电话，不用来表示移动电话（手机）。在香港，即可用来表达这两种事物。
欧联：这是个体育词语。可让我和香港roommate纠结好一会儿。在香港，这个词指的是欧洲足球俱乐部最顶级的比赛，而在内地，这个词指的是次一级的比赛。最顶级的比赛内地叫做‘’欧冠‘’。（可参见上文同义异词部分）。

   Having the same meanings with reversed Chinese charecters
    
                        Mainland                   HongKong 
                         夜宵                               宵夜
                         素质                               质素

It's not difficult to find some reasons to this phenomenon. In Mainland, most people use Putonghua. And we know there are different grammar   rules between Putonghua and Cantonese. Also, HongKong was deeply affected by UK culture. And the most essential reason is that the two regions have different political and cultural system. 
In the end, I wish this blog can help you have a better communication with your Mainland or HongKong friends. 

English in Subway??

Hi! I'm Marcella! The topic of today is this:

This logo might be familiar to you (or not). This is a fast food shop originated in the US, featuring sandwiches, especially subway sandwiches!! Yum yum<3

  

I tried my first bite of Subway sandwiches last summer in Central. It tasted good. However, what I think is the most eye-catching part is when you order for your food. My friend told me that I have to order in English! That really shocked me. I looked at the people behind the front desk and the cashier, they are all foreigners. I tried to listen to the customers in front of me in the queue while I was struggling whether I want tomatoes or  not. And the result is YES, everyone uses English here in Hong Kong Subway. When it comes to my turn, I was so freaked out that my friend had to do all the ordering for me :p 

I don't think I am the only one who has been freaked out by the need of switching code in Subway. Although Hong Kong is a bilingual society, it's not common to speak English when we order food. Well, sometimes in Starbucks, we will use English chunks, stating the names of coffe/ drink or the size that you want. But that's totally different from using English the whole way through the ordering process. Like me, people may feel uncomfortable. 

I did some research online, and I found somebody like me LOL 

The writer said that one day she entered the Subway shop in Central as she wanted to buy something to eat during her trip on the ship.  However she was stunned as she didn't know much English and she didn't understand what the foreigner (the shop-assistance) was mentioning about. At last she ended up leaving the shop without buying anything. She also complained if it is necessary to use only English when ordering food.

What she complained about is sensible. We should understand that not everyone knows English. 

There are pros and cons using English in subway.

Pros:1) Subway can keep its own traditions and characteristics of being an American fast food shop

         2) The way of ordering indicates the "class" of Subway, the target consumers and the quality of 

              food and also the price

Cons: 1) Those who are not good at English dare not order in subway

          2) Tourists (for example: from mainland China) may not has as high level of English as Hong

              Kong residents

          3) It's like setting a basic requirement for buying subway and discriminating those who doesn't 

              know English

Well I was only focusing on the Subway in Hong Kong which I've been to last year. And the pros and cons are just my own opinions. In fact, I've heard that some newly opened shops of subway has employed shop-assistance who can speak Cantonese and Putonghua, which can be a good news to some people.

If you really have troubles ordering your subway, go and check these articles out! They are the instructions you can follow when you are ordering your food! LOL Just read through it, pick your favourite and then order!

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/dbtranslation-2010/article?mid=63&prev=68&l=f&fid=8

http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1010112007791

Funny things i found when studying Japenese on my own XD

Hi everyone! I’m Hedy:D

I have recently studied Japanese on my own. I found that some of the Chinese characters of Japanese are similar to some vocabulary in Cantonese, but actually they have different meaning in Japanese and Cantonese. I am interested in these Chinese characters of Japanese and I would like to share some of them with you guys :D

大家好啊！我是Hedy:D

最近我在自學日文，我發覺一些日文漢字與中文詞語甚為相似，但同一詞語在日文及中文中有不同的意思，我對這些日文漢字很感興趣，我也很想跟大家分享我的一些發現。

Chinese characters of Japanese(日文漢字)	Meaning in Japanese (日文的意思)	Meaning in Cantonese (中文的意思)
1.      勉強	research or studying (研究，學習)	Reluctantly (勉強)
2.      人間	human (人類)	World that human live in (人間)
3.      写真	photo (相片)	Photo (寫真=相片)
4.      約束	promise (承諾)	restriction (約束)
5.      家族	Family members (家人)	family (家族)

Actually, the word ‘寫真’ in Chinese is come from the word ‘写真’ in Japanese. Nowadays, we use ‘寫真’ to represent photos. It (寫真) has the same meaning to ‘相片’ in Chinese. Isn’t funny? Maybe next time I can share more if I find other words similar to that. :D

其實中文的「寫真」源自日文的「写真」。現在我們會用「寫真」一詞去代表相片，「寫真」與中文中的「相片」是同義的，很有趣不是嗎？如果我能找到其他類似的詞語，可能下一次我會分享更多呢！ :D

Chinglish from Engrish.com

  Hello everyone! I am Meris. This is my very first time to do blogging. HAHA I am still trying to figure out how to make post on Blogspot.

  Okay, back to topic! Yesterday, professor shared  a website on another class called : http://www.engrish.com/. This is site where everyone from all parts of the world upload pictures with English mistakes. The photos were so funny that i told myself i must have to share to you guys since not everyone are in that class.

  The website is called Engrish which obviously came from the word - English. it is kind of irony as Japanese have difficulty in pronouncing ''L'' sound. When you click into "Chinglish", you will see many jokes about translation between Chinese and English.

For example:

Many restaurants in China are now having menus of English version, mainly because more and more foreigners come to visit China. However, they tend rely on electronic dictionaries or online resources eg. Google Translate for translation without asking professionals for help. i laughed out loud when i saw "哥頓布"was translated into " the elder brother a cloth". "哥頓布" is actually a method of cooking. At least we would guess it is a name or a place even if we do not know its meaning!

See? there are even English errors on government official banner. We can see government does not really take this seriously.  Translation aims for facilitating communication. However, in above cases, these "translations" create more misunderstanding and affect communication more adversely. 

If you like this website, please comment down below and share which picture interests you the most. So that's it. See you guys later. :))