we've had some threads on mondagreens, and on words, even native speakers have trouble with, so this is offered in a spirit of good fun--Read them aloud...and enjoy.

1. That's not right.........Sum Ting Wong

2. Are you harboring a fugitive?......Hu Yu Hai Ding

3. See me ASAP.......................Kum Hia Nao

4. Stupid Man.........................Dum Gai

5. Small Horse..................Tai Ni Po Ni

6. Did you go to the beach?....Wai Yu So Tan

7. I bumped into a coffee table....Ai Bang Mai Ni

8. I think you need a face lift.....Chin Tu Fat

9. It's very dark in here......Wao So Dim

10. I thought you were on a diet....Wai Yu Mun Ching


11. This is a tow away zone.....No Pah King

12. Our meeting is scheduled for next week...Wai Yu Kum Nao?

13. Staying out of sight.....Lei Ying Lo

14. He's cleaning his automobile....Wa Shing Ka

15. Your body odor is offensive.......Yu Stin Ki Pu

I think I've prolly mentioned this before, but when I was teaching I had a Vietnamese student whose name was, without a word of a lie, Hung Lam

I found myself having to force myself to resist comments like "Well, Hung Lam?"

TEd, I'm sure, would have been thrown out of the place on his ear before the end of the first day. Temptation, temptation!

Actually, no. I almost never make puns about a person's name. That's hitting too close to home. Now what I'm thinking is another matter. Ask my friend Michael X. Hunt.

Here in Portland, Oregon, there used to be a Chinese restaurant called Hung Far Low.(really! Ar 112 NW 4th Ave.)

Hung Far Low.
Sounds like a ewwwwwwphamism© to me, Sweet Geoff. I just assigned you the copyright to that, by the way.

I thought it was supposed to be "Learning Chinese is a five-year course in humility."

I thought it was supposed to be "Learning Chinese is a five-year course in humility."

And there's the quasi-meterological term, "Relative Humility" that describes how much you sweat trying not to screw up the pronunciation!

Fat choi!