There’s no end to learning any language, and often the bits and pieces are picked up in the least expected way.
Hong Kong may not stand out as the prime place for English learning, but in my two weeks in Hong Kong I was struck by the number of unfamiliar words and expressions I came across!
A poster from the local Department of Health urging people to quit smoking came with a ‘Smoking Cessation Hotline’ phone number. Of course the meaning is immediately obvious, but it was the first time I see the phrase in use in a context for the general public. It does sound formal, and indeed it’s the correct medical term so it can’t be faulted after all.
A warning on ‘dog fouling’ caught my eye, for no other reason than that it was the first time I saw this term. Maybe this term is also in use in Australia but I’ve never noticed it – or the Australian public no longer needs to be reminded to do the right thing!
Now here’s a term that I’ve never seen anywhere in Australia, and I certainly hope the drivers do understand what it means when the sign advises heavy and medium vehicles to use only the ‘nearside’ on motorways (commonly called expressways in Hong Kong). The Hong Kong Police can be very strict on this, so you’d better know that nearside means the lane nearest to the kerb (or the left lane in Hong Kong). For the record, the lane closest to the centre of the road (or the right lane) is called the ‘offside’. (I found out later that both terms are typical British usages, so no wonder I would not have seen it in Australia!)
Even Britons may find the following term peculiar, but the word ‘shroff’ is very commonplace in Hong Kong, particularly in the offices of the government big organisations. Try looking up any common dictionary, and I bet you won’t find this term easily because it is indeed a rare word. Entries like this from an online dictionary would probably not provide much clue on the actual function of the shroff either. It’s simply the counter or desk responsible for collecting money, i.e. where you would have to pay for the fees.
Quite a few years ago, the announcement on the underground trains would advise passengers, ‘Please alight on the left.’ Now it has changed to ‘Doors will open on the left.’ This does beg two questions: ‘so what?’ (ha ha) and why the change? I came up with a quirky explanation to the second question. Well, call it cruel – and it probably borders on being a sledge, but I joked that there would have been enough Australians, Americans and Canadians who complained that they didn’t understand the announcement. This anglicism sounds in my mind so much nicer than telling people to ‘get off’, but they simply won’t get it.
Hong Kong may not stand out as the prime place for English learning, but in my two weeks in Hong Kong I was struck by the number of unfamiliar words and expressions I came across!
A poster from the local Department of Health urging people to quit smoking came with a ‘Smoking Cessation Hotline’ phone number. Of course the meaning is immediately obvious, but it was the first time I see the phrase in use in a context for the general public. It does sound formal, and indeed it’s the correct medical term so it can’t be faulted after all.
A warning on ‘dog fouling’ caught my eye, for no other reason than that it was the first time I saw this term. Maybe this term is also in use in Australia but I’ve never noticed it – or the Australian public no longer needs to be reminded to do the right thing!
Now here’s a term that I’ve never seen anywhere in Australia, and I certainly hope the drivers do understand what it means when the sign advises heavy and medium vehicles to use only the ‘nearside’ on motorways (commonly called expressways in Hong Kong). The Hong Kong Police can be very strict on this, so you’d better know that nearside means the lane nearest to the kerb (or the left lane in Hong Kong). For the record, the lane closest to the centre of the road (or the right lane) is called the ‘offside’. (I found out later that both terms are typical British usages, so no wonder I would not have seen it in Australia!)
Even Britons may find the following term peculiar, but the word ‘shroff’ is very commonplace in Hong Kong, particularly in the offices of the government big organisations. Try looking up any common dictionary, and I bet you won’t find this term easily because it is indeed a rare word. Entries like this from an online dictionary would probably not provide much clue on the actual function of the shroff either. It’s simply the counter or desk responsible for collecting money, i.e. where you would have to pay for the fees.
Quite a few years ago, the announcement on the underground trains would advise passengers, ‘Please alight on the left.’ Now it has changed to ‘Doors will open on the left.’ This does beg two questions: ‘so what?’ (ha ha) and why the change? I came up with a quirky explanation to the second question. Well, call it cruel – and it probably borders on being a sledge, but I joked that there would have been enough Australians, Americans and Canadians who complained that they didn’t understand the announcement. This anglicism sounds in my mind so much nicer than telling people to ‘get off’, but they simply won’t get it.
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