"dsi1" > wrote in message
...
> On Monday, October 12, 2015 at 11:03:25 PM UTC-10, Ophelia wrote:
>> "dsi1" wrote in message
>> ...
>> > On Monday, October 12, 2015 at 5:49:10 AM UTC-10, Dave Smith wrote:
>> >> On 2015-10-12 11:31 AM, Janet wrote:
>> >> > In article >, gravesend10
>> >> > @verizon.net says...
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Sun, 11 Oct 2015 15:27:08 -0400, Dave Smith
>> >> >
>> >> >>> It was Dong Bei Mama on Geary Blvd in San Francisco. We only had
>> >> >>> the
>> >> >>> two
>> >> >>> dishes and some rice. There was a lot of food and we put a big
>> >> >>> dent
>> >> >>> in
>> >> >>> it because it was so good.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Found their menu... not like any Chinese restaurant I've ever been
>> >> >> to... no egg rolls, no chow mein, no spare ribs, no wonton soup, no
>> >> >> egg drop soup, no lobster Cantonese, no duck... strange eatery,
>> >> >> eerielly strange, I'd have passed.
>> >> >
>> >> > Cantonese is south China food.
>> >> > Dong Bei, as the ad says, is in North east china, 2,000 miles
>> >> > away.
>> >> > China shares boundaries with so many wildly different countries
>> >> > and
>> >> > climates, its no wonder Chinese regional cuisines are so diverse
>> >>
>> >> I am guessing that since Hong Kong was an English colony it had more
>> >> international interaction and that is why Cantonese cooking spread
>> >> across the western world, as authentic as it may or may not have been.
>> >> I sort of lost interest in that kind of food. I don't dislike it. I
>> >> still eat it occasionally, but there are many other ethnic foods that
>> >> I
>> >> prefer. The kung pao was in small pieces, stir fried and served with
>> >> a
>> >> sauce and rice, but that it where the similarity ends. The lamb was
>> >> thin strips of what was probably lamb shoulder, dredged in spices and
>> >> corn starch and fried. It was amazing. It raised the bar for me when
>> >> it
>> >> comes to Chinese food.
>> >
>> > My guess is that it was the foods prepared by the immigrants that came
>> > to
>> > North America just after the end of the American Civil War. The
>> > plantation
>> > workers came to Hawaii around the same period and from the same
>> > providence: Canton, which is now called Guangdong.
>> >
>> > The pakes really shook up the local white populace on the mainland who
>> > responded against the yellow peril with miscegenation laws and laws
>> > against further immigration. Those guys had it tough - not enough
>> > females!
>> > Over here, the pake men took Hawaiian women as wives and the rest is
>> > Hawaiian history.
>>
>> Do you speak Cantonese, Mr D?
>>
>> --
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>
> I do not speak Cantonese. The only people here that do are FOB Chinese. I
> used to go to Japanese school when I was a wee lad and probably learned
> some of the language but that's all gone now.
>
> The immigrant experience in Hawaii is pretty much the same as in other
> countries. The first generation typically won't learn the language of
> their new home. The second generation born in the new land will be
> bilingual. The third and later generations will probably not know a thing
> about their mother tongue.
>
> OTOH, the languages as spoken by the old-timers in Hawaii probably
> wouldn't be understood in the mother countries since it's the language of
> the poor, uneducated, plantation workers, typically in the dialect of one
> particular region. That "Japanese" of Hawaii was brought over mostly from
> Okinawa. It's the coarse, unrefined, language of farmers and laborers. It
> would be mostly gibberish to the man on the street on Tokyo.
>
> The Chinese here had a closer affiliation with the Hawaiians than the
> Japanese ever did. My guess is that the Chinese men had to adapt and
> modify their language to a high degree to be able to communicate with
> their Hawaiian wives. Of course, everyone on this rock had to be able to
> communicate on some rudimentary level with everybody else. That's why
> Hawaiian pidgin English (the linguists would call it creole English) came
> to be. It's a chop suey mix of the languages of the people that live here.
> OTOH, these days, most everybody speaks English so pidgin no longer serves
> a function except to express ties to social groups. My guess is that the
> future of Hawaii language is going to be standard youth-speak.
>
> Please excuse the long-winded response!

Not at all, it was most interesting and it made good sense, thank you Of
course it will change with each generation, especially when there has been a
mix of nationalities. I doubt if my grandparents could understand the
youth of today, without even having that mix

The reason I asked is because my granddaughter is studying Cantonese. We
had a wav file from her the other day in which she and her native Hong Kong
friend were having a conversation and it was fascinating. I am not too sure
how much use it will be to her when come comes home Order in a Chinese
restaurant maybe? ;-) Knowing her she will have plans all in hand and we
will be hearing all about them soon enough

What do you call a native of Hong Kong? ... Hong Kongese? .. although
actually she is in Macau now. Macauese?

)


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