ക WHYAskWHY¿ (02) Generation~Y

Any idea what is the new Generation called ~ X,Y or Z? Seems like "Generation-Y" alludes to a succession from "Generation X" with the exact date debatable. So when will "Generation-Z" begins? Buzz words surfaced for Generation-Y such as the Millennial Generation or Generation Next or Net Generation. Oh what a name! So are you convinced now and agreeable the latest is Generation "Y"¿

As a second part of Why*Ask*Why or rather Y*Ask*Y to see what is churning into the minds of "Generation-Y" which the BabyBoomers and before them did not bother or care to think about. The story goes like this...

Daughter 'Q' asked mama why she must cut off a small portion of the slab o'meat before cooking it? Mama said "lovie dear sorry I don't have the slightest idea I just follow my mom, why not you ask grandma over the weekend?". A week later little daughter 'Q' posed the very same pertinent question to which her grandma says "beats me sweetie I don't have a single clue, I dare not even ask".
Answer:  Those days they did not have the opportunity of a much bigger pan. In order to fit into the small pan they need to resize thus cutting of one small portion of the slab o'meat solved the problem. Oh yeah dinner is ready..

Image courtesy of FunnyPostcard.com

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. A very talented chef, a fast learner, never gossip except for some snarl and whimper at times.

Blunder #6 : I have been wrong for many many donkey years to pronounce 'Tiger' 老虎 [lǎohǔ] as 'lǎofu' in Chinese/Mandarin. Thanks to friend, Jenifer for her sharp ears to catch my mistake. Well learning Mandarin by ear can be no easy task. Could have been influenced by our very own dialects as we say tiger as 'fu' in Hakka as well as in Cantonese but its pronounced otherwise as 'Hu' in Mandarin same as Hokkien and TeowChew its called 'hor' with the 'H' consonant sound..

oOOPs the *Y* pops up again. We all know about the 12 Chinese zodiac animals but why for tiger and mouse we sort of add another word, {old} 'lao 老' not in terms of 'old' as in age but like 'old' buddy. Tiger is better known as old tiger 老虎 [lǎohǔ] and mouse as old mouse 老鼠 [lǎoshǔ]? Why not old dog, old chicken or old snake etc why only old tiger and old mouse? Someone I asked before answered back direct into my face "is it important?". Some just shook their head with a smile and some performed the nonverbal communication with a shrug. That's the Bananaz's true nature, curious and inquisitive. You never ask you never get, you never get you never know ~;o)

Coming up next : lǎoshǔ ài dàmǐ 老鼠愛大米

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இ April FULL ~ tQ Caroline: tQ CH Voon: tQ Wenn: tQ FoongPC

In the month of April some of us got 'Fooled' on the very first day of April FoOl's Day by foongpc with his stunning sudden marriage in June after his Bali trip and giving up blogging altogether follow suit by Tekkaus being very emotional kicking up the dust with his 6 reasons of contemplating to throw in the towel and exit the blogosphere for good. Well I fell for it, got fooled twice anyway it is not that bad after all coz it's my lucky month too. An April FULL of nice lovely prizes and gifts and in total I received three, with a bonus as well which was received in March. Here you go in alphabetical order.. *Sorry the photos were taken from cell phone.*

Gift #1. from Caroline Ng May Ling ~ for being one of the Top Commenter in her blog for month of March. Whoa love the postcard which says "I'm Bananas Over You" together with a miniature drum key chain, bookmark and a mickey mouse tea light candle holder. tQ Caroline ~:)

Gift #2. from CH Voon ~ Nice key chain from Bankgok, fridge magnets from Turkey & Ukraine as a consolation prize for not the guessing the only correct answer for the bishop's nose. tQ Voon ~;)

Gift #3. from Wenn ~ a nice postcard of Taipei 101 standing tall towering way above the rest dwarfing all the tall buildings in Taipei, Taiwan. tQ Wenn

Bonus Gift #4. from FoongPC ~ a nice lovely authentic art piece from the artist himself all the way from the ancient town of Daxu in Guilin, China for guessing the correct travelling time of the cable car ride in Genting Highlands. tQ FoongPC ~;)

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இ TRIANGLE OF LIFE ~ Earthquakes

Ever wonder what do you say 'Earthquake' in any of your local dialect other than Mandarin? As a Bananaz I just realised while posting this entry that I do not know what to say 'Earthquake' in any dialect much worst in my very own mother tongue. If there should be an earthquake in Malaysia how on earth am I going to warn the older folks who do not understand [dìzhèn]  as in Mandarin or "earthquake!" which only sounds like Greek to them. We should be grateful and thank our lucky stars we do not have any earthquake other than the minor tremors. Anyway we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best just in case mother nature decides otherwise..How many would have any knowledge what will be the best to do just in case a quake hit Malaysia or while you are in overseas? It is quite obvious from the increasing number of earthquakes and other Natural disasters that earth is becoming unstable.

Earthquake ~ [ dìzhèn ]

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor, temblor or seismic activity) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves which can be detected with a sensitive instrument called a seismograph. According to TheTech.org the earliest seismograph was invented in China A.D. 136 by a man named Choko. It consisted of a copper vessel with eight dragon heads attached to it, positioned above eight frogs. Each dragon head held a ball in its mouth, which, when dropped due to the strong shaking of an earthquake, would fall into the open mouth of the frog directly below it. Maybe could started of with fengshui experiment but later landed up as seismograph instead. ~:)  

The moment magnitude (or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude) of an earthquake is conventionally reported, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas.

Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments. An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter. How lucky the epicenters are running along side by side off the coast of Malaysia. More information from Wikipedia.

What is Triangle of Life? : Without listening or reading, simply by looking at these photos, you can learn more than in a thousand words about how to protect yourself…Thanks to Yoke Mee for her email and the inspiration to post this useful information and have to admit the source of the photos were unknown and would certainly give credit to the person who is kind enough to share them in an effort to save lives. Think this is one of the ways we should react when there is an earthquake or perhaps there could be other better alternatives and would appreciate your invaluable comments with regards to the safety measures that we should adhere to.

If you are inside a vehicle, come out and sit or lie down next to it. If something falls on the vehicle, it will leave an empty space along the sides. See below..

Thanks to HappySurfer for sharing more pointers on what to do during an earthquake although the first pointer by FEMA may not be totally agreeable towards the concept of 'triangle of life' as to take cover under a sturdy table. Guess it could mean a very strong solid table then.

You'll be seeing fire on ice..oh what a sight the hot & cold of mother nature..

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ക WhyAskWhy¿ - (01) Your Head 你的頭 [nǐ de tóu]

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" ~ King James version. This will be a start of a series of WhyAskethWhy asking all the Why's in our common colloquiality. Ever wonder most of the time whether its in Chinese (all dialects) or Bahasa Malaysia we converse colloquially and when we conveniently translate it literally to English or rather Manglish? Examples like 'switch of the lights' we directly translate into 'close the fire' as in Cantonese we say 'san for' or in Bahasa Malaysia 'tutup api' where the correct term should be "san tang or sik tang" & "padam lampu" respectively.

Below are some examples of a cell phone conversation..see how 'Your Head' is loosely used..

Nancy: What are you doing now, blogging ah?
Debbie: Blog "Your Head" where got blog! All our computers are down so boring..

Pete: Ah Chong enjoying your lunch in the new nice restaurant can come back to office early..?
Ah Chong: Nice 'Your Head'! Service sucks terrible place my first and last time coming here..

Johnny: Joyce can you come to office by 9:30am need to change the presentation of the power point slides urgently..
Joyce:  Meeting! meeting! "Your Head" I am stuck in this sickening jam for hours already..

Your Head 你的頭 [nǐ de tóu]

Almost all Chinese dialects would frequently utter "Your Head" during frustration and I wonder is this two words accepted in Queen's English? Even our good old neighbor PCK Pte Ltd - a Singaporean sitcom, 'best in Singapore, JB and some say Batam' also cannot escape "Your Head". One level up which is more crudely and deadly is "Your dead man's head" ~  你的死人頭 [nǐde de sǐ rén tóu]. Anyone with the slightest idea and logical reason WHY "Your Head" is so widely spoken? What about our friendly overseas bloggers any of this two words "Your Head" sounds familiar to you or ever being used in your country or none at all?

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இ Who Let The DOGS Out? ~ [狗]

Dogs are man's best friend. You need full committment to own a dog which is a lifetime relationship. This world is a strange planet we have people sleeping with pet dogs on the same bed, we have people who go helter-skelter upon seeing a dog. Some countries would have dog meat on their menu while some animal lovers protested and campaigned for a ban on eating dogs. One man's meat is another man's poison so debating on this issue until the cows come home will never end. Why not let sleeping dogs lie and have some fun learning some Chinese idioms instead. The word below is DOG ~ 狗 [gǒu] and quite a number of idioms are derived from this word. Another word for dog is 犬 [quǎn].

Oops who let the DOGS o.O"ut?

Who let the dogs out (wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of")

Who let the dogs out (wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of")

(wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of" wo.Of")

ക 指雞罵狗 ~ zhǐ jī mà gǒu
Literally: point chicken scold dog
Meaning: to point at the chicken while scolding the dog; to find a scapegoat


ക 偷雞摸狗 ~ tōu jī mō gǒu
Literally: steal chicken touch dog
Meaning: to dally with women / to have affairs

ക 阿猫阿狗 ~ ā māo ā gǒu
Literally: a cat a dog
Meaning: general term for people of any description; every Tom, Dick & Harry


ക 狗逮老鼠 ~ gǒu dài lǎoshǔ
Literally: dog catches mice
Meaning: to be meddlesome; busy about other people's business

ക 咬人狗兒不露齒 ~ yǎo rén gǒur bù lù chǐ
Literally: bite man dog no show fangs
Meaning: the dog that bites does not show its fangs; You can't tell the real dangerous enemy from his external appearance.

ക 雞飛狗走 ~ jī fēi gǒu zǒu
Literally: chicken fly dog run
Meaning: To drive off or scatter in different directions; dispersed

ക 掛羊頭，賣狗肉 ~ guà yáng tóu, mài gǒu ròu
Literally: hang goat's head, sells dog meat
Meaning: to cheat/dishonest advertising / wicked deeds carried out under banner of virtue.

For those who wishes to listen to the pronunciation either in Cantonese or Putonghua (Mandarin) kindly copy and paste the Chinese words onto the sidebar on the right ~ "Learning By Ear" Powered by CU Vocal and hit the [Read] button. Btw you need to clear those existing Chinese words in the box first before you paste.

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