Happy Chinese New Year to everyone here! The Year of the Pig has officially started now! Here's wishing you all good health, prosperity, fortune and other good things for the year of the pig!
Anyone else here celebrate Chinese new year in any way?
I'm Vietnamese, but we still celebrate a bit. But my dad didn't buy any New Year candy this year... D:
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Bunnies aren't cute like everybody supposes! They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses! And what's with all the carrots! Why do they need such good eyesight for anyway?! Bunnies! Bunnies! It must beBUNNIES!!
I've got some red envelopes from some relatives too. And we always buy this sticky, brown Chinese pudding that my mum frys. It's quite filling, but a yummy treat! Plus my mum likes to put up a display of the red envelopes and tangerines and red posters with chinese writing around the house (not that i can read any chinese tho', or speak it for that matter! It's rather shameful for a Chinese i know).
You're a 1/4 chinese kaejae? That's interesting. I've only ever seen a few instances of people with a chinese parent and an English parent.
Rye - Oh ho! Canadian!? Score another for us on the boards! :D
Black Oracle - Yes! 1/4, my grandfather on my dad's side is Chinese! Unfortunately, I never met him, he died before I was born.... Even though I'm one quarter, I come off as pure Chinese to everyone lol. I finally saw a picture of my grandfather three weeks ago, and found out why... I totally look like him XD
kaejae wrote: Rye - Oh ho! Canadian!? Score another for us on the boards! :D
xD You Canadian too? I was born in Ontario but I live in Alberta right now. -hates Alberta- >>; Oilfields and cows is all we got going. =P Thankfully I get to take a break from cow country. x3 -is in Hawaii right now-
xD You Canadian too? I was born in Ontario but I live in Alberta right now. -hates Alberta- >>; Oilfields and cows is all we got going. =P Thankfully I get to take a break from cow country. x3 -is in Hawaii right now-
Well, you can say that ;) I'm a dual-citizen. Born in California, moved to Ontario and been living here for about 20 years.
But don't you guys have the huge mall with the swimming pool and all?? XD Unless you live too far away from there... Other than that... LOOK! WHEAT!! Hahaha! But lucky you! In Hawaii! Gawd. I hate snow. I'm SO ready to head back to Cali in the summer!
xD You Canadian too? I was born in Ontario but I live in Alberta right now. -hates Alberta- >>; Oilfields and cows is all we got going. =P Thankfully I get to take a break from cow country. x3 -is in Hawaii right now-
Well, you can say that ;) I'm a dual-citizen. Born in California, moved to Ontario and been living here for about 20 years.
But don't you guys have the huge mall with the swimming pool and all?? XD Unless you live too far away from there... Other than that... LOOK! WHEAT!! Hahaha! But lucky you! In Hawaii! Gawd. I hate snow. I'm SO ready to head back to Cali in the summer!
Oh, that's cool. =) I used to live in California. I've lived all over Canada and the U.S. But I'm not dual. Just my little brother is out of my family.
You mean the Edmonton mall? Yup. That's three hours drive from where I live. x3 I've been there a couple times. It's cool and all, but I don't care much for it... I don't like malls that much.
Hehe. I didn't think I minded snow. But that was before I took a plane from -30 degrees celcius to 90+ degrees farenheit. xD
kaejae wrote: I know the feeling. I'll have so much I wanna type, then the moment I get to the keyboard... it all goes downhill from there :3 XD
Yeah. xD Mostly though I can't write these days because these two girls I babysit that came to Hawaii with me (my family and their family came together) won't leave me alone. I swear, I cannot do anything with people staring at me. So with those two hovering over my shoulder constantly, it's impossible for any ideas to be put down in words. They're worse than flies to a lightbulb sometimes. x3 And even now that I'm alone... my imagination just isn't cooperating. oo; -shakes head-
I wish I could be chinese and celebrate chinese new years. That would be so cool. I was born on the year of the snake so it would be 6 more years until my year comes. :SIGH:!
Akira_Cat wrote: I wish I could be chinese and celebrate chinese new years. That would be so cool. I was born on the year of the snake so it would be 6 more years until my year comes. :SIGH:!
You're a snake? AAAGHH! Don't eat me! I'm just a little rat!
Don't be so bothered Akira, i mean to be honest, me and my family don't do anything major really for Chinese new year other than going out for some meals with relatives (which are always boring!) and elders passing red envelopes to younger members of the family. Nothing fantastic really.
And kaejae, your grandfather's chinese? Wow, i bet he must have an interesting life story. I myself never met either of my father's parents or my mother's father, i have one grandma residing in Hong Kong now, unfortunately, i never really picked up on speaking Cantonese so i can't even communicate with her. Yes, i'm a culturally confused girl, tho' i consider myself more to be British than Chinese by heart. My dad describes me as 'a banana', 'yellow' on the outside, 'white' on the inside!
Yais! He is, as for interesting life story... I don't know... Except for the fact that my surame is probably a fake surname that they gave to my grandpa when he immigrated to the Philippines XD They couldn't make out which was the first and surname from the birth certificate, and figured to give him a shiny new one
So wait... you have the English accent and all? XD I remember this one girl in high school. SHe was Chinese, but had been living in the UK for all her life, until she moved here to Canada. She spoke fluent Cantonese, but she still donned the English accent! Heehee! It was so cute!
I don't speak any Cantonese, except for a few obscenely rude phrases ;). People always teach you the bad stuff LOL! I can speak Tagalog 'cause I'm so nosey around my parents, and French because I got forced to in high school =P
Now my mum says I defy science. I'm english so I'm meant to speak good english, yet I am more fluent in french than I am in my own language. That just confuses everybody around me.
Yais! He is, as for interesting life story... I don't know... Except for the fact that my surame is probably a fake surname that they gave to my grandpa when he immigrated to the Philippines XD They couldn't make out which was the first and surname from the birth certificate, and figured to give him a shiny new one
So wait... you have the English accent and all? XD I remember this one girl in high school. SHe was Chinese, but had been living in the UK for all her life, until she moved here to Canada. She spoke fluent Cantonese, but she still donned the English accent! Heehee! It was so cute!
I don't speak any Cantonese, except for a few obscenely rude phrases ;). People always teach you the bad stuff LOL! I can speak Tagalog 'cause I'm so nosey around my parents, and French because I got forced to in high school =P
Heh, I'm an ox X3
Well, i have been known to switch between accents! He! He! My teachers in schools (and currently in university) have always said i seem to speak in RP (the language typically used by BBC news broadcasters), but in informal settings with friends, i've oddly enough been described as sounding a bit 'American' at times as well! But i think if you heard me, you'd probably think i sounded very 'British'.
Your grandfather is Fillipino then? My father comes from Malaysia and my mother from Hong Kong. I myself was born in Malaysia too, but moved to England at a young age.
What is 'Tagalog' btw?
And at least you, Akira and some others can speak more than one language! I'm pretty much stuck on just English! So shameful! It's always an advantage to be multi-lingual as my parents always say!
oddity, what kind of Chinese do you have basic knowledge of btw?
Wowsas! You can speak Cantonese and understand Mandarin? How is that 'basic' linguistic knowledge? Crud! I think i'm one of the few Chinese people in the world that can't speak any dialect of Chinese! I'm like of half-realised ethnicity! A rat trying to be a bull! WAAAAHHHH!
Tagalog is one of the languages of the Philippines ^^.
My grandpa is Chinese, but lived in the Philippines. His wife was Filipino (i didn't get to meet her either =\). The grandparents on my mom's side are Filipino, but I know that somewhere along the line someone was Spanish XD.
I can understand the language, but not everything. Maybe when speaking to someone who hails from China I'd only understand about 65% of what they're saying. My chinese sucks that bad. >>; As for the dialects, I only understand Teochew, I can't speak it. But Cantonese, Hokkien, Hainan, etc. They're all similiar so I can understand a little bit of it.
Your family's really interesting, KJ. O_O Mine's just a boring chinese/malaysian family. It'd be cool if I had some Spanish blood.
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One night and one more time,
Thanks for the memories
even though they weren't so great:
"He tastes like you only sweeter."
You know, I never liked the term, "Chinese New Year". I always refer to it as the Lunar New Year, because not everybody who celebrates is Chinese. :P
I'm Vietnamese, but I can barely speak the language, which makes me sad. (I blame my parents who only spoke to me in English, for some reason) :( Of course, what little I can speak is usually uncomprehendable because of my American accent. X[ Well, I can understand it and can read a bit of it... two out of three ain't bad, right? XD;
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Bunnies aren't cute like everybody supposes! They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses! And what's with all the carrots! Why do they need such good eyesight for anyway?! Bunnies! Bunnies! It must beBUNNIES!!
kaejae wrote: Tagalog is one of the languages of the Philippines ^^.
My grandpa is Chinese, but lived in the Philippines. His wife was Filipino (i didn't get to meet her either =\). The grandparents on my mom's side are Filipino, but I know that somewhere along the line someone was Spanish XD.
That's a very interesting family bloodline you got there! Would be great to know more about for you personally.
kaejae wrote: Heh, if you think that's interesting... If I do marry my boyfriend and have kids we'll have German into the mix XD Then your family would get even more interesting!
CeltiCrimson wrote: **is chinese xD*
I can understand the language, but not everything. Maybe when speaking to someone who hails from China I'd only understand about 65% of what they're saying. My chinese sucks that bad. >>; As for the dialects, I only understand Teochew, I can't speak it. But Cantonese, Hokkien, Hainan, etc. They're all similiar so I can understand a little bit of it.
Your family's really interesting, KJ. O_O Mine's just a boring chinese/malaysian family. It'd be cool if I had some Spanish blood.
I'm Chinese Malay as well as my dad keeps trying to convince me. Tho' i don't feel it and can't speak any Malay Chinese dialect. My dad tho' can speak Bahasa, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin quite well! Too bad i'm nothing like him!
Lonely Light wrote: You know, I never liked the term, "Chinese New Year". I always refer to it as the Lunar New Year, because not everybody who celebrates is Chinese. :P
I'm Vietnamese, but I can barely speak the language, which makes me sad. (I blame my parents who only spoke to me in English, for some reason) :( Of course, what little I can speak is usually uncomprehendable because of my American accent. X[ Well, I can understand it and can read a bit of it... two out of three ain't bad, right? XD;
That's much better than me anyways! I'm just stuck with English! If i try to mimic my mum's Cantonese, my British accent messes it all up!
kaejae wrote: I wish I could, but it's not so simple :P
I know what you mean. My knowledge of my family history pretty much ends with my grandparents. According to my dad, his parents originated from China somewhere before they moved to Malaysia, and so did my mum's mum before she moved to Hong Kong. But they can't tell me much more about our ancestral roots than that sadly enough. A pity, sometimes i would like to know more about my family's history.
When robots take over the earth, humans shall be born and bred in capsules, with probes stimulating our brains to give the impression of senses and environment, making us believe that the world we live in is reality. And the electricity our bodies produce will be the energy the robots use to recharge themselves.
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In blackest day or brightest night, watermelon, cantaloupe, yadda yadda, erm. . .a superstitious and cowardly lot, with liberty and justice for all!
Martiangirl wrote: When robots take over the earth, humans shall be born and bred in capsules, with probes stimulating our brains to give the impression of senses and environment, making us believe that the world we live in is reality. And the electricity our bodies produce will be the energy the robots use to recharge themselves.
*Shudders at thought.* Hmm, actually now that i think about it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I mean, we'd all be living in a fantasy world! And we wouldn't really know any better right? What am i saying? Robots will have inherited the Earth then!
This year is the year 4705 in the lunar cycle, and an extra special year because it's the 600th cycle of the Year of the Pig. :)
Not to be religious, but here's the Buddhist version of the origin of the New Year: when the Buddha was about to ascend into nirvana, he called all of the animals of the world to wish him farewell. Only 12 animals came, and Buddha decided to give each animal a part of the year, in the order of which they came.
Heh. :D History always was my favorite subject, and plus, I'm Buddhist.
Actually. 'Gung hei fat choi' i think is the Cantonese new year greeting, in China it's pronounced 'Gung Xi fat choi' i believe. Or so my parents tell me.
And that Buddhist version of the origin of the Chinese new years is interesting Cali. I seem to recall a story that told of all the 12 animals taking part in a race to cross a river or something. The rat came first because he cleverly hitched a ride on the ox's back and jumped off as soon as they reached the other side of the river.