Dogs

Man decided to up the stakes on my Cantonese.

I'm pretty sure I had merely asked how to say dog instead of the "puppy-wuppy" version of woh woh.  Instead, I got a tongue twister:

Gao go gao sik gao gi

Which of course, once I got this down, I had to test out on the in-laws.  Old Man replied with this:

Gao loi gao hoi sik gao gi

In other words: Nine come in, nine go out, eat dumplings.  My version was more along the lines of 'nine dogs eat dumplings.'

When I asked what happened to the dogs, I got a sharp "Don't talk that."  To say, even in a tongue twister, that dogs east human food is to imply that the humans are eating dog food.  And folks, "that no good."

Duly noted.  I then tried the second dog tongue twister on them.

Gao go gao hoi gao loi gao hoi

Except that instead of telling a tale about nine dogs running about in circles, I started talking about how my dog runs about in circles:

Ngo go gao hoi gao loi gao hoi.

This received a nod of approval.  No dogs eating human food.  Plus, much to my surprise, my tones were on point.  A good night overall.

As we said our goodbyes, I patted Man's tummy as I said, "Ngo go gao."

Old Man gave a short laugh and nodded his head.  I then pointed at him, gave a wink and added, "Ngo go sing sun gao."

This time I received a chuckle accompanied by a shaking head.  I may have totally abused the Chinese language in that sentence, but the Old Man seemed to understand the joke.  My old dog.  I'm pretty sure I won't get as much leeway with my jokes once I get a better grasp of Cantonese, so I figure I'll take advantage of my freedom now.