Language confusion

In the 1960s there were numerous police officers who had been recruited from the northern province of Shandong.

As their form of Chinese was very different from Cantonese, problems could arise, as recalled by Chris Fraser.

There was a Cantonese maneuvering a three-ton truck and he was being guided by a Shandong man who was at the rear on foot.

The truck was going backwards and forwards to turn around. The Shandong man was tapping on the back to indicate that the driver should continue reversing. “Lai, Lai,” (“Come on, come on,” in Mandarin), he said, until the truck was about to hit a wall.

Then the Shandong guy said: “Hao.” (which means “enough” or “stop” in Mandarin.

The Cantonese driver, though, hearing “Hao,” thought that he had heard “Hau” (Cantonese for “reverse.”) and continued - hitting the wall and breaking the tail lights.

The Cantonese leapt from the truck and made allegations about the Shandong man’s mother. The Shandong man then assaulted the Cantonese.

centralpolicestationhongkong.blogspot.com

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