I am a 19F local dating a China guy with a really curious trait. Whenever he has trouble remembering how to pronounce cheem-sounding English words, he will transliterate it into Chinese and memorize that instead. For instance, “doing it” becomes “谁输儿 阴特扣死“ (shei-shu-er yin-te-kou-si), which I find so funny I make him say it every time he wants to do it.
But yesterday when I was helping him to spring-clean his room for CNY, I stumbled upon this army notebook of his. I recall that he told me as a second-gen PRC he had to serve, and he was a Platoon Sergeant, so I was curious and had a look at what he wrote. Lo and behold, it was full of Chinese transliterations of army commands and on one page, there was a full-blown Tang dynasty-esque poem:
扑了吞吐握右方 (pu-le-tun-tu-wo-you-fang)
扑了吞吐色迪呀 (pu-le-tun-tu-se-di-ya)
可可男露无乳撕 (ke-ke-nan-lu-wu-ru-si)
盘蛋卡拉盘盘蛋 (pan-dan-ka-la-pan-pan-dan)
巴黎死色囊地利 (ba-li-si-se-nang-di-li)
I only recognise “sediya” and “senangdili” cause I hear that all the time in morning assembly back in school, but the rest look like gibberish. Anyone understand this?
Here is wht netizens think:
- thanks for the morning lolz.Anyway it’s not uncommon. Japanese Katakana was derived for the same reason – to deal with words and phrases not in their native tongue.
- Reminds me of Wong Fei Hong learns english from 十三姨
- Platoon watch your front..platoon Sedi-a! (Attention).. Ke-Kanan Lu – RUS!(Right dressing).. Pandang Ke-Hadapan Pan – DANG! (Eyes to the front).
- Very impressed! At least he make an effort to remember the commands using his creative!
- Once u go tiong u cant turn back
- 3rd one is me kanan lu rus (checking alignment when falling in)4th one is Pandan ke hadapan pandan= turning head back to the front after checking alignment5th one is Baris Senangdiri= contingent? At ease.