Gung Hei Fat Choi!

Duuno the song. Uhoh. I can't type english - too much lesson planning.

At our office, it's Sun Ling Fi Lo -- I'm guessing that that's Mandarin as opposed to Cantonese?

No sweeping for 12 more days so that you don't inadvertently sweep the luck of the New Year out the door.

oops, too late!

For the first time ever my brother-in-law and his family will not be late
either for the old-year dinner or the new-year dinner.

We had the old-year dinner at China Pearl and lied to him about the time.
He is hosting the new-year dinner at his house.

We have a term for that around here, constructed from the name of E.G.'s old advisor who would do that to him all the time. ("I must have this by Tuesday!!!" After much panic, Tuesday rolls around and task is finished. Turns out it's not needed until Friday.)

E.G. is horrible about being on time though and I have to do it to him if it's important. (As in, if I need to leave at 10:00 AM, I tell him I need to be gone by 9:30 AM. He shows up at 9:50 or so and when I'm not frantic squints at me and says, "were you [advisor's name]-ing me?")

I've been squelched.

Unlike me, my d-i-l is a Good housekeeper. I passed on to her that one should not sweep for two weeks lest the New Year's Luck be swept out of the house.

She told this bit of wisdom to her sister who replied, "My luck is locked up in my vacuum cleaner and it will stay right there until I empty the bag."

Squelch.

Gung(or Kung) hei fat choi ~ "Long life and prosperity, this is the normal chinese greeting at new year. just one more useful phrase for you is "Po `ki" which means F**k off

Happy New Year (a day late)!

It's the Year of the Ox

Happy New Year to you and your lovely bride, S.G.

Happy New Year to you and your family George!

(Did you have a special meal? Please describe it in mouth-watering detail )

For years I thought it was "Gung hoy fet choi." Ah, well. I'm sure George knows best. Happy New Year, everyone!

The same to ya, ya big ox . . .



. . . now open the damned windows, will ya?

Well, I'm just writing a phonetic version of the Cantonese (which the Lovely
Bride speaks). The words are pronounced differently from dialect to dialect.

Digression: once when we were walking through Chinatown, I saw a poster of
a Chinese movie. The poster indicated that the movie had subtitles. I assumed
the subtitles would be English, but she explained that the subtitles were in
Chinese so that speakers of any dialect could understand it.

The Lovely Bride's family has two meals. An Old-Year banquet to
close out the old year and a New-Year banquet to welcome in the new year.
I don't know the correct names for everything, and since they order in
Cantonese from a menu printed in Chinese, I just take it as it comes.

So far as I recall here's what we had at the Old-Year banquet:
lobster with ginger
Chinese-style fried chicken
garlic chicken
scallops in some kind of white sauce
kung pao pork chop
spicy beef with peppers and onions
lo main
rice
sweet red bean soup

We are holding off on the New-Year banquet until Nigel is back from scho0l
on break.

Funny you mentioned that! My best friend, a mandarin, was told by his parents not to marry a cantonese, but he did anyways.

In mandarin, thank you sounds like sha shae. (Usally spelled she she.)

Happy New Year, George, the Lovely Bride, Clive, Hermione and Nigel!

Happy new year mr and mrs soccer george

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BErRvGgFZew