Comment on It's easier to rhyme in Mandarin than in English
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 days agoExamples from my mother:
When I refuse to eat because I’m mad:
哇,練神仙啊!亦好啊,慳返啲食嘅。(Omg, are you trying to become an immortal being? Great, we can save a lot of money!)
When I told my mom I wanna to 睇橋 (to view a bridge; euphemism for me wanting to jump off a bridge):
使唔使開車載你去啊?(Do you want me to drive you there?)
Always said with a positive happy voice… like when you grow up with someone you understand when it’s sarcasm, the creepy happy voice as if she’s thinking: omg this annoying child, finally I’ll get some sweet relief
Also she jokes about:
謂,你咁唔識珍惜生命,不如帶你返中國換個個細路出來啦。🤗 (Hey, since you don’t really wanna live, why dont I take you back to home to China and find someone else to take your place?) (She means find a lookalike and let them steal my identity, and she’ll pretend to have them as their child)
So yea, just normal family. Totally normal.
Sarcasm is easily detectible. It’s hard to explain, but if you spend enough time around people, you’ll hear it.
hddsx@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Canto?
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Yea
I’m from Guangzhou, currently residing in the US and naturalized
hddsx@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Oh lol it’s just you said mandarin but your example seemed more canto so I had some momentary confusion
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin xD
The comment I replied to said
I don’t have a lot of interactions with Mandarin speakers outside of having been through 2nd grade in China
So Cantonese is all I know regarding to irl use of sarcasm in a tonal language.