Very often I am in search for Cantonese written words that are commonly used in Hong Kong and Guangdong (Canton). I have written before that Cantonese, and especially those developed in Hong Kong can be very colourful often with an undercurrent of dark humor.
Today, I was having the hardest time remembering a few words which I want to use. Very often I used Google translate to help me, but for when comes to sophisticated Cantonese words or phases, Google translate is ill-suited. Actually even the best of Chinese online (dialect) translators is more miss than hit. While searching online I came across another extensive compilation of Cantonese to Mandarin translator. While it is quite extensive I still could not find the expression I was looking for. If you are like me, needing to refresh these slang, phases, and words here is the treasure I found today. It belongs to Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學. I was entertained for a long time browsing though it.
as you can see the screen shot, the scroll bar on the right is right on the very top and it is so small; i counted there are over 100 pages in this translator and it is just the tip of the iceberg
Actually while I was searching for the word that I badly wanted, I found many similar translators online to help Mandarin speaking population understand the equivalent Cantonese counterparts. Most , such as this one, however are very very incomplete that they are useless for the purpose.
Eventually I did find the word 靚 (means pretty, fine, beautiful and many more depends on the context) I was looking for, not from any of these translators. I just kept trying different Chinese keywords using Google search (the search hits are all Chinese sites).
So what happen when I put the word 靚 into Google translate from Chinese to English? Garbage is what I get. Actually to Google's credit, the translator gives the pronunciation of the Cantonese word in English - liang.
