Since I'm in a good mood...

Bot Ngia Tai Lang, Zhoong Ngia Fan Su!

Now this is a term that is used to express a lot of things. Very difficult to translate, very difficult to explain. But since I'm in a good mood...

Normally, when you meet with utter frustration, like when you asked someone to do something very simple for you, and the fella fails, you are accorded the license to utter this phrase. It is not something pleasant to say, nor is it something that you should be proud of. Especially if you're on the receiving end of it.

Bot Ngia Tai Lang, literally translated means to go get a shivering cold. As to why this phrase came about, I'd have to dig up my great-grandparents from the grave and ask them. Even that too might not result in having the truth. But at your level of proficiency in this 3rd installment, you do not need to know that much. What can I say, we're Hakka, we're vulgar, and we're proud of it... well, sometimes not so proud, but still...

Zhoong Ngia Fan Su is easier to translate. Literally, it means to go plant yourself a sweet potato. Some have even suggested that the words 'Fan Su' is an extrapolated implication of your father.

So, as it goes, Bot Ngia Tai Lang, Zhoong Ngia Fan Su would come together and mean this; You are so useless that you might as well go bury your father.

Packs a punch innit?

It calls you stupid at the beginning, and curses death upon your father at the end.

So, yeah.. I hope you've learnt something more about Hakka-ness and you would have benefited by this entry. But if I hear you quote me on this, I'm leaving the conversation.

Maybe next week, I'll talk about the female forms of the Hakka language, and all its flowery flowing phrases that can be accompanied by it.