Learn Cantonese from Stories (4): 牛排有幾熟 How Well Do You Know Your Steak?
I believe in learning a new language through short but interesting stories, such as the following joke - How Well Do You Know Your Steak?
It is interesting that the same Cantonese character can have multiple meanings depending on the context, that sometimes creates an innocent joke. Let's look at some necessary vocabularies before reading the following article.
The character 熟 [suk6] means both “familiar” and “cooked well”.
Once you understand the above logic, hope this joke won't lose its meaning after being translated to English.
Feel free to message me anytime,
regarding this article or simply being curious about Cantonese!
---
問：一個七分熟的牛排和一個五分熟的牛排相遇了。可是它們卻沒有打招呼，為什麼？
Question: A seven-minute (medium-well) steak and a (medium) five-minute steak meet on the street, but they didn’t say hello to each other. Why?
問[man6]：
一[yat1]個[go3]七[chat1]分[fan1]熟[suk6]的[dik1]牛[ngau4]排[paai2]和[wo4]
一[yat1]個[go3]五[ng5]分[fan1]熟[suk6]的[dik1]牛[ngau4]排[paai2]
相[seung1]遇[yu6]了[liu5]。
可[ho2]是[si6]它[ta1]們[mun4]卻[keuk3]沒[mut6]有[yau5]打[da2]招[jiu1]呼[fu1]，
為[wai6]什[sam6]麼[mo1]？
答：因為它們都不熟！
Answer: Because they both aren’t familiar with each other!
答[daap3]：
因[yan1]為[wai6]它[ta1]們[mun4]都[dou1]不[bat1]熟[suk6]！
March 27, 2020
