Fay2 lut bun

I'm off to the Philippines this weekend. A friend (phang ('pang') yau) is there on business. To say you're from a place in Cantonese, use the phrase Ngoh hai {place} yan. Yan means person.

Here is a short list of places:

• H'eung Gong - Hong Kong
• Jung kwok ('gwo') - China (lit: middle country)
• Yan4 do - India
• Ma loy sai2 ah - Malaysia
• Bar gay C tan4 - Pakistan
• Yin2 kwok - United Kingdom
• May kwok - United States
• Ga2 la tai2 - Canada
• Sai2 bun ane - Spain
• Yan4 nei - Indonesia

Ngho hai Yin2 kwok yan.

The Cantonese for England is Yin2 kwok, literally this means hero country. Interestingly, the Chinese borrow words in one of three ways, translation, transliteration or a mixture. We'll see examples as we progress in these lessons. In the case of England, they chose to use a commendatory term (hero).