Hong Kong was my home for three and a half years and if I close my eyes, it's still inside
me. The sights, the sounds and the smells of a city, they become a part of who you are.
It's time to go back. Hong Kong, I'm coming.
Eat Sleep Dreamers welcome to Hong Kong. I'm here to show you guys that you can learn English
anytime anywhere. It doesn't matter where you are. Now I've done one video in London,
one video in Singapore and now I'm in the most amazing city Hong Kong. This is a second
home to me. I love this city. For me it's a city of contrast. You've got these incredible
skyscrapers rising up and just over the hill you've got beautiful beaches and an amazing
ocean. You've got international restaurants and companies and banks and you've got local
little stores, street markets. You've got old colonial architecture next to modern high-rise
buildings. It's a place of contrast and I absolutely love it. I'm addicted to this city.
So we're going to take a walk around, see what English we can find because I believe
you can learn English anytime anywhere. We are going to look at street signs, adverts
anything. So if you are ready, let's do that.
Alright guys I'm going to do something super local Hong Kong style, I'm going to travel
on a tram. Now they locally they are known as ding dings. That is because of the sound
of the bell. When you want to get off you press the bell, it sounds like a ding ding.
So that is an example of onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is when the phonetic sound of the word resembles
the sound of the meaning. So for example 'ding ding' the sound of the bell, when you press
it it sounds like ding ding. If you think about table tennis or ping pong, is another
way of saying that. Ping and pong is the sound of the bat and the ball together. Another
example sizzle, for example. If you are frying something in a pan with hot oil. That sound
, it resembles sizzle. So the phonetics in the word resemble the sound of the actual
thing that you are talking about. Anyway, that's a bit of onomatopoeia. So I'm going
to jump aboard this tram and see where it takes me.
A nice little sign here, coffee to go. Now coffee to go means to take away. You are not
going to have it in the place where you bought it, you are going to take it away with you.
So coffee to go, you can have a pizza to go, you could have a sandwich to go anything.
So, if it's to go it means you take it away with you. Now you will notice there the pronunciation
coffee to go. Not coffee to go, it's to go. I'm using a weak form there because it's not
an important word so we just use the weak form to to say it. So coffee to go. Alright,
let's keep going. Alright I'm standing by the mid-levels escalator. Now Hong Kong has
the longest outdoor escalator system in the world. Now it takes people from central right
up into mid-levels which is where people live and I've just found a sign here with some
really interesting language. Now I love street signs especially in Hong Kong. They use some
very interesting language, often quite formal words that I haven't seen for many years.
But this sign has a great piece of English. To loiter. Now to loiter means to wait around
without any purpose. So you are standing around somewhere for no apparent reason. You don't
know why you are doing it. So people might loiter in the street or on the street corner
or here they are asking people not to loiter where this guy is loitering ok. He's sort
of standing in front of the escalator. So waiting without any purpose because you'll
block the escalator. So the pronunciation is loiter. So an example sentence might be
'There were some kids loitering on the street.' Just hanging around, no real purpose just
standing there. Back home if you have any signs that are in English, have a look at
them because they use some really interesting vocabulary. Now you guys know how much I love
adverts for learning English. I think they are super creative with the language. This
one, brilliant. To do something like a boss. If you do something like a boss it means you
do it very well. It's a really informal phrase and you can play with it, ok? So here it says
you eat like a boss, it means you can eat very well. You could teach English like a
boss, right? You can teach English really well. You can run like a boss. I run like
a boss means, I run really well. You are really good at doing this thing. So yeah, really
nice informal phrase there, kind of fun to play with. OK, I'm at the top of the escalators
and I've just seen this word. In fact I've seen this word a couple of times on a few
signs. Bulky, it's an adjective we use to describe some luggage or a sort of object
that is heavy, that's difficult to carry. It's unwieldy, we can call it bulky. So this
is talking about bulky baggage or a bulky suitcase, it's big, it's large, it's heavy,
it's difficult to carry. Nice! Alright, let's keep going. I don't know if you noticed guys
but it's a crazy hot day today. Thirty five degrees, humid, sun beating down. Now I'm
use to this because I lived in Hong Kong for three and a half years. I absolutely loved
living here and once I lived here I picked up a few of the variations that Hong Kong
English has. So I noticed for example that people use 'seldom' quite a lot to mean not
very often. Now I would personally only use that in written English. So generally I would
probably just say hardly ever. So, do you know what 'I hardly ever go swimming.' It
means I don't go swimming very often. So I noticed that is one thing. Another word that
I only really hear in Hong Kong is the word shroff and it means a office where you would
pay. So let's say you are at a car park and you need to pay for your ticket to park your
car there, you would pay at the shroff office. Or at the hospital, let's say you need to
pay for some medicine you go to the shroff office. So yeah, what I love is the kind of
slight variation of English here. It's a little bit different, different pronunciation, some
different vocabulary. I love that, it gives Hong Kong it's own identity and Hong Kong
English it's own identity. Just stopping here, a very famous Instagram wall in Hong Kong.
I was actually staying quite near here and just there was a continuous stream of people
getting their photos taken against this wall. It's amazing.
Alright Eat Sleep Dreamers,
I've walked into a little art space called PMQ and I'm in an exhibit called Cuddle Bubble.
It's pretty magical, I like it. So the sign is pretty cool, it has loads of interesting
vocabulary. So cuddle in itself is like an embrace, you bring someone close to you with
your arms to show affection, to show love. So to cuddle someone. There are a couple of
other nice phrases that they use there. They use the word scorching in the instructions
over there. Scorching means super hot, so 'this is a scorching day'. In fact yeah, every
day in the summer in Hong Kong is scorching, so really hot. It also talks about the hustle
and bustle. The hustle and bustle of life. The busyness of life. We often talk about
the hustle and bustle of a city so there's a nice little phrase, sort of a collocation
that goes together. The hustle and bustle. So you might say 'I love the hustle and bustle
of city life.' Or 'I love the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong.'
Eat Sleep Dreamers, that's
it I think I have found enough English for one day. I am absolutely shattered. Hong Kong
has been amazing, what a place to search for English. Obviously it has it's historical
roots with English language. It's one of the official languages here so it makes sense,
right? But yeah I hope you have enjoyed this one. If you have enjoyed it please give it
a big thumbs up, like it, share it, tell your friends, let me know in the comments below
and if you want me to come to your city or your country let me know as well. I'm always
up for travelling, meeting you guys and seeing where we can learn English around the world.
Remember I've got new videos every Tuesday and every Friday helping you take your English
to the next level. Check me out on Instagram, Instagram stories and of course on Facebook.
But until next time guys, this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer in Hong Kong, saying goodbye.