h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Happy Year of the Black Water Dragon. Are you doing anything special to observe Chinese New Year?


HN

Yes, all the accountants decided to spontaneously down tools, construct a lion costume, and dance around the building.

They didn't really. Are we supposed to celebrate this outside China?

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè !

Our company is celebrating by starting a Mandarin version of our six o'clock news! Today we are treated to a free lunch of Dim Sum and I look forward to meeting the cast and crew.

That didn't cut and paste well, how about-

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

I didn't realize this was the Chinese new Year's Day. I would like to celebrate in some appropriate way, but unlike the years of the pig and the chicken, I'm not going to be able to eat the animal of honor, dragon meat being in short supply.

No komodo farms nearby?

Still stiff from the howling gale that greeted the lion dance & kung-fu demos in Leicester on Saturday. Good show all round, and I managed not to embarass myself or the association with my part of the demo.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Happy-new-year-Crowds-enjoy-Chinese-celebrations/story-15010391-detail/story.html

Gung hey fat choi!

There's a Chinese restaurant about a mile away. Tonight I'm going to ask them if they have a special dish in honor of the occasion.

Chow Yun Fat! I guess I should send a happy new year greeting to my Chinese friends, and have some pork tommorow. They do seem to eat a lot of dried pork for festive occasions.

Just an aside to those who might not know- Xin Nian Kuai Le is Mandarin and Gung Hey Fat Choi is Cantonese.

Either way, Happy (Lunar) New Year!

Do they?

The restaurant I just mentioned has a special dish called "Firecracker chicken." Firecrackers are used at New year's time, so that might work.

can we just mention that it's not only China that is celebrating New Year?

Koreans, Japanese - in fact any culture using the lunar calendar

We had rice-cakes this morning (Korean company) and the managers all pushed off to play golf this afternoon. HQ has closed down and left us to fend for ourselves...

so can I say:
seh heh bok man-i bad-uh se-yo!
(not sure about the transliteration, but it's how I'd read it...)

We celebrated by cutting and pasting the Chinese characters for Gong Hey Fat Choy into a Facebook message to a Singaporean friend.

(at least we can do that on Facebook. )

We just had the Dim Sum and it was delicious. Best part was when one of the higher ups put mustard on his sesame ball (dessert).

Sesame balls?

Quiet in the back, there!!!

Trying to figure out how to shoehorn it into an EFL lesson. The theme this week is, after all, festivals and traditions. It's that or the address to a haggis.

>> It's that or the address to a haggis.

Not in EFL, surely?

I have a YouTube vid lined up and everything....

You want the BBC Burns site. Very good!

Is that another Eddie site? Loved him in Life or Something Like It!