Wednesday 26 October 2011

Ten dollar, ten dollar (Taiwan)

Peter the British geologist was working on the rig offshore from Kaohsiung (south-west coast of Taiwan), and came back to Taipei with this comment: “I know the Chinese are well-known for being gamblers, but this radio operator on the rig was doing it all the time, placing bets with every radio call!”  
What did the radio operator say, I asked.  Pete said, “Oh, his English isn’t very good.  He was saying Ten Dollar, Ten Dollar.”  
It didn’t make sense that a (Taiwanese-)Chinese radio operator in Taiwan should be placing bets in English.  I later worked out that the operator must’ve said the Chinese equivalent of radio-speak in English (roger, for “message received and understood”), which is: 听到了 tīngdào le / "have heard".

(Taiwan, 1976)

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