Another Wholly Untranslatable Word
The Hokkien turn of phrase, pekchek, describes extreme frustration, frequently arising either from a string of events indicating the forces of the universe conspire against you, or from a slate of work of Sisyphean proportions, or both. The well-known feeling arising from not being able to get a taxi despite queuing for hours in Orchard Road on a weekday night, despite repeated calls to every taxi company, comes very close to conveying that feeling of pekchek-like exasperation; or being blown off time and again by a fickle lover, if that’s your kind of thing too.
Additionally, the phrase pekchek connotes impossibility and futility, and may accurately describe the state of being in (1) having an examination in 2 days (2) nothing done and YET (3) doing pointless things, spending too much money, engaging in premature trip planning, eating too much, feeding the fish, lurking online, downloading things I will never watch and music I will never hear, generally everything, except .
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Untranslatable: nua
- Posted by popagandhi at 07:11 pm
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*fickle lover.
haha.. it’s amazing, isn’t it? how some singlish words can so aptly express what english cannot. now that’s what i call tok kong. :p
Hmm.. a new one..
I love the word tok kong, too! sibei hoh!
hmm, what’s with you and hokkien words? First, it was nua. Now, this.
Getting in touch with the one half of myself
ah. you’re not about to break into blogging in hokkien, right? ..right? _ ;;
we’ll see about that. :)
(the only thing holding me back is that the significant other will probably leave me – and i wouldn’t blame her – it would be the last straw, i think. heh heh.)
NO! No hokkien!
..not until babelfish supports it, anyway.
wow. you reply real fast. do u have this thing auto-refreshing itself like what, every 5 seconds? ^_-
RSS, no?
I have my comments ping-ing me wirelessly the instant they come in. ;) So I can just be sitting across the room, and I know it even before you hit “say it!”
Heheh. Actually it’s just me lurking around helpfully avoiding the mountain of work on my desk.. so..
okay. this is getting freakishly like a chat room. i’m just gonna stop now.
When one says how Nua of you, it refers to your (acheiving of the zen state of) sluggishness (as benchmarked against the rest of your class or the World in general).
i love tok kong! my sec school chinese teacher used it a lot in despair.
Another one is ‘long piak’ aka an extreme case of pekchekness. Or ‘long piak see’ aka death by hard wall.