Another Wholly Untranslatable Word
April 9th, 2005 | Published in general | 16 Comments
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
April 9th, 2005 at 8:56 pm (#)
*fickle lover.
April 9th, 2005 at 10:06 pm (#)
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
April 9th, 2005 at 10:18 pm (#)
Hmm.. a new one..
April 9th, 2005 at 10:25 pm (#)
I love the word tok kong, too! sibei hoh!
April 9th, 2005 at 11:58 pm (#)
hmm, what’s with you and hokkien words? First, it was nua. Now, this.
April 10th, 2005 at 12:48 am (#)
Getting in touch with the one half of myself
April 10th, 2005 at 2:26 am (#)
ah. you’re not about to break into blogging in hokkien, right? ..right? _ ;;
April 10th, 2005 at 2:32 am (#)
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.)
April 10th, 2005 at 2:37 am (#)
NO! No hokkien!
..not until babelfish supports it, anyway.
April 10th, 2005 at 2:39 am (#)
wow. you reply real fast. do u have this thing auto-refreshing itself like what, every 5 seconds? ^_-
April 10th, 2005 at 2:42 am (#)
RSS, no?
April 10th, 2005 at 2:42 am (#)
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..
April 10th, 2005 at 2:48 am (#)
okay. this is getting freakishly like a chat room. i’m just gonna stop now.
April 10th, 2005 at 10:43 am (#)
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).
April 10th, 2005 at 1:44 pm (#)
i love tok kong! my sec school chinese teacher used it a lot in despair.
April 11th, 2005 at 7:03 am (#)
Another one is ‘long piak’ aka an extreme case of pekchekness. Or ‘long piak see’ aka death by hard wall.