I’ve not been in a taxi for a long while. Today that ended with one of the more polite drivers I can remember having. His phone rang and he apologetically asked if he could answer it.

Anyway, we were talking about the Expo (big surprise there) and he mentioned this book the drivers were given in order to learn some English. He practiced a few phrases on me and I gave him a couple more to work on. The odd thing was this book, which unfortunately he didn’t have with him, was written in Shanghainese. Really, I asked. Yep. All in Shanghainese in order to teach the drivers English. I didn’t think to ask him how exactly it was written, since it seems if it were going to use characters, then the choice of Wu certainly wouldn’t have been one for the sake of literacy. I mean, characters are characters. And I don’t think he was putting me on. Time didn’t permit me pushing the issue, so I had to get out with many an unanswered question. It’s something to bring up the next time I get in a taxi.

I’d love to get my hands on the booklet. More of a pamphlet really, as he described it. Has anyone heard of this?

Obama may be the first U.S. president to publicly speak Wu. Alright fine, it was just 侬好, but we’ll take what we can get.

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It brings a tear to my eye.

Face it. If you’re from another country (外国人) and you move from almost anywhere else in China to Shanghai, you’re going to notice a change in how people treat you. Far fewer people saying 哈罗* like it’s an urgent question and far more treating you like a human being. And conversely, if you’re from another part of China (外地人) and you make the same move, sucks to your assmar.

So here you go, your filthy filthy outsiders with your Canadian salaries or Erhuayin. Either way, this week out theme is you⁑.

外地人　ŋɑ²² di⁵⁵ ɲin²¹
　　　　nga di nyin
外国人　ŋɑ²² koʔ⁵⁵ ɲin²¹
　　　　nga kok nyin
乡下人　ɕiã⁵⁵ ɦo³³ ɲin²¹
　　　　xia hou nyin

外头人　ŋɑ²² dɤ⁵⁵ ɲin²¹
　　　　nga de nyin

本地人　pən³³ ti⁵⁵ ɲin²¹⁂
　　　　ben di nyin

#xingqihu
- – -
* Hēllǒ!
⁑ and me too, obviously.
⁂ Re 地 as [ti] or [di], it’s hard to know if this is an error in transcription consistency or if there’s some sort of voicing sandhi going on. Either way I’ve left it as the difference between an un-aspirated /t/ and /d/ are minimal and not really worth crying over.

To answer the people who think the topics here get too technical/academic/stuffy:

Aww yeah. The Lion King in Shanghainese. Not the whole film, of course, but you get the idea.

I gotta say I’m a little sad that Scar sounds nothing like Jeremy Irons.

Update: Just found Aladdin, or at least 16 minutes of Aladdin. They even do one of the songs. Have a look.