Harwis is coming to Oz.

[Deskpilot]

I'm sure you're all interested in the flying scene in China as Harwis has posted recently. Well, soon you'll be able to talk to him personally, provided you come to Adelaide. I'm very happy to inform you that Harwis, his wife WanZhi (Emily) and his young daughter Chu Yao, will be emigrating to Australia in October. Needless to say, he is very excited and is counting the day till they arrive.

 

I have been in touch with Harwis for about a month and answering as many questions as I could. He is, at present, a Rotax representative in Beijing and would ideally like to stay in the Recreation Aviation field. He understands, however, that that might not be possible and prepared to try his hand at anything in the engineering field. He is very highly qualified so, if any of you can assist him in finding a job in South Australia (he's coming on a regional visa) your help would be most gratefully received.

 

I'm sure you'll all wish him and his family a safe flight over and a happy future in Australia.

 

Please address all replies to Harwis.

 

Doug

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks for the news Doug - we all hope Harwis settles in well and finds a job here so if anyone can help a fellow International Aviator then please sing out!

 

 

[facthunter]

Coming to australia.

 

Yes , good thing Harwis.. Welcome......... Hey mate, they reckon FAIR DINKUM is a chinese word . Can you check it out for me ? because some of us here are just that! Nev......

 

 

[Yenn]

Welcome Harwis, where in China do you come from?

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Be fair guys, Harwis doesn't know Aussie slang nor understand Aussie humor yet.

 

 

[facthunter]

Slang .

 

I know & I feel bad....

 

But seriously, The words apparently came from chinese gold miners who came to australia in quite large numbers about a hundred years ago. We take it to be something like The REAL thing, Or GENUINE.. I thought some of you aus blokes might have helped our friend here. I didn't want him to do it on his own. Incidently , my chinese is terrible. N...

 

 

[slartibartfast]

It appears that a common folktale about the origins of "fair dinkum" tells that many of the Chinese who came to Australia during the gold rush would say "din gum" when they found gold. This is said to mean "real gold" in the dialect used (most spoke Cantonese).

 

Another story says that it came from Captain Cook saying "fair drinking" when making a toast.

 

Yet another says it comes from the Latin "Vere Dictum" meaning "truly spoken".

 

Apparently, most scholars agree the real origin is from the Lincolnshire dialect in central England - where dinkum meant work. There is at least one written example of its use before Australia's settlement.

 

My Cantonese is crap so I can't verify if anything like "din gum" means "real gold", although I have a dictionary at home and will look it up. Harwis being from Beijing (Pu Tong Hua?) probably won't know either.

 

Anyone?

 

Ross

 

 

[Admin]

The saying I have always liked the best is:

 

"May all ya chooks turn into emus and kick ya dunny door in"

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Haha - sure thing Harwis.

 

Chooks are chickens.

 

Emus are very large flightless birds (the 2nd largest after Ostriches).

 

A dunny is an outdoor toilet.

 

Many Australian homes (especially outside cities, but even within) had chooks in the backyard, and a dunny there too.

 

It is probably the most Australian of all curses.

 

Even better than the 孔夫子 (Confucius) saying:

 

May you live in interesting times.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

No I don't have chinese character entry, I just looked up his name and cut and paste. Come to think of it, I don't think that was from Confucius, but close enough.

 

I have taught in Tianjin and spent a lot of time in Hong Kong, so I have tried to learn Mandarin and Cantonese at various times. I usually pick up languages well, but they are hard.

 

Your english is going great. It's also a hard language to master. You'll be right when you get here.

 

Can't find my Cantonese dictionary to look up din gum, but found an online one which shows that 現金 (jin gam) means cash (jin means appear,emerge,now,available and gam means gold). Might work.

 

Ross

 

 

[Admin]

Great to put a face to a name Harwis