Dogs - the great ice breakers.
"What's his name, what breed is he, how old is he (or she)" - these are the kinds of questions you can't ask a random person in the street about himself, but about his dog it's all systems go!
Most people of all the nationalities I have met so far love it when you pay attention to their dogs, and need little prompting to let it rip about their canines' toilet and food habits, and how it's too hot to take them out in the afternoon. Talking about dogs in Spanish is what I call bearable small talk and is the shortcut to finding new friends.
I'm so convinced that dogs are the key to good living that I have started working on a new Spanish textbook, a follow-up to Plonkers Abroad (Learn Spanish about Really Trying) where you learn Spanish the easiest way imaginable: Through talking to dogs! With the odd comment to their owners thrown in. I think I can finish it this year.
Dogs were also the theme of Episode 2 in CantoNews from Exile, where ah-Hei suddenly found herself in Wales and just as suddenly won a dog show. Or rather, her dog Maloney did. Well done, Maloney!
This podcast was also much less maudlin than Episode 1 Hong Kong - thank God. But I double dare you to have lived in that city for 30 years and not get maudlin, or rather, irate, while talking about it. Indeed, thinking about it is enough to send me spiralling into a raging heap of fury.
But neither fury nor sadness is any match for the Chinese communist party of course, so the only thing I can do is to keep speaking and teaching Cantonese. Not only to irritate the Party, but to make sure that the language will be spoken by someone - anyone - when the great mandofication of Hong Kong begins in earnest.
If anyone in Mallorca is reading this and knows someone who has lived in Hong Kong and is interested in being on the show, please let me know!
That person will be able to Learn Cantonese the Natural Way - from a Norwegian! - free.
Today's Cantonese: 我好鍾意狗仔 - o hou jungyi gau tsai - I very like dog-ettes (I love dogs)