May 6, 2026
Somehow, in the WTCS discussion, we started talking about the word 褲橛 kou3(2) gueh8. It literally translates to something like "half pants" or "section of pants". Growing up, I always thought this word meant underwear. But apparently, some people use it to mean shorts.
I ended up asking my mom what it meant to her, and she told me it was shorts because kou3 is pants and gueh8 is half. I asked her if it could also be used for underwear, and she said "No, underwear is lai6(7) kou3". I was always used to saying do2(6) kou3 for shorts (literally "short pants"). And my mom told me that yeah, do(6) kou3 and kou(2) gueh8 are the same. This was all wild to me because it was just not my understanding at all.
I also asked my aunt how to say underwear and she told me kou(2) gueh8. So I must have picked that up from her! I asked her if you could also use kou(2) gueh8 to mean shorts and she told me "No, shorts is do(6) kou3". And then she also told me "You can also say lai(7) kou3 for underwear. lai(7) kou3 and kou(2) gueh8 are the same."
May 5, 2026
So in the last update, which was all the way back in November, I said I would explain why I was looking at the word "foot". The short answer is because I wanted to add ka1 huang5, which is like an ankle bracelet. And I went down a whole rabbit hole trying to figure out what the character for huang5 is, and I made this super long writeup of it.
Right now, I don't feel like posting it. Maybe I still will later. Maybe.
Anyway, I must have stopped working on my Teochew every day because I fell off this again. But I've started it up again! I've added like...20 more translations since the last update. And I'm really, really trying to keep up with my studies. It really does feel good to keep learning the language, and to keep adding even one word each day. Or each week.
I know that a ton of my time has been spent working on What Teochew Say. And you might be wondering, if you're working on that, are you still going to keep working on your own teochew site? Honestly, when I first joined the WTCS team, I wasn't sure of the answer to this. I mean, it's kind of redundant, right? But as I kept working on the project, I realized that I needed learningteochew.com for myself. I needed a project that was just mine, where I don't have to compromise on anything and can do exactly what I want in the way that I want. I also just like to have this to keep track of things that I know I've learned! And I use my own flashcards feature! So yeah, this isn't going away. And I'm going to keep working on WTCS as well. I'm still figuring out the whole "balance" thing.
As I'm writing this update, I have 976 translations on the site! Sooo close to 1,000!
November 21, 2025
Wow, it's been over a month since my last update! So I've been down a lot of rabbit holes lately. I try to add one word and I go down a rabbit hole, and while I try to reach the end of it, I just end up going down a different rabbit hole.
Today's update is that I've changed the Chinese character that I'm using for the word "foot" (ka1). I used to use 腳 as the main character, and I listed 跤 as an alternate. I was looking at the different source that I consult, and the reason I did that is because both Mogher and CZYZD have 腳 in their dictionaries and no 跤. But WTCS lists 跤 as the main character! So I read through a whole thread in discord about why they made that decision and that's when I realized I should learn about how different readings are classified. So a character can have a colloquial reading and a literary reading. But there are also a bunch of other designations like "semantic loan".
...I still don't grasp a lot of it. But I seemed to be convinced enough to swap the main and the alt character for ka1. I think this will be a good topic for another lesson page.
Why was I even looking at ka1 in the first place?! Well, that will be explained in the next update!
Apart from all that, here are the translations I've added since the last update:
- back
- thunder
- to capture
- always
- pickled radish
- to bump into
- tree
October 11, 2025
I finally got around to adding a bunch of words that I learned from my family when I visited them a few weeks ago. I still have a huge backlog of words to add though!
New translations for today:
- to roll up
- to get married
- to go on vacation
- to get off work
- office
- hoe
- persimmon
- quiet
September 28, 2025
Most of my actual coding work has been on WTCS, but I'll still keep trying to add more translations here. Here's the latest set of words I added!
- sometimes
- dish eaten with rice
- bridge
- fitting, just right
- cigarette
- earthworm