A month or so ago I wrote the same electronic-mail message to a number of friends with whom I had lost regular contact. The subject line was always the same: “Long time no hear.” Most of my friends responded within a few days, but Annabel Campigotto’s response came only a couple of days ago. After a few words about her and her husband, Franco, she turned to my subject line: “Did you know that ‘long time no hear’ is pure Chinese (hao jiu bu jian)? “ After a few words about myself, I turned to her question: “Yes, I knew that the English expression is of Chinese origin, but this is the first time that I see the Chinese words, too. Well done!” I just googled the oft-used English expression and found its Chinese translation complete with the four Chinese characters, which made me even happier. As I discovered, the words are actually in Mandarin, whereas the Cantonese expression, for instance, as well as two of the characters, are quite different. I must get back to Annabel as soon as possible!