All true language is incomprehensible,
like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

-Antonin Artaud

9.10.2011

The motivation


I heard the sounds of children playing, cars honking, and “RRRRRRRrrrrr”. I opened my eyes; a few mosquitoes were having some fun in my hotel room.

Today was my first day in B.

I walked to the front desk. Nobody was there, so I left them a note complaining about the mosquitoes.

It was noon, and I wasn’t fed yet. Right next to my hotel there was a local restaurant. Sweet and sour pork, Kung Pao chicken, chow mein…mhmmm. At the door, a chubby woman looked at me and shouted, “ limian zuo!”

I couldn’t wait to look at the menu: “The thin cow picks three text cure” ...didn’t know what that was. “Living to fry the beef rice” …what?? “The bureau swallows to take the fish idea powder” I had no idea what “fish idea powder” was, probably it was the brain part?

OK, enough.

I checked with the chubby lady to see if they had pork, or chicken. She looked puzzled and said,“bu dong, bu dong!” That left me with no choice but to look down at my menu again. I noticed that on top of the menu, there was “The fried rice of Indonesia”

Hallelujah.

After lunch, I went into a shop selling electronic goods. I walked around and set my eyes on a headset. Before I tried it on, I noticed that there was a notice saying:

I needed more hints to understand what kind of business they were doing in this shop, so I went out and checked the name of the shop again; it said “Translate Server Error”.


I needed a walk to clear my head.

I went into a zoo, and saw a sign:

Creepy, but I smiled back.

Everyone was on the way back to their offices; not many of them had time to stay in a zoo. I saw a few monkeys sitting inside a cage. These funny and furry friends stared at each other; looking bored. I saw another sign:
I wanted to have some fun. I put my right hand into the cage and tapped one of the monkey’s shoulder (whose back was facing me), then I looked away immediately before he turned around, acting as if I was an innocent visitor. He examined my facial expression carefully, and then turned his back on me again. I was having so much fun and couldn't stop from doing it again. This time, his friend saw what I did. And before I knew what was going on, I felt a sharp pain on my index finger.

The monkey bit me!

My finger was bleeding so badly and I didn’t know to whom I could turn for help. I decided to return to my hotel and took a rest.

I put a bandage on my finger and laid down on bed, and then I heard the mosquitoes again. With all the frustrations and pains I had gone through today, I rushed out and shouted at the front desk, “I need all the mosquitoes to be out of my room, now!” The front desk lady, looking scared, replied in broken English, “I see your note, but not understand your handwriting…”

I went back to my room, laid down again, and stared at my bleeding finger, the mosquitoes were started to get excited I could tell.

I needed to look for a Chinese language course tomorrow.

9.01.2011

Emilie Story Part III

Part III of the story by Emilie, my student who is a also a talented photographer for Time Out Hong Kong, read her photoblog here.
十一月二十三日 晚


昨晚,我再做一樣的夢,不過有了一點不同:

我醒來前,那個女人說了一個詞。

醒來後,我很快寫下:太安樓。

然後,我在睡覺,但是沒有做夢。

今天,在大學我不能專心,我的學生都問候我。

下午,我回家,試試打電話給在倫敦的太太,不過她很忙,沒有時間說話。

我的兒子再出去跟女朋友一起。

然後我再看那張紙,那三個字:太安樓。

我想我不可以不去。

8.25.2011

The power of the word

"Of all the powerful weapons of destruction that man has invented, the most terrible – and the most cowardly – is the word."- Paulo Coelho

I enjoy reading quotes; they are usually precise and influential.

To me, word is:














...and many more.

What made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination against race, colour, sex, religion and national origin related to voting, employment and public services throughout America?

It was because of a young American pastor believed that all men were created equal, and publicly dreamt about his four little children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.

What brought down the Berlin Wall? It was by an unintentional, yet powerful mistake. On 9 November, 1989, Günter Schabowski was asked by a reporter at the end of a press conference that when a new law permitting GDR citizens more freedom of travel would take effect. Without being informed in advance, he assumed that it would be on the same day of the regulation notes being handed, he then said,"As far as I know effective immediately, without delay."

Later the same night, thousands of East Berliners rushed to the Wall and tried to climb over it, left the guards with on choice but to open the gate to let the people into West Berlin.

What cost Chinese human right activist Tan Zuoren 5 years in jail? He was accused of "inciting subversion of state power" after publicly questioning why so many schools collapsed in 2008 Sichuan earthquake-while other buildings around them remained standing. Many speculated that the poor construction of the schools was because of corruption.

Imprisonment is probably one of the best ways to shut a powerful vocal critic up.

All the above people, including the words they said, have had great impacts on history and our society.

Now then, what about the powerful words in our daily life? They are usually simple, yet striking and magical.

A person who once meant a lot to me had a problem that many of us have in common-being reluctant to apologise with saying "I am sorry".

The only time when I heard it, my heart was melted in an instant, and tears were running down from my eyes. (was it implying that the effectiveness of words has something to do with its frequency of usage?)

What words in daily life are the most powerful to you?

8.18.2011

It's just ketchup

One day, I was interested in writing a post about English words of Chinese origin. I remembered it was a typhoon night, I went to consult this professor who lived across the street from me. I heard her playing mahjong with her friends when I pressed the doorbell.

When she finally opened the door, she was wearing a yellow silk cheongsam with pink lychee patterns on it, holding a cup of Oolong and said,"Chop-Chop! Come on in!"

"Sorry to bother you this late but I just want to ask you about..."I noticed that there was a blood stain on her collar, so I asked,"did he beat you again?" She checked it with a mirror but then quickly said,"oh, no, no...it is just ketchup, I was eating chips the other day..."

Poor lady, she was probably brainwashed by her conservative mother that all ugly truth of the family should be kept as secrets. "So, what brings you here again?"



I know, what a strange story! Please try to find the words that you think are from Chinese.

Highlight here to make the answers visible!

Did you find 9? Excellent!

1. Typhoon
2. Mahjong
3. Silk
4. Cheongsam
5. Lychee
6. Oolong
7. Chop Chop
8. Ketchup
9. Brainwash

8.12.2011

Hand Gestures

Home Sweet Home.

I am back.

In Italy, I was trying to speak with an Italian family, but after failing to hold a conversation in Italian for more than 3 minutes, I switched to sign language; yes, the famous Italian hand gestures.

...and it worked.

I even bought a book called Supplemento al dizionario italiano (Supplement to the italian dictionary) to understand this interesting culture better.

Here are a few unforgettable gestures taught by the book:

1. Che vuoi? (What do you expect?)





Shake your hand up and down, depends on how impatient you are!



2. Bere (A drink)






3. Che peso! (What a bore!)







Tap your hand slowly against your chest to show that the thing or the person is boring enough to cause indigestion!

In Chinese culture, people don't use hand gestures as much as Westerners; but we do have hand gestures for number 1-10:






7.16.2011

Jokes

The summer sun is not merciful here in Hong Kong; I am running away for three weeks.

Going to three countries where hopefully, in one of them I can practice my hopeless Italian. For the other two, I am going to use sign language.









I have been reading some jokes about these countries as the starter of my journey.

Belgium:

How do you drive a Belgian crazy?

Lock him in a circular room and tell him there's frites at the next corner.

Germany:

Do you know why Germans build such high-quality products?

So they won't have to go around being nice while they fix them.

Italy:

How do you shut up an Italian?

Tie their hands behind their backs.


I hope they didn't offend you, but made you laugh...but just to be fair, here is a Chinese one:

Why would the world have been a better place if Adam and Eve were Chinese?

Because they would have eaten the snake instead of the apple.

7.10.2011

Funny Cantonese Animal Slangs

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about funny animal names. This time, I am quite interested in looking into the Cantonese slang related to animals.

Before I started this post, I was writing down as many slangs as I could think of, and was quite surprised to find out I could came out with at least 10 within 1 minute...







蛇王 (C-sèh-wohng)

Snake King-call a lazy person a Snake King, because a snake likes to curl up its body and rest.

色狼 (C-sīk-lòhng)

Colour Wolf-the equivalent in English is horndog.

In Buddhist terms, "colour" refers to all sort of materialistic things that evoke desires-especially sexual desire.

Wolf symbolises evil and greed (think about the wolf in The Three Little Pigs, also the one in Red Riding Hood)

A Colour Wolf means a person has a greed for sex.

失魂魚 (C-sāt-wàhn-yú)

Terrified fish-call a panic person a terrified fish. We all know how a terrified fish acts like-it turns around and swims away like a flash of lightning.

笑面虎 (C-siu-mihn-fú)

Smile Face Tiger-call a hypocritical person a Smile Face Tiger; usually it is to describe a person who seems to be kind but is actually wicked.

扮豬吃老虎 (C-Baan-jyū-sihk-lóuh-fú)

Disguised as a pig, and eats a tiger-to describe a person plays dumb in order to manipulate other people.