Chinglish (and Englinese?)

Click here for some laughs:

A Sampling of Chinglish: slideshow

Of course, I'm sure I make some howlers when I mangle Chinese (I call it “Englinese”).

Speaking of which, I'm proud to say I'm still on track. As of yesterday, I remembered the meaning, pronunciation, reading ,and writing of the following words for this week (patting myself on the back here, but also testing myself today as I write these):

有意思	yǒu yì si	to be interesting		試	shì	to try
說	shuō	to speak		慢	màn	slow
首	shǒu	[measure:songs]		週末	zhōu mò	weekend
密碼	mì mǎ	password		喝	hē	to drink
愉快	yú kuài	happy		吸煙	xī yān	to smoke
肉絲	ròu sī	shredded meat		得	de	[particle:manner/degree]
能	néng	can (physically)		可以	kě yǐ	can (permission)
會	huì	can (learned)		聽	tīng	to hear, listen
茄子	qié zi	eggplant		青椒	qīng jiāo	green pepper
話	huà	word		事	shì	matter, affair
歌	gē	song		難	nán	difficult
有一點	yǒu yì diǎn	slightly		意思	yì si	meaning
好像	hǎo xiàng	to seem to be		酒	jiǔ	alcohol
念	niàn	to read		番茄	fān qié	tomato
真	zhēn	real, true		做事	zuò shì	to take care of matters
畫畫	huà huà	to paint, draw		寫	xiě	to write
教	jiāo	to teach		飯	fàn	food, cooked rice
點飯	diǎn fàn	to order food		唱	chàng	to sing
無線上網	wú xiàn shàng wǎng	wireless Internet		味道	wèi dào	flavor
現在	xiàn zài	now

There are two words from this week that I keep forgetting how to write, although I can recognize the meaning and pronunciation when I see them:

不錯

bú cuò

not bad

跳舞

tiào wǔ

to dance

Did you notice that there are two words above pronounced exactly alike? SHÌ (試 to try) and SHÌ (事 matter). These homophones significantly complicate my learning.

Add to these some other words that I already know—

SHÌ (是 to be)
SHÌ (市 city,market)
SHÌ (式 style)
SHÌ (視 part of the word for TV)
SHÌ (世 part of the word for world)

—Plus some other SHIs that I know with different tones—

SHĪ (師 part of the word for teacher)
SHĪ (獅 lion)
SHÍ (十 ten)
SHÍ (時 hour)
SHÍ (石 stone)
SHǏ (屎 excrement)

—well, the picture sums it up pretty well.

Proud of myself

This morning, I did NOT turn on my computer the first thing. Instead, I made some coffee, unplugged my laptop, put it on the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM, and proceeded to do one hour of calligraphy practice, and one hour of Chinese study.

Yes, it's gotten to that point: If I want to get anything worthwhile accomplished, I have to force myself to stay away from the damn Internet.

If felt good. No, it felt great! Can I keep it up? This week will be a test for me.

By the way, here are some photos of my weekend activities. Enjoy!

Click on photos to enlarge

omg Omg OMG!

OK, so maybe three OMGs is a bit much. Still, I was totally stoked to find hazelnut syrup and Dr. Pepper in Taoyuan! (on Da You Rd. [大有路], near the entrance to Tiger Head Mountain).

They also had tons of baking ingredients, spices (with English labels), and hard to get items like real pickles, jalapeño peppers, and sour cream. Unfortunately, some of the items are hit-and-miss; so, while they may not have Dr. Pepper the next time I go there, they could very well have tortilla chips.

Had a great day today: Calligraphy class in the morning and mini golf in the afternoon. Read all about it in the next entry. Right now, though, I'm eating Zatarain's red beans & rice and attempting to bake cookies in a toaster oven.

The wine is helping.

US Troops + Lady Gaga = ROFL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haHXgFU7qNI