Sunday, January 12, 2014

Who needs human translators?

This comes from Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation's website, on their English About page.


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Tomorrow is our mid-term exam

我現在在星巴克,喝著toffee nut latte準備其中考試。其實我覺得考試不會太難,因為是個填空一種考試。

我一邊寫這些字,一邊聽在旁邊桌子的人聊天 。只是一個練習聽的辦法。

不幸的是,星期六是補課,而且早上9點上課喔。我想得已經累了。

Monday, January 6, 2014

Some blog statistics

In the right hand column of this blog is a visitor counter, with countries of origin, that I added five years ago today. Since January 6, 2009, this blog has had about 4,000 unique visitors from 46 different countries. Amazing!

I have a separate counter that I installed when I started the blog on October 16, 2007. Since then, about 8,300 folks have stopped by.

At that time I wondered how long I would continue to make entries. Although it's been hit and miss--last year was a big miss with only six posts--I hope I can do better this year.


Taiwan apartment tour 2014

I moved to my new place in Hualien in August of 2013.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Helping others is the source of happiness 助人為快樂之本

This is an assignment from class. We had to write about the saying 助人為快樂之本, which means something like "Helping others is the source of happiness." I wrote about Chen Shu Ju, who embodies the meaning of self-sacrifice and altruism.

陳樹菊 (Chen Shu Ju) 1951年出生。她是從台東來的。她家原來有八個人,可是陳樹菊年輕的時候,她媽媽去世了。她爸爸的工作是賣蔬菜,不過媽媽所有的醫療費丶監藥費他付不起。所以陳樹菊也開始工作,當然高中畢不了業。

除了她媽媽去世和早年輟學以外,她還有另外的困難。不但她最小的弟弟生病就死了,而且另外的弟弟因車禍死了。難怪那時候她生活辛苦起來了。

雖然她吃了很多苦,她沒有放棄。她弟弟生病的時候,他學校的人都捐款幫助他。雖然後來他死了,可是陳樹菊被他們感發了。所以她成為一個慈善家。她賣蔬菜賺的錢,大部分都捐出去了。

她不但是慈善家,而且是很謙虛的人。記者採訪她的時候,她說:「沒有很多的討論,因為我沒有跟誰比較。只是我幫助別人的時候,那總是讓我高興的。」

陳樹菊就是這樣真實的例孑一『助人為快樂之本』。

Friday, January 3, 2014

2013→2014 一生一世

This is the first time posting from my smart phone; hopefully this method will help me be more regular in my blog entries.
I have a lot to catch up on. Briefly:
• I went to the U.S. last April and got to visit with my daughters, son-in-law, and granddaughters.
• After five years in Taiwan, I received my permanent residency (APRC) and open work permit.
• My son spent two months with me over the summer; that was wonderful!
• At the end of August I quit my teaching job and moved to the beautiful east coast (Hualien) to study Chinese full time.
• During my first week in Hualien, while my son and I were white water rafting, I met a nice Taiwanese guy, and now we're dating.
• Two weeks ago I adopted an eight-month-old cat named 妹妹 (Mei-Mei).
It's time to go to class now, so I'll  fill in the blanks over the coming days.
I'm loving my life in beautiful Hualien!