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Want to learn japanese
Saturday, Jun 28, 2008 6:48PM / Members only
shogunate
sumo match, i learnt to appreciate when i was filming in nan jing, weird
tokyo, panormic view
I have always wanted to learn japanese since teenage. It is frustrating enough not able to understand nintendo games and popular anime, let alone travelling all the way to tokyo, osaka, hakone or okinawa, having seen all these amazing cultures and not knowing a thing about its background, or having eaten some anonymous amazing sushi before and find it impossible to make the same order again. Argh, i can still remember the pain. I have tried to pick up the language a couple times, the first time is a couple years ago, the tutor is japanese, in some local multilingual culture center; turns out the fee is beyond extravagant i just had to terminate after two sessions. The second time, believe it or not, is self-learning, only a few months ago; i was travelling to japan so often i decided to learn it myself, out of this little phrasebook from lonely planet. I know its kinda unconvincing, but it worked like a charm for me. I tried to learn katakana so i memorised them one by one during the flight, and started practising on japanese magazines, trying to make out the english equivalent. As we all know, katakana is like the representation of foreign recent borrowings ie. credit card, coffee, however it is often uneasy to tell. Take credit card for instance, in katakana its pronounced: ku-re-jit-to ka-do. Only with patience and lots of practise, i could make out half the katakana i came across during the trip, it helped a lot when i was buying stuff and ordering dinner. But there is another problem.
Gramma- always bring infinite pain to discouraged learners, in japanese there is no exception. Here is something we often say: 'There are many good restaurants in tokyo', in japanese its 'to-kyo ni wa i res-to-ran ga ta-ku-san a ri-mas', translate it back to english, it roughly means 'tokyo in wa good restaurant ga many there-are-inanimate (wa and ga are both particles that follow the pronoun; a-ri-mas is used for inanimated objects or things). Notice how the order of things are completely reversed, so precisely that it almost resemble yoda in star wars. Wait a minute- yoda is japanese! So o-bi-wan and qui-gon-jin are koreans, and jajabings is- just retarded. Anyways, back to japanese. My other problem is that i hate meaningless learning, i would much prefer to learn like listening to a story. Luckily i happened to like studying on japanese history, so i would like to approach the language historically. If anyone of you out there who happens to be or know anyone who is fluent in both japanese and japanese history, please let me know, you have my greatest thanks and praise.
A-ri-ga-do, ja-ne.
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farewell, school
Saturday, Jun 21, 2008 11:45PM / Members only
Many of us are fortunate enough to have gone through primary school, the only education institute where kids can enjoy learning as much as playing, and stay away from teenage violence and rape (sad i know), most of all, kids are inevitably interacting with many other kids, in a little society ppl like to call 'school'. The draw back is that it is bounded by rules, kids are 'disciplined' if they dont behave, and they are stuck together whether they like it or not, in a close-to-intolerable confined area where kids like me prefered to call it as 'kids' prison'.
The Hong Kong education system pretty much adopts the british- that means six years of primary learning, followed by seven years of secondary education. St.Paul's co-education college is a protestant institution where i happened to spend nine years of my youth in, or rather, i was chosen to become one of their students. I remember my mom was all psyched when i was accepted. I felt the contrary, i mean just bcos my eldest sister and cousins went to this school, this is just family trail, whats the big deal? Besides, i wasnt exactly the outgoing kinda kid, let alone getting stuck in a room with 39 other kids.
There is another thing. This school has a reputation for academic and musical achievements (in other words its filled with asian kids with NO social skills... okay, low social skills). When ever there is a reputation, there is pride, and when ever there is pride, there is restraints. The school rules are pretty strict, and i swear some of the teachers just flat out loath the kids. I got to realise this many years later, when i finally have friends who are teachers, they just have to confess that after a couple months of teaching and spending time around kids, they have already decided not to have children of their own, forever.
Having said all this, besides the confined environment that i found suffocating, the rest is genuinely a fun ride. I was pretty active in school choir, poetry and orchestra training, and triumphed in many open competitions. Even though some teachers loathed us, there are others who really cared for us and encouraged us. Now that many years have passed, when it is decided to tear down the campus, the kids from the past are all grown up, and they bring their own kids to pay their last visit, with the utmost respect, to farewell their own childhood memories. I miss my childhood, dont you?
Goodbye, school.
playground, where fun boils for 400-500 kids, at the same time
Corridors and blackboards, images that forever imprinted in our memories
announcement stand, piano, and plants care-taking
1st lesson, learning the teachers' nicknames lol
mr. yu has been teaching maths and science for 24 years, i was one of his student, he forgot about me though ....
the primary school wing is now history
the college campus, to incorporate the primary campus soon
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La Diva
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008 1:11PM / Members only
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father's day
Sunday, Jun 15, 2008 4:30PM / Members only
This year i got my dad a 7-iron for his father's day present, afterall, it is about time for him to retire, to get away from his over-stressed business and stocks, and hopefully some where along the way he can find sanctuary on the golf course. I got him a card too. I noticed one thing when going through the father's day cards in hong kong- according to the card illustrators, there is only one sport that retired men can participate, and u guessed it, golf. Its almost like knitting for old ladies. Now, even though my dad is not exactly the most athletic kinda guy, and even though his has a trillion intelligent comments and pathetic excuses not to drag his butt to the driving range, i thought its worth a try, to get him started with a club and a pair of gloves. They are white in colour btw, sweet. Anyways, i was so content, almost relieved, when i found out he actually gave it a shot, and decided to give it a few more on the learning sessions. Cos as we all know, thats probably the toughest, or the most mundane part for beginners, but once u get over it and go on the course, its a different story. I m looking forward to that day, when i see my father, all tanned sharp-looking, with his snow white pair of golf gloves on, striking a hole in one... okay, may be a little far fetched, but thats what i put on his card lol.
Dad, u can do this, happy father's day.
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Its that dragon boat fest again
Monday, Jun 9, 2008 12:54PM / Members only
Here is the wonderful thing about festivals- ppl get together, they do sthg when only a big bunch of ppl can. What is even cooler is that hong kong being a complex society with confined unique culture, can nurture and develop an ancient festival that is traditionally national memorial day for qu yuan the noble man, into this vibrant international competition event where participants come from all over the world. I mean, qu yuan might be 'a little bit' too grumpy when he decided to jump off that cliff two thousand years ago, but i guess he should be happy to know, that his descendants are having such a great time mourning and celebrating his integrity still, and that no modern noble men are 'noble' enough to take that dive even though they are told to do so every now and then... so qu yuan 1, white house 0
No, i m not trying to be corny, this is serious, or rather, they are serious- apparently there are three dragon boat federations, the international(IDBF), the european(EDBF) and the asian(ADBF), recognising dragon boat racing as a regular sport event to be included in the olympic games eventually. All the above federations organise dragon boat racing championships for representative national teams, IDBF being the most well known. In 2006 it held the first world championship for breast cancer survivors in singapore- the 'pink paddlers', and there will be the second in july 2009 in miami, with conjunction with the world corcom championships. Many events have participants by the thousands, generating over millions of dollars for the local economy. I know its not about the money, but i got a feeling that stanley, where the hong kong dragon boat event is held, should make good use of the income cos there is still a great deal to improve on- stopping the beach from retreating is a starter. Anyways, check this out:
This is what they called vallam kali, snake boat as we call it, literally meaning boat game in malayalam, founded in kerala, south india. Look at the sheer size of it, probably takes a hundred men to paddle this thing, let alone to race it. In terms of size and manpower wise, i d say snakes 1, dragons 0. I love exotic design.
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- Occupation: Singer , Actor , Screenwriter
- Gender: Male
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