Category: Language

About learning the language.

Posted on

I will sail onward

I felt I saw your face, and I launched my boat in the dark.
Now the morning breaks in smiles and the spring flowers are in bloom.
Yet should the light fail and the flowers fade I will sail onward.
When you made mute signal to me the world slumbered and the darkness was bare.
Now the bells ring loud and the boat is laden with gold.
Yet should the bells become silent and my boat be empty I will sail onward.
Some boats have gone away and some are not ready, but I will not tarry behind.
The sails have filled, the birds come from the other shore.
Yet, if the sails droop, if the message of the shore be lost, I will sail onward.

我感到我看见了你的面孔，黑暗中我解缆起航。
此刻，朝阳钻了出来，露出了笑脸，春天的百花竞相开放。
即使晨光暗淡，百花凋谢，我也要向前航行。
你向我发出无声的信号时，万物还在沉睡，一片漆黑。
此刻，铃儿高声作响，小船载满黄金。
即使铃声沉寂，小船空空，我也要向前航行。
有些船儿已经远去，有些船儿还未准备，我不会耽搁，落在后面。
轻风鼓起船帆，海鸟从彼岸飞来。
即使船帆掉落，即使丢失对岸的信息，我也要向前航行。

Posted on

青春不是年華，而是心境

在廷龍的博客发现了Samuel Ullman的《青春》。

很赞同这首诗，特别是在拉了一晚上肚子还爬起来上QQ，查邮件，回邮件后。

这首诗歌很优美，不过感觉稍微啰嗦。说到底，就是要有一颗不断奔跑的心。其实还要有能不断奔跑的体魄。

附：Samuel Ullman的诗 《青春》
Youth

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty.

Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty , but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

译文一

青春

Continue reading “青春不是年華，而是心境”

Posted on

会说一口完美英语的梁朝伟

康康他妈是梁朝伟的粉丝，昨晚在香港赶着去看了一场《色。戒》，回来跟在电话上讲她的感觉。

“恩，一部有情节的三级片。”

我明白她说的三级片是什么意思，既然标题是以“色”字开头的，也没有什么奇怪的，只是新加坡这边还没开映，她这么说不是吊我胃口吗？

在网上扫了一些有关《色。戒》的资料，其中有一篇很有趣。

美媒体赞梁朝伟是最伟大演员 赞其英语完美无暇

搜了一下，原文应该是这一篇ComingSoon.net的采访，

Exclusive: Chinese Superstar Tony Leung

关于伟仔的英文水平，原文是这么说的，

“…he spoke perfect English, which isn’t always the case with Chinese filmmakers and actors we interview.”

知道伟仔演戏好，没想到他的英文能得到这么高的评价。很想知道鬼佬所说的Perfect English是怎么回事，就又到网搜了搜，找到了伟仔在2001年为电影《2046》接受的英语采访：

 在这次采访里，主持人对他英文口语的评价是”Fantasty!”–极好！

真想不到伟仔的英文口语这么好，比我们中国常驻联合国代表的英文口语都要溜。

据说，伟仔小时家境贫寒，没有留过洋。在新加坡那么多年，我知道要一个土生土长的中国人练到那样的口语水平有多困难。那么这样的真正的双语本事是怎么炼成的呢？

伟仔说他是在幼儿园学的。

也许是开玩笑，但并非没有道理。人在小时候能接触到不同的语言对以后掌握多种语言很有帮助，新加坡，瑞士，这些国家的人很小就接触多种语言，这些国家的人通常都能说多种语言。

看来我要抓紧时间努力教康康英语了。

Posted on

Mixxer- mixes the languages

better day introduced Mixxer to me two months ago, and I have seen some Chinese bloggers discussing it recently.

Mixxer is a free matching system for language learners and teachers. It focuses on the skype users. It currently has near 3000 registered users.

The Mixxer’s UI is simple and intuitive, but it needs a rating system to help learners choose teachers. It is necessary to have a feedback and evaluation system too.

As some learners wrote in their profiles, they are willing to pay for a teaching service, but the Mixxer completely leaves the entire payment process to the users. It does not incorporate any on-line payment system to help the users in the money issue.

Mixxer is most probably setup for non-profit purpose. It is understandable that Mixxer does not have such commercial feature (nor does it have any annoying ads.)

However, should Mixxer be commercialized, how to cash in on the educational matching service would still be its biggest issue. Until now, we have not seen one successful business model for consumer e-learning in the market.

Internet is good for short-term tansaction; learning is a long-term process. These two things have a conflict in their natures.

The one who comes up with the first solution will rule the consumer e-learning market.

教育技术资讯介绍了Mixxer——寻找用Skype交流的外语学习伙伴。

Mixxer是一个免费的教育网站，为语言学习者和教师寻找语言交流的伙伴。“语言伙伴”被定义为：某人的母语是你要学习的外语，对方同时也在学习你的母语。寻找这样的伙伴交流就是本站要为语言学习者提供的服务。这样建立伙伴关系的双方可以通过在线互相帮助对方学习外语。除了个人伙伴外，网站也为教师提供发现班级伙伴的服务，这样不同语言的两个班级就可以互相帮助对方同学学习外语了。

的确，Mixxer提供了一个不错的学习语言的配对平台。

播客宝典在Mixxer—-用Skype和老外学外语还提出了一个有意思的构想：

如果能解决付费问题（Google checkout?），Skype还可以是个很好的网上私塾平台。

付费问题是困扰远程教育商业化的一大问题。我们已经有了比较成熟的付费工具，但缺乏可行的远程教育商业化模式。

就拿Mixxer来说吧。如果Mixxer商业化了，怎么赚钱呢？

最有可能的是把用户具体联络资料隐藏起来，要给钱才能看。但好的老师一旦有了点名气后就会离开，不再需要Mixxer了，因为一个人能教多少时间多少人基本上都是很有限的（在Private Tutoring的范畴），大量的广告或配对并没有好处。长期下去，留在Mixxer上的老师不会是高素质的，那么一旦收费Mixxer就很难有长期收益。

和better day讨论了很久了，但是大家都没有什么头绪。

Nuvvo是一个另一个很好的尝试。它允许教师上传课件，并帮助教师收费。但到目前为止还似乎不大成功。

Posted on

Jili-guru 5 (Fifth Malay Class)

Marhaini is our teacher in the Malay class. She is a very nice lady. We called her Mar. I was always late for the class, so I got to know her name until yesterday.

Mar always smiles. But once in a while during the class, she gave us problems.

“Please tell me how to say 6875908 in Malay.” She put a random number on the white board, and smiled.
We were all stunned, for 5 seconds, staring at the number, and broke into big noise simultaneity.

“Brrrr, brrrr. kkzzzz, ssssaaa, rrriii,…” counting the figure, searching on the cross table, reading loud in Malay/English/Chinese. Noisy indeed, we were really concentrated on this big challenge.

After 1 hour (I felt), we started giving the result, “Enum Juta Lapan Tujuh…”

I was very happy when I got my answer correct.

A primary 1 student got an big arithmetic problem solved.

But life became more difficult as we came to time expression yesterday.

We learnt how to say a time in Malay yesterday. That’s not that difficult actually, except we have to know how to express “pm” and “am” in Malay.

But Mar gave no simple problem. She asked us to do the whole time and date together in Malay!

“1.56pm Wednesday, 10th May, 2006”

We fainted this time. That included number, time, day, month, year… all we learnt in previous classes!
I substantially, concretely felt I needed some lubricating oil for my brain. I could feel it was rusted at that moment.

Anyway, here are the class notes for yesterday. Going to Indonesia tomorrow, hope I can use something I learnt from the class.
Duduk – sit
Tutup – close

Hari ini hari Rabu
Today is Wednesday.

Bulan ini bulan Mei
This month is May.

Marhani

Tahun Year

Year 1963
Tahun Sembilan belas enam puluh tiga

2006
Tahun Dua ribu enam

Today is Thursday, 26th July 2046
Hari ini Hari Khamis, Dua Puluh enam, Julai Tahun Dua ribu Empant puluh Enam

Today is Saturday, 15 October 1802
Hari ini Sabtu Lima belas Oktober Tahun Seribu Lapan ratus dua

Pukul – beat, hit

Pukul satu – 1 o’clock

Jam – Hours/clock

24 Jam – 24 Hours

Suku – quarter(15 mins)

2.15pm – Pukul dua suku tenghari (petang)

Setengah – Half (30 mins)

1.45pm – pukul satu empat puluh lima tengahari

4.05pm – pukul empat lima minit petang

Minutes below(include) ten, we use minit

Hadapan – ahead

Lepas – over

Musim – Season

Hujan – Rain

Sejuk – cold

Gugur – something which is attached and fall, such fruits.

Bunga – flower

Panas – hot

Hari cudi – Holiday