A Blind Date with...

Chinese books! It's been a while since I last read Chinese books. Am thrilled to read them again, especially in traditional form. 

A blind date with a book

9 Oct 2016 = Double 9th Day

Today is 9 October 2016 which happens to be the 9th day of the 9th month in the Chinese or lunar calendar which is also the Double Ninth/ Double Yang Festival and it is also my Chinese birthday. 
My mother lovingly prepared pork trotter mee sua for me. Only a mother with strong traditional values will remember her children's (and all 5 of her grandchildren's) Chinese and English birthdates!

PSLE Mother Tongue 2016

PSLE Mother Tongue today. Read carefully, answer and write properly, Juliane! Best wishes, Juliane!

PSLE Mother Tongue (Chinese) 2014

It's PSLE Chinese today. 
You can do it, Marieann! :) Good luck!

Prelims 2014 Day 3

Chinese is on Day 3 of Prelims 2014. Marieann couldn't find her electronic dictionary and took the Chinese dictionary instead to her Chinese prelims. I am worried as she is much more proficient in using the electronic dictionary than the dictionary itself. I guess it is a lesson for her to make sure she has all the things she needs but it may be a costly lesson. :( When I checked in with her after my counselling, she told me that she didn't need to use the dictionary because she knew the characters. I am hoping for the BEST! 
PS. It is confirmed that Marieann has a cold. Her nose is all stuffed up and she sounds real nasal. :( 

Double Trouble with Chinese

Today, Juliane has her English and Chinese oral examinations after school. She too reported that her English oral seemed to be easier than her Chinese oral. Juliane has always been strong in her Chinese so it might really be so. Sigh.

Trouble with Chinese

Today, Marieann had her English and Chinese oral examinations after school. She reported that the English oral seemed to be easier than the Chinese oral. I don't know if it is really so because she always has had problems with her Chinese. Sigh.

My Chinese Name

The results from Blogthings about "What's Your Chinese Name?" is eerily accurate! :O I do indeed have a HUI in my Chinese name!!

Your Chinese Name is Hui

This name, meaning intelligent and wise, fits you completely. You are very bright. Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating, intellectual discussions. You could spend a whole weekend studying philosophy or interesting religions. You crave enlightenment. You love that there is always more to see or do. The world is big, and life is long.

What's Your Chinese Name?

Racial Harmony Day 2013

The schools are celebrating Racial Harmony Day today. Students in primary and secondary schools could dress in one of the four main ethnic groups' traditional clothes for today. No uniforms. :) Thank goodness, we bought new cheong sums for the girls when we were in Taipei. Both Marieann and Juliane proudly wore their new cheong sums to school. :) With their short haricut, they look like China dolls haha. :P Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of them. Maybe I will make them wear their cheong sums again so that I can take a photo. :)

Proud!

Marieann told me that she received the highest mark in class for her Chinese composition. Of course, with a mother like me who has gotten nothing less than an A2 for Chinese throughout her school life, my daughter wouldn't fare too badly lol. :P 

But jokes aside, I know Chinese has not been Marieann's strongest subject and that she has been trying really hard. I am really proud of the effort and time she has put into learning Chinese. She is finally seeing the fruits of her efforts. Well-done, Marieann. Always remember: You can do it as long as you put your mind to it. 

Duanwu Festival 端午节 2012

It is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month again. Time for Duanwu Festival. It is also known as Dragon Boat Festival. However, there are some who mistakenly called it Rice Dumpling Festival. :( Well, that could have come about because the focus of the Duanwu celebrations includes eating rice dumplings, drinking wine - xionghuangjiu (雄黃酒), and racing dragon boats. 

As children, my mother used to get my brother and I to do this particular Duanwu activity - standing an egg. If you are successful, it means good luck for the year lol. I used to enjoy it a lot. :) Now, my children are doing it too on Duanwu. You have to stand the egg up at 12 noon on Duanwu Festival. If you are one minute too early or too late, the egg would just roll over and not stand up. It has to be precisely at 12 noon! Till now, I still can't explain why 12 noon is the magical time but it is just lots of fun trying to stand an egg up. Juliane managed to get her egg standing up. :) 

Try standing an egg at the next Duanwu Festival if you have the time or the egg. It is a fun activity for all. :)

Chinese, Chinese, and more Chinese

I saw this clip on Youtube and couldn't stop laughing. The clip is made by Mike Sui, an American who is currently in China. He tried to emulate 12 different nationalities/ characters speaking Mandarin - China Chinese, White American, African American, New Yorker, African, Russian, French, Japanese, Hong Kong Chinese, Taiwanese, a gay, and a 12th person who is from National Security. 

OMG. Mike Sui is really GOOD! The accents of the different nationalities/ characters were spot-on!! If you could understand Mandarin/ Chinese, it would be even funnier. :D 

 (uploaded by statquo 112)
 

帶我走 by Rainie Yang

The Taiwanese idol drama, Campus Shrewd (不良笑花) just ended its run tonight. The girls enjoyed watching it because of Xiao Hao (played by Rainie Yang). They totally loved and laughed at Xiao Hua's outrageous sense of fashion. As for me, I couldn't stand her funny Taiwanese accent at first but it slowly grew on me lol. :P It also reminded me that I haven't been back to Taiwan for a long time.

Anyway, here's the song by Rainie Yang that appeared at the end of the show. Juliane totally loves singing it. She actually could get the chorus part of the song right, lol. :)

Translation

During my UQ days, I once took a year's course in Translation (English-Chinese) and did pretty well for it - got Distinction :) I didn't really needed to do that course but I thought it was interesting. As I also once took a course in Government: Peace & Conflict Analysis for the same reason. LOL. Still couldn't believe I actually took that Government course and scored a Credit for it. Hmm, maybe my activist nature didn't just start now, lol. Sorry, I have digressed, back to translation.

I have been trying to translate an English document into Chinese. It is quite slow going because I have become really rusty in translating. Haven't done it in years. Having technical terms in the document is not making it easier either. Hahaha. Another reason for being slow is I have forgotten how to write many Chinese characters. Shh... don't tell my mother, I will get a scolding from her. She's Taiwanese so very particular about proper usage of Chinese, etc. Lol. However, as I proceeded with my translation, the characters are slowly coming back to me. As I re-read the portions that I have translated, I began to get better and refined the translation I have done. I would probably need another few more hours to finish it. Wish me luck. =)