最近想重新捡起蒙尘的粤语，于是搜哪部港剧好，于是找到这部女王办公室。
很佩服杜汶泽演的角色，以前是个销售员，非常会忽悠人，后来阴差阳错来到大家工作的公司做秘书，在他顶头上司和公司首席秘书之间周旋，同时还要独自照顾家里一对孪生小姐妹。
在剧中看到许多熟悉的场景，挺亲切的。剧中经常听到宣传市民责任的台词，举报违法停车、公车上不得饮食、行驶时不得与公车司机讲话等等，又觉得港人挺可爱。
再说粤语，看着画面的时候很明白情节，现在边打字边听，就听不到很多细节。尚需继续努力。
Saturday, February 25, 2017
About BL
The first time of me to have a vague impression of homosexuality was when i was watching A Dream of Red Mansions, a TV series adopted from one of the four most famous Chinese classic novels. At that time i was so confused and shocked to see that Xue Pan should flirt with a handsome singer boy. How can a man do this to a same sex person?
Then i watched the famous Goodbye My Cocubines, a movie starred by Zhang Guorong. In those three hours, breathing the traditional Chinese air, listening to the splendid Peking opera and seeing the sparkling opera makeups and costumes and lighting, i was totally immersed in the beautiful story.
The above was written years ago. Now it is 2017. One of my old classmates is a gay. He came out of the closet long ago, and is living in Shanghai as a PR professional. He often shares his sharp opinions on his WeChat Moments, which read very smooth, funny and venting. Key words in his posts include: bitch, shit, curse, idiot...A very interesting figure.
The above was written years ago. Now it is 2017. One of my old classmates is a gay. He came out of the closet long ago, and is living in Shanghai as a PR professional. He often shares his sharp opinions on his WeChat Moments, which read very smooth, funny and venting. Key words in his posts include: bitch, shit, curse, idiot...A very interesting figure.
美国女生的团队合作精神
这次出行，让我对美国女生有了更加深刻的认识。旅途开始，在华盛顿，Kelsey需要导航，Whitney就在后座帮她看往哪拐。我虽然坐在副驾驶，但看到GPS粘在玻璃上，就完全没有帮忙（不过我也完全不会开车，也不知道如何导航；会不会开车真是天壤之别）。
后来路上我手机定位有问题，找不到目的地，Whitney也帮忙找。这些都是她主动做的，我和Kelsey并没有让她帮忙。
在沙发客主人家，Kelsey也主动帮我在客厅架起沙发床，铺好被褥，早上帮我收拾好沙发床。其实她在家就很有眼力见，在我做好几道菜忙不过来的时候她就主动去洗碗碟，清理厨房。
后来路上我手机定位有问题，找不到目的地，Whitney也帮忙找。这些都是她主动做的，我和Kelsey并没有让她帮忙。
在沙发客主人家，Kelsey也主动帮我在客厅架起沙发床，铺好被褥，早上帮我收拾好沙发床。其实她在家就很有眼力见，在我做好几道菜忙不过来的时候她就主动去洗碗碟，清理厨房。
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Amish人
这次旅行一大收获就是见到了Amish人。在华盛顿见到那群穿着彩色裙子头戴白帽的妇女之后，又在两个城市的加油站和黄石公园见到了穿着黑裙子戴白帽的妇女和穿黑裤戴黑礼帽的男人。校友Joe邮件说，不知道他们不用汽车，怎么去到那些地方的。回来借了一本书"Born Amish"，准备了解一下他们的生活。
Thursday, May 28, 2015
couch surfing
I am new to couch surfing. Before this trip I only heard about it from Kelsey, who used to host and surf in Russia. To help find us a place to sleep, I registered an account on couchsurfing. In the beginning, I didn't make any successful requests, maybe because I was new and didn't quite write much about myself on my page. Kelsey has some references from her past experience so she found us Daniel and Angel at Columbus, OH and Makai at Madison, WI.
We arrived at Daniel and Angel's house around 9. Before arriving Kelsey suggested picking up flowers for them, which was very sweet. Daniel is Polish-Taiwanese American and Angel is Indian. Their house was very comfortable with two large baby toys besides the fireplace. Angel said her daughter was in the room asleep. I used the bed in the living room and Kelsey and Whitney shared another bed in the bedroom. We chatted with them on the impressions on American Mid-west states. They mentioned some cities and states but I wasn't familiar with those places. Daniel must have had some thought on this area as he sounded that he had a pretty complete picture in his mind.
Makai was an interesting guy. His two walls were covered by game/movie discs and CDs. He said that those were currencies on his job, which was ground staff at the airport. His grandparents had multiple ethnic origins, not to say him. When asking him to list the countries he had traveled, I soon regreted that I should have let him list the countries he had never been to, that would take much less time! A most incredible thing was his love story in Hawaii. He fell in love with a pretty girl. One day he had to go to a party in the backyard of his grandma, and he knew that she went to her relative's party that day as well. After a few minutes in the party, he found her walking through his grandma's door! That is the situation in Hawaii. It seemed that every one is a relative to someone else, as long as you keep asking questions.
At Portland, I began another round of search for hosts because I had a reference from Angel and Daniel now. Rosslyn replied to me very quickly with a brief message. We were all very impressed by her trust to us, because she agreed to let us in without even meeting us beforehand. We arrived under her building and I ran upstairs to find an envelop sticking to her door with a key and a parking permit. After we had supper, I bought her some flowers and Kelsey gave me a Thank-you card to write. Her room was not very big, but very comfortable with thick carpet. And she uses a lot of Kieh's products. Her bathroom was also spotlessly clean.
Her two cats were friendly and fluffy, walking quietly in her clean room. We had a good time with the cats. After we took another walk to Powell's City of Books and chatted in a brewery with Kelsey's friends, we went to bed. Rosslyn came back from work later that night. I got up to shake her hand. Her hand was cold, but from that handshaking I was somehow touched. What trust! That is her, not some gunman or a crazy person. She took her shower and went to bed very soon. On the second day, she got up a few minutes later than we did and talked with us a little bit. I felt sorry that we had to leave soon, but would really love to be friends with her.
I feel doing couchsurfing is similar to playing trust game. You can feel the warmth and friendliness of the world, and also let you gain a glimpse into local people's lives. However, who knows when danger will seek on you? Anyways, be trustful and trustworthy, and also vigilant.
We arrived at Daniel and Angel's house around 9. Before arriving Kelsey suggested picking up flowers for them, which was very sweet. Daniel is Polish-Taiwanese American and Angel is Indian. Their house was very comfortable with two large baby toys besides the fireplace. Angel said her daughter was in the room asleep. I used the bed in the living room and Kelsey and Whitney shared another bed in the bedroom. We chatted with them on the impressions on American Mid-west states. They mentioned some cities and states but I wasn't familiar with those places. Daniel must have had some thought on this area as he sounded that he had a pretty complete picture in his mind.
Makai was an interesting guy. His two walls were covered by game/movie discs and CDs. He said that those were currencies on his job, which was ground staff at the airport. His grandparents had multiple ethnic origins, not to say him. When asking him to list the countries he had traveled, I soon regreted that I should have let him list the countries he had never been to, that would take much less time! A most incredible thing was his love story in Hawaii. He fell in love with a pretty girl. One day he had to go to a party in the backyard of his grandma, and he knew that she went to her relative's party that day as well. After a few minutes in the party, he found her walking through his grandma's door! That is the situation in Hawaii. It seemed that every one is a relative to someone else, as long as you keep asking questions.
At Portland, I began another round of search for hosts because I had a reference from Angel and Daniel now. Rosslyn replied to me very quickly with a brief message. We were all very impressed by her trust to us, because she agreed to let us in without even meeting us beforehand. We arrived under her building and I ran upstairs to find an envelop sticking to her door with a key and a parking permit. After we had supper, I bought her some flowers and Kelsey gave me a Thank-you card to write. Her room was not very big, but very comfortable with thick carpet. And she uses a lot of Kieh's products. Her bathroom was also spotlessly clean.
Her two cats were friendly and fluffy, walking quietly in her clean room. We had a good time with the cats. After we took another walk to Powell's City of Books and chatted in a brewery with Kelsey's friends, we went to bed. Rosslyn came back from work later that night. I got up to shake her hand. Her hand was cold, but from that handshaking I was somehow touched. What trust! That is her, not some gunman or a crazy person. She took her shower and went to bed very soon. On the second day, she got up a few minutes later than we did and talked with us a little bit. I felt sorry that we had to leave soon, but would really love to be friends with her.
I feel doing couchsurfing is similar to playing trust game. You can feel the warmth and friendliness of the world, and also let you gain a glimpse into local people's lives. However, who knows when danger will seek on you? Anyways, be trustful and trustworthy, and also vigilant.
Amandine Martin: Freelance Interpreter and Translator between D.C. and Madison
Amandine graduated from French TI in 2014 and is a freelance interpreter and translator in D.C. and Madison, Wisconson. She was one of the first persons referred by Jeff. He said that she was an alumni panel member for MIIS spring break trip to D.C. and was a good person to talk to. When scheduling with Amandine for an interview in D.C., I learned that she was currently in Madison, which happened to be on our itinerary. So we decided to meet in Madison instead. Our interview happened in a bar in downtown Madison on May 19.
I was mostly impressed by her thoughtfulness. As she told me she was not in D.C., she kindly referred Miguel to me, who was in D.C. She was so considerate as to offer to make a reservation with the restaurant before we arrived in Madison! I believe that all good interpreters and translators are first of all thoughtful.
Not only for me, she was also thoughtful for her clients. Not all clients are experienced with working with interpreters. "Never put the client to a position of embarrassment." Once a client wanted to include consecutive interpretation in their event, she reminded the client that the lecture needed to be cut in half if they wanted to finish in time. Another time, the client used a PPT with French plus bad English translation or inconsistent terminology. She stepped up to offer help with the translation so as not to confuse the audience.
Her first assignment was working with high school students from French-speaking African countries, who came to the States to learn US culture and learn social entrepreneurship. She traveled with the group to different parts of the States. One seemingly funny but important lesson she learned was that while going through a door, she should go with the team leader or guide, not holding the door for other people! Of course, a culture-related activity would involve a lot of culture-specific terms and idioms. One activity was about students quoting a proverb in their home, and she was stuck for one. She had to raise her hand to request explanation so as to let the interaction go on; otherwise the conversation wouldn't go anywhere.
When asked how she got to know the alumni in D.C., she said that there was a MIIS alumni meetup once a month on a certain day. She also got to know other interpreters while they lived in the same hotel for different projects.
Amandine has a balanced workload from translation and interpretation with a relative stable client base, but she was also trying something besides that. Her advice is that: when opportunities come up, just say Yes! Amandine has never done logistics before, but she has interpreted relevant topics, so she took that job and found that interesting. So you never know whether you would like a job or not until you try it. You may be surprised if you try the things that may not be your first choice. She said that actually freelance translator and interpreters also have other identities, such as author and artist. Life offers so many opportunities as long as we keep exploring.
I was mostly impressed by her thoughtfulness. As she told me she was not in D.C., she kindly referred Miguel to me, who was in D.C. She was so considerate as to offer to make a reservation with the restaurant before we arrived in Madison! I believe that all good interpreters and translators are first of all thoughtful.
Not only for me, she was also thoughtful for her clients. Not all clients are experienced with working with interpreters. "Never put the client to a position of embarrassment." Once a client wanted to include consecutive interpretation in their event, she reminded the client that the lecture needed to be cut in half if they wanted to finish in time. Another time, the client used a PPT with French plus bad English translation or inconsistent terminology. She stepped up to offer help with the translation so as not to confuse the audience.
Her first assignment was working with high school students from French-speaking African countries, who came to the States to learn US culture and learn social entrepreneurship. She traveled with the group to different parts of the States. One seemingly funny but important lesson she learned was that while going through a door, she should go with the team leader or guide, not holding the door for other people! Of course, a culture-related activity would involve a lot of culture-specific terms and idioms. One activity was about students quoting a proverb in their home, and she was stuck for one. She had to raise her hand to request explanation so as to let the interaction go on; otherwise the conversation wouldn't go anywhere.
When asked how she got to know the alumni in D.C., she said that there was a MIIS alumni meetup once a month on a certain day. She also got to know other interpreters while they lived in the same hotel for different projects.
Amandine has a balanced workload from translation and interpretation with a relative stable client base, but she was also trying something besides that. Her advice is that: when opportunities come up, just say Yes! Amandine has never done logistics before, but she has interpreted relevant topics, so she took that job and found that interesting. So you never know whether you would like a job or not until you try it. You may be surprised if you try the things that may not be your first choice. She said that actually freelance translator and interpreters also have other identities, such as author and artist. Life offers so many opportunities as long as we keep exploring.
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| With Amandine, an angelic girl |
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Pittsburgh: Conflict Kitchen and Carnegie
At Pittsburgh, we arrived at Conflict Kitchen for lunch. Kelsey found this place. It features ethnic food from the countries in conflict with the United States. That day was the last day they served Palestinian food. I got Falafel for food and Lemonana for drink.According to Wikipedia, Conflict Kitchen is a project by two art professors at Carnegie Mellon University. I think it is really a good way to let the public understand other countries and the international affairs. It is a great example of culinary diplomacy which Kelsey is passionate about.
The food was good, but I would recommend the other kind of drink on the menu. We sat on the square with a cover overhead. There were around twenty customers there too.
After lunch, we took a walk in Pittsburgh. It seemed that in the city center, there were many buildings sponsored by Carnegie. I first learned about Carnegie from Chinese books teaching you how to be successful, but that's it. This time I actually saw those music halls, libraries, museums and university (Carnegie Mellon University) named after him, and the iron bridges in Pittsburgh. I could easily imagine what it was like in the early 20th century. The industrialist and philanthropist seemed to be the pride of the city.Kelsey was inspired to read his biography when we were back. Travelling can really broaden one's vision!
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