Sportfreunde Stiller - 54, 74, 90, 2010

*Refrain: 1 und 2 und 3 und... '54, '74, '90, 2010, ja so stimmen wir alle ein. Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein werden wir Weltmeister sein. Wir haben nicht die höchste Spielkultur, sind nicht gerade filigran. Doch wir haben Träume und Visionen und in der Hinterhand einen Masterplan. Für unsere langen Wege aus der Krise und aus der Depression, lautet die Devise: "Nichts wie raus auf den Fußballthron!" Refrain Die ganze Welt greift nach dem goldenen Pokal, Am Kap der Guten Hoffnung probieren wir’s nochmal Als Gast in Südafrika Wird unser Traum dann endlich wahr. Refrain Beim ersten Mal war es ein Wunder, beim zweiten Mal war es Glück, beim dritten Mal der verdiente Lohn und dies' Mal wird es eine Sensation. Refrain x 2 --------------------------

1. Das Filigran- filigree
2. Die Devise - slogan
3. Der Pokal - cup

Minna no Nihongo 大家的日本語 - Review

Recently I am trying to learn Japanese by myself, because I can no longer stand the low quality Chinese teacher at the "Labor Union Club". What can one demand though for a class with 12 x 1.5 hr lessons for 400HKD?! However, I had better spent that mere 400 HKD buying learning materials... :p My friend told me Minna no Nihongo 大家的日本語 is the textbook used by everyone, and I thought it is a book of "good reputation", and the stories go... I bought the textbook coming with a CD, and then discovered I also need to buy a supplementary book with (Chinese)-translations. I listened to the CD, and then discovered the enclosed CD only contains listening exercises. If I want to have the audio of the text, I need to buy another CD. This time, I downloaded the CD from the internet, and then I discovered even that CD doesn't cover everything in the textbook. You need to buy the "teachers' version" of the book to learn everything... What's worse, there is no clear grammar explanation within the textbook. So this book is designed in a way that you must learn Japanese from a teacher, and you are not expected to fall asleep in class. I found the grammar explanation from this site much clearer, but also due to the fact that the complications are not explained here (at least not in the early lessons). A first gaze at Japanese grammar makes me feel it is not that regular. Btw, a French class at 60HKD/hr at Alliance Francaise is a much better choice. As a comparison, my German class at Goethe Institute cost 200HKD/hr. As a result, I used up all my CEF.

Steve Kaufmann

A German* [sic.] linguist told by a friend... I am not sure if I can appreciate how cool he is yet, I haven't listened him speaking all the languages. I can tell his English *almost* doesn't carry any German accent though (the characteristic robotic rhythm is still there, occasionally). IMO, in this age, the number of languages which one should speak is 5, and language learning is only a leisure activity for memory-training, we need some other activities to train our brain to think. * Another friend said he is Canadian, and this is a verified piece of truth. LOL

Another graduate degree

Thinking about getting another graduate degree... Wondering how reliable is this ranking table... (How can HKU be higher than Standford, or even TsingHua?!) I don't mean to be negative about Taiwan, but he said long ago NTU is the MIT in Asia... This sounds as ridiculous as him telling me Taipei is the city with the highest density from a report in Taipei Times... I can't avoid myself categorizing him as an unreliable information source, and I hope his opinion doesn't represent the majority of Americans. :p

Sex and the City - little thoughts

I went to watch this popular movie with 3 other girls: almost 30, 30+, and 40+. One of them had a broken marriage. Actually I am really curious to know what they have thought through during the movie. I think it is a tragedy if people feel resonance in their hearts hearing the different stories. Even more tragic is that I find the different "happy" endings so unrealistic... and I hope over the years I have learnt some pattern recognition skills from my training data. All those bad samples do not even bother to keep in touch after they know there is nothing more than a friendship. :p Yet, I do love the quote "you can only move forward and risk".

另一個矛盾...

佢送俾我既禮物... 冇諗過佢真係會黎...
我好中意條錬，因為我可以日日帶住，提醒自己乜野先至係正確既工作態度。
其實有個唔信既人送o的咁既禮物俾我都幾得意，好似佢仲信過我... :p

不過最唔意外又最唔開心既消息，係佢同佢老婆分左居...
所以我亦提醒自己，生活要有平衡。(又或者係佢地既生活方式唔夾...)
不過呢排我無需要擔心自己變成工作狂，好掛住兩年前o既o個個自己... :p

My way of life

Sitting in my brother's desk in London, I really can't think of any place I like to visit in this metropolitan, although today there is a sunny blue sky. Thinking of just a few days ago back in Tuebingen, meeting my friends, talking to my ex-supervisor, wandering in the small university town, etc. I have a picture in my mind again that this is the life that I want to lead: living in a peaceful village in a decorated spacious house, with simple and warm human-relationships, working with some intelligent colleagues in a development lab, meeting friends or travelling away on the weekend... This is the way I was born. HK was probably the wrong place.