Friday, December 07, 2012

Hong Kong war in der Region


3 Jahre von Christ war die Zeit der Qin-Dynastie.

Hong Kong lag in der sogenannten Baiyue Region.

Das ist ein loser Begriff der verschiedene Völkern bezeichnet, die im südlichen China und Nordvietnam wohnten.

Die Armee von 500 Tausend Soldaten aus dem nördlichen China angegriffen Baiyue.

Sie lebten dort.

Die sinifizierung beginnt.

Sunday, December 02, 2012

The verb that changes so much!

Can you guess which verb changes so much in various situation in English?

Yes it is 'verb to be'!

In present tense, I (am), You (are), He/She/It (is), We/They (are).
In past tense, I (was), You (were), He/She/It (was), We/They (were).
In future tense, I (shall be), You (will be), He/She/It (will be), We/They (shall be).

In German, similar things happen to 'sein'.

In present tense, Ich (bin), You (bist), He/She/It (ist), We/They (sind).
In past tense, I (war), You (warst), He/She/It (war), We/They (waren).
In future tense, I (wurde sein), You (wirst sein), He/She/It (wird sein), We/They (werden sein).

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Why 'sparen' is not for 'save'?

If we would like to say 'save my life' in German, we cannot say 'sparen mein Leben'. But what is the reason?

Firstly, we can trace the origin of 'save' in English. In the early 13th century, 'save' typically meant 'to deliver (soul) from sin or its own consequence'. It came from Old French 'sauver' which was originated from Late Latin 'salvare'. It meant to make safe or secure.

Secondly,  'sparen' in German was imported in Middle English in 9th century. It becomes 'spare' in Modern English today. Though it means 'to save from embarrassment', it also means 'to refrain from employing'. Thus it means 'to conserve money' (Geld sparen).

We should say 'Retten mein Leben!' in German for 'Save my life!'.

How about 'retten'? Does it become 'rescue' in English? I guess no. 'rescue' came from 'rescourre' in Old French.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

die Wortschätze

Ab jetzt auf Deutsch! : From now on German!

-e Landschaft : landscape
-e Natur: nature
-e Fläche, -n : area
-e Gegend : region
-r Wanderer : hiker
-r Strand / die Strände : strand
-s Belieben: pleasure

-s Wandern : hiking
-r Anfang: beginning
-s Schleifen: polish ( mainly refer to the bow on gift box)
-r Gipfel: submitt
-r Schnee: snow
-s Wetter: weather



tauchen gehen : go diving

umfassen : involve
unterlassene Hilfeleistung : given assistance

größter : biggest
höchster: highest
bester: best
natur belassen : natural

davon: of it

in der Nähe : near / nearby
auf den Peak : on the peak


dort: there





Thursday, October 18, 2012

Dialog zum Oktoberfest


Dialog

Wendy: Hallo!

Brian: Brian hier. Hallo! Hast du nächsten Freitag Abend Zeit?

Wendy: Nächsten Freitag Abend? Nein, das geht nicht. Ich treffe Angela, da sie Bier mag.

Brian: Wirklich? Wohin geht ihr?

Wendy: Wir gehen ins Marco Polo Hotel zum Oktoberfest. Wir können zusammen gehen.

Brian: Mit Vergnügen. Um wie viel Uhr fängt das an?

Wendy: Um halb acht.

Brian: Das geht. Und bis wann geht das?

Wendy: Bis halb eins.

Brian: Das ist gut. Übrigens, wo ist das?

Wendy: Das ist in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Brian: Wir treffen uns um siben Uhr in der Lobby. Geht das?

Wendy: Ja, gut. Dann bis nächten Freitag Abend. Tshüss!

Brian: Tshüss und bis dann!

Friday, October 05, 2012

The Origin of Da Silva


Da Silva is a common surname of Portuguese. It is derived from Latin silva meaning the forest. It was heard that the surname is originated from Valença, a city at the north border of Portugal. Please be reminded that silva is also the name of a parish in both Barcelos and the municipality of Miranda do Douro. Forests are quite common in Portugal. It could be very hard to trace back the origin.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Separable Verbs 1

In German, there are some funny separable verbs. The prefixes work like a preposition. For examples:

brechen = break
einbrechen = break in

fallen = fall
einfallen = to become sunken / occur to someone

führen = lead
einführen = introduce a topic

kaufen = buy
einkaufen = shopping

leben = live
einleben = get used to

nehmen = take
einnehmen = earn

richten = judge
einrichten = furnish (apartment), arrange (furniture)

schätzen = estimate
einschätzen = evaluate

schlafen = sleep
einschlafen = fall asleep

schüchtern = (adj) timid 
einschüchtern = intimidate 

ziehen = draw
einziehen = move in


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

break out

German: Vor vier Jahren brach die weltweite Finanzkrise aus.

English: Four years ago, the global financial crisis broke out.

Vor can mean 'forward', 'ago', 'ahead'.
vier means 'four'.
Jahren means 'year'.
'brach .... aus' means 'broke out'.
ausbrechen is 'break out'

break = brecan (O.E.) = brechen (German)


Friday, September 07, 2012

Review of National Education in Hong Kong

There are lots of discussion about national education in Hong Kong recently. We have to clarify the concept of nation, national, education, nation education and the implementation of  national education in Hong Kong in order to get a whole picture of it.

What is the crucial factor of a nation? Historical factor only? If yes, why are there some break-ups? Ethnic relation only? If yes, why was USA separated from UK? Why was Mongolia separated from inner Mongolia? Simply territorial factor? Why did not North Vietnam unite with mainland China? How about Belgium and France? How about Lichtenstein and Austria? Cultural relationship only? Why cannot Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan form a united country? Therefore, we can see that there are lots of factors to form a nation.

Let's take a look at Hong Kong. From historical point of view, Hong Kong is separated from Qing Dynasty of China. ROC terminated Qing Dynasty. PRC was established on the soil of ROC. Hong Kong should be closely related to ROC after the death of Qing Dynasty. However, Hong Kong soil is next to PRC. In fact, the traditional culture in Hong Kong is closer to the culture in ROC after Culture Revolution in PRC. For examples, Cantonese, one of languages in East Asia older than Putonghua, is widely spoken in Hong Kong. Traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong vs Simplified Chinese characters in PRC. Chinese marriage tradition, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism is kept in Hong Kong but not well in PRC.

In my opinion, the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to PRC because of the choice of UK and the expectation of PRC. At that moment, ROC is not a UN member and PRC is a  permanent member of the UN Security Council.

National is an interesting concept in China because it was imported n late 19th century. The people ruled by Qing Dynasty was only called Baixing, literally A Hundred of Surnames.  Sometimes they were treated as subjects if there was an open-minded emperor. National means a group of people with common history, custom, culture, language and ethnic living together. They share lots of similarities. If we follow this concept, there are 56 ethnic groups. For each of large five groups, it has its own custom, culture, language and ethnic. The idea of Chinese was invented by Dr Sun Yat Sen in order to team up all the 56 ethnic groups without a good foundation on the values. Nowadays, neither Confucianism, religion, Western values nor Marxism can provide the binding. The absence of values can be observed especially after the economic reform starts. Globalization does not only challenge the idea of national but also brings us the idea of global citizenship. The western countries rely on the idea of social contract, human rights, rule of law, civic society. Everything is in black and white. It is analogue to company model. The society can function if most of members follow the rules. The focus of modern countries shifts to citizenship from nationality. The sense of nationality cannot be well established in Hong Kong.

Education, of course, is very important to the society. It has to deliver knowledge and also foster good character of people. It has to help develop good values with reasoning. It is suitable to deliver knowledge in the format of courses and foster team spirit and sense of belonging in the community activities.

Understanding its own country is the first step of civic and national education. It has to be based on facts and evidences.

It is reasonable to foster sense of belonging in national education. Unfortunately, students are required to understand their own country through emotion according to the national education of Hong Kong. Their rationality may be blinded by emotion. CPC believes of meta-history which authors or authority determines the meaning of history. The materials from PRC could mislead students. For examples, CPC is the successor of Dr Sun Yat Sen, May Fourth Movement was introduced by CPC.  CPC was the main force against the Japanese invasion during WWII. CPC was forced to wipe out the Chinese tradition.

On the other hand, sense of belonging is a two-way street. Hong Kong and Canton have the same Lingnan culture.  The people in these two areas mainly speak Cantonese. However, Cantonese language is suppressed in mainland and the trias politica principle in Hong Kong was disdained by mainland officials. Thus the sense of belonging and safety is reduced. Recognition of identity is an internal psychological process which is not appropriate to be involved in formal class instead of the common constructive life experience.

In fact, the materials of national education have been gone into other subjects like Chinese, Art, Physical Exercises, Common Knowledge, technology education. The students are trapped in the context of country and their global vision is diminished. The identity of Hong Kong people will not be clear and then the one country two system is undermined.

National education should target nationals. However, from legal perspective, there are only Hong Kong residences. Though about 90% have claimed Chinese, national education should not be applied on the non-Chinese Hong Kong residences. Selective execution of such policy would marginalize the non-Chinese minority.

From educators' point of view, assessment in primary schools is not very professional because the peer-assessment on sense of belonging is involved. Such assessment will rely on external emotional behavior which will be manipulated by students.

Under one country two system, Hong Kong residences do have multiple roles. We should understand country with facts. Chinese History and Hong Kong  History should be compulsory. We should study more on the public administration, politics and economy of PRC and Hong Kong.  Let students participate more in society to develop the sense of belonging.

Monday, August 06, 2012

The Rise of Citizenship in Hong Kong

The plastic disaster has started after the six containers of plastic pellets had fallen in the sea during the typhoon. We, the Hong Kong citizens, have noticed it 11 days after the typhoon. The importance of this disaster is well recognized and expression of opinions is not enough. Action should be taken. It is because it is our Hong Kong. These are our beaches. We are living here. Hong Kong citizens should do something for the public goods of our society. Good citizenship should be like that.

2700 citizens responded to the calling for action and worked very hard to clean up the beaches in the last weekend. It is a long way to go  because  it is a huge amount of plastic pellets fallen in the sea and the beaches. We need to work hard.

Some would complain why we need to work like this after paying so much tax to the government. We may think in another way. Paying effort and paying tax is our contribution to the society. However, only paying money may not be enough to deal with disasters. Action should be done by citizens not by the money. Of course, in the long run, we can ask the government to adjust budget on cleaning and monitoring the beaches and the seashore.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Civic Commons

It is a good idea to share something that can boost the technologies and provide solutions for the public good. There are a few fundamental assumptions that education can explore the potential of human resources in societies and openness of government information is ensured. Hence, every citizen can get access to the information, develop knowledge with the assistance of open sourced tools and share the knowledge with others. Data openness helps monitor government and fight against corruption. The regulation on government archive helps ensure data quality. Education encourages citizens thinking critically and collaborate democratically. The good quality of public services will be ensured and everyone can benefit from the.


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Don't panic.

Don't panic when you find the world is cruel.
The trade and the politics
across the countries
across the oceans
is always complicated.

Don't panic.
The material world is not guaranteed.
Only change itself persists.

Focus on our life, our family and our friends
because they are our treasure.
Everyone has basic needs.
Everyone has humble jobs.
Money is not the only one that we measure.

Don't let soul to be corrupted.
If you live with the glowing spirit,
you will live in peace.



Thursday, April 05, 2012

Putonghua or not


There is a hot debate whether Putonghua should be the main teaching language in schools in Hong Kong. Everything is possible but it does not mean everything is good. We know that PRC is the most populated country in the world. There are about 1.3 billion people in mainland China. Putonghua is the most commonly used in this country. Even though there are about 1.8 billion English speakers, Putonghua will be one of the most influential languages in the long run because of the number of speakers and the growing economic power of PRC. Hence, we need to learn Putonghua. Period.

Language is not only for communication but also for the creation of identity and culture. Though most of Hongkongers are Chinese and Hong Kong is part of People's Republic of China, they do speak Cantonese.   If Putonghua is chosen as main teaching language, mother tongue and cultural identity cannot be further developed. It will be a cultural disaster. It is the basic principle. Period.

For this reason, the dialects in different provinces should be protected and should be used as the teaching language.

Some other people would argue the huge amount of resources and time for switching teaching language. I would not think that it is the key point.


Friday, January 06, 2012

Comment Psychology

Recently a Chinese official complains that the survey conducted by University of Hong Kong for many years is not scientific. The result in past few years was highly accepted by his colleagues. Inconsistent comments on consistent object implies that such scientific judgement is just a gimmick.

Let see his complaint on putting Chinese and Hong Kong citizen as two parallel options of recognized identity. He thinks that all Hong Kong citizens are Chinese by defaut.

He actually forgets that people can select up to four options. The question would not make Chinese and Hong Kong mutually exclusive. Besides that there are follow-up rating questions on importance and degree of belonging. It is an objective approach. It follows the scientific method.

He also forgets that some are American, Indian, Korean, Japanese. Even though they love Chinese culture, you cannot treat them as Chinese. It is common sense of secondary school students.

Why does the official make such different comment? It is because of different result which they don't like. The rating for being Chinese drops after pushing national education rigorously.

After reading the older science books in mainland, you may make a guess. He may think that science need to serve the communist party. He may think social science should help to decorate the policies.