Rev and Styles

A Buddhist group overseeing the construction of the world's tallest bronze Guanyin statue in Tai Po says the surrounding monastery will be a non-profit- making complex that will help followers reflect as well as promote Buddhism to the general public. A Buddhist group overseeing the construction of the world's tallest bronze Guanyin statue in Tai Po says the surrounding monastery will be a non-profit- making complex that will help followers reflect as well as promote Buddhism to the general public. The Rev Sik Kwok-kwong, who chairs the board of directors of Tsz Shan Monastery Ltd, said there will be no niches for the dead in the temple and that no individual is involved in the project.

As you may see, Rev is the abbreviation of reverend which is a style of addressing most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. This was a practice borrowed from Christianity by Jodo Shinshu in Japan and has been used in Buddhism since the early 20th century. The ordained monks and nuns were addressed as Maha Thera in the Theravada branch or Sakya in Chinese Mahayana branch. The title was translated to Venerable before borrowing. Theravada, which literally means the ancient teaching, is one of oldest Buddhism school in India. It is conservative and closed to early Buddhism. Analytical approach is much preferred in this school. Mahayana, which literally means great vehicle, is another old Buddhism school in India and is practiced in China, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, and Japan. It is a loosely bound collection of many teachings with large and expansive doctrines.

Style of addressing is a common tradition in academia and royal family. E.g. His/Her Magnificence is for the rector (president) of a university. His Most Reverend Excellency is for diplomats. Your Worship - Justices of the Peace (Magistrates) in the United Kingdom, usually by solicitors. His/Her Majesty in royal families.

For ordinary people, we mainly use mister, miss and mistress. After the feminism prevails, we can only use Mr and Ms.

German terms in Railway

What is Eisenbahnknot​enpunktweiche? Eisenbahnknot​enpunktweiche is railway junction switch. You can decompose this whole german (compound) noun into several parts.

Eisen = Iron 

Bahn = Road
Knoten = Node
Punkt = Point
Weiche = Switch

Eisenbahn means railway. But wait! Eisen is iron and Bahn is road. It is same to the combination of Chinese character 鐵路 (tie lu). Funny!

What is Triebwagenzug?

Trieb = engine

wagen = wagon = car

zug = train

Triebwagenzug means railcar.

Triebfahrzeug means trains and Localmotiven mean localmotives.

Auskunft means information. Preise means rating and Buchung means booking.

Einfache Fahrt means single journey where Fahren means go.

Hin- und Rückfahrt means return journey. Hinfahrt means outward. Rück means back.

Abfahrt means departure. Ab-fahrt literally means from-go.

Ankunft means arrival. An-kunft literally means to-future.

Unabsehbaren Folgen

[German] Die Angst vor einem Börsencrash und unabsehbaren Folgen für die Konjunktur hat Spitzenpolitiker weltweit zum Handeln getrieben. 

[English (My own translation)] The fear of a stock market crash and unpredictable consequences for the economy has driven world leaders to action. 

• Angst means anxiety or fear.
• Börsen means stock exchange.
• unabsehbaren means unforeseeable
• absehbaren  means foreseeable
• sehbaren means dictable
• seh means see
• Folgen means Follow, aftereffect and consequence

[German] Auch die Europäische Zentralbank und die Finanzminister der G7 kündigten rasches Handeln an. 

[English (My own translation)] In addition, the European Central Bank and the G7 finance ministers called for urgent action.

Past tense of the verb: (Wir/Sie) kündigten ... an
Present tense : ankündigen

It is one of examples of German separable prefix verbs. They can be compared to English verbs like "call up," "clear out" or "fill in." While in English you can say either "Clear out your drawers" or "Clear your drawers out," in German the separable prefix is almost always at the end, as in the second English example.

Confused German Words

There are some German words that look alike. For example, das vs dass and denn vs den. Das means 'the' and dass means 'that'. Denn means 'because' and den means 'the'.

Chinglish

'People Mountain People Sea'
should be 'full of people'

'ding'
should be 'bear', 'endure'

'You will very like it.'
should be 'You will like it very much.'

'I am sales.'
should be 'I am salesman.'

'add oil' = 'Gas geben' (in German)
should be 'hang in there', 'keep going', 'step on it', 'step on the gas', etc

carton
sounds like 'carten'

carbon
sounds like 'carben'

Ancestry of Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II is
the daughter of George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George),
the son of George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert),
the son of Edward VII (Albert Edward),
the son of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel),
the son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Ernest Anthony Charles Louis),
the son of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Francis Frederick Anthony),
the son of Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,
the son of Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,
the son of John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,
the son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha,
the son of Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (Johann Maria Wilhelm),
the son of John William, Duke of Saxe-Weimar,
the son of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony,
the son of John, Elector of Saxony (John the Steadfast),
the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony,
the son of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony,
the son of Frederick IV of Meissen and Elector of Saxony,
the son of Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia (Frederick the Strict),
the son of Frederick II, Margrave of Meissen (Frederick the Serious),
the son of Frederick I, Margrave of Meissen (Frederick the Bitten),
the son of Albert II, Margrave of Meissen,
the son of Henry III, Margrave of Meissen,
the son of Dietrich I, Margrave of Meissen,
the son of Otto II, Margrave of Meissen,
the son of Conrad, Margrave of Meissen,
the son of Thimo II the Brave, Count of Wettin,
the son of Dietrich II, Margrave of Lower Lusatia,
the son of Dedo I von Wettin,
the son of Dietrich I von Wettin.

Wettin is a small town in Saxony-Anhalt of Germany. Meissen is a small town on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Thuringia is a state of Germany in the central part of country.

Merkel - Durchschnitt Europas ist global nicht wettbewerbsfähig

Hereunder is the news article in German.

Merkel - Durchschnitt Europas ist global nicht wettbewerbsfähig

Nach Aussage von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel ist ein Großteil Europas international nicht wettbewerbsfähig.

Deshalb habe sie mit Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy den Pakt für Wettbewerbsfähigkeit vorgeschlagen, sagte Merkel am Montagabend zur Eröffnung der CeBIT-Computermese in Hannover. 

"Europa muss aufpassen, dass es sich nicht zu sehr an sich selbst orientiert", warnte die Kanzlerin. 

Alle Staaten müssten sich künftig an den Besten der EU-Partnern orientieren. 

"Der Durchschnitt Europas ist nicht wettbewerbsfähig global", sagte sie. 

Am Nachmittag hatte Schwedens Ministerpräsident Frederic Reinfeldt den von Merkel und Sarkozy vorgeschlagenen Pakt für Wettbewerbsfähigkeit kritisiert.

The following is the translated version.

Merkel - Europe's average is not globally competitive

According to Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, a large part of Europe is not internationally competitive.

Therefore, they have proposed the pact on competitiveness with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said Merkel on Monday evening at the opening of CeBIT in Hannover Computermese. 

"Europe must be careful that it is not too much oriented to yourself," warned the Chancellor. 

All states should be based on the best in the future EU partners. 

"The average for Europe is not competitive globally," she said. 

In the afternoon, Sweden's Prime Minister Frederick Reinfeldt has criticized the pact proposed by Merkel and Sarkozy for competitiveness.

wettbewerbsfähig(adj) : competitive

der Wettbewerb (n) : competition

die Wette (n): bet

No-fly zone over Libya

Die USA berät mit Verbündeten eine Flugverbotszone über Libyen. Derweil bereitet sich die Opposition auf einen Angriff von Gaddafis Truppen vor.

The United States consults with allies a no-fly zone over Libya. Meanwhile, the opposition is preparing for an attack on Gaddafi's troops.

Flug (n): Flight
fliegen (v): fly
verbot (v): prohibited
zone (n): zone
Derweil: meanwhile, whilst
der: the
weil: because
über: over
von: of, off, from, on the part of (what a flexible particle in German language!)




Für ein Flugverbot müssten weitere Beratungen im UN-Sicherheitsrat stattfinden. Es sei allerdings unwahrscheinlich, dass das Gremium handele, solange die Gewalt der libyschen Führung gegen Zivilisten, etwa durch Luftangriffe, nicht deutlich zunehme. Eine entscheidende Rolle spielt in der Angelegenheit dem Bericht zufolge Italien, das einen umfangreichen Freundschaftsvertrag mit Libyen geschlossen hatte.

Held for a ban would have further discussions in the UN Security Council. It is unlikely that the panel trade unless the violence against civilians by the Libyan leadership, such as air strikes, not significantly increasing. Plays a crucial role in the matter, the report says Italy, which had signed a comprehensive treaty of friendship with Libya.

müssten  => müssen: have to
weitere (adj) : more
Beratungen (pl): proceedings (similar to discussions / Diskussion)
im : in
der Sicherheitsrat: security council
stattfinden: to happen
finden: to find, to locate, to meet
statt: stead (a place or role that someone or something should have or fill)
die Gewalt: violence
Eine entscheidende Rolle: a crucial role
der Angelegenheit: a matter
dem Bericht: the report (dem indicate that it is an object)
Freundschaftsvertrag (Freundschaft + s + vertrag): friendship treaty
Freundschaft: friendship
Vertrag: agreement
geschlossen : closed (implies signed)

Intrinsic value is key to growing up

Children are curious to everything in daily life including their own sensation and experience. They do observe everything closely. They taste it, try it and enjoy with it. Enjoyment is one of the driving forces of learning. They can pick up the first language in a few years. They want to talk to their parents, voice out their needs and share their ideas and feelings.

Our world is a sophisticated system with lots of policies, measures and utilities for certain goals. These goals are inscribed in these measures. Even though, these goals may be right, the implementation may not be good for everyone or tailor-made to the perception of everyone. For the sake of prolonged exposure to external measures, the external values are internalized. As we know, the external environment is kept changing. The change would be an impact to the children especially when the internalized values do not match to the new external values.They may collapse.

If the children have not yet internalized these values, they would treat those measures to be controls only. They would either adapt them or work against them. Eventually, they would forget their own values.

Parents should help them to develop their own intrinsic values which are the pillars of self-development. These values also give them direction and stability.

Mein Eindrunk about BarCamp HK 2010

Es ist mein erstes Mal, BarCamp Hong Kong 2010 teilzunehmen. Eigentlich habe ich keine Ahnung, bevor ich wurde von einem Freund ein paar Tage vor dem 18. September 2010 eingeladen. Nachdem ich lese die Regeln, ich fand daas es ganz interessant, dass jeder die Chance, eigene Ideen, Geschichten und Erfahrungen zu teilen haben. Alle Teilnehmer, die zum ersten Mal zu verbinden, sind herzlich eingeladen, zu präsentieren. Ja, Präsentation. Ich habe wirklich keine Ahnung von Besuchern Hintergrund. Werden sie es nicht interessiert überhaupt?

Der Zeitraum von 3-Wort-Einführung selbst ist recht interessant. Es ist eine Herausforderung, um sie an Sie zu erinnern.

Nach dem Grundton des Veranstalters ist es ein Thema Anregung Zeitraum. Alle von uns notiere das Thema und die Kategorie auf ein Papier und steckte sie dann an die Wand außen. Der Veranstalter würde dazu beitragen, wieder je nach Kategorie zu 8 verschiedene parallele Sessions Form zu vereinbaren. Der Rest der Konferenz ist es, den Teilnehmern überlassen.

Es ist gut, ein paar Freunde zu machen, um neue Arbeitsplätze zu finden und für die Kandidaten suchen. Außerdem denke ich, es ist gut, Vorbild für andere Community-basierte Ereignis wie Wikipedianer sammeln. Es ist wirklich fördert die Beteiligung, Initiativen und freien Austausch. Es können alle genießen es.

BarCamp läuft noch in meinem Kopf viele Tage lang.

Freedom and Responsibility

If we want to protect our freedom of speech, please do not abuse it. We must be responsible to our speech such that it avoids a more strict regulation to be enforced. It is like investment institutions in United States. If they can hold their responsible to the investment, unnecessary risk can be avoided. The impact of financial tsunami can be avoided. The regulation of finance sector would not be strengthened. The freedom of investment institutions can be maintained. Recently, cyber-bullying happens all the time among Hong Kong teenagers. They think that it is part of their freedom of speech but they forget that it also violates the privacy of victum. They start to get used to attack other persons in foul language wherever they are. On the other hand, the media agencies keep to write news articles in senational approache even though they know it is not appropriate.

In fact, freedom and responsibility is in the same package. Why? Every person is born with equal rights including freedom of speech which is limited by law in a society, If the exercise of freedom causes conflicts, such conflicts must be resolved according to mutually agreed principles of justice. These principles of justice are normally presented in the form of laws and regulations. For example, if it is an emergency for a nation, much of the freedom of nationals is restricted. If the exercise of certain freedom violates the human rights, say living with respect, such exercise would be prohibited. Therefore, these regulations remind us our responsibilities.

My friend commented that this is idealism. Americans don't see it that way. For them, freedom is the biggest and nothing to do with responsibility. Responsibility is another issue.

I think that though most of americans don't see it in this way, it does not mean that their view is right. Freedom of speech should be protected until the exercise of it violates other principles of human rights. Recent there are many cases about cyber-bullying in Hong Kong. It is abuse of freedom of speech in certain sense.

He said, "yeah, it is not right. But in this world, the powered commands. Sadly, everything is not purely considered. Everythings is mixed with benefit and advantages......... Human rights is always a bargaining power for US to negotiate with other countries for commercial rights. "

Most of us try to interpret a nation to be a person. The behaviour of a nation is analogued to personal behaviour. In fact, it is not strictly appropriate. The outcomes or decision is obtained through a political process which is a competition among pressure groups and interest group especially in a nation where democractic system is deployed. For the US pigeons, human rights are good for 'preaching'. For the US eagles, human rights are for bargaining power. When it is republicans' administration, the eagles win, otherwise, the pigeons win. I hope the democrats can fix the problems created by the republicans.

(Chinese Version of "Freedom and Responsibility")

Scoring is administration

Do you hate scoring and marking? Do know what should be done before it? Yes, creating a marking scheme is the crucial task. A good marking scheme can help us to give marks for any possible student answers without violation of fairness. It helps us to categorize answers according to its semantics and syntax. It sounds like law and regulation which helps us to handle any possible cases by taxonomy and procedures. It also follows the principle of justice and fairness. Law to lawyer, rule-based program to processor. Before marking, we need to plan the marking scheme, to organize materials, to use some methodologies or tools, to control the quality of scoring and to have a time-budgeting.

For administration, we also need planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and budgeting. Plan what we should do, how we should do, who should do and when we should do. Assign responsibility to posts and organization. Put these rules on the policy. Then, find right candidates to fill the posts. Direct or motivate them to do. Monitor performance and control the quality of work. Finally, budgeting is a periodic task for future resource allocation. Both administration and scoring share a similar model.

In fact, as the environment is changing fast, administrators need to adapt it fast. Administration is not an easy job.

Data type

In programming language, we have something called data type. We have it because any program would process data only. If the data type is well declared and defined in a programming language, it is a strong typed language; otherwise it is a weak typed language. If the data is well defined, its operation is clear enough; otherwise there are many unknown outcomes for different unexpected scenarios.

It looks like mathematics. We have sets, number sets. We can define our own sets and we also have some pre-defined sets such as Integers, Real Numbers and Complex Numbers. The name of these pre-defined sets is reserved in certain sense. The concept of reserved words is similar to this one. Besides sets, we have operators like '+','-','x' to manipulate the numbers, members of the given sets.

In programming, data type is not limited to numbers. It includes characters and even strings. Here, characters does not mean any tool or persons in the movies. We are talking about members of alphabet, the letters, the puntuation marks and other symbols.

Typically, we write some functions to manipulate these data for us. It normally takes serveral input and generates a datum as output. It works like a function in mathematics. It maps the parameters in given sets to a value in another set. It tells us a clear relation.

How about the function of your mind? How can we understand and handle the data from the external world? Firstly, we tends to categorize them. Category is one of the key concept in our mind. Secondly, category helps us to compare and associate the current instance of event with the past events. It helps to manage the expectation. Thirdly, we can take the procedure from our experience or external authority to deal with the current situation. Hence, category on low level is data type in our mind.

Our mind is much more advanced. We have self-awareness and self-reflection. We can handle meta-level thinking. We can apply category on other categories. We can understand the logic of our thinking.

In fact, compilers of some computer programming language can be implemented by itself. It means it has reflection mechanism to describe itself. It is similar to metadata for database and meta-language for language.

Language somehow governs our thinking and communication. If everyone has kept its very own version of interpretation on public affairs, it would create chaos. It is the reason why we need objectivity and objective language in law. It helps us to categorize different real life scenarios and measure them with objective scales such that we can handle them in a systemetic way under the principle of fairness and justice.

Source of Trust

In the past few weeks, the political reform package of Hong Kong was eventually passed in legislative council and submitted by the chief executive Donald Tsang. However, we may find that mutual trust lacks among the public, the government and the central government of People's Republic of China. Donald Tsang always urged the public to trust the government. Can trust be built up by public announcement?

According to the chapter of Gongye Chang in Analects of Confucious (Lunyu), we have to listen what he says and observe what he does. Just listening is not enough, we have to check whether it is consistent with what he does. We should settle for short term observation. Long term observation is more reliable.

Firstly, from this point of view, one should be observable before trust is earned; otherwise it is hard to judge it. Regarding government, the process of making policy should be open and fair. Recently, the Hong Kong Journal Association is pushing the Hong Kong government to enact freedom of information legislation to ensure access to government information and documents. According to the principle of governance, it enforces government to release the information pro-actively such that the public can monitor the whole process of making and implementation of policy. Therefore, the former director of Government Records Service, Simon Chu, requested to put the Law of Public Records on the agenda of the Legislative Council in order to ensure the public records created, archived, released and removed properly.

Secondly, it is mutual understanding between government and the public. It requires effective communication. Understanding of nature of communication is crucial. The message will be selected and compiled by the sender, transformed via different type of channels and finally interpreted by different kinds of receivers. Hence, the results would vary so much. The government should not just focus on itself and should use the appropriate methods according to the receiver. Communication is not only a delivery of its own message but also receiving of message from other partners. Selective listening must be avoided. Positive and constructive comments should be included. 

What is positive and constructive comments? When citizens are sitting on the road without saying a word, is it? When protesters are climbing on the tree without saying a word, is it? Objection! Is it? If we speak out what we want and what we need to do, it is a positive and constructive comment.

Appropriate channel is critical for effective communication. Discrimination should be avoided. At least one open and fair platform should exist in a civic society. Every party can have equal right. Their opinions should not be wrongly interpreted. The creditability of Radio Television of Hong Kong is well known. However, it is retained as a government department after public evaluation. HKJA urged government to reverse its decision.

Thirdly, keep the promise. Only hope can be built when the promises are kept all the time. Promises must be kept whatever it is. Typically, those promise should be in black and white. The most challenge issue is the change of the people, the environment and the society. If the need for a specific promised policy vanished, the public can realize that such policy should be suspended; otherwise, apology and backup plan is needed.

Finally, I hope that the mutual trust can be built up. The making of public policy will allow peaceful participation of the public in the public space. The society will be improved continuously.

(Chinese Version)

German class is ended.

The German class is ended today. It would be a good start for me because I have built up the foundation.

Let's try to translate the following message.

Die Briten entscheiden über ihre nächste Regierung. In der spannendsten Unterhauswahl seit langem wittern die Konservativen und die Liberal-Demokraten ihre Chance. Labour-Premier Brown gilt als schwer angeschlagen.

Die Briten entscheiden über ihre nächste Regierung. In der spannendsten Unterhauswahl seit langem wittern die Konservativen und die Liberal-Demokraten ihre Chance. Labour-Premier Brown gilt als schwer angeschlagen.

Literal translation is:

The British decide about/above/of their next government. In the most exciting beneath/between/among-house-election for a long time detect/sense the Conservatives and the Liberal-Democractic their chance. Labour Premier Brown is deemded to be as hard striken.

Refine the literal translation:

The British decide about their next government. In the most exciting Lower House Election, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats sense their chance for a long time. Labour Premier Brown is striked badly.


Google translation result is:

The British decide about their next government. In the most exciting general election has long been suspect, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats their chance. Labour Premier Brown is struck as hard.

Klavier

In English, there is a big musical instrument called piano. Piano was created since the Middle Age. It consists of strings and hammers.

We know that English is originated from German. In German, piano is called Klavier. Why does it called Klavier? In English, there is another word - clavier to describe musical instrument - keyboard. It is same as the Clavier from French. Klavier may come from Latin (claves), clavile in Modern Latin. It is Klavír in Solvenian and Czech, Glasovir in Crotian. Clavier may mean key-bearer, key is clavis in Old Latin.

The name piano comes from pianoforte, same as Italian and Russian (Фортепиа́но) name. It is fortepian in Poland.

The most strange is that piano is Zongora in  Hungarian. Why Zongora?

German and English 2

There are lots of similarities between English and German.

When we say "How old are you?" in English, we would say "Wie alt sind Sie?" in German. They are literally equivalent.

When we say "What is your name?" in English, we would say "Wie ist Ihr Name?" in German, literally "How is your name?".

"How are you?" in English. Then "Wie geht es Ihnen?" in German, literally means "How goes it you?". I guess it is more like "How is going on you?".

Kindergarten was absolutely borrowed from German. Kinder is plural form of Kind which means child. Garten is garden. Therefore, kindergarten means garden of children.

German and English

English language is originated from West Germanic language. It is the reason why we found some German vocabularies similar to those in English. Then, many foreign words were borrowed from French. In recent decades, many English terms are imported by German. We can see these European languages enrich each other.

The verb 'helfen' is Help in English. 'Help' comes from 'helpan' in Old English which comes from 'khelpanan' in Proto-Germanic and 'kelp' in Proto-Indo-European language.

The 'have' comes from 'habban' in Old English, 'habba' in Old Frisian, 'haben' in German, 'haban' in Gothic, 'khaf-' in Proto-Germanic and 'kap-' in Proto-Indo-European language.

0-9 numer

0 is null (zero).
1 is eins (one).
2 is zwei (two/twice).
3 is drei (three/tri).
4 is vier (four).
5 is fünf (five).
6 is sechs (six).
7 is sieben (seven).
8 is acht (eight).
9 is nuen (nine).
10 is zehn (ten).
11 is elf (eleven).
12 is zwölf (twelve).
13 is dreizehn (thirteen).
14 is vierzehn (fourteen).
15 is fünfzehn (fifteen).
16 is sechzehn (sixteen).
17 is siebzehn (seventeen).
18 is achtzehn (eighteen).
19 is nuenzehn (nineteen).
20 is zwangzig (twenty).
30 is dreißig (thirty).
40 is vierzig (forty).
100 is hundert (hundred).

When something passed

When something passed, let it passed.

When someone passed, let it passed.

Stay with the one you love.

Do what you can do for love.

Be strong to strengthen your love

Encounter the challenge be tough

Treasure the moment at the bottom of heart

Old man, life is not so hard