Sunday, May 25, 2008

Open or Close? | 開口或閉口?

Language: English | 中文
Recently, I tried to find out the meaning of the song, Un'Emergenza D'Amore, an Italian song of Laura Pausini.

I found out that, everytime I heard the line: Dentro le mie tasche, ovunque andrai, I heard a lovely sound from the word dentro. I spent little time to figure which part, and finally, it was the e of the syllable den-.

Then, it became quite confused. Was it an open e? Or, was it a close e sound? I decided that, though not 100% sure, it was a close e becuase it didn't match it when I tried to make it an open e.

You know, Italians are genius. They are native Italian Phonology Masters. Italian word doesn't have any accent on the stressed syllable, except that if it is the last syllable, to tell whether the vowel is open or close. Even so, just pay attention next time, you will find that they pronouce each word correctly. Open or close vowel, single or geminated consonants, 100% correct, no mistakes.

Of course Laura is one of the native masters. But anyway, I searched the word dentro from the online dictionary De Mauro (link), to make sure if I was correct, and, yes, I got déntro.

Amazing. I was impressed by their genius, again, and also, by the lovely sound of the word dentro. Just heavenly. Divina!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

中『頭』獎了

今天跟著球隊去比賽。到了賽場後,大家先練習練習,熱一熱身。

太陽很大,超熱的,練完後,就到樹蔭下坐下。坐著坐著,一位學長過來,坐我旁邊。然後,跟我說:
「咦,哩位同學,你好似中佐『頭』獎 wo~」
(咦,這位同學,你好像中了『頭』獎了喔~ ^ ^)
那個當下我還不是很懂,他告訴我,手撥一撥頭。撥了,他說不是那裡;還有。嗯,撥到了,看一看,鳥糞……

各位怕禽流感嗎?呵呵,一生人有幾次機會,會給人屎噴在頭上的呢?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

“Je suis allé en Taiwan.”

Language: English | 中文
During the french class this afternoon, our professor, François, asked us what we had done the last big big vacation.

"Je suis allé en Taiwan," I began. Then, as what I expected, he said helpfully, "À Taiwan."

I didn't repeat it. I kept moving on. In my opinion, à Taiwan is not correct.
  • Using en implies Taiwan is a country, and à implies that it is a city, district, etc.