星期一, 八月 17, 2009

脱氧核糖核酸

一天在翻阅报纸,刚好看到关于脱氧核糖核酸的部分,标题是XXX(一堆汉字)DNA XX(一堆汉字)等等。一旁的印度友人也看到了,问我为什么标题这么奇怪,中英参杂,我当场哑口无言。

DNA这英语词汇虽简单方便,但既然有了“脱氧核糖核酸”这中文译名,为何弃之不用,这令人费解。情况就如同弃“国民生产总值”而用GDP、采GPS而非“全球定位系统”一般,有违当初努力翻译相关外来词汇的人士的苦心。

真正的原因应该是在于那些译名都不够方便好用。我建议相关单位重新检讨那些不受欢迎之译名。其中一个可行的方法可能是再简化诸如“国民生产总值”之类的词汇,比如用“国值”代替“国民生产总值”。两个字数的词汇对媒体及公众来说都来得方便多了。

总好过让英语词汇泛滥于汉语世界中!

星期三, 八月 12, 2009

英语崇拜风

欧阳文风发表在星洲日报的文章抨击了许许多多带有不正确心态来学习英语的人。

不禁感慨,想不到还有这么多人活在当初殖民霸权的阴影下,以只懂前宗主国语言为荣,抱有阶级心态,想要在同族内高高在上。这种英语至上心态已如欧阳先生所说是一种扭曲的价值观了。

英殖民霸权的文化战略还真成功!竟影响至今,当然这跟美国的崛起乃大有关联。

陳天然老師病逝

得悉本地华语语音界泰斗陈天然老师于2009年8月10日逝世,令我感到惋惜。

以前常在电台节目听到他的声音。尤记得他是新闻广播员,同时也制作并主持有关华语发音的节目(不太记得)。他似乎也在电视台亮相过,没记错的话乃新闻主播。

一天不知从何处知道他的汉学功力在马来西亚是数一数二的,他在本地华语发音界更是个泰斗!另一个值得一提的泰斗是蒙润龙老师。

马来西亚又损失了一个人才了,陈老师请走好!

星期一, 八月 10, 2009

Gross Domestic Product - GDP

I came across this joke about GDP from today's Nanyang Siang Pau. (Nanyang Business Journal, 南洋商报). The story is roughly like below:

Two economists A & B were paying a visit to their sensei/master who is a well known economist.

On their way, they saw a pile of dogshit on the road. A told B that he was willing to offer B 50 million bucks if B eats the dogshit. Ok B really ate the dogshit and took the 50 million bucks. Then they continued their journey.

After a while, they saw another pile of dogshit again. This time B told A if A eats the dogshit B will return the 50 million bucks to A. A actually a bit regretted giving out his 50 million bucks to B early on and so he took this chance to get back his 50 million bucks by finishing up the dogshit.

Then they continued their journey. After several thoughts they started to realize they actually gained nothing but dogshit in their stomach. They were crying loud, and at that time they had already reached their master's house.

After listening to their stories their master was screaming with excitement: "100 million! 100 million! You two have ust contributed 100 million to our nation's GDP!!! "


Here is the formula of GDP which is taken from Wikipedia:

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)

So i think the 100 million bucks from the above story is referring to "private consumption". Hahaha.

I once read about an economist from the United States said that(I could not remember that well) "to grow a nation's GDP (or to boost up a nation's economy), give money to someone to dig a hole on the road, and then offer money to another person to patch the hole up". Hahaha.

Frankly speaking, i think GDP's should be quite reliable else it will not be a universal key indicator to a nation's economic strength.

星期日, 八月 09, 2009

Year 2012 again

Finally a movie about year 2012 is made. The movie talks about year 2012 is the end of the world.

There is a saying that in year 2012 Sun's magnetic pole will swap and hence affects earth's magnetic pole. Some more Earth's magnetic pole is changing all the time. Also Sun will be aligned with Earth in year 2012. Sun's sunspot will be very active at that moment and may cause some impact to the Earth. This was mentioned in the movie "Knowing".

The most famous prediction about year 2012 is the end of the world is coming from Maya civilization. Besides that Isaac Newton also predicted that year 2012 is going to be the end of the world.

Why do we need to trust Maya so much? It is because many evidences showing that they might actually be some advanced civilization race migrated to earth from another planet which position is in between Earth and Venus.

If year 2012 is really the end of the world. Let's start enjoying now. Do not work so hard, do not pursue money. Just try to spend more time with the one you love.

星期六, 八月 08, 2009

One year already!!

Time flies. It has been one year already since i joined this company in KL. Also it is my 1 year in KL.

I have been working on ESB/SOA stuff since day 1. Back then i was really blur of all these queue/web services/broker/adapter stuff as i was from web development background. I am glad that i was given the chance to get exposed to this area. Thanks to the support from my colleagues. They are really great!

Since i am doing integration job, i often have to liaise with a few parties. Hence the interaction between me and them is quite important. The communication between me and them has to be effective to ensure that i am able to deliver the right solution as according to what business users need. This part has troubled me a lot. I think i still have much space for improvement in this area. Perhaps i need to take some psychology course. Hahaha.

I am quite lucky to witness the outsourcing process. My client - a telco company has outsourced its IT department to my company some time back. Things have turned quite messy at the first few months after the outsourcing. For example my project manager has changed 4 times in 3,4 months time and the process is no longer as clear as the one before the outsourcing. Fortunately i can see things are getting stable now.

Just looking forward to learn more things as long as i have not left this company. I hope can get high pay with minimum workload. Hahaha.

星期四, 八月 06, 2009

Statistic - The decline in Malaysia's economic from year 1960 - 2000

Below shows the statistic of GDP per capita which is a very good indicator to a nation's economic strength.
Year 1960, Msia ranked 4th after Singapore, Hong Kong and The Philippines.
Year 1970, S.Korea had caught up and pushed Msia to 5th place. However The Philippines lagi teruk(from 3rd - 6th).
Year 1980, Msia showed some improvement by pulling S.Korea down one place. Guess it was due to the discovery of crude oil in the 70's.
Year 1990, this time S.Korea caught up again and broadened the gap to 9591-6924 = 2667 !!!
Year 2000, the gap between S.Korea and Msia went bigger to 15702-11405 = 4297!!!
Can't wait to see how is it for year 2010.
In summary, from year 1960 until 2000, The Philippines ranking dropped the most. The accusation could go for its then incomplete politic system especially during reign of the notorious Marcos.
It's sad to see the gap between Malaysia and S.Korea to get bigger & bigger. It has been 9 years from year 2000 and i am quite negative that Malaysia could overtake S.Korea's place once again as what it did in year 1980.


1960
countryyeargdp per capitagdp per capita2
Singapore19604211.014219.14
Hong Kong19603264.243321.62
Philippines19602037.332038.72
Malaysia19601829.301800.74
Korea, Republic of19601544.151458.35
Taiwan19601490.941443.61
Indonesia19601098.521071.28
Thailand19601085.841059.09
Vietnam1960nana


1970
countryyeargdp per capitagdp per capita2
Hong Kong19706988.346967.22
Singapore19706843.576837.95
Taiwan19702872.192846.37
Korea, Republic of19702621.312551.89
Malaysia19702571.762529.36
Philippines19702427.132430.59
Thailand19701748.071733.87
Indonesia19701279.191272.85
Vietnam1970nana


1980
countryyeargdp per capitagdp per capita2
Hong Kong198013326.4013410.37
Singapore198013001.4113032.17
Taiwan19805944.635962.89
Malaysia19805009.634950.16
Korea, Republic of19804556.594496.54
Philippines19803293.293313.71
Thailand19802741.712708.16
Indonesia19802082.792083.55
Vietnam1980nana



1990
countryyeargdp per capitagdp per capita2
Hong Kong199022003.3521963.40
Singapore199019472.4619465.91
Taiwan199011283.9011248.17
Korea, Republic of19909591.279592.83
Malaysia19906924.166889.75
Thailand19904844.584863.76
Philippines19903208.793213.57
Vietnam19901441.611433.65

2000
countryyeargdp per capitagdp per capita2
Singapore200029433.7729433.77
Hong Kong200027236.1527236.15
Taiwan200019183.9319183.93
Korea, Republic of200015702.2715702.27
Malaysia200011405.5011405.50
Thailand20006473.606473.60
Philippines20003825.623825.62
Indonesia20003771.863771.86
Vietnam20002189.412189.41

昔华中学杰出校友

目前为止所知道的杰出校友有数位如下:

  1. 黄子。他常在报章电台等媒体发表意见。他在电台上的说话方式非常滑稽,常常反讽时弊。他现时在南洋商报有个专栏。
  2. 杨善勇。自多年前就常在各报章看到他的文章。从中得知他的专长乃城市策划。近来他在东方日报有个专栏。
  3. 后起之秀彭靖岚彭靖雯两姐妹。他们的部落格/博客/网志在本地非常受落因而累积了一些知名度。2年前我偶然间于凌晨在国营电台听到他们的声音,原来是当天的嘉宾。
就只知道这数位,有待日后补充。

Disappearance of Iceberg off Alaska



It happened just within a year!!! Pciture on the left shows a large piece of iceberg in white color whereas picture on the right shows the disappearance of the iceberg.


星期二, 八月 04, 2009

科技使汉字复活?

今日阅报,得知简讯的迅速发展促使了日本人倾向于在发短讯时使用汉字。其原因是片假名着实过于烦琐,打起字来得花不少时间,而汉字与之相比又快又简洁,短短数字就能表其意。

这趋势对促进汉学的发展有利,乃一大喜事也!虽然日语与汉语相差太大,但如果双方在汉字的字义上能达成共识,那么将有助于汉和两种文化的沟通。同样的,韩朝越亦能受益于此,在各方努力下,进而渐渐形成一个汉字文化圈 - 语言不通文章通,这并非是不可能的。那情况就如同文言文让中国广大地域操不同语言(客语、闽语、粤语、泸语等)的人能沟通一样。

然后在东南亚诸国华裔的推动下,渐渐使汉学散播于各民族间,新加坡有潜质能成为在东南亚汉学的桥头堡!长远的目标当然是把东南亚诸国并入汉字圈内。

谈到文言文,鉴于要极快的表达,人们在发短讯时也频繁文言文,这已是一种现象!当然,现代人文言文火候十足的是不多,所以所谓“火星文”也出现了,许多古字复活了,许多字被赋予新义了。

总而言之,中文简化对推广中文非常有用!容易的语言是必受欢迎的。这话可能不太客观,但容易确是受欢迎的众多因素之一。我认识的一些朋友有些都会说汉语但不会认汉字,有些则说写皆不行。汉字比起只有ABCD的英语的确难学难认难写,这难题有待汉语专家克服。

星期日, 八月 02, 2009

Ai FM's DJ was crying over Yasmin Ahmad's death

I was driving back to KL from my hometown. I was listening to Ai FM(a mandarin radio) as usual. 10.05pm was DJ Ji An's programme. He was talking about a lot of things about Yasmin Ahmad because he invited Yasmin Ahmad a few times to his programme as guest. I think after a few times Yasmin Ahmad was invited they became some sort of close friends. Well at first his tone was still calm but suddenly he burst into tears. I guess that was really a sad moment for him when Kak Yasmin passed away. So from 10.05pm to 12pm DJ Ji An was replaying all the programs that he had invited Yasmin Ahmad as his guest.

The 2 hours was a nice one. Yasmin Ahmad was really anak Malaysia yang betul-betul membuat movie untuk semua Malaysian. It's a great loss for us Malaysian that Yasmin Ahmad could not produce more touching TV advertisements & movies anymore.

星期二, 七月 28, 2009

两个中国又如何?

很多本地华人似乎很不喜欢看到中国分裂。

我觉得分裂或利于中华文化全球进展。此话何以见得?

放眼当今世界诸国,英语主流国家占了多数。冉冉数来有美英澳纽加五大“强国”。单单一个美国就足以称霸全球(军事、政治、文化)。其他英语系国家与美国虽因国情地域而在文化上有些差别,但由于其国民大量使用英语,沟通不成问题,在很多课题上看法一致。进而有意无意的扩大英语于万国中的影响力。

如果,中国与台湾各一国,加上新加坡,那么汉语使用国将有三国之多,其数虽不及英语诸国,但还是能发挥一定的影响力的。前提是此三国需要在军事、政治、经济、文化上与英语诸国并驾齐驱,方能抗衡英语文化。另一个前提是新加坡日后以汉语为主,我想此国应该有此计划,近年来此国大量引进中国国民就透露了些蛛丝马迹。

当然,这些都是猜测假设。另一个说法是中台统一,国家日益兴盛,单以一国之力亦能传播汉语影响力。但我想封建中国历经二千年而其影响力只及日韩越,似乎还不如兴都文化般来的广(缅泰柬寮马印、尼伯尔、不丹等),那么中共真的能青出于蓝吗?再看看法日德三国,他们都是现代化国家中的佼佼者,唯其国力虽强但其语言文化影响力还真弱。日本的漫画文化虽能打入美国市场,却仍不及好莱坞,这些年来也没见多少美国人愿意学习日本语,而日本国民生产总值更曾经一度超越美国成为世界第一!到头来,还是没法撼倒美式文化。可能乃日本强盛期不长而致,加上在政治军事上日本乃美国傀儡,所以功亏一篑也不出奇。在看看德国,英语已经渐渐在德国民众中普及了!德国这个科技大国亦没法抗衡英语文化的入侵啊!

这可能是:

1)美国文化的影响力过盛!

2)同时有数个实力不错的英语国的存在!

解决方案不多:

1)中国分裂成数国,最有可能乃新疆和西藏。但这两区并不是汉语区。分裂只会使中国失去了资源(新疆)及边界(西藏),这不利中国。而且现在非清末民初的军阀时代,当时四分五裂个个省份要独立是有政治需求的,现在已不同以往,分裂省份不太可能造福人民。

2)中台各承认双方为一国,然后合作传播中华文化!(台湾为华人国的民主典范,绝不能轻易破坏其民主制度,新加坡乃李氏父子独裁,但仍有值得参考之处,总体上好过中共)。

3)中台统一,壮大中国,提升国民素质,强化军事实力,改良政治体制,行宪政治国之实,扩散政治力量,建立制度鼓励发展民间文化产业使之蓬勃,发挥华人的创造力,进而往全球推销汉语,推销中华文化!

中共、台湾和李氏父子需加把劲了!

星期日, 七月 26, 2009

上了施純協老師的易經講座

星期六上了施纯协老师位于首都尊孔独中的讲座。

这是第一次参观这件本地著名的独立中学,感觉非常良好。 它就位于首都富都后面,我本来还以为还需要走一段路的,但其实它就离我泊车位不远处,相当方面及寂静,这与不远处的茨厂街的喧闹成了强烈对比。

惊喜的是当他提起了源自于易经的名句“自强不息厚德载物”时,他提到了我的中学-昔华中学!我想他是看过了我中学的口号吧!而自强不息厚德载物就是我学校的口号!

基本上在那场讲座他说讲的都是些基本的东西,如八卦有乾坤艮兑震巽离坎(天地山泽雷风火水)等。这些我在新山古来刘明升老师的课都以上过了,刘老师教易的态度非常认真,我能感受到他的热诚及他对易的痴迷,至今我仍然很感谢他教我易的一些基本知识,受用不浅,好想再见见他谈谈易。

当然,在施老师的讲座那里我亦获得新知。施老师不断强调易经道理如用于教育孩子,那将会是务实与务虚并重!他也说读易经者该设法了解易义而实践其于日常生活中。为了这个理想,他在台湾发明了许多易经游戏以方便推广易经!那些游戏包括了易经牌、易经百万富翁等,相当新鲜,我想的确有助于在民间推广易经。有了台湾的成功经验,现在他想在马来西亚推广了!

他也提出了一些易经道理实践与生活中的例子,可惜也许我道行不深,觉得毫无逻辑,相当牵强,好象是主观诠释的东东。我希望日后他能提出更加有说服力的例子。

无论如何,我非常认同施老师所提出的实践易理于生活中的概念。易本身必要有用于这个社会方能站稳并广传!这是我们华人祖先智慧的结晶品,我们该探索并开发它的实用价值而非纯碎以占卜为重!毕竟易理已实践在各行各业中包括中医业、建筑业等等。我相信易还有待研究!

回家后我也无意间看到了著名易经学者-刘君祖说易经的节目,在此与各位好易者分享。

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