July 11, 2013

Today I tried to learn Japanese. I am a big fan of Japanese animation. Although there are always Mandarin subtitles for Chinese people like me to read, it is still beneficial to know a few phrases in Japanese, in case I want to travel to Japan for vacation. My grandmother knows Japanese. During the time when the Japanese colonized Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War, the education provided was all in Japanese. My grandmother learned everything in Japanese until she graduated from middle school. Then the Japanese were drawn back to their home country. My grandmother’s ability to speak Japanese is a great advantage for me to learn Japanese. I can ask her to help me if I can’t pronounce a phrase. However, I was not sure whether or not my grandmother learned the modern Japanese. In the old time, earrings were called mi mi wa. In the modern time, earrings are called iyaringu. It sounds exactly like english. Beer, milk, and banana are all examples of words that translated from english, old or new. My grandmother handed me a decrepit Japanese learning handbook. All four sides of the book were crumpled. Every page in the book was yellow due to long exposure to air. That book looked at least 20 years old. However, the ink in it has not worn off yet. The words are still clear on the yellow pages. This book is very interesting. It consists of three parts. The first part is the original Japanese text, showing reader what it looks like. The second part is the Chinese definition part, telling the reader what it is. The third part is pinyin, showing the reader how to read with Chinese characters. However, the third part is so hard to understand. Frequently, I can’t recognize the Chinese characters. My grandmother was so confused when I tried to read out a phrase to her. It is so frustrating for me.

July 6, 2013

I went to visit my great grandmother, who is 90 years old. She is my mother’s father’s mother. A few days ago, she fell and broke her leg. The rate of decaying calcium is faster than the rate of increasing calcium because she didn’t intake enough calcium from external sources regularly. That might explain why her leg broke so easily when she fell. She was on a wheelchair and rested her leg on a small stall. I sat down next to her at the dinner table. She didn’t show any sign of pain. Her leg looked a lot better now, even though she was still unable to get up from the wheelchair. During dinner time, many relatives encouraged her to eat more to strengthen her thin and pale arms and legs. I looked at her, tried to speak some poor Taiwanese, and tried to get her to eat more. Although I didn’t think that I got my message to her, she smiled back at me and began to eat her vegetables. I am regretful that I didn’t learn Taiwanese language fluently when I was young, but all the memories we shared together will always connect me and my family.

June 30, 2013

It was the second day of my Changhua trip. We visited a famous temple called Lugang Longshan Temple. My father’s friend gave us a tour of the temple. Out of all five Longshan Temples in Taiwan, Lugang Longshan Temple is the most comprehensive Longshan Temple in Taiwan. Most of the buildings and ornaments had been preserved since it was built. It is considered a national first class monument. This temple actually had been through three big disasters. The first one is a big earthquake, damaging the temple severely. The repairment of the temple took many days. The second disaster is a big fire. The entire back side of the temple was burnt into ashes. People rebuild the back side with an addition of a modern pond. The third time is a flood. However, the temple was barely damaged. Is it because the temple worships a water god so the temple survived the flood? No one knows. There are many beautiful stone carvings and paintings in the temple. Each carving and painting has its own meaning. The four bats on four corners of a carving represent giving happiness. In Mandarin, “four bats” is “四蝠”. It sounds similar to “賜福”, which means to give happiness. In addition, I was surprised to know that ancient Chinese knew about Physics. The dome inside the temple is a performing platform. Performers would get on the platform and perform traditional Chinese dancing and singing. The sound will be amplified due to some phenomena of physics. I have to admit that I was captivated by the artful skill and scientific knowledge of the ancient Chinese people.

June 19, 2013

Today I read a very interesting mystery novel. The title of the book is “And Then There Were None”, written by Agatha Christie. The story describes an unsolvable crime. Ten people are invited to an island known as the Soldier Island. According to the story, Soldier Island is full of mystery. It was originally owned by a wealthy man, who built a beautiful mansion on the island. However, the spouse of that wealthy man can’t withstand the ocean. Therefore, it was sold to an unknown person. No one knows what happens to the island now. Those ten people are excited because they are invited to the most hotly discussed island and can live in a high-class mansion. In each one’s room, they found a poem. Ever since they find the poem, people begin to die in the exact way the poem describes. The police had no clue how that is possible. Later, a letter is retrieved from the sea. The murderer reveals everything in the letter. The murderer kills nine other people on the island because they are people who committed crime but escaped the punishment of the law. I originally thought that the murderer is the doctor, but I was wrong. I didn’t even imagine the story will end like this. Agatha Christie was too brilliant.