三声及轻声

已好久没有写中文的Blog了，趁2004年还没过完之前，来一个吧。最近不知怎么的，对华语的一些疑问顿时会想起。更巧的是，在圣诞节当天，与一班旧同 学讨论起一些有趣的话题。今天先分享我的疑问，下回才分享圣诞节那些吧！该疑问已找在北京念大学的旧同学解答。真的非常谢谢他抽空回答我的问题。 以下是该电邮的大意： 如 果遇上两个并排的三声字，第一个字会变二声，而第二个字读音没变。但是如果遇上三个字或以上呢？ 例如： 演讲稿、草稿纸。听说是看词组来辨别， 如演讲稿—演讲的稿，所以是 yán jiǎng gǎo。但我觉得念起来怪怪的，还是 yán jiáng gǎo 听起来比较好听。可是草稿纸就没这么容易辨别了，因为可以是草写的稿纸或者是拿来草稿的纸，那应该是 cáo gáo zhǐ 还是 cáo gǎo zhǐ 呢？ 其实是否有什么语法规定，正确的念法该是如何？那是否有口诀可以容易记得呢？下句子的正确的读音是什么呢？

你给我早点写好演讲稿

是否有语法规定哪些字在什么时候应该念轻声，如果该字基本单字不是轻声，而配上另一个字成词时才轻声？如果单字本身已是轻声那就比较容易了。 先卖个关子，他的回答留到下次才分享吧 ：D

Fantasy

I can have a million? Someone within 5 meters radius started to doubt this statement as well. His argument is that he has no stake in it, which I totally agree. If it's really that worthy, why don't we see the results, even the level of enumeration does not see significant adjustment [Note: non-significant is not even there :( ] I don't deny the points he brought out, neither did I buy the story. So long I'm ok with the progress and there are intellectual development, as of now, I'm pretty much contented. Someone did ask me a couple of days ago, how the appraisal coming. How am I going to explain how this works? Telling my friend there's a million or more coming? I guess the typical "dream on" response is not too far from the speculation.

Rail-ly Change

As announced by KTM, the Kommuter service will now have a new ticketing structure. Finally they are introducing the weekly pass, which offers saving of 28%. Although restricted to the source and destination station purchase, unlimited rides and in-between route embarkment & disembarkment are allowed. Sadly, the "Anywhere" (Mana-mana) and "Travel" (Kembara) tickets will no longer be issued. Those tickets are fantastic package, coz it allows anyone to travel unlimitedly on the same day of purchase to go anywhere there is covered by the Kommuter service. Mana-mana cost RM5 when it started, but up RM1 when the fare structure revised. Kembara costs RM10. Both actually works the same, but in order to get the Mana-mana RM6 offer, the following condition must be fulfilled :

1. It does not fall on the school holiday.
2. It does not fall on a weekend.
3. It does not fall on public holiday.
4. Purchasing of ticket only started after 9am [but traveling ends on the last train of the day]

So, you might think that you cannot fulfilled all of the above, there's where the Kembara card comes in which you don't have to fulfill the condition above, but you have to pay for RM10. Even for RM10, is totally worth it, especially doing the long distance travel. I have used this offer for 4 times. Here's what can be done in case you wonder :

1. Checking out Seremban town, walking in Seremban lake garden which also has a little zoo-like thing which displays various bird.
2. Eating Kajang sate in Kajang itself
3. Seeing old rail depot in Sentul. Check out the building around it.
4. Visit the old part of Klang town, which has a Sultan palace near by the station, Gedung Raja Abdullah (i think it's the oldest building in Selangor), "little India". Nice food and great Ais kacang as well. There is a little cake shop at the end of the old shop houses which is very cheap and delicious! You can have a look at the infamous Klang river as well which looks different when seeing it in KL.
5. Go to south port of Port Klang which you can have a view of the sea and sun set if you want. Note: it is scorching hot in the afternoon, esp around 3pm. You can get a ride to Pulau Ketam from here as well.
6. Rawang town is a town with heavy traffic so walking around the town requires skill. Also, it is famous for a deep fried fish dish, which I have yet to try.

Too bad that the offer will ends on 31 December 2004. Reason given? Lukewarm response. I'm gonna miss this very much, unless I want to pay for high price for it [Forget it!] Also, annoucement through loud speaker informed passengers that trail basis of direct route Rawang ↔ Port Klang will commence today.

Manga Experience!

I've never know reading manga (comic in Japanese) can increase my knowledge. Lately, after reading Yakitate!! Japan, only I notice that blood type grouping is not just confined to the ABO method that we learn in school. From the manga, it introduce me to Bombay blood type, or if you want to study more about this, try google it and you'll get to know much more. The following blood type is quoted from BloodBook.com (Note: it does exist)

O Rh negative: D- C-E-c+e+, M+S-, Le(a-), K-, Fy(a+b-), Jk(a+b-) CMV-

Meaning to say, you still have all thos D, C, E factor and so on! What is so much of a big deal you might ask. It is useful for blood transfusions. That also means that blood type O is technically not a universal donor. Hmm.... maybe they should put some footnote and disclaimer in textbook just to not confuse or pass on incorrect knowledge to students. So, go read more manga today!

Latest on ZD!

Oh my gosh! I pass! I can't believe it! Befriedigend is what I get, that will be a 3 [In plain English, in Germany exam system, you are given a grade from 1-6. 1 for very good, 2 for good, 3 for satisfactory, 4 is for pass, 5 for lacking, 6 for fail] Geez, another guy failed for his oral, which make the total fail counter up a notch to 5. In summary, 1 girl (extremely smart girl) got a 2, 3 of the candidate have a 3 while the rest who pass has a 4. This breaking news is made possible by modern technology!

Zertifikat Deutsch

Finally, my German test is over. I have yet to know my result for my oral. I hope I can pass my oral. One of my friend happens to peek on the score sheet and discover 16.5 marks for one part. Well, i think that's definately not first part coz it's max 15 marks for that. So it's either second or third part which each part has maximum of 30. Even with that, 16.5 out of 30 is so few! I need a minimum of 45 out of 75 to pass. Looks like it's pretty far fetched. About my written test, well at least I managed to get pass. But if I do fail oral, that will be the end of the story. A lot of candidate is not having good score for Brief. Nope, that is not your under garment, nor it's something short. It's the letter writing, which four candidates failed to proceed for oral exam just because of the Brief. One of them, her Brief is too brief (short). I really hope I can pass for this exam, coz the fees for next sememster for the same course has increase, and it now cost RM1800, excluding the textbook, workbook and cassettes. Speaking of cassettes, they should ditched the cassette once and for all and start providing CDs instead. Well, I have yet to send my Germany penpals Christamas card, which one of them I initially want to send her birthday card-cum-Christmas card, which I think is too late. I think I better start writing, coz by next week, it's gonna be those type of week which I hate and another more week to go. To those of you who knows why, I hope I can end this fast. Til now I'm still pretty clueless each time I'm there. Someone told me it's an opportunity to learn, but I find it the days are so long plus the location of the washroom is made so inconvenient, that I have to go through two security-locked door, which I don't have an access card. I've been restricting myself my visit to the washroom and I really miss my place in office which offers easy access to the toilet. Finally, I hope I can survive there for another two weeks and praying harder not to be placed there again there after.

Tak bermaya

Feeling totally lethargic today and look pale and ill. Not feeling so well and I suspect influenza is to be blamed. Worse is there is a tight timeframe project on going, I'm having class in downtown today and my Zertifikat Deutsch is around the corner. Hmm... that reminds me to apply for leave on exam day on the 29 Nov and 3 Dec. Anyone has tips on how to survive on such event, do drop me a comment or so. Just want to keep this blog updated and on going. Also, do give some comments what you guys who like to know if I happened to come across such information. By the way, as a reminder of the previous post. For those who still have my stuff with them, do return it. Don't tell me your pet ate my stuff which is virtually impossible, coz most of it is Compact Disc. Unless pets have enzyme that can digest/break down polycarbonate.

Gimme Gimme Gimme What I Want!

Up til lately, I figure out that some of my stuff is gone missing. So, I do some stock checking. Voila, all my missing stuff is actually with 3rd Party (hmm.. should stop using this term, too much related to work).

People, I hereby announce and pledge everyone of you who still have my stuff with them, could you kindly return it to their respective owners. "Action" will be taken for those who refuse to do so.

I manage to caught some of them and to my surprise, one of them is already in Singapore. Geez, should have alerted that person earlier coz now I have to wait til that person is back in the country to hand over the missing goods.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be mean, but just as a precaution measure to counter the "Out of sight, out of mind" syndrome, which my stuff will most likely end up in the dumpster as time goes by. Names are changed/neutralised to protect privacy of that person.

European Union Film Festival

Year 2004 is coming to an end and it's usually pack with whole lot of stuff. Nope, I'm not going to talk about the "not what I've expected" Computer Fair (and I don't want to imagine how's PC Fair going to be), but it's the time for Film Festival! Used to be called European Film Festival (and I prefer to keep it that way, as it was free screening), this year screening will most likely to be a paying affair (well, if you were to ask them, they most likely will be telling you it's to off-set mountaining cost that involved in running such film fest). Anyway, location wise it's from Damansara Height to GSC cinemas. List of film is also available at the cinema website. The selection of film is ok, but not what I've expected. Selection of German language film is not as good. I Love Vienna had been shown in 2002 edition of film festival and the rerun is not so necessary. Mostly Martha well, I've seen it as well. Annaluise and Anton was shown just last month on Satellite channel Astro (according to the German month guide). Looks like I'm going for some French film this time. French film seems to be a crowd puller. I still remember French Film Festival in Mid Valley for the past 2 years. Year 2002 saw the movie Amelie screening for just 2 shows and all of it was sold out. Last year 8 Women crowd was quite ok, the first show was a big hit, full house when I was there. (I wonder what happened to my copy of 8 Women, my dear friend) . This year film fest will be showing The Spanish Apartment. After reading Alliance Française's C'est à l'Alliance newsletter review on that film, I'm so intrigued to go for that show. Still undecided whether to go for the film festival as it's almost to be on the same time as my Zertifikat Deutsch examination. I have faxed in the competition form for 2 free tickets, and if I do get it, then I shall go for it. If not, well, most likely going only for one or two if there isn't any collision of timing.

Kontaktaufnahme

Since I'm going for my Zertifikat Deutsch end of November, part 1 of the Mündliche Prüfung would be this introduce oneself part. For those of you who can comprehend German, you are lucky to know more about me as the following would be my script (yes, most likely I'm going to memorise this to sail through this part).

Guten Tag. Ich heiße Tan H.Y. und bin dreiundzwanzig Jahre alt. Kuala Lumpur ist mein Geburtsort, aber jetzt lebe ich in Petaling Jaya in einem fünfstöckigen Wohnblock bei meinen Eltern. Mein Haus ist im dritten Stöck und hat eine Balkon. Ich habe zwei Geschwister, einen Brüder und eine Schwester. Ich interesiere mich für Music, ins Kino gehen, fernsehen und Zeichentrickfilm, besonders japanische Zeichentrickfilm. Ich ...

If I were to pump in more ich, it would look so dull and uninteresting ... looks like I better plan ahead before meine Note ist nicht so gut !

Erklärung

Well, managed to dig out more loan words from the dictionary. In case you haven't notice, you might ask why do I cite more Portuguese words than Dutch words. Although Dutch has an influence in the language, but the effect of it, is more prominent in Indonesian. Kamus Dewan do keep track of those words but put in under IB (Indonesia-Belanda). For example words like Kantor, pelakat, the usage of such word is not common in Malaysia. Ok, here are some new words from Portuguese : peluru, boya, siar (as in stroll), cepiau, serdadu, paung. I also notice some more Tamil words : logam, ketumbar. I remember once reading through the newspaper that an ambassador took the trouble to look up Portuguese words in Malay. Hmm.... don't know whether there are ways for me to get a list from him :D

Austronesia

Nope, that's not a new country or territory but a language group which the Malay language is, which comes under a big family of Austris language. To read more about the language, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_language has a good article on it. Speaking of Wikipedia, the idea of such website is just so great! Me for example learned much stuff on it, even things that is everyday to me sounds so interesting. For those who want to "experience" it, try reading this article about Ringgit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringgit. Back to our topic today. Malay language itself has many foreign loan words, in which bulk of it comes from Arabic and Sanskrit. (Modern day Malay has more English loan words) For example : khemah, adil, ajaib, kerusi are from Arabic. What about Sanskrit, you may ask. Here you go : bahasa, bahu, bahaya, negara, muka, angsa, penjara, rugi, naga, kuasa, jambu, guru, jaga, jala, bumi and so on. But, what I want to draw your attention to today is the other group of loan words, those that of European origin : Portuguese and Dutch. See whether you notice these words are from Portuguese : palsu, biola, peniti, limau, bendera, keju, mentega, lampu, bomba, meja, garpu, lelong, Perancis, sekolah, boneka, jendela, markah, paderi, wizurai, dadu, gereja, kemeja. Dutch loan words are as follow : duit, balak, laci, engsel, pajak, senapang, dam. So who say you do not know any foreign language! Also, these are the loan words which it never cross my mind that it's Tamil until I read it up : nelayan, kuda, sate, kedai, kaldai, kanji, bagai, katil, kapal, jodoh, segala, gerudi, kawal, peti. In case you wonder where do I get all this information from, I actually read dictionary. Yes, you read it correctly, i do read dictionary, especially those that has etymology in it. I had bought an English dictionary (and a book) just for the etymology information. Very interesting and increase much knowledge! The etymology for this post comes from an old dictionary by R. J. Wilkinson.

动画与漫画

太开心了！柯南第八部剧场版《银翼的魔术师》终于拿到手了（日文名：銀翼の奇術師）！柯南秋天电视特备《震动的警士厅 1200万人的人质》都还没看，这么快就有剧场版可看，太兴奋了！星期一播的第三百七十四集不知什么时候可以观看呢？ 网球王子今天傍晚播第一百五十七集，非常期待它的到来。想找它的漫画来看，可是找遍了都没有结果。看来还是去附近的店租吧！剧场版2005年春天推出，看来要等到夏天才有得看。 自从《钢之炼金术士》播映完毕后，好像缺少了什么似的。剧场版也是2005年推出。对了，等我有多些空闲时间，会列出我看过的动画与漫画。如果有共同的，那我们可以互相讨论！ 《台球高手》（Break Shot）漫画等了好久都没有新的推出，柯南漫画都不知看到哪一本了。 备注：福隆港之行还没有想到该写什么，等多一些照片拿到再分享吧！

Trip to Fraser's Hill

Such a nice trip to go to, especially with friends. It's such a nice place to go, with a magnificient view of new reservoir on the way to the Gap (there is no name given yet, and guess what, there is a "Name the reservoir" contest going on judging from the road side banner in Kuala Kubu Bharu) . For more information about the new reservoir, goto http://www.splash.com.my More updates on Fraser's Hill trip coming. Stay tuned!

Fraser's Hill trip taken at the garden of the beautiful Mallaig bungalow in High Pines Street

Was haben Sie am Wochenende schon gemacht?

This is one of the standard question my German teacher will ask every week alongside with "Haben Sie Ihre Hausaufgaben fertig gemacht?" With the Zertifikat Deutsch getting nearer around the corner, I think it's time for me to really do some Wiederholung. Last week's lesson biggest unclear concept is the verb with prefix. Trainee teacher, Frau Gaby (can't remember her Familenname) trying to explain the difference between benennen and nennen. Frau Koo (til today I don't know her Vorname) joined in to distinguish verbs with be- prefix and without, citing example sutzen and besutzen. Can't see much difference though. (Note : if any reader out there can tell me how to differentiate it, do drop me a comment) My fellow classmate also bring out the doubt that I have all these while : how to guess or tell the meaning of verbs with prefix, she gave an example : parken and einparken. I can understand how kaufen and einkaufen distinguished themselves, but parken? Keine Ahnung. Das finde ich gleich, oder?

忙里偷闲

已经有一段时候没有更新此Blog了。有很多事情想分享，可是就是没有空闲的时间上网更新。找个对的时候，非常想分享这些动画及漫画：

1. テニスの王子様 [网球王子]
2. 名探偵コナン [名侦探柯南]
3. 鋼の錬金術士 [钢之炼金术士]
4. 其他等等。。。

Just Enough To Get Start

Willkommen meine Freunde, Bienvenue mon amis, Welcome my friends, 欢迎! First post. A new beginning to a new me. What's likely to be posted here might overwhelm some audience. If you don't like much details, skip straight to the part you like! For now, I can see that I'll be sharing stuff on languages, places, interesting facts, music, anime. Do note that this will most likely be a multi-language website. So getting an unicode enabled browser will be much appreciated. Not sure what's unicode? Goto http://www.unicode.org and find out more!