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.