Teochew and Chinese (Again) and HRM

Hmm... seems like I've got something to say about Teochew and Chinese again. Wanted to post this on Sat, but was a little caught up with Ketchup Warriors, hence the delay.

On Fri, I was talking to one of my friends in Teochew. Well it was more like I speak Teochew and she answered in Chinese/English. But at least she understood wat I was saying. Nonetheless, it was pretty fun. Kinda nice to know that I've now got a new avenue to practise.

And about Chinese. I've figured that I'm probably gonna be pretty handicapped with my limited Chinese proficiency. With all the hoo-hah about China being the next big thing, I decided that its time to make up for the times I've been speaking lousy Chinese. Hence...


Yup, Chinese Conversation I!!! "Wo shi Buo-La-Ke-Si" (I'm Vorlacks!! And no, I don't think its translated this way.)

Anyway... I'm kidding. I'm not really taking Chinese Conversation I. Though I think I would need to soon if I don't start speaking more Chinese.

The book belongs to E Hunt. Here's a shot of him (left in picture) with Juin Yan.

We were dressed up for our HRM presentation. Was quite a fun and nonsensical presentation where I made a fool of myself in the skit. Some shots from our skit.

Meeting the oppressive "boss" - Mr Siow.

"Boss" checking on his employees.

The three employees.

I decided to "quit" my "job" and join "another company". Here's a shot of me accepting my new employment contract.

My new "Boss" - Mr Ong.

"Work" starts on Monday. Wahaha...

Punggol Park Runner Again

Bumped into Wei Xiong (the guy I mentioned in Punggol Park Runners) again as I was running at Punggol Park. Met him as I was doing the last of my 5 rounds.

As I was running with him, we started chatting (i nearly died from talking and running at the same time) and I found out that he was going to do his 3rd marathon this year. So I started asking him for training advice and tips.

After he told me about his training schedule, I couldn't help but admire his determination and discipline. He wakes up at 4 in the morning to train!! 4 am!! After training he would head off to work! WOW! And since I bumped into him in the evening, it can only mean that he's running after work!

Anyway, you've gotta respect people like these. Most of us (myself included) don't have the discipline to drag our lazy asses for a short run even on weekends. But these people are there pounding the tracks after a hard day's work. You've gotta have tremendous willpower to do that. Well... all I can say : RESPECT!

Old School (Part 1)

I brought a camera to school today. Well, there wasn't any particular reason to bring it. Not like I had to take photos of a project or anything. But just thought it would be fun to document the last few months (hopefully!!) of my undergrad days.

Here are some shots. Enjoy.

The look of intense concentration on Ah Poh's face can only mean...

BRIDGE!! Fav past time for EA level 2 residents. Usually played in a group with onlookers...

Notice the laptops and notes set up to simulate a studying environment. Hiak.

And here's a shot of EA block from the linkway to E1A at dusk. Postcard worthy?

More scenic shots.

There are many spots that offer spectacular scenery. Will go source out more in the next few months.

QW finishing his dinner of chicken chop. Made me so hungry I went to get something from Dily's.

And lastly. My bao from Dily's! :p

Good times...

Teochew and Chinese

This is gonna be a follow up on my earlier post on "Dialect Neglect". In that post, I said that I would try to practise my Teochew as much as possible.

Today at the supermarket, I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to sharpen my skills. I saw this Auntie who was at the checkout counter. She knows me and I will say hello and chat a bit when she's handling my purchases.

Usually she would speak in a mix of English and Chinese, but today she started off with "Ah Boy, khui orh buay?" (Ah Boy, school started already?). I replied with "Ah Buay. Khia jit meng ke orh tng"(Not yet. Today don't need to go to school).

Interesting thing was the reaction of this old man who was standing in front of me. He turned back and flashed me a grin. I guess he was surprised to hear this little punk speak Teochew. And pretty fluently too. (Ok, maybe I give myself too much credit...)

Anyway after a short chat with the cashier Auntie, I went along on my way with my groceries. Happy to have gotten the stuff that I needed as well as a chance to brush up on Teochew.

In a not-so-related incident, the Western food uncle in school asked me if I knew Chinese yesterday.

I was about to order something when he said "I've only got chicken chop left". I asked him something (can't rem what) in Chinese and he seemed pretty surprised. "Oh you understand Chinese?!" I wanted to go "Duh!", but stopped myself in time. Never piss off anyone who handles your food. For obvious reasons!

Anyway, it was pretty amusing that people think I don't understand Chinese. Simple Chinese at least. Is my linguistic "banananess" (refer to "Dialect Neglect") so deep set that its starting to manifest itself physically? Or do I simply look un-Chinese? Must be the tan...

Anyway dou khung leow... ai khe chway jia (Anyway hungry leow... wanna go look for food) Seeya!

Punggol Park Runners

I was doing my usual short fast run at Punggol Park today. Somewhere into my third round, I noticed that there was a guy who was going at about the same pace as I was. So I decided to keep pace with him. Actually, I kinda sped up a little at certain parts to keep up.

Anyway after I did my five rounds, I slowed down and went over to stretch by my usual spot. Halfway through my stretching, this guy came over and we introduced ourselves. After a short chat, he went off on his way. I was actually pleasantly surprised that he came over and said hi. I guess its just another interesting thing about running. You meet people.

Punggol Park seems to be getting more and more crowded in the late evenings. Today at 8 plus the track was pretty full of runners. Think these people must be training for Stan Chart which is fast approaching.

Its actually pretty nice having these people around as I run. It feels like you're running with company. Well its good as long as its not too crowded.

I think I'll be making Punggol Park runs a part of my weekly routine even after Stan Chart. Its just so convenient and the trip there serves as a nice warm up.

Nerdy Runner

Its amazing the things you can think of to prevent boredom on a long run. Pounding along the beach at Sentosa with my bro Hucks, we came up with numerous things to keep our minds off our fatigue.

Amongst these was this game called "Random Statements". Basically, one of us would state a random nugget of information. The other was supposed to decided if it was a true fact of just some rubbish statement. Wasn't very fun but it managed to last us a few K. Here's some random statements:

1. Did you know that soft shell crabs are not a species of crab. But rather crabs that are caught as they are moulting!
2. Did you know that the horn of the rhinocerous is actually not attached to its skeleton. It is just hardened hair!

So... fact or rubbish? Go check the Internet for answers!

Well another thing that I did was to figure out an equation for the age old saying "Mind over Matter". Pretty appropriate for the challenge that lay ahead. Here's the equation in its full nerdy glory:

Ok so now with this equation, let me now show that the smaller-sized you are, the stronger you will be. Here we go...

Smaller sized people will have less mass, hence less matter. Since people usually say "Wah! you so small-size, almost cannot see you". We can safely assume that matter for small sized people tends to zero. The equation thus becomes:

As we all know, anything that is divided by zero will become infinity. Hence the left side of the equation will become infinity. So there you have it, the smaller your size, the greater your strength. And if you become so small, you have zero matter, you will become infinitely strong!!

And who said running is just a purely physical activity!!

Dialect Neglect

To some people, I'm a linguistic "banana" - Yellow on the outside and White on the inside. (Actually "goreng pisang" would be more appropriate cos I'm so tanned!!)

Well, the reason they think so is because of my terrible command of the Chinese language. I'm a fella who on the outside looks like he can speak Chinese; but can only speak English with a little half baked Chinese. Hence the yellow outside, white inside analogy.

Having realised this, I started questioning if I was indeed a true "banana". I started examining all aspects of my life to find shreds of evidence to prove that on the inside I'm still yellow.

After much searching, I guess the most conclusive evidence I've found is my ability to speak dialect. I don't claim to be really good at speaking dialect, but I think I've got mastery of at least 1.25 dialects. Let me explain the numbers.

I'm probably half proficient at speaking Hokkien. I consider my Hokkien "puah tang zui" (half pail of water). And my Teochew is probably "sah su ku tang zui" (three-quater pail of water). So doing the maths... yep I've got command of 5/4 dialects.

Some say that dialect can't really take the place of Chinese and I don't disagree. However, I think dialect is something we shouldn't just ignore and let it fade away with time. Aside from using dialect to communicate with the older generation, there are lots of other occasions we can use dialect to add flavour and variety into our daily lives.

For example, wouldn't it be much more fun to order Teochew porridge items in actual Teochew? "Auntie, sah kor tau pok. Heh bee hiam. Lou bak. Chye pou ngn. Muay nor uah." (Auntie, 3 pieces of beancurd. Fried spicy shrimp.... Two bowls of porridge) I think it sure beats just pointing to the different dishes and going "this one... this one... this one...".

That said, I'm gonna try and practise my Teochew as much as I can. I guess it helps that I live in a predominantly Teochew area and there are ample opportunities for me to use my "sah su ku tang zui". Hopefully, I will soon be "jit tang muah muah"(one pail full) or close.

As for my "banana-ness". I think I've found sufficient reason to lose that tag. At least I'm satisfied.

Memories I Don't Remember...

I must be getting senile... I'm starting to forget things that seem to have happened not too long ago. Things that I can't seem to recall in spite of glaring physical evidence. Take this fishing trip I went on with qw (extreme left) and hj (extreme right) for example.

It can't be that long ago cos I don't really look that young in the photo. However, I can't seem to remember even catching a "long kang her" (drain fish), much less that monster that I seem to be holding onto.

So my memory must be failing me... unless...

Yup... you've guessed it. The wonder of technology. This nifty little software called PhotoShop. It allows you to edit images and lots of other cool stuff. The photo above was doctored by qw. This picture is gonna be used in our HRM presentation as part of the skit.

Back to PhotoShop. I think there's lots of really fantastic things that you can do with simple photos that you take. I really want to play around with the software and see what I can come up with. However, its probably gotta join the long "To Do When Free" list that I have now. Sigh, the list just keeps growing...

Well that's just something to keep you entertained for the moment. Btw, we never really went on that fishing trip. In case you were wondering...

I'm a Geek... Argh!

You know you're a geek when programming gives u a sense of satisfaction. Well maybe I won't call myself a geek cos geeks are supposed to be competent with technology (according to google). And well I'm not.

Maybe I'm a neek (noob + geek). Noob cos I'm quite an ignoramus when it comes to most things tech. I can't for the life of me figure out what on earth the number of MBs on a graphics card stand for... Though I suppose it would be good to know, I am after all a CPE student.

But I'm not totally lost, I know what you are supposed to do when you encounter the blue screen of death - Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and pray that it solves the problem. To put it in psuedo-code :
Well if you understood that gibberish, congrats! You're as much a geek as I am.

Back to the sense of satisfaction from programming. I've been feeling the ups and downs of programming as I worked on this flash game for one of my modules. Its part of a larger collaboration by 6 of us to make a real time game. Ok I shall cut out the techie details here and show you a screenshot of (drum roll please...) KETCHUP WARS!!

It's supposed to be a real time shooting game where u have ketchup bottles lobbing projectiles at each other. Its not complete yet but you can check out a >semi-finished version here.

Its the first real flash game that I'm making so you have to forgive me for the total noobish-ness of the whole thing. Maybe I'll try making another game when I've got more time. Since I've just discovered the joys and banes of ActionScript programming.

Alrite enough banter, its back to ActionScripting...

Crazy Weekend

I've finally recovered from a weekend of craziness. I think I've put my body through quite a beating and I'm hoping I didn't cause any long term damage.

Anyway here's a summary of the "abuse":

1. Alcohol
2. Skipping meals
3. Minimal sleep
4. Physical activity (quite siong)
5. Project work

It all started on Friday night at Ivan's, where I met up with my bros for some drinks. As usual had my tequila 7-up mix, but didn't drink as much cos had to walk home after that.

Had a heavy pizza lunch on Sat afternoon. Canadian 2-for-1 pizza is still the best delivery pizza I've had so far. That explains point 2. Skipping meals. After stuffing my face with BBQ chicken, I decided not to eat dinner. Just had a Mississippi mudpie from Cafe Cartel.

Then I went on a long 7K walk up and down ECP. I must say it was really nice (good company and a great conversation). I think it must be the first time I walked so far without even realising the distance. In fact, didn't even notice the time flying by. Which led to point 3. Finally got home ard 3 and slept at 4. Woke up at 6.30 to get to Sentosa for the weekly run (point 4).

Was supposed to run 28 this weekend. But I suppose point 3 kind of worked against me. In the end felt quite shack after abt 19, and decided to just do 23.

Back home, slept for a while then on to conquer point 5. Flash is pretty fun. But as with any programming tool, it can be quite a (Shift + 42501) when you don't understand it. But once u get something to work, the sense of satisfaction is amazing albeit short-lived.

Anyway that was the weekend for me. Here I am on Monday afternoon trying to tie up loose ends on my HRM project due tom. Not exactly a work of art but hope it suffices.