僑光科技大學二三事 II

為在僑光海音咖啡工作的女孩們說話.
I dedicate this entry to the girls who work in 僑光's Heien (海音) Café.

Heien (海音) Café is new, clean and spacey.   But it has no air-conditioning and workers are not allowed to open the windows because windows have no screens so flies can fly in.


For customers, this would be fine when they choose not to come, or they decide they could not tolerate the 40 degree heat.  There are occasional heat-resistant creatures who seem to thrive in the high-temperature Heien (海音) Café.  They order hot drinks or steaming food that heats up the room to 50. 

The workers, unlike customers, cannot avoid the place unless they quit.

I have two advices for 僑光 administrators:

• Install window screens in Heien (海音) Café so the windows could be opened. 
• Provide a couple of bike racks on campus.  See 僑光科技大學二三事.

你和我

One of the assignments I gave my students this semester is to

... Write a blog entry with a title indicating that it is a reflection of your years at the university.

Some students use the following title

A reflection of your years at ...

This is perfectly OK except your should be changed to my, and one might add the number of years, such as

A reflection of my happiest four years at ... 

蕭文婷: 練英文 救台灣

練英文 救台灣
◎ 蕭文婷

自由時報五月十八日有德國台僑投 書，呼籲大家自己寫信向ＷＨＯ抗議，醫界前輩楊教授很快的就響應，不僅請美國心律協會（Heart Rhythm Society，HRS，原NASPE）將他的國家別更正，也投書到ＷＨＯ。筆者也跟進。兩個版本的抗議信如下，供大家參考，可以直接使用，也可以自行加 以排列組合。開頭可加To Whom It May Concern或Dear Sir/Madam，信後寫Cordially yours, 或Sincerely yours, 結尾署名最好加單位職稱及連絡方式。
也許有人會懷疑：這樣有用嗎？一個人寫一封信，誰知道ＷＨＯ理不理？筆者參加過幾次「一人一信」運動，包括籲請白宮重視蘇丹種族屠殺、 籲請國會禁止進口中國雞肉、敦促肉品工廠改善工作環境否則拒買等，事後都看到具體的成果。一封抗議信看起來微不足道，但大家都做，就是一股巨大的聲音。
這 不只是「愛台灣」的具體行動，也是一個非常有意義的練習英文的機會，不管英文多菜，都可以正名救台灣！況且不少父母都花大把銀子讓孩子學英文，何不趁這個 機會展現學習成果？學校裡的英文老師也可以把這個當作練習作業，年年都可以練習，寫給相關國際機構，學生應該會覺得很新鮮、很實際、很有成就感。ＷＨＯ的 Email是info@who.int
參考版本一：
I am writing to protest your referring Taiwan as "Province of China" in your memo dated September 14th, 2010. It is of course an incontestable reality that Taiwan is NOT a province of China.
Taiwan is a sovereign independent country with its own elected president, its own military, stock exchange, etc. If American citizens travel to Taiwan, the Chinese embassy is unable to issue a visa to Taiwan. And vice versa: if American citizen travels to China, the Taiwan representative in the United States is unable to issue a visa to China.
I urge you correct this mistake and refer Taiwan simply as "Taiwan". I thank you for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.
參考版本二：
Taiwanese people are deeply troubled by the WHO’s statement that refers to Taiwan as a "Province of China". While Taiwan was misidentified as the "Republic of China" by the Nationalist Party after World War II, People’s Republic of China has NEVER had any authority toward Taiwan. Taiwan is a actual sovereign state with a population of 23 million. To call Taiwan a province of China is a blatant insult to the 23 million citizens of Taiwan.
We express our strong opposition to such misnomer and urge the WHO to right the wrong soon.
參考版本三：
As a Taiwanese, I must express my strongest opposition and protest to the WHO memo dated September 14, 2010 which states that procedures used by the WHO to facilitate relations with Taiwan were subject to Chinese approval and it instructs its agencies to refer to Taiwan as a "province of China". This form of hegemony is destructive and unjust.
This attempt to diminish Taiwan in the eyes of the international community will not go unnoticed. Known as the "Republic of China" after World War II, Taiwan is a vibrant democracy with de-facto statehood. The twenty-three million people in Taiwan are NOT and have NEVER been subject to the rule of the Chinese government. To call Taiwan a "Province of China" is the ultimate insult to the 23 million citizens in Taiwan.
I sincerely hope WHO will correct this mistake and issue a formal apology to the people of Taiwan.
（作者為美國台僑，醫師）

Responses toWhat is the point, Chyuan Cherng?

I. From Dr. Liu

What's the point? That's a good question but it can be applied to so many businesses in Taiwan, or for that matter, in Japan and Korea. What's the point of Wei-Chuan, Ta-Tung or Din Tai Fung?  Or Chosun Ilbo and Asahi Shinbun? I guess what sets you off is the Wade-Giles spelling. Look at the bright side, the owner does not use Chinese pinyin Quan Cheng which I hope would piss you off even more. And the Wade-Giles spelling is not that hard for a English speaker to pronounce, notwithstanding such unconventional strings like rng in cherng. After all, it was created by a British diplomat.

Yes, it is a KMT-sanctioned Romanization system for the Chinese language and nothing would please me more than seeing Mandarin disappear completely from the tongues of Taiwan residents so we don't have to deal with this nettlesome issue of pinyin vs W-G vs ROC Standard on street signs, place names etc. Given the current reality, I happen to believe that Wade-Giles is the weapon we have on hand to fend off the encroachment of the even harder to pronounce and more ridiculous Chinese pinyin spellings, although I take a perverted joy in pronouncing Taipei's ZhongXiao-Fuxing subway station as Zhong Shit-Fucksing.  

In your ideal world of making English a part of Taiwanese, the pharmacy would have a name like Wholesome or Comprehensive. Let's pray that day would come sooner.


II. From Roxie


I take a bus to school everyday, and the government made up an weird English name for each stop.  For example, a stop called 菸廠 is translated into Ian Factory, and another stop called 永豐螺絲 became Yong Feng Rosie.  I guess they just wanted to give them English names because using English sounds cool, it really doesn't help foreigners.

=====
In the case of 全成藥局, if its English name is to serve real purpose, I suggest the word Drug be made bigger, instead of Chyuan.  That way, a passersby who could not read Chinese, but could English, can hopefully pick out the useful word Drug.

Roxie's story offers excellent examples of inconsistencies.

菸廠 is translated into Ian Factory

Why not Tobacco Factory, helping natives learn English, at the same time enlightening foreigners?  Is Ian useful to anyone?

永豐螺絲 became Yong Feng Rosie

Again,  Rosie for 螺絲 does not help anyone.

When I take city bus 51 into 太平, one of the stops is 太平橋前, for which the announcer would read "Next stop Taiping Chiau Chen".   This is stupid, but not dangerous.

More serious is what I feel is a secret agenda to turn our names into disgusting Chinese names, such as

Xitun Rd. Intersection 西屯路口
YingCai PostOffice 英才
Xiabuzi 下部仔
...

See
http://citybus.tccg.gov.tw/pda/aspx/businfomation/roadname_roadline.aspx?ChoiceRoute=FengyuanBus&line=51&lang=ENG&goback=1&route=51

What is the point, Chyuan Cherng?

台中是一個世界級的醜城市.  這個建築物是一個醜的典範.  台灣人覺得墨西哥是一個落後貧窮的國家.  這是事實.  但是 http://cs.sandiego.edu/albums/guadalajara 幾千張墨西哥的相片很難找一張比得上我們的醜.  更不用拿台中來跟聖地牙哥, 馬德里, 墨爾本, 新加坡等比了.  

I am not picking on this pharmacy.  I just happened to notice that it has an English name Chyuan Cherng that does not mean anything to its Taiwanese customers.  If it has an English speaking client, she should find the name Chyuan Cherng hard to say and unhelpful. So, what is the point?

僑光科技大學二三事

I. Its English name is Overseas Chinese University, which Google Translate translates into 華僑大學. This is a pretty strange name because the students are neither Chinese nor are they from overseas.

II. I saw a poster advertising for Tablet PCs (平板風暴 席捲校園).  Next to 平板風暴 are two lines stacking up together:  "平板電腦 vs 智慧手機" on top, and "Android vs iOS" down below. I see two things happening.  First, the advertisement now expands to include smartphones, and secondly, the picture can potentially lead some to think that "Android vs IOS" is a translation of "平板電腦 vs 智慧手機", which it isn't. 

 

III. Like most universities in Taiwan, most students have motor bikes and few ride bicycles.  An amazing thing about 僑光 is that there is no bike rack to lock your bike.