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I'm floating between two blogs at the moment, so do check me out here as well as at
www.follyingleaves.blogspot.com
Tagged
Er, I've been tagged by mongchacha, somewhere between Beijing and Singapore. So here goes:
Four jobs you've had in your life: (in reverse order)
1) phd candidate/research fellow
2) graduate teaching assistant
3) professional student
4) lawyer
Four movies you could watch over and over again (not to be confused with favourite movies): (so many to choose from...)
1) All BBC period dramas, especially...
2) Pride & Prejudice (BBC version)
3) I haven't got much time for more...
4)
Four TV shows you love(d) to watch: (mostly addictions picked up during my carefree days as a professional student)
1) Law & Order
2) Judge Deed
3) The West Wing (though not necessarily a liberal)
4) Frasier
Four places you've lived: (how do you define "lived"?)
1) London
2) Singapore
3) India (Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu)
4) China (Anshan, Liaoning)
Four places you've been on vacation to: (my last four holidays, in reverse order)
1) Koh Samui
2) Tenerife
3) Courchevel
4) Val D'Isere
Four places you would rather be:
1) Heaven
2) er, that's it. Am otherwise happy where I am.
3)
4)
Four of your favourite foods: (excluding puddings)
1) anything Singaporean (bak chor mee, fried hay mee, hay mee soup, or luak, chai tow kuay, yam cake, char kuay teow, chicken rice... ahhh! Can't wait to get there!)
2) sushi
3) peking duck
4) spaghetti carbonara (the eggy sort)
Four websites you visit daily: (other than friends' blogs and my own blog)
1) www.mail.yahoo.com
2) www.bbc.co.uk
3) www.rbc.org/utmost/
4) www.lse.ac.uk/library (to renew my books)
Four tagged:
1) Kristin
2) cuz
3) Featheredenergy
4) everyone else who reads my blog regularly is not a blogger. sigh.
Weekend
Wedding yesterday was beautiful. Two people whom God has brought together in union. The message was given by Mike Reeves - I'd never heard the gospel shared through Ephesians 5; and I'd never heard Ephesians 5 shared this way! His message basically had two points:
1. Marriage is the beginning and the end of life. In the beginning of humanity, God created man and woman to be as one. And at the end of humanity, we will be one with Christ as in marriage, which is the representation of the relationship between Christ and the church.
2. (This was particularly personal to me.) Just as we cannot do anything to earn God's love, which is given to us by grace, so we should not feel that we need to do anything to earn our husband's love. So many women often feel that they could be better wives/fiancees/girlfriends etc. But if marriage is truly a representation of the relationship between Christ and the church, then love given within that union is unconditional.
I wore my white suit with a burgundy ribbon around my waist to the church wedding, and changed into my black Joseph party skirt with said ribbon round waist again for the wedding dinner. This ribbon has been the cheapest and best investment ever, dressing up everything from suits to party skirts to hats. My taffeta skirt has also been well-flogged this party season!
I squeezed in afternoon tea with Ky at Fortnum&Mason's too! Phew! But my white YSL lizard skins were hurting my feet so much that I just had to go into Gap in Piccadally circus to get a pair of ballet pumps. Love ballet pumps. Yay! That night, K and I snuck out in the middle of the dancing for some food that night, as well as a good getting-to-know-each-other conversation. Giant Dutch pancakes... mm...
Think a cold is coming on.
Lunch with colleagues today was, well, stressful. I made a roast and my famous trifle. Cooking was actually fun, but over lunch, almost all the conversation was centred on work/thesis/research assistantships/scholarships. At the end of it, you could almost feel everyone's heart on the floor. Ky was so stressed that she decided to go back to the office! I would have too, if I hadn't arranged on Fri to meet two students for a coffee.
Sometimes, I think God really has a good plan.
On the entire journey to church, I really really did not want to meet any students. I was thinking about my work the whole time, worrying about it. When I got there, the afternoon study hadn't finished, so I hung around and got talking to T from Japan. Then I shared the four spiritual laws with her. Then I shared about surrendering with her, which I wouldn't have been able to if it hadn't been such a personal and recent experience. Then I offered to pray with her. Then I talked to K and M, whom I had arranged to meet. Then we went out to Starbucks with Ash and R to talk some more. Then I invited them back to church for the evening service, and they came. Before you knew it, I hadn't thought about my work for 3 hours! And I got to worship God, on a Sunday.
So you see, God really has a good plan.
After church, A and I decided to skip the late night seminar and catch up over dinner instead. We went to our old haunt, talked about our respective weeks, shared a little, played a game of chinese chess, ate a lot of sushi. It felt good.
Time to go to bed. Am re-tuning psyche to extra-focused mode for the next one week before I'm off!
It's 2am. I'm hungry.
End of week 2 (mostly about plumbing)
Weekend's here... woohoo!
This week's just been sublimal. I feel light. Who needs cannabis when they have prayer? (in case my folks are reading this, I've never touched the stuff, but I inhaled a lot of its sweet scent between '90 and '00 cos the guy down the corridor in my first dorm was a small time dealer.) Just waking up with a cup of coffee, my Bible, and a conversation with him every morning puts a smile in my heart that lasts through the day, like a blanket of love that covers and protects. I told him: all my dreams, my whole life, I give to you - do whatever you want with it. Only do not leave me, because you are the most important thing in my life.
So, the thesis seems to be going somewhere, the thing with the boy has been put in a mental drawer, I'm going out and having fun now and then etc. Basically I'm doing what I should have done 4 months ago, namely, live my own life. But hey, even a big man of faith like Abraham made a few mistakes a long the way, hey? I don't know whether you've ever felt this way, but I've always lived with the awful feeling that I'm a fake, not a lot of real substance behind whatever cardboard cutout people have put on me. I'm not a very nice person behind that smile, not a very good Christian, and certainly not very smart. Maybe it comes with 30 years of living to others' expectations. Quote mongchacha quoting Murakami: "Being empty is like an unlived-in house. An unlocked, unlived-in house. Anybody can come in, any time they want. That's what scares me the most." That's what not knowing who you are feels like - empty, like an unlived-in house - like Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride, going along with whatever type of eggs her then-boyfriend liked, but never discovering what she likes. That's how I feel about myself most times. So I told God: I want to be real.
This week. Well, lessee. Club was fantastic tonight. Prayer with Ash was a conscious act of thanksgiving tonight. Had a rocking conversation with Ank and Matt over a coupla cokes after club tonight. Last night, watched Brokeback Mountain (the story about enduring love... and ok, gay cowboys) with P, and we also discovered a great Korean hideout next to Centre Point. Mm... galbi (better than bulgogi), kimchi, chapche, ddeok-guk, bimimbab... Also had a smashing brainstorming lunch session with C, this new girl who's thinking about working on CSR too. Wed night, oh, work. Tues night, oh work. Mon night, oh work. But hey, at least we got the plumbing sorted.
Turns out shower was not working because someone had unplugged the water pump's plug that led to his room. Hence one week of trickly shower, all because... Oh well, bygones. Expensive lesson for whoever that was. Could have happened to anyone. Was very impressed with blackberry-carrying plumbers though, even though they have a tough job with these stupid clients, but are gracious even after four hours of turn off cold water, turn off hot water, change mixer, turn on cold water, turn on hot water, shower does not work, turn off cold water again, turn off hot water again, blow pipes, turn on cold water again, turn on hot water again, shower still does not work, mumble mumble, take off bathtub cover screw by screw, discover shower pump, oh! why didn't you tell me you had a pump?, test pump, shower does not work, rummage through mess in boy's room to find plug to pump, gah!, plug it in... OK, at this point, the shower still DOES NOT WORK. S**t, an airlock has formed in the pipe system. Right. Turn off cold water for the umpteenth time (I must do plumber justice by saying that this involves an intricate affair of opening up the hole in the road outside, inserting a long rod in and turning it with huge effort with a spanner), turn off hot water for the umpteenth time (this, it must again be mentioned, involves climbing up a shaky ladder into the loft, where the hot water tank is located), lug vacuum up two flights of stairs, find adapter point to plug it in, plug into pipe, and suck, then lug vacuum up said shaky ladder, plug into different pipe, and suck. Then turn on cold water for the grrr-th time (which involves abovesaid hole and rod and huffpuff, but in reverse), turn on hot water for the grrr-th time, put bathtub cover back screw by screw, s**t it refuses to fit, bang bang bang with hammer, s**t it still won't go in, bang bang bang, at last it goes in! Big mess on toilet floor.
Am feeling grrr even writing this. Hope the huge plumbing fee HURTLIKE HELL. No no, must not think like that.
Wedding tomorrow. Then having some colleagues over for roast lunch on Sunday. One more week to holiday in Dorset and Singapore!
Being multi-lingual - why is it a virtue?
China used to be called a sleeping giant. Now, as the world's fastest growing major economy, it is well and truly awake.
British exports to the country are expected to quadruple by the end of the decade and the government wants every school, college and university to be twinned with an equivalent in China within the next five years.
An estimated 100 schools in the UK are now teaching Mandarin, China's official language, according to the British Council - the UK's international organisation for educational and cultural relations.
Compulsory
Brighton College, an independent school in East Sussex, this week became the first to make the language compulsory, alongside French, Spanish and Latin.
But it is a tough language to learn for Westerners. There are two main reason for this, says Dr Frances Weightman, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds.
Firstly, the script poses problems. There is no alphabet, just thousands of characters. There are so many that no one can give a definitive total, but it is believed to be around 60,000.
Four-and-a-half tones are used, meaning a single word can have many meanings. Ma, for example, can mean mother, horse, hemp, or be a reproach depending on tone. How tones are used also varies extensively from province to province.
"The tonal systems can result in a lot of ambiguity for people learning the language," says Dr Weightman.
Westerners have the reputation of using the fourth tone exclusively for all words. It is a sharp falling sound, a little like how the end of a sentence with an exclamation mark sounds.
Pinyin, a system of transliterating Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet, is used by Westerners to learn basic Mandarin. Things get tougher when students start learning characters, but language experts say a person only needs roughly 5,000 to be literate.
'It's like singing'
One thing that is easier in Mandarin is the grammar.
"The grammar is not nearly as complicated as many European languages," says Dr Weightman. "For example there are no verb tenses, no relative clauses, no singular or plural."
The number of people in the UK learning Mandarin has gone up considerably in recent years, she adds.
"It really appeals to kids, they find the different characters fun and grasp the different tones well, it's like singing for them. The more we demystify the language, the more people will learn it. At the moment it is still seen as exotic and a bit strange, which can put people off. But that's changing."
|
WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines |
Ann Martin, a Mandarin teacher at the Ashcombe School in Dorking Surrey, believes part of the problem is the exam system, which isn't designed for non native speakers and is hard for them to gain good grades compared to native speakers.
"As far as schools are concerned head teachers are reluctant to timetable Chinese because it is not achievable for non-native speakers," she says.
Business experts are in no doubt about how important Mandarin will become over the next few years.
BBC business reporter Mary Hennock says students speaking fluent English and Chinese are going to be the executives of the future.
"China's economy is growing so quickly and becoming so influential in the world economy that people can't afford to ignore it. People who want to be ahead in whatever industry need to think about China and learning Chinese."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4617646.stm
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Growing up in Singapore, I had to learn both English and Chinese from day one of school, so I don't remember a time when I actually differentiated the two - they are both my native language... But I do wonder how far learning a language goes. An American friend and I had a discussion recently about the identity struggles British-born Chinese face, because not having been born here, I found it really hard to empathise with these issues. We wondered if growing up respectively in countries where national identity was civic-based rather than ethnic-based made us more ethnic-neutral. We concluded that there was a tendency to view ourselves as "international citizens" rather than "American" or "Singaporean", but this was a result not only of political environment but also education and experiences (we had both lived in different countries at different stages of our lives). We also concluded that our cosmopolitan outlook was a good thing.
I'll never walk into a dress shop here asking for "pants" again, or tell an American to try the "puddings". And I think I can drive on both sides of the road, but only in an auto. 
But seriously, do you think an international outlook is a virtue? Can it solve any of our social problems? What is the psychological science behind changing behaviour by changing perceptions? How do we achieve this?
I suspect it will take more than learning the language to be the business leader of the future.
Anyways, if anyone buys into the argument and is looking for a bilingual (English and Chinese) child-minder, my services are up for offer. I promise to chatter in Chinese and scold in English. You would also be doing a charitable deed... funding my PhD, that is. I'll even throw a smattering of Cantonese and very bad French in as a bonus!
South Bank, London - a weekend photo expedition
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Home cooked dinners
I'm posting a short one because, despite an unproductive day, am feeling very happy and content at the moment. Came home, cooked a nice homey dinner for V and myself, and had a long girl chat - it's so so much more satisfying cooking for two than one. Adapted Ash's recipes: steamed salmon with sweet sauce, and fried shredded potatoes and leeks with chilli. Oh, and that horrible ginseng soup I popped into the slow cooker this morning. Finished with a flourish of Ben&Jerry's (Phish Food!).
The kitchen sink is still blocked, unfortunately. Plumber coming tomorrow morning!
Will post some thoughts on 'waiting' later. Too tired, which is GOOD. Have been suffering from insomnia for two weeks now. Any suggestions how to sleep out there?
So much for resolving not to post any more emo posts.
As you can see, have edited them out as have realised that emo posts without prayer are merely hypotheses - i.e. not truth.
Am encouraged by events over the weekend to seek God first. Feel like have been liberated from stupid things that were weighing heart down so that heart was not 100% in conversations with God. Most important thing was waking up on Sunday morning with a very strong prompting to unconditionally LOVE and ACCEPT. Was truly very liberating as well as convicting, as would not have been able to do either without third-party enabling. Will not elaborated on subsequent events, merely to testify that God is good and that He has a perfect PLAN for each of us.
Should not have gone out for dinner with J tonight, although was fun. Should have instead stayed home to sort out laundry. Consequently, will fall asleep tonight on sheetless bed.
Kitchen is very messy. Cleaner will not be happy tomorrow. Seem to have assume housekeeper role in this house when only tenant. Sigh. We need a new tv.
Must wake up early(ier). Must wake up early(ier).
Edited post
Was a bit bored today, wandering for an hour and a half around Tesco and carting back too much stuff as usual. I persist in supermarketing on an empty stomach, therefore have landed up with many items not on shopping list like kippers, organic vanilla yoghurt (was craving vanilla for some reason), smoked pancetta and SPAM (yay for the plebs!). Also found a pair of cute pink(!) washing up gloves to replace my worn ones.
Almost didn't make it to WK's farewell party (way up North in Queens Park), but was jolly glad I did. Think he was very touched so many people turned up. It was also good to catch up with some students like N, HJ and HJ2 before club begins proper next week. I also think God's purposed my conversation with M tonight, so that we could encourage each other. Praise God for prayer warriors!