The Uni-President Lions of Taiwan lost to the Seibu Lions of Japan yesterday in the finals of the Asia Cup. They lost 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth. The Asia Cup is a tournament of the league champs from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China. They were not even expected to make it to the finals, but did so with a nice 10-4 stomping of the SK Wyverns of Korea. So here are two of my favorite Chinese baseball phrases:
Three up, three down: 三 上 三 下 ( san1 shang4 san1 xia4)
Swing and a miss: 揮 棒 落 空 ( hui1 bang4 luo4 kong1)
Pop at Southern Command told me that the runner who scored the game winning run should have been called out on strikes, ending the inning. Replays showed this to be correct. He then told me the ump was Korean. So here is one more baseball phrase commonly heard, this time in Taiwanese.
Thou hast on excrement 'pon thine eyes ( saved for use on umpires): Li ba zhu hou sai gou diou
I will not attempt to assign tone markers. Ask you Taiwanese buddy how to say it.
Monday, November 17, 2008
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Johnny Neihu said in last Saturday's column that " Many have become so disillusioned with our new leader that they have begun shortening his title from Ma zongtong (馬總統, “President Ma”) to matong (馬統), a homonym for “toilet.”
I said the same back in March. Why does it take so long for Taiwanese to come up with good catch-phrases and slogans? When a foreigner is beating you to the punch it is time to re-asses the efficacy of 抗議 to the millionth power. I would have given 壓 扁 阿扁 ( ㄧㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇ) - Flatten Ah-Bian to anyone in 2004 for a few Gold Medals.
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Why is there so much road construction going on? Anyone? Anyone? Well according the flyer posted outside my house by the Chinese Taichung City Government, it is to install broadband cable as part of Taiwan's program to... here, I'll let them say it: The “M-Taiwan Program” hopes to build Taiwan a “Brave New Mobile World”. It enables people to access multiple ICTs anytime, anywhere — it promises a better M-life.
December is also Information Month in Taiwan. There will be expos in Taipei, Taichung, Kaoshuing and Tainan. Actually the Info Month is from September 29th in Taipei to January 13th in Tainan. Dates for Taichung are December 12-17 at the old Taichung Airport at Shui Nan. Here is the main page with links for all four cities and here is a link with a map and times for Taichung. My Chinese teacher says usually you can only get marginally better prices but the freebies are worth the trip.
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3 comments:
One reason for all the construction, including "the footbridge to nowhere" in my neighborhood is that elections are coming up.
According to the wife the local pols want to show the people they are doing something, like tearing up the road in front of your home, jackhammering at 8:00 a.m., or removing the sidewalk from around an entire park.
This helps them get elected supposedly, but one byproduct is the construction companies get some business and maybe some wealth gets spread around. wink wink nudge nudge.
Red A
According to MY WIFE, all the construction at this time of year, every year, has to do with emptying the yearly budget. It seems that if they have money left over in the coffers they can't get as much from the Federal gov the next year. It usually gets worse in mid-December and early January before Chinese new years.
Aj
I think my wife mentioned that as well. My bike was covered in dust today from the Footbridge to Nowhere construction.
Red A
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