France 法国
Reply
Category Archives: Travel
Hong Kong
I used 20,000 united mileage to exchange for a free return air ticket from United Airlines and travelled to Hong Kong (I only paid about $40 for the processing charge). From Hong Kong, I took the train to Shenzhen and stayed there for 3 days. From Shenzhen, I took a bus to Zhuhai and stayed for another 3 days. I crossed the Chinese border and stayed in Macau for 3 more days before I took the ferry back to Hong Kong.
This is Hong Kong – the busy city
Hong Kong Avenue Of Comic Stars 香港漫畫星光大道
I contacted 3 people while I was in Hong Kong and one of them has a brother working in the Disneyland. He made arrangement for me to enter the Disneyland with his mother for free.
The places I have visted while I was in Hong Kong
我在高山上
你在浅水湾
只要山水有相連
我们就会有來往
The Avenue of Stars
想约你去海边吹吹风
然后告诉你未来的梦
这样心里会快乐和轻松
但你说没必要去吹冷风
我们的未来根本没有梦
和我一起你不快乐也不轻松
天啊! 劉德華, 我失恋了……. 在星光大道
I stayed in Jean’s place when I was in Paris. Coincidentally I met him when I was in Hong Kong. We went out together to visit the Lantau island 大嶼山.
Huat is a Malaysian working in the Outward Bound Training School in Sai Kung 西貢. I visited him and stayed in his palce for 2 nights. During the day, I went for island hopping. The intetesting seafood selling market at the pier is an eye opener for me.
I stayed with the father and son where in Kwai Fong 葵芳. I also stayed in CT’s house.
Language Variation
There are vocabulary differences in the varieties spoken in different regions. Australians talk about sole parents while people in England can them single parents, and New Zealanders call them solo parents. South Africans use the term robot for British traffic light. British wellies (Wellington boots) are New Zealand gummies (gumboots), while the word togs refers to very different types of clothes in different places. In New Zealand togs are what you swim in. In Britain one might wear them to a formal dinner.
The following questions provide a simple way to check out variations of American vs. British influence on the vocabulary we use.
- When you go window-shopping do you walk on the pavement or the sidewalk?
- Do you put your shopping in the car’s trunk or in the boot?
- When the car’s engine needs oil do you open the bonnet or the hood?
- Do you fill up the car with gas or with petrol?
- When it is cold do you put on a jersey or a sweater?
- When the baby is wet does it need a dry diaper or nappy?
- Do you get to the top of the building in an elevator or a lift?
- When the children are happy do you open a can or a tin of beans?
- When you go on holiday do you take luggage or baggage?
- When you’ve made an error do you remove it with an eraser or a rubber?
Pronunciation and vocabulary differences are probably the differences people are most aware of between dialects of English, but there are grammatical differences too. The following are some preferred American from the traditional British usages.
- Americans prefer to use “do you have” while British use “have you got”
- Americans say “gotten” when people in England use “got”
- Americans use “dove” while most English speakers prefer “dived”
- Americans ask “did you eat?” While the English ask “have you eaten?”
Source: “An Introduction o Sociolinguistics” by Janet Holmes. Published by Pearson Education Limited.
Encounter in Rome
My trip to Italy is full of adventure. This is my close encounter in Rome.
When I was passing by the Colosseum along the road via di S. Gregorio, I turned the corner and walked along via del Cerchi. There was a big empty field on the left and the Palatino was on the right. There was not many people along the road. I was a bit tired and stopped to get some water from my bag. A young Russian man, age about late 20s, came to me and asked for direction to his hotel.
He said he had just arrived in Rome and he was travelling alone. I told him I have just arrived in the morning and I was also travelling alone. We talked for a while and he asked me to take some pictures of him with the empty field as the back ground. I felt a bit strange and wondered why he didn’t want the Palatino or the church as the background.
A few minutes later, two men came from my behind and identified themselves as policemen. They asked whether we were carrying any drugs and wanted a check. The Russian voluntarily showed his wallet to the two men and later the two men wanted me to show them the items in my haversack.
I took out the items from my bag slowly one by one. I suspected these two men are not real policemen. I read about cases like this in the local newspaper. The victim was asked to go to a quite corner for a full body check for drug and ended up naked while the two men ran away with his money and other belongings.
I was lucky. The two men found that I did not have much money with me and let me go. I saw some tourists passing by and shouted at them to get attention. The Russian told me that he suddenly remembered someone told him his hotel was on the other side and walked away. I continued to walk towards S. Maria in Cosmedin to see the mouth of truth.
I think back and wonder could the Russian and the two men were together as a gang trying to cheat tourists. I was not cheated could be that I was steady when they questioned me. But I would not want such incident to happen again.
Travelling alone is not easy especially when you do not understand the language in that foreign country. Nevertheless, despite this bad incident, I will still want to visit Rome again.