sūméndálà chá

Jiā fùjìn xīn de kāile yījiā cāntīng. Wǒ hé wǒ de àirén chángshì qù nà li yǒu wǎncān qián xiǎoshí. Tā xiǎng chī niúwán, ér wǒ xiǎng chī suǒ tuō. Suǒ tuō shì yī zhǒng yóu hěnduō cáiliào áo chéng de jītāng.

Fúwùyuánmen shuō Mǎlái fāngyán. Dāng fúwùyuán tīng bù dào wǒmen liáotiān dehuà shí, wǒ àirén gàosù wǒ zhè shì zài Běigānbālǔ shǐyòng de fāngyán.

Shíwù duì wǒ lái shuō hái suàn kěyǐ, dàn wǒ àirén bù xǐhuān niúwán de ròu tāng. Yǐnliào jiù lìng dāng biélùnle. Wǒmen diǎnle chá, dàn chá hǎoxiàng xīshì de tángjiāng.

Zài huí jiā de lùshàng wǒ àirén shuō, "Wǒ jiù zhīdào huì zhèyàng." Ránhòu yòu shuō: "Sūméndálà rén, yóuqí běifāng de, hē chá de shíhòu xǐhuān fàng hěnduō táng."

苏门答腊茶

家附近新的开了一家餐厅。我和我的爱人尝试去那里有晚餐前小食。他想吃牛丸，而我想吃索托。索托是一种加了不同材料的鸡汤。

当服务员听不到我们聊天的话时，我爱人告诉我这是在北干巴鲁使用的方言。

食物对我来说还算可以，但我爱人不喜欢牛丸的肉汤。饮料就另当别论了。我们点了茶，但茶好像稀释的糖浆。

在回家的路上我爱人说，「我就知道会这样。」然后又说：「苏门答腊人，尤其北方的，喝茶的时候喜欢放很多糖。」

sumatran tea

So there's this new place to eat near my place. My lover and I tried going there for a quick pre-dinner. He had meatballs in broth and I had soto, a kind of chicken soup with different ingredients.

The waitresses spoke in Malay dialect. After they were out of hearing range, my lover said that it was the dialect used in Pekanbaru.

The food turned out OK for me (my lover didn't like his broth). The drink however, is a different story. We ordered tea, but it was more like undiluted syrup.

On the way home my lover said, "I know from the start this would happen." He continued: "Sumatran people, especially those on the north-ish, love having their tea super sweet."

yè mìng guāntóu

Yīqún zhōngguó kèrén lái dào wǒ de bàngōngshì. Wǒ lǎobǎn jīngcháng huānyíng wàiguó rén de dàolái. Wǒ de tóngshì dǎ diànhuà gàosù wǒ, qízhōng yī míng kèrén xiǎng yào shǐyòng wúxiàn wǎng, dàn bù zhīdào mìmǎ. Zhèyàng de shìqíng yě jīngcháng fāshēng.

Wǒ bùnéng zài diànhuà zhōng bǎ mìmǎ gàosù wǒ tóngshì. Zhè shì gōngsī de guīdìng: Kèrén liánjiē de wǎngluò bǐ gùyuán liánjiē de wǎngluò gèng kuài. Suǒyǐ wǒ qīnzì qùle huìyì shì gàosù kèrén. Zìcóng wo lái ci gongzuò, wo jiù zhèyàng pao liao wúshù biàn.

Zhè qún kèrén láizì zhongguó, wo gàosùle ni méiyou? Fānyì duì bù huì shuō yìnní wén de kèrén shuō wǒ dàole. Dàn nèitiān wǒ yǒu yīgè hěn màoxiǎn de xiǎngfǎ. Rúguǒ méi tōngguò fānyì de bāngzhù, wǒ zhíjiē yǔ zhè wèi kèrén jiāotán dehuà, zuì huài de qíngkuàng huì shì shénme?

Yúshì wǒ yòng biéjiǎo de zhōngwén shuō 'Wǒ kěyǐ xiě'. Wǒ de yìsi shì wǒ kěyǐ xiě xià wúxiàn wǎng mìmǎ. Wǒ juédé tā míngbáile, yīnwèi tā gěile wǒ yī zhī bǐ hé yī zhāng zhǐ. Wǒ hěn gāoxìng, shìqíng jìnzhǎn shùnlì. Ér lìng yī míng kèrén xiǎng ràng wǒ bāng tā zài bǐjìběn diànnǎo shàng shèzhì wúxiàn wǎngluò. Zhīhòu, wǒ zìrán'érrán zǒu dào zhàn zài zuìhòu dì nà wèi kèrén shēnbiān, xiǎng wèn tā, hái yòng biéjiǎo de zhōngwén, yào bùyào zài tā de shǒujī shàng shèzhì wúxiàn shàngwǎng. Dāng wǒ yìshí dào wǒ chūxiànle kǒuwù shí, yǐjīng tài wǎnle. Diū sǐrénle, wǒ bùshì gùyì wèn guìbīn tā yǒu méiyǒu shǒujī!

业命关头

一群中国客人来到我的办公室。我老板经常欢迎外国人的到来。我的同事打电话告诉我，其中一名客人想要使用无线上网，但不知道密码。这样的事情也经常发生。

我不能在电话中把密码告诉我同事。这是公司的规定：客人连接的网络比雇员连接的网络更快。所以我亲自去了会议室告诉客人。自从我来此工作，我就这样跑了无数遍。

这群客人来自中国，我告诉了你没有？翻译对不会说印尼文的客人说我到了。但那天我有一个很冒险的想法。如果没通过翻译的帮助，我直接与这位客人交谈的话，最坏的情况会是什么？

于是我用蹩脚的中文说“我可以写”。我的意思是我可以写下无线网密码。我觉得他明白了，因为他给了我一支笔和一张纸。我很高兴，事情进展顺利。而另一名客人想我帮她在笔记本电脑上设置无线网络。之后，我自然而然走到站在最后的那位客人身边，想问他，还用蹩脚的中文，要不要在他的手机上设置无线网。当我意识到我出现了口误时，已经太晚了。丢死人了，我不是故意问贵宾他有没有手机！

too brave too furious...

So a group of guests from aboard came to my office. This happens a lot. My colleague called me, said that one of the guests asked for the Wifi password. This also happens a lot.

I wasn't allowed to tell her through the phone, because guests got faster internet connection than employees. Company's policy. So off I went to the meeting room for the hundredth time since I work here.

This group of guests were from China. Like what's usually done to guests who don't speak Indonesian, our translator started to say something and gestured to my direction. But that day I was feeling particularly wild and thought, what's the worst that could happen if I communicate directly to this guest without the translator's help?

So I went "Let me write the password" in broken Chinese. I was given pen and paper, so I guess he understood what I meant. Going smooth, I thought. But another guest wanted me to set the wifi on her laptop. I turned to the last guest of the group, meaning to ask him in Chinese whether he wanted me to set the wifi on his phone or not. It was too late when I realized my slip of the tongue. The honorable guest was asked whether he had a phone or not!

yòng shèngjīng xuéxí zhōngwén

Jìrán wǒ yǐjīng kěyǐ bùyòng zìdiǎn jiù néng rèn chū yīxiē hànzì yīncǐ wǒ juédìng yào tíshēng yīxià nándù.

Shàng cì qù xiānggǎng de shíhòu, wǒ jūzhù de fàndiàn gěile wǒ miǎnfèi qǔ yuè de xīn yuē. Tāmen jiù fàngle tā zài wǒ de fángjiān lǐ. Tā zhēn bùcuò, shì zhōng yīngwén duìzhào de. Huílái hòu, wǒ shìtú dúshū zhōngwén bùfèn, dàn dú bù dǒng, suǒyǐ wǒ yě fàngqìle yīngwén bùfèn. Nà xīn yuē jiù zài jiàzi shàng méngchén.

Jìrán wǒ yǐjīng kěyǐ bùyòng zìdiǎn jiù néng rèn chū yīxiē hànzì yīncǐ wǒ juédìng yào tíshēng yīxià nándù. Wǒ bǎ xīn yuē fān dào suíjī tiāoxuǎn de yè, yòng shǒu fùgài yīngwén bùfèn, dú yīduàn zhōngwén bùfèn, shìtú zhǎo chū nà duàn de nèiróng shì shénme. Hǎo ba wǒ shuōle yīxiē huǎng, suǒwèi “suíjī tiāoxuǎn” de yè duōbàn yǒu hěn duǎn de duàn. :P

Wǒ jīntiān xuǎnzé de duàn yǒu yīxiē hànzì wǒ kěyǐ rèn chū: "... men duì zhǔ shuō... jiā wǒmen de... xīn... zhǔ shuō... nǐmen... yǒu... yī... zi dàxiǎo de... xīn... jiùshì duì zhè... shuō... lái... qù... zài... lǐ... tā yě huì tīngcóng nǐmen." Wǒ hěn kuài juédé zhè shì 'gàosù shān dào hǎilǐ qù' nà duàn, dàn wǒ cuòle. Zhè shì 'gàosù sāngshù dào hǎilǐ qù' nà duàn. Wǒ zǎo jiù zhīdào! Zài zhè duàn lǐ méiyǒu hànzì 'shān'. -__-

Cóng rènhé gàn de qūzhú shān shì zài mǎ 21·21, ér sāngshù nì zài hǎiyáng lǐ shì zài lù 17·5—6. Zhǔ xǐhuān bǎ qíguài de shì jìnrù xián de shuǐzhōng.

用圣经学习中文

既然我已经可以不用字典就能认出一些汉字因此我决定要提升一下难度。

上次去香港的时候，我居住的饭店给了我免费取阅的新约。他们就放了它在我的房间里。它真不错，是中英文对照的。回来后，我试图读书中文部分，但读不懂，所以我也放弃了英文部分。那新约就在架子上蒙尘。

既然我已经可以不用字典就能认出一些汉字因此我决定要提升一下难度。我把新约翻到随机挑选的页，用手覆盖英文部分，读一段中文部分，试图找出那段的内容是什么。好吧说了一些谎，所谓《随机挑选》的页多半有很短的段。：P

我今天选择的段有一些汉字我可以认出：「。。。们对主说。。。加我们的。。。心。。。主说。。。你们。。。有。。。一。。。子大小的。。。心。。。就是对这。。。说。。。来。。。去。。。在。。。里。。。它也会听从你们。」我很快觉得这是《告诉山到海里去》那段，但我错了。这是《告诉桑树到海里去》那段。我早就知道！在这段里没有汉字《山》。-__-

从任何干地驱逐山是在马21·21，而桑树溺在海洋里是在路17·5—6。主喜欢把奇怪的事浸入咸的水中。

learning chinese through a christian bible

Now that I can recognize several Chinese characters without the help of a dictionary, I decide to up my game.

Last time I went to Hong Kong, my hotel provided a complimentary copy of New Testament. They placed it in my room. What's great about it was that it was in two language, English and Mandarin, side-by-side. After going home I tried to read the Mandarin part but wasn't able to, so I left the English part altogether. The book stayed on the book shelf, collecting dust.

Now that I can recognize several Chinese characters without the help of a dictionary, I decide to up my game. I open the New Testament on a random page, cover the English part, read one passage in Mandarin, trying to figure out what the passage's talking about. OK I cheat a bit, most of the time the 'random' page contains the shortest passage possible. :P

In the passage that I chose today I recognized the words 'Lord', 'toward this', 'it also will listen to you'. I immediately thought of 'telling the mountain to relocate to the sea' passage, which this passage was not. This one was 'telling the mulberry tree to relocate to the sea'. I knew it! The 'mountain' character wasn't found in that passage. -__-

The eviction of the mountain from any dry land was Matthew 21:21, while drowning this mulberry tree into the ocean was in Luke 17:5-6. The Lord sure loved having strange things submerged in salty water.