j a m e s f o r s y t h ✡ n e t

I’m in favour of a much smaller global population, but the above video offers an urgent perspective on the world of the future.

The tragedy is, most of us have no idea whatsoever what the Gospel actually is.

[posted to The Age (letters) 8/1/2010 - note: I’m not really looking for employment]

I recently walked into a Chinese massage shop in the CBD and advised them that I knew how to perform massage and asked if they had any jobs available. I received a flat “no”. I proceeded to take down their sign in Chinese advertising for workers and repeated that I was able to perform the most soothing of massages with the greatest therapeutic effect. They resorted to their next reason for refusal: “But you cannot speak Mandarin.” I told them in Mandarin that I certainly could speak Chinese… but this didn’t really seem very important. Westerners who can speak Mandarin aren’t thought of as equals in the same way as Chinese who can speak English.

Consistency please - either display both job advertising and other types of signage in the shop in English or have both Chinese. I wonder how many customers would actually use these shops if they were aware of their employment criteria.

James Forsyth

Today I saw a young Asian person with a Tshirt saying 白人看不懂, which means “White people can’t understand” (i.e. what is written). This is a disgusting example of racism taking place against Westerners in Melbourne itself.

Would it be either possible or OK for Westerners to wear tshirts poking fun at any perceived inabilities of Asians? NO!

It’s not “reverse racism”, it’s simply “racism”.

Any Westerner who disagrees with me and wants to justify such a tshirt though some PC madness on their part is a spineless turd.

This appears to be the website (cached version) from which these tshirts originate. On which they say:

Due to high level of racial slurs and obscenities appeared on the wall/discussions, zero-tolerance policy is now enforced. Any racial slurs or obscenities will be deleted Immediately and you will be reported and/or facing indefinite group membership suspension.

NOTE: it is now illegal to post or send messages/emails containing those information on the internet anonymously in the US. Doing so could result in fine, imprisonment, or both.

Total hypocrisy!

And:

The name of this group is a cultural reference taken from Phil Wang’s T-shirt in “Yellow Fever” (see pic), a video made by Wong Fu Productions. It roughly translates to “White people can’t read this.”

The purpose of this group is to acknowledge the fact that Chinese people rock life. This group’s goal is to provide a community within Facebook for Chinese people (or those interested in Chinese culture).

Well, hopefully Chinese people will one day realise that they don’t need to belittle other races to “rock life”.

“Gift voucher” is very useful vocabulary for Christmas. On Wikipedia I noted they are also known as gift certificates or gift cards. Gift coupon is also possible. The Chinese word for these things is 礼券.

Getting one of these is a very nice gesture for any English teacher. It is also a sure way of supporting a shop in which you have received good service, but don’t know what in the shop you should purchase. Also, it reduces the risk of unwanted gifts considerably, which will probably end up on Ebay sometime.

我春威武，我军威武，我桶威武，我朝威武，我寨威武，我爵威武。。。 什么意思 ？ 春，军，桶，等等，都是 “很”的意思吗？，好奇怪！

这些都代表着一种自豪，翻译的话只翻译第二个字就可以，比如：我军威武，就是指我的军队威武，以前的时候有好多人占山为王，他所占的山被称为山寨，我寨威武就是指我的山寨威武，威武也可以解释为强大，而“很”这个字是语气助词，在句中不占任何成分，起加强语气的作用。因此可以解释为：我的军队很强大，我的山寨很强大。。。。。。

I have faint memories of the one Tangara train that used to run in Melbourne. What a shame it’s still not running. I’d love to take Asher to go for a joyride on it just for fun.

Here’s a Youtube vid of the Tangara:

Hopefully at some stage I’ll put some more photos of our trip on here.

For the moment, here’s Ying and Asher:

Wikipedia (i.e. anyone on the planet) provides a definition of metrosexual:

a portmanteau of metropolitan and heterosexual, is a neologism of the 2000s that refers to a heterosexual man (especially one living in a post-industrial, capitalist culture) that has a strong concern for his appearance or a lifestyle that displays attributes stereotypically associated with homosexual men.

I live in Melbourne, Australia, which is maybe post-industrial and capitalist.

My concern for my own appearance is moderate to low. I shave daily, but some of my tshirts are over a decade old.

I don’t have a lifestyle that is in any way stereotypical of homosexual men.

That basically rules me out of this trendy-sounding group.

I’d be curious to know whether 型男 is translatable as metrosexual.