There are two Chinas, actually, the People's Republic of China (the big country) and the Republic of China (the island of Taiwan), but both countries are Mandarin-speaking and Mandarin-writing.

This poses a problem for me, especially considering the vast population of the big China. Mandarin is becoming more of an important language to know in the world, and I'm already affected, despite that fact that my "world" is still not very big.

On Friday afternoon, while I was at home, the phone started ringing. I decided to pick it up, figuring it might be one of my parents. It was a lady speaking in Mandarin. I was quiet a while, trying to translate it in my head. The lady finally said something in English, something about a clinic, and that made sense to me. Then she spoke in Mandarin asking if ___ (my mom's name) was home, to which I responded she wasn't. The lady seemed slightly worried, saying that my mom had an appointment tomorrow and she wanted to know if it could be rescheduled or something like that. I tried to reply that I would tell my mom, but I couldn't come up with the right words...So after a little pause, I hung up.

This made me realize what a pickle I'm in. I can understand Mandarin to some degree (I know more of the Shanghai dialect than Mandarin because my parents speak that at home), but I am illiterate (the only ones I can easily recognize are 人, 一, 二, 三, 四, 月, 火, 上, 下, 小, 大, 云, and 中). Also, I can only say a few phrases. One of the phrases I know sounds like "Wan Dan La!" (Don't really know how to translate it.) My parents say it is something more commonly said in Taiwan, almost like slang, I guess, and they think I must have picked it up from one of my friends from Taiwan. But that's weird, because usually I speak English with my friends.

Anyways, I will be in a real fix if Mandarin becomes the language of the world. I mean, it's already the #1 spoken language of the world, and the second place language, Spanish, is far behind. I'm kind of worried. I don't think I could easily learn to read Chinese at this age. I did start learning once during a summer, years back, but I've already forgotten. It was more like I was memorizing the lines so I knew what to say; not sure if I actually knew what I was reading. Anyways, it gets harder and harder the older you get to learn a language. So if you want to learn, start early. (I'm jealous of my cousins in France. They have already started learning English and they're not even in middle school yet)

Recently, my middle school had an Electives Night. I didn't attend, though I wanted to (just to get cookies from the cooking classroom! They have great cookies). My mom said, "Why do you want to go? You're going to a different school next year, so it doesn't matter." And so I stayed home.

But some students did go, to help my French teacher out, since she has to "sell" her classes and all. Parents and students tend to wonder, "Should I take French or Spanish?" (I say French, but I'm biased.) Since Spanish is considered to be more useful (because more people speak Spanish, and California is close to Mexico), more students take Spanish. And there is somewhat of a misconception that Spanish is easier than French. (I have no idea about that, but I'm guessing they're about the same once you get used to them. You just have to get more of an accent for speaking French) There is one good argument for French, though, and that's the fact that there is no Spanish Week at my school, only French Week. Haha!

I really wish the schools still offered German. And I'd like to learn Italian (but then again, I hear if you know French or Spanish - or both - it shouldn't be too hard to understand Italian. French, Spanish, and Italian all use the word "Ciao!" for "goodbye"). It'd be nice if my school had Japanese. Then I could learn Japanese 1 in 8th grade and take Japanese 2 in high school. It seems weird that Japanese 2 is an option for freshmen. Only people who learned Japanese outside of school or who already knew Japanese would be able to take it, right? I feel like it's a setback for me and other students since we can't take Japanese in middle school (not even Mandarin, the class got cut, sadly). I'd like to be able to get all 5 levels of a language done.

Then again, it's not horrible if you don't take AP classes, is it? I've heard that AP classes are college level classes. I suppose if you take AP classes and then make yourself busy in college, you can graduate earlier or something. But I don't see why you have to be in such a rush in life. Why not take it at your own pace? (Assuming your pace isn't as slow as mine, since I want to retire and all) I guess this competitive world and market makes people feel they must try their hardest, be the fastest and the best, so they can come out on top.

But if you've got friends like these, who needs anemone? (Get it? It's a joke from Finding Nemo.) I know that doesn't make sense, but I just wanted to say that for once.

Labels: ap classes, china, ciao, college, competiton, difficulty, finding nemo, french week, important, italian, japanese, joke, language, mandarin, mother, phone call, reading, school, spanish, taiwan

I thought of this while I was reading a book called The Outsiders for school. The book is about the 60's, and it takes place in Oklahoma, I think, or somewhere around there. The main character is a boy named Ponyboy, who is part of a gang made up his two brothers and his friends. Well, I'd never really read this kind of book before, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it turned out to be better than I expected. Ponyboy and his brothers are fond of chocolate, and Ponyboy's brother said that if there was a such thing as a chocolate cigarettes, Ponyboy would've had one made. (By the way, Ponyboy is an avid smoker. One time he went to the countryside and a man told him, "You shouldn't be smoking." Ponyboy looked around for a No Smoking sign and didn't seen one. "Why not?" asked the confuzzled Ponyboy. "Well, uh...You're too young," said the man. Ponyboy was surprised - Ponyboy is only 14, by the way.)

Whenever I see people with lollipops in their mouths, I think that they're smoking at first. I saw a book full of pictures of flashy outfits people in Japan were wearing. (There were some things that looked fairly normal, but some of the outfits were pretty strange.) I saw lollipops in their mouths and assumed they were cigarettes at first but it turned out that they were lollipops...Whew.

I remember when I was young I used to just stick a carrot in my mouth and pretend I was smoking since I never want to try it for real. It's way too easy to get addicted to smoking so it's just better not to ever do it. Good people get ruined by smoking.

I overheard two of my classmates talking. One of them said, "A man walks into a bar." (He's telling a joke.) So the other guy said, "So?" And the one telling the joke said, exasperated, "Don't you get it? You're so slow!" Basically, in this joke, a man doesn't walk into the kind of bar where you drink alcohol. He walks into an actual bar. Now that would hurt. (I only understood the joke because I had heard someone else tell it before)

Anyways, back to The Outsiders...There was something in the book that I found interesting. Ponyboy, as he narrates the story, mentioned that he liked Two-Bit's mom because she was humorous, but not lazy like Two-Bit. (Two-Bit is a joking guy who likes school for some weird reason and is in Ponyboy's gang) Then Ponyboy said Two-Bit's mother let Two-Bit get away with murder. Ponyboy was making Two-Bit's mother sound like a good person, so this was a bit of a shock. That's a very interesting parent there.

I've been wondering about something for a pretty long time now. One time I was at school, because I heard there was free ice cream (but the line was too long. Just earlier there had been a dance so many students were at the school). A woman asked me, "Are you J?" (J stands for the name of the person, I didn't want to reveal her name) I said, "No," and moved on. I bet that person didn't know how J looked or something - I mean, I don't wear glasses. Anyhow, J is of Korean decent. And people sometimes think either that I look Korean or my dad does. (Then again, maybe it's because some people aren't good at telling, people occasionally ask me if I'm Japanese) Plus, both my mom and dad's last names are Korean last names. It's sort of uncanny. I keep wondering if I could be Korean instead of Chinese but all my relatives live in China. Then again, Koreans once came from China. I mean, even the language has some similarities, and names for nobility used to be taken from Chinese. I'm always been curious about where I really come from. (Well, Africa originally, it can be traced back there, even if people insist they aren't from there, like my dad said the aboriginals in Australia said they were from Australia, not Africa, even when DNA tests were taken) I wonder if there is a way to find out. It would probably take a long time trying to trace it all the way back. I mean, for one thing, China has a huge population, so would there even be any documents? And it would be written in Chinese (Mandarin) so I wouldn't be able to read it...

Labels: africa, bar, chinese, chocolate, cigarette, heritage, joke, korean, lollipop, name, parents, ponyboy, smoking, the outsiders, two-bit

I was set to thinking lately about the news on television and such because I've been reading a book called Scoop by Gene Gutteridge. It's the first book in the series called the Occupational Hazards. The second book is called Skid, which I accidentally read first, because I didn't even know it was a series. (It says The Occupational Hazards on the book, but it's partially covered by the labels the library put on the book) Scoop is a novel about a news station, Channel 7 News. (I don't think it's about the real Channel 7, but who knows) Skid, on the other hand, is about an air plane flight. I expect there will be more books in the series. Each book seems to feature one Hazard. (There is a family called the Hazards who is in each book) I think there are still several Hazards that haven't been covered yet.

It seemed to me that news was rougher business than I thought. To some reporters, it was just work, and it just mattered whether you got the news that was the most interesting to the viewers, rather than showing news that was meaningful, that could really make a difference. It seems like people want to see how many people die in a crash, not how many people survive. And news stations have to compete with each other to have the best information. It's pretty vicious business. I wonder if newspapers are like this too or if it's only the news stations.

Speaking of news, I probably haven't watched the weather much, because I was surprised to see that they seem to be using tablets now. I could tell because when they were showing the direction of wind or something, I saw a red arrow being drawn. I noticed there was a small cursor which looked like a pencil moving around. It was just like what my teachers had previously used. In 6th grade, my language arts/history teacher tried out the tablet for doing our daily grammar/spelling/etc. exercises, but it didn't work that well since most folks, including the teacher, couldn't draw that well using the tablet. Then the next year, in math class, my math teacher (who was, incidentally, the wife of my 6th grade language arts/history teacher) used the tablet to show us the lesson in math. Eventually, though, she switched to a document camera.

I remember I first was aware of them when my language arts teacher in 7th grade showed off her spiffy new document camera. Some of the teachers have them now too. My current science teacher uses it a lot...My French teacher has been using it, but it's not working out too well. I wish she'd go back to the projector. I wonder if they're wasting the donations of families on buying things that aren't even that easy to use. I wish they would spend the money on something else like replacing the chairs that are cracked and things like that.

Today, my father and I were planting tulips bulbs. We bought 50 of them once, and planted 25 last year. Most of them bloomed, but not all...We were digging up the dirt today and found some parts of tulip bulbs. I've always been wondering where the bulbs come from. Do tulips make bulbs after they die, or do two of them create bulbs and then you find them later? Or are bulbs plants which grow larger over time? It's confusing.

My dad thinks that the bulbs are dead since they look kind of dried up. I heard that seeds always have some stored food and other resources in them so they'll live long enough to find a place to settle down. I wonder if it really could last a whole year, though...Maybe not. But I hope so, because if they're still alive, there will be beautiful flowers in the springtime.

I dug up some other things. I found an acorn, which is odd, because we don't have those in my backyard. Perhaps a squirrel buried it there. I also dug up an earthworm by accident. I was really surprised by it. I put it on the sidewalk and watched it wiggle. It slowly moved its front, then seemed to start moving different parts, gradually. It sure takes a long time, though. Worms are really slow. It's like this joke... "A snail was mugged by two turtles. When asked about it, he said, "I don't know! It all happened so fast." " (I think it was a snail and turtles...I'm not exactly sure)

Labels: acorn, bulb, dehydration, document camera, earthworm, gene gutteridge, joke, money, news, scoop, tablet, teacher, television, the occupational hazards, tulips

Recently we had an event at my school called Kennedy's Best Dance Crew. This is like the actual TV show - people choreograph moves and then dance in front of the school to the beat of music. (I haven't actually watched America's Best Dance Crew, but oh well.) Our school day had a wacky schedule on Friday because of the show. There were many dance crews.
No Parking Here Males wearing caps and shirts that have a P in a circle with a slash on it. (like those no U turn or no smoking signs) I guess they were okay, but I didn't find them very interesting.
Epic Phail Females wearing a white shirt with a vest and a skirt. They were kind of blah. Hence the name (though I don't think they intended it to be a literal description). I don't want to put them down, though, should they be unhappy about it.
Purple Pixies Females wearing a pinkish purplish (I wouldn't call it purple, but it's not exactly pink. Maybe fushcia? Violet? Magenta? Aubergine? etc.) shirts and either skirts or pants (I think it was pants, but I don't remember any longer). They weren't that interesting either. I guess they're just so-so. Though a few of them were able to do cartwheels and stuff.
J-Walkers If you don't know, Jay walking is a crime, apparently. It's when you don't cross the street using the crosswalks. Anyhow, this was an all girl group. They all have white shirts with a colored J on it, and pants that were also colored. They were energetic, so I liked them.
Medical Tape Males wearing aqua blue jackets and jeans, I think. They had some cool moves. They were very popular since after the show a lot of people talked about voting for them. (I heard someone called them Duct Tape, though...)

Oh yeah, and we had three judges.
Joseph I think that was his name. He was a guy who said nice things. That's about it.
Shannon She said nice things, mostly about the clothing the people wore. I thought they were judging the dancing, not the outfits. (I mean, yeah, it does matter, but not very much.)
Paula Abdul I think you might know who she is if you watch American Idol. Not the real Paula - an imposter! Judging by the voice I suspect it is a certain PE teacher at my school. Wow, they let him crossdress. How miserable for him. He said nice things, too. (I guess they all have to.

Here are the hosts, security, and joke acts.
Hungarian Ballet Troupe Not a real ballet troupe, it's probably two counselors or teachers dressed up. I think one of them is probably Ms. Crowe, but no guarantees. They were dancing at first until a teacher burst on stage and told them they were supposed to be hosting, not actually dancing. They are pretty amusing. One of the two always says things like, "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, it looks like you want to throw up," or "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, you look like a chicken," or "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, you look like a robot, and I had a scary dream about robots last night." The other person always says, "IT GOOD!" or "YOU'RE GOOD!" in an odd accent.
Security This consists of Mr. Moustakas, the woodshop teacher, and Mr. Robinson, a PE teacher. (They look alike, actually, since they both wear basketball shorts and a white shirt, and neither has that much hair on their heads) When summoned, they run onto the stage and take away any offending people.
Two Boys I forget their names. I think one was Akitas. He bribed the hosts to let him perform. The first act they did was that the two ran around the stage with pretty streamers. One of the boys was wearing a strange rainbowy lit up thing. The second time only one boy performed. He wore a banana suit and kept shaking something (sticks? batons? maracas? something like that) to a song that goes "Peanut Butter Jelly Time!". He fainted and was dragged away by his partner. The last time was when one of them dressed up as Chico, the cougar school mascot, and wore a red dress on top of it. They played "Lady in Red" on the speakers. The two boys were dancing (one boy was pretending that he thought it was Chico, not someone inside) but then Chico's head came off, and the boy jumped away in disgust. Anyhow, it was pretty amusing.

I would say it was all pretty cool except for one thing - THE MUSIC IS WAY TOO LOUD. It's a good thing I wasn't sitting in the front of the room or I would be deaf. You can feel the ground pulsing just slightly. One of my friends had her hands over her ears because it was so loud. I would've done that too but I thought it might be rude.

Labels: crews, dance, deaf, funny, host, humor, joke, judge, kennedy's best dance crew, loud, music, security, show, stage

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