Recently took up a volunteer help in translation with huifang's IOFC. agreed to help her out in translating essays of her friend's from chinese to english.
At first I thought that the translation work is easy, and I realized I have over-estminated my own abilities. haha. As I went along in the work, learnt quite some new things:
1) to understand and maintain the author's style
2) to communicate with author to get his expression accurately
3) to check and re-edit again and again and ask professional opinions
The first day progress was slow. took whole night just to translate one paragraph. Then the second day I got much better as I can roughly understand the author's style already.
However, I realized, surprises happen in all places. While I thought my speed and accuracy have increased, after a few days, I encountered mental block. Tried to translate the whole day but the outcome is just terrible. Now I realized there were times when we cannot use our brain at all. :-P
Quite enjoy this work and it really helps a lot in my language ability. will continue to learn from it and work hard. ganbate!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
# Societies Shields Night
I was pleasantly surprised to know that I was among the recipients of the University of London Union Societies Shields 2005. The Shields are awarded to students who have made contribution to the union community through societies’ activities. The Warden of the Shield is Dr Joan Ripley, she was a remarkable lady who still has a young mind and ideas. Our society, ULUBUDA, swept a lot of Individual Shield Awards, but did not manage to win the overall Best Society Award. I suppose we are still a young society and still have rooms for expansion and improvement. We will be back for next year!
Sunday, February 13, 2005
# Chinese New Year
I was grateful that I actually got to celebrate Chinese New Year in London, especially it was such a big celebration compared to other places in UK. In fact, UK government organized a week-long Chinese Week in conjunction with the CNY celebration.
Went to Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square with a few friends from SP, penang n taiping. it felt so nice to be able to chat in hokkien for whole day long!
It was a nice start with the firework display in Leicester Square (China Town). We spent a few hours at Trafalgar Square watching the performances. had a good laugh when the male auto sang songs after songs, and was a bit disappointed watching the pathetic lion dance. :P Dinner was a nice vegetarian buffet in Goodge Street.
The whole day was fun, especially the last 15 minutes major firework display. Felt appreciative of the effort put in by UK in celebrating this event. London is a very international cosmopolitan, and to have a nice event like that certainly attract lots of chineses, not to say tourists from all backgrounds. they are really doing their job. :-)
Went to Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square with a few friends from SP, penang n taiping. it felt so nice to be able to chat in hokkien for whole day long!
It was a nice start with the firework display in Leicester Square (China Town). We spent a few hours at Trafalgar Square watching the performances. had a good laugh when the male auto sang songs after songs, and was a bit disappointed watching the pathetic lion dance. :P Dinner was a nice vegetarian buffet in Goodge Street.
The whole day was fun, especially the last 15 minutes major firework display. Felt appreciative of the effort put in by UK in celebrating this event. London is a very international cosmopolitan, and to have a nice event like that certainly attract lots of chineses, not to say tourists from all backgrounds. they are really doing their job. :-)
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
# Chinese New Year
For this year Chinese New Year celebration, I went for a reunion dinner at Four Seasons with a bunch of Malaysian fellows. It was a nice gathering and especially entertaining to talk in Manglish!
I remembered last year I spent my New Year Eve at the Temple. The temple was holding Reunion Dinner for 500 people and I was volunteering as a waitress to serve the food. It was an enriching experience as a group of friends do the preparation work together and delegate tasks to serve different parts of the dining hall.
After the temple’s reunion dinner, I joined my hall’s Chinese New Year celebration, and it was great fun! It was a potluck dinner and everyone brought a dish, resulting in a mountain of food in the common room! Chatting, singing and playing cards are common sight and playing group games certainly let us get to know each other better.
For both years, I never missed the celebration at China Town, watching Lion Dance and stage performance in Trafalgar Square. I just could not resist the draw of the festive atmosphere in Leicester Square! And I suppose all Chinese just cannot resist the firework display during CNY too!
Looking forward to next year’s CNY.
I remembered last year I spent my New Year Eve at the Temple. The temple was holding Reunion Dinner for 500 people and I was volunteering as a waitress to serve the food. It was an enriching experience as a group of friends do the preparation work together and delegate tasks to serve different parts of the dining hall.
After the temple’s reunion dinner, I joined my hall’s Chinese New Year celebration, and it was great fun! It was a potluck dinner and everyone brought a dish, resulting in a mountain of food in the common room! Chatting, singing and playing cards are common sight and playing group games certainly let us get to know each other better.
For both years, I never missed the celebration at China Town, watching Lion Dance and stage performance in Trafalgar Square. I just could not resist the draw of the festive atmosphere in Leicester Square! And I suppose all Chinese just cannot resist the firework display during CNY too!
Looking forward to next year’s CNY.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
# A dash of local feel
During the stay in Scotland with the McInnes family, I enjoyed the warmth of the local family. It was enjoyable chatting with the family besides warm fireplace, learning about their culture and traditions, listening to amusing stories, and sharing our own cultural practices too. I still remembered Martiza and I spent the whole night chatting to the family about everything, and Bill and Andrea even showed us the traditional Scottish dance!
We, as overseas students, can always have a chance to experience local family life and get to know local people, either through visits to friends’ house, or participating programs such as the Host Family Program. I have seen many of my seniors going, and going again, to visit their host families, and I felt fortunate to have the chances to visit local families too. By staying a few days at their home, we can really notice many differences between our homes and theirs, make some cute mistakes and discoveries in the process, and have a good laugh together and learnt from each other. I especially enjoy Christmas stay as we always have a chance to join the midnight mass, Christmas dinner and of course, the exchange of presents under the Christmas tree!
Sometimes Malaysian students tend to cluster among themselves during festive seasons. This was a good way to celebrate together and stay united together, but perhaps sometimes we can also try to get some local feel of the festive seasons and get to know the local culture too?
We, as overseas students, can always have a chance to experience local family life and get to know local people, either through visits to friends’ house, or participating programs such as the Host Family Program. I have seen many of my seniors going, and going again, to visit their host families, and I felt fortunate to have the chances to visit local families too. By staying a few days at their home, we can really notice many differences between our homes and theirs, make some cute mistakes and discoveries in the process, and have a good laugh together and learnt from each other. I especially enjoy Christmas stay as we always have a chance to join the midnight mass, Christmas dinner and of course, the exchange of presents under the Christmas tree!
Sometimes Malaysian students tend to cluster among themselves during festive seasons. This was a good way to celebrate together and stay united together, but perhaps sometimes we can also try to get some local feel of the festive seasons and get to know the local culture too?
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