Motions is emotions without the e. I'm going through the motions, until it's just habit. It's happened before, the conditioned response. Averted eyes, twirled hair, crossed and uncrossed legs in shifted seat. And no longer a single quickening heartbeat. No daydreams of hands intertwined in lazy Sunday afternoons. I am pulverized but not crushed ( Read more... )

 
对一个在海外长大的中国学生来说, 学中文有时就象学外语一样. 不管是口语, 阅读, 或写作, 一旦放下就要花很多的时间把自己的水平从新提高. 虽然我们对中文从小到大就有所了解, 可是还会因为运用生疏而出洋相.

就拿口语来说吧. 象我们这样的华裔学生在家里通常中文和英语都换着用. 和爸爸妈妈说话的时候一不小心就会冒出几句英语出来. 这样一来, 在家里可以叽叽呱呱, 但是一回国就变成哑巴了. 只有到了象中国一样的环境我们才意识到我们的口语有多么的欠缺.

阅读和写作就更不用说了. 除了某些小说迷以外, 我敢打赌华裔学生普遍很少阅读中文. 平常随便看看能大概懂得一段文字的意思就已经觉得不错了, 可是到中文课堂上居然还得能念的出来, 写的出来. 这样的情景我们很多人只能用一个词来形容: 惨!

It was not until many, many years later that I realized she wasn't mad at me. For a long time, I was somehow unable to come to the conclusion that her anger was the result of some petty squabble with that friend of hers, and not my inability to make her happy. When I was five and the world resided in my grandmother's rough hands and gentle eyes, I ( Read more... )

I hate it when white people over-enunciate when speaking English to Chinese reporters on CCTV. Talking slower or louder won't help the audience understand you, retards. That's the translator's job.

When I was younger and knew all things, I would calculate the distance between my lone form lying in the dark and the thunder roaring outside my window. Always reassured by what seemed to be a vast amount of space, I would fall asleep.

Now that I have forgotten how, all I can do is stare at the ceiling, eyes wide open and hands folded across chest ( Read more... )

I can never tell if it's my imagination or if people are acting distant. I can also never tell if it's I who's acting distant ( Read more... )

Julian, oh Julian. Julian is not a name or a person but an idea. Julian is a little bookish, a little old. Julian is boyishly funny and has long brown hair. Not long like a hippie but it makes an uneven fringe along his dark eyebrows.  I once dreamt of Julian showing me a ballpoint pen sketch of a long road and a lone tree. I woke up and pined for ( Read more... )

I think the media needs to calm the fuck down about the presence of lead in imported Chinese toys. It is pretty much on the news every single day, and nothing new is brought up. Just escalating paranoia ( Read more... )

Our AC broke today. Not with a whimper but with a bang.

She insists on doing certain small things for me. Like herding me into the car first. Or grabbing things out of my hand in the grocery store for the few minutes we are without a cart. Oftentimes she'd get engrossed in something, the small jar of meat tenderizer or black bean sauce forgotten in her hands. Today it was trying to figure out the ( Read more... )