ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

It's late and I am tired and sleepy but I still want to share with you a word I just thought of.  My brain is fried and I can't think much at the moment.  I will talk about why I thought about that word later.  In the meantime, please click on the link to my article for illustration of what "hypocrite 偽君子" means.   https://elisaenglish.pixnet.net/blog/post/9313344

The last time I posted an entry was about 2 years ago.   I don't know when I will post again.  It's hard to find the motive to write.  By the way, according to my daughter, Taylor Swift is a very famous singer.  So I am adding a link of her song "The Last Time".  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuijXg8wm28&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftVEVO

I hope you like it.  

I am somewhat technologically challenged.  The layout of the guestbook is ugly and the size of it is too small.  I have trouble reading all the messages let alone replying them.  Actually, there is no way for me to reply either.  I am looking for a way to create a guestbook rather than using the embeded one.  If you come across any good source code for guestbook, please let me know.  Thanks!    

放馬後炮 (的人) (v.) play Monday morning quarterback (n.)  a Monday morning quarterback

About Covid-19 situation in Taiwan, I have something to say.  What's important now is to move forward and fix the problem. It is so easy to be a Monday morning quarterback (to play Monday morning quarterback), passing judgement and criticizing it after the fact. Can you do any better beforehand? We will never know, so why uselessly dwell on the past? Let's take this as a learning experience and make it better in the future. At least this government has helped its people to live a normal and COVID outbreak free life for more than a year where others from all over the world suffer from COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year. What's there to complain?

It didn’t come as surprise as I watched the Chinese diplomats condescending to vulgar behaviors by tongue lashing Blinken for more than 20 minutes to top Biden Administration officials in their first meeting, setting the stage to exploit President Biden as they did Barack Obama. 

Beware! If you give the Chinese government an inch, they will take a mile. 
Don't let the camel get his nose under the tent!

 C’est si bon (French) 真是太棒了: It’s so good! 

Since it is new year, I should write something more positive.  I talked about C'est la vie last time, so I should probably introduce another French phrase this time:  C’est si bon

By the way, did I mention that my daughter learned French for about a year and my brother-in-law got his Phd in France? Anyway, that’s all my connection about the French language.  My daughter likes a French yogurt a lot, not the Greek yogurt.  The name of the French yogurt is Oui, which means “yes”.   Oh, on the subject of yogurt, my son likes Greek yogurt and I like the Icelandic yogurt.  French yogurt is more on the sweeter side. My daughter likes sweets.  Greek yogurt is more on the sour side, while Icelandic yogurt is in between with a more rich and creamier taste. Okay, back to C’est si bon.  What would be considered “C’est si bon”?  I want to keep thinking positive.  C’est si bon, the first wave of vaccination has started.  It looks like that we will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.            

It's the first day of a new year.  I should probably write something more positive.  However, the past year has rendered me helpless, leaving me feeling c'est la vie.  Nolens volens, I felt that we were left willy-nilly to accept the selfish and self-centered actions of others.  So, our school will reopen in January with grades K-8 returning to in-person learning full time and grade 9-12 alternating between online and in-person, all under reduced social distancing rules to less than 6 feet and with elimination of any limitation to room capacity.  Our school still gives the students an option to choose to continue online learning.  As COVID-19 is still out of control with new strain more infectious and limited vaccines available, I can’t believe the approach the school is taking.  But then, many parents probably have reach to a point where they can no longer tolerate their children having online classes at home, without any supervision.  In addition, some children just can't adapt to online learning. Anyway, the US has never really taken COVID-19 seriously enough even until now.  C'est la vie. Life goes on.

Here, I used a few new words. I will explain them in detail below.

c'est la vie (French) 人生就是如此;這就是人生: such is life; that’s life. 

A dab hand:

To describe someone who is really good at cooking, we can say that he is a dab hand at cooking.  

I feel so embarrassed to be an American, learning that so many American corporations gutlessly succumbing to Chinese for the money.  “It’s more than a little ludicrous for everyone from Ted Cruz to Beto O’Rourke to suddenly hand the NBA and the Rockets the tab for American toadying to authoritarians in Beijing.  (Shelly Jenkins, Washington Post, "Don’t be mad at the NBA. Hundreds of U.S. companies have sold out to China’s regime", 7 Oct. 2019)

Indeed, all these American corporations bowing obsequiously at China are nothing but lickspittles.  The title should not be “Don’t be mad at the NBA”.  It should be “Get mad at the NBA and all those toadies who cannot wait to curry favor with the Chinese” instead.