ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

柯文哲的政治精算 Ko Wen-je's political calculation

I kept thinking about what the best word would be to describe 柯文哲.  He doesn’t look like a fence-sitter (牆頭草) to me.   A fence-sitter is someone who does not make decisions or take sides because he or she doesn’t want to offend either side.  He definitely is NOT that type of person.  He has his own agenda from the start.  He is very good at manipulating people and giving the false appearance of being honest or sincere.  You can definitely call him phony, double-faced, or a back-stabber or a double-dealer who practices the work to people's disadvantage behind their backs.  Then I found the world “political chameleon”.  Wow!  That’s the perfect word to depict him.  A political chameleon (政治變色龍) is a person who changes their opinions or behavior according to the situation.   

唇亡齒寒

Share a common fate;  Lips and teeth relationship

Pardon my ignorance!  What exactly is “擦槍走火”?  I wanted to be sure that I am not judging people like some hypocrite, so I look up the dictionary.  The Chinese definition of “擦槍走火” is “做事因意外而導致預料之外的結果”.  Therefore, in the case of the Hong Kong police shooting at a teenager, what 柯文哲 meant was that the policeman was just cleaning the gun but somehow a gunshot was  ACCIDENTALLY fired without the trigger getting pulled, which pierced through a teenager’s lung, only a few inches away from piercing his heart.  It wasn’t meant to be.  The gun was not supposed to be loaded.  The policeman’s finger was not supposed to be near the trigger.  (Sorry, I can’t help getting sarcastic)

The English definition of “擦槍走火” is “a minor incident that sparks a war”.   In the case of the Hong Kong police shooting at a teenager, what 柯文哲 meant was that it was just a MINOR accident even though the teenager was shot through his lung, only inches away from his heart and was still hospitalized in intensive care.  Getting shot was ONLY a MINOR accident!  Indeed, a boy's life (in fact, any human life) is so miniscule in the eyes of the Communist Chinese and the pro-Beijing people.  

狐貍露出尾巴

Give oneself away

Let the cat out of the bag

Most people have the same eye and hand dominance.  I was surprised to find that I am left eye dominant last year when my eye doctor was thinking of prescribing me contact lenses that correct distance vision in one eye and near vision in the other. It explains why I putted and swung left handed even though I am right handed.  It could also be the reason of my poor sight alignment in my shooting class in high school because I was not using the right eye to aim. I mean the “left” eye which should be the right eye. 

I just came across an article regarding cross-dominance.  It stated that someone is cross dominant if he is having a dominant eye on the opposite side of his dominant hand, as in my case - I am right handed but left eye dominant, which could make using the iron sights of a rifle or shotgun a real challenge.  So for someone like me, who's right handed but left eye dorminant, if I shoot with my right eye, my shots will stray to the right.  I would have to shoot with the rifle from my left shoulder instead of my right shoulder to get a more accurate shooting.  Not that I am interested in hunting, I am just illustrating the impact of cross dominance.  By the way, I don't own any firearm and I am strongly against people owning one.  It creates more gun violence and accidental deaths. 

I dislike Trump greatly.  Bill Prickett took the words right out of my mouth.  I couldn't have said it better myself.  Below were what he said in his article "Do I hate Trump?"

I find his egomaniacal superiority insufferable.
I detest his snide condescension and arrogance toward those who disagree with him.
I’m appalled at the way he demeans others.
I am disgusted by his obvious misogyny and blatant sexism.
I despise his racism and his blasé acceptance of white supremacy.
I loathe the extreme nationalism he promotes.
I am terrified by his petulant, unstable temperament.
I am sickened by his complete ineptitude to hold the office POTUS.
I think he’s uncouth, coarse, bad-mannered and crude.  

That said, I kind of support Trump’s action in his trade war with China, though it might come back to bite me as a consumer for which inflation might be triggered.  However, looking at a bigger picture, to me, national security is more important.  I can’t tolerate big corporations eyeing only for their own selfish short-term profits, giving into Chinese demand, nurturing a snake in our bosom (養虎為患), and letting China get whatever they want, stealing all the intellectual property. 

The phrase “rose-colored/rose-tinted glasses/spectacles” is used to describe an optimistic, cheerful way of looking at things. 

When one looks through rose-colored glasses, things may look rosy but far from the truth.  He might be too optimistic, looking only on the bright side.  In reality, things might be worse than one can imagine.

只看到事物好的一面；過於樂觀地看待問題

I have a twitter account but I have only tweeted 4 times since 2009.  I still struggle to find the reason to tweet and the benefit of tweeting. 

Elisa English in Mineapolis