ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

Anyway, maybe there are some strategies behind this which I haven't figured out.  I do hope that whatever strategy they come up with will not hurt McCaine becoming the next US President.

My son is now a kindergartener.  He started kindergarten last Thursday.  Right away on his first day of school, he got a time-out.  As we approached his second day of school, he had a tree-nut allergic episode.  Oh well!  It looks like we are heading down the wrong path. 

The nurse called me on his third day of school.  I was thinking: Oh God!  Please don’t tell me that he had an asthma attack.  By the way, I don’t pray.  It’s a figure of speech.  Anyway, she told me that I might have to pack his lunch, and take him off the school lunch program.  I tried to negotiate my way out of that, as my son is a very picky eater.  He will not eat what I prepare for him.  He pretty much just eats fruits, plain rice, plain noodle, pasta without any topping (not even the cheese on top of it), and yogurt at home.  Maybe his body is acting as a defense, telling him not to try anything strange, in case it will trigger any allergic reaction.  I did manage to get the nurse to agree on my plan to have him eat the main course only, without any dessert for a couple of days. 

Inversion is used to emphasize sentences and to ask questions.  It is writing which reverses the usual order of words (S-V-C structure). 

1.  To provide emphasis

I always vote for the presidential candidate appointed by the Republican Party, no matter who the candidate is, as the party’s policies appeal to me.  I voted for Bush twice even though he is a laughing stalk in America for all the wrong words coming out from his mouth.  I like Republican’s policies mainly because I am a white collar and because I was born as a Taiwanese. 

I cannot stand the Democratic Party, lowering their status as the strongest country in the world, appealing to the Communist Chinese, just for short term interest, forgoing all human rights.  How can you sanction Iraq for being inhuman but not the Communist Chinese?  America has all the bargaining power, so it is beyond me when Clinton accepted all terms from the Communist Chinese, acting like a rat in front of a cat.

Reading feihong’s response prompted me to write this article.    

It is a pity that people would close their mind based on how they see where they belong.  What I meant is:  If you are a so-called Chinese descendant (offspring from people who retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-Sheik), you see only the value of Chinese and no more.  Anything related to Hakka or Taiwanese are not considered valuable to be even entertained.  If you are a so-called Taiwanese descendant (offspring from people that have lived in Taiwan long before those who retreated with Chiang Kai-Sheik), you may discredit anything related to China .

Many people have asked me this question: “How can I improve my English skill?”  Instead of answering them one by one, I thought that it may be beneficial to share my thoughts with you all.

First of all, I want to say that it takes time to learn a language. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t see the results right away.  I am over 40 years old, so I have learned English for over 32 years already.  Not good at English does not mean that you are worse than anyone else.  I have seen many Taiwanese students studying in the US with very poor English ability; however, they are very good at Computer Science, Engineering and etc.  It only means that you may not be able to advance in your career if working in an English speaking country.  Spanish is another language that is very popular in the US .  I don’t know Spanish either, but I don’t feel that I am less capable than anyone else.  Chinese is also becoming a very popular language in the world.  Don’t look down on yourself.

I happened to come across this poem from Lord Byron while answering a Yahoo Knowledge question.  It is really beautiful so I would like to share it with you.

I used to dislike attorneys because of the stereotype I had of them.  I thought that all attorneys would defend their clients at all costs regardless of their crime.

In the course of my life, I have encountered several attorneys and work with attorneys every day due to the nature of my work, outside the field of criminal law.  I actually have made quite a few attorney friends.  They are like any normal human beings.  One of my best friends is actually my colleague, who specializes in business law for insurance and annuity products.  Occasionally, he would provide me advice for investment properties and copyrights because I want to get in the field of investing in properties and of publishing my writings and translations.

Common pitfalls in English writing and translation:

Reading the answers in Yahoo Knowledge, I have noticed a pattern of some Taiwanese English writing style: redundancy and wordiness.  This happens not only to people with poor English ability, but to people with good English skill.

I mentioned to my husband the other day that I have volunteered to be a Mandarin Chinese speaker for the Bravo (musical) and Art Masterpiece program in Chinese Immersion Class at my son’s school if my schedule allows.  His reaction was that I would add more harm than help because of my poor Chinese.  He likes to joke about my poor Chinese language ability.  That was not very encouraging.  I know that my Chinese is not very good but I think that I should be able to handle a bunch of elementary school students between the ages of 5 to 7 with English as mother tongue.  His next response was that I did not have any musical or art background to introduce the musical piece or the art masterpiece.  I argued that the school will provide the material.  (I hope so.)  Then he came back with the comment that I would make a fool of myself if I cannot answer the questions from the students.  That may be true.

What a non-supporting spouse!   He is my talking cricket.  If you have read Pinocchio, you would know what I meant!