Saturday 31 October 2020

Halloween weekend👻💀

Sunrise and sunset have been about one hour earlier since 25 Oct than the day before, which means the Summer is over and the Winter is approaching soon.


This weekend is ‘Hallows' Evening’ (Halloween), which can be dated back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a pagan religious festival). Its connotations include the end of Summer, the harvest and the beginning of the dark and cold weather. It is to some extent associated with human death. 



During the transition of the light and the dark—on the night before the new year, the ancient Celtic believes that the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead turned blurred. Therefore, people celebrate Halloween in a spooky way by putting on ghost costumes, surrounding with candlelight and creepy carving pumpkins. For Children, it is about the right time to ‘trick-or-treating’ and enjoy eating sweets for a good reason. 


Getting into the Halloween spirit and say hello to this maple Autumn.






自從1025日以來,日出和日落比前一天早了大約一小時,這意味著夏天已結束了而冬天快到了。 

這個週末是萬聖節之夜(萬聖節),其歷史可以追溯到古老的凱爾特人薩姆海因節(異教宗教節日)。 它的含義包括夏天的結束,秋收以及黑暗和寒冷天氣的開始,在某種程度上與人的死亡有關。 

在光明與黑暗的過渡中,在新的一年的前一天晚上,古老的凱爾特人相信生與死世界之間的界限變得模糊。因此,人們穿著鬼衣,圍著燭光和令人毛骨悚然的雕刻南瓜來鬼怪地慶祝萬聖節。對於兒童來說,正是個有充份理由搗蛋和享受糖果的好時機。 

融入萬聖節氛圍,並向這個楓葉秋天打招呼。

Saturday 24 October 2020

Black History Month

October marks Black History Month, which was officially recognized by the US government in 1976, and first celebrated in the UK in 1987. This Octorber is especially significant against the backdrop of global campaigns--Black Lives Matter, which revealed the uncovering truth of racism and inequality in the developed Western world. Up to date, there is still a long way to go for the equality of opportunity for all and to cherish the ethnic diversity and to establish a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all the creatures. 

In the UK, the term Black British people are referred to British citizens of either African descent or of Black African-Caribbean (sometimes called "Afro-Caribbean") background. For this Black History Month, I herein share several old photos of my trip to South Africa many years ago. Travelling to South Africa where has fresh air and wonderful nature has become a very memorable experience in my very young age. That was an unexpected overseas travel, partly because of the travelling cost is relatively high, partly due to unfamiliarity to Africa; however, it was fulfilled as a result of my high shoolmate’s invitation. However, after that trip, my friend and I did not talk to each other anymore. That is another story...friendship was ruined during a long trip.

South Africa is featured by many rich and natural resources, including golds and diamonds that you cannot see in other continents. My 11-day trip to South Africa was expensive but quite marvelous, ranging from the luxury Sun City Hotel, grape wine event, sky gondola to Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, traditional Africa village shows and cuisine, modern shopping mall-Georgetown, exploring diamond mine and factory to Big Five quasi-Safari trip. In these tours, you still can feel and observe the British post-colonial power remain in this land. For example, De Beers diamond factory and store is just next to the huge mine! 












黑人歷史月

十月是“黑人歷史月”,這是美國政府於1976年正式官方承認的,並於1987年在英國首次慶祝。這個十月在全球倡議運動的背景下尤其重要-珍視黑人生命,揭示了西方發達國家的種族主義和不平等的真相. 迄今為止,要實現所有人的機會均等並珍惜種族多樣性並為所有生物建立一個安全,包容和熱情的環境,還有很長的路要走。

在英國,“黑人英國人”一詞是指具有非洲血統或黑人非洲-加勒比(有時稱為“非洲-加勒比”)背景的英國公民。 在這個黑人歷史月中,我在這裡分享了多年前我去南非旅行的一些照片。 到南非呼吸新鮮空氣,享受大自然的美好時光,在我很年輕的時候就已成為令人難忘的經歷。 那是出乎意料的海外旅行,部分原因是旅行費用較高,部分原因是對非洲不熟悉。 但是,由於高中同學的邀請下而得以實現。 但是,這次旅行之後,我和我的朋友就不再講話了><。 那又是另一個故事...友誼在長途旅行中被毀了。

南非擁有許多豐富的自然資源,包括在其他大洲看不到的黃金和鑽石。我去南非的11天行程雖然昂貴,但卻十分精彩,從豪華的太陽城酒店,品葡萄酒活動,空中纜車到桌山,好望角,非洲傳統鄉村表演和美食,現代購物中心喬治鎮,參觀鑽石礦山到五巨頭的準野生動物園之旅。在這些旅行中,您仍然可以感覺到並觀察到英國後殖民力量仍在這片土地上。例如,戴比爾斯鑽石工廠和商店就在礦山旁邊哩.

Sunday 11 October 2020

Clean Air Day 🍀🌝 8 Oct 2020

There are many holidays, festivals, Saints days and celebrations in the worldwide that I still don’t know yet. Sometimes I receive emails from different organisations then I start to realise those special days in every month. For example, this week is about Clean Air Day (8 Oct 2020). 






Air pollution reportedly kills 40,000 people a year in the UK (NHS, 2016). This year, Clean Air Day is especially meaningful and perhaps the most harvest year due to COVID-19 lockdown. As we know, COVID-19 has led to a lot of chaos in the human world; including political disputes, economic turndown and social distance (is that a social challenge?). However, we human being bring about more disaster to the world. For example, eternal plastic rubbish, exhausting working hours, aggressive animal test et al., in terms of that, some might deem COVID-19 a real cleaner sent by the God to reduce the problem of air pollution and so on. 


Do'nt tell me this is ART or recycling 

This time, I received the email from the bus company, but it was the date on 9 October after Clean Air Day. Otherwise, if I had read the email, I would have decided to walk instead of taking the bus to my destination. To see the effect of worldwide lockdown amid COVID-19 pandemic on air quality, let's get back to see some photos to remind ourselves how serious the air pollution made by human being. 

Gary Fuller: "The Himalayas are visible from places that people have previously never seen them for a generation."  (Source: 2020 British Safety Council)

(Source: The Guardian)

 🍀🌝清潔空氣

世界各地還有許多假期,節日,聖日和慶祝活動我仍然不知道。有時我收到來自不同組織的電子郵件,然後我才開始知道每個月的特殊日子。

這一周是清潔空氣日(2020108日)。據報導,空氣污染每年在英國造成64,000人死亡。今年的空氣日尤其有意義,由於COVID-19的封鎖,也許是收穫最多的一年。 COVID-19在人類世界中造成了很多混亂;包括政治糾紛,經濟下滑和社會距離(這是社會挑戰嗎?)。但是,人類給世界帶來更多的災難, 像是:永遠不爛的塑料垃圾,累死人的工作時間,手段激進的動物試驗等; 從此觀點來看,有些人可能會認為COVID-19是上帝派遣來的真正世界清道夫,以減少空汙等問題.

這次,我收到了公共汽車公司的電子郵件,但這是清潔空氣日之後的109日。 否則,如果我閱讀了電子郵件,我將決定步行,而不是乘公共汽車去我的目的地。

最後,讓我們回過頭來看看在COVID-19疫情大流行期間全球封鎖對空氣質量的影響,以提醒我們自己人為造成的嚴重空氣污染。美國國家太空總署(NASA)報告稱,印度北部所記錄的空氣污染已降到20年來低點,這令人驚訝嗎?

Friday 2 October 2020

President Donald Trump and his wife both tested positive for the coronavirus 👿

 Today’s shocking news: President Donald Trump announced that he and his wife both tested positive for the coronavirus!!
Photoed at high street in the UK

It perhaps happened during the 2020 United States presidential election debate on September 29, 2020, which was described as ‘a raucous affair with allegations, insults and interruptions flying at lightning-fast speed’ (BBC News). The two candidates’ wives’ body language were also analysed by the media, in which Melania Trump chose to remove her disposable facemask when she came on stage to show her support for her husband.

Snapshot Source: BBC News, 30 Sep 2020

The global translators, terminologists and interpreters will only understand the true meaning of the words and the implication behind the scene if they have rich and professional cultural background of social language, including religious phrases.

Snapshot Source: BBC News, 30 Sep 2020

Interestingly, 30 September is International Translation Day (ITD) since 1953, which is an international day celebrated every year on the feast of the Bible translator - St. Jerome. Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the theme for 2020 International Translation Day is ‘Finding the words for a world incrisis’. Have you picked your own words for your crisis in COVID-19? 

Source: ITD official website

川普總統和他的妻子都冠狀病毒檢測為陽性

今日令人震驚的消息:唐納川普總統宣布他和他的妻子都冠狀病毒檢測為陽性。

這也許是在2020929日舉行的2020年美國總統大選辯論期間發生的,這場被描述為“一場充滿指控,侮辱和干擾的火爆事件”(BBC新聞)。媒體還對兩名候選人的妻子的肢體語言進行了分析,梅拉尼亞·川普(Melania Trump)上台時選擇拿下拋棄式口罩以表示對丈夫的支持。

據報導,這場激烈的辯論對世界各地的許多翻譯人員構成了巨大挑戰,一些質疑候選人的短語也使當地美國人感到驚訝。例如,喬·拜登(Joe Biden)指涉川普的稅收時,用阿拉伯語“ Inshallah”(回教人士和說阿拉伯語的人最常用來指稱人們希望將來發生的事件)以諷刺的方式暗示他永遠不可能會交很多稅

如果全球翻譯人員,術語專家和口譯員具有豐富且專業的社交語言文化背景,包括宗教用語,則他們會理解單詞的真正意思以及其背後的含義。 

有趣的是,930日是自1953年以來的國際翻譯日,這是每年對聖人 Jerome(聖經翻譯者)的節慶國際日;COVID-19的背景下,2020年國際翻譯日的主題是“處於危機中的世界中的的字彙”。您是否為你在這場COVID-19危機選擇了自己的字彙呢?