LO LAT LO -- LO LAT LA

Mark Zuckerberg does Vietnam, noshes on rat meat dishes

2011-12-29T04:27:00.000-08:00

Mark Zuckerberg recently took a trip to Vietnam, a country where Facebook is still verboten, we hear. Verboten is French for um, er, ''illegal''.

MZ flew in with his wife-to-be Priscilla Chan and and a few friends, according to Gizmodo's Sam Biddle.

Once there, MZ and gang observed the Tet holiday doing things like "eating rat stew" and "eating rat meat with ginger and garlic" and other culinary feats. And now, close your eyes and imagine Mark Zuckerberg noshing on some delicious Vietnamese field rat stew. While blindfolded!

After flying into Hanoi in December 22, MZ and gang took a chartered helicopter, which the Vietnamese Website Tuoitre News says costs around US$6,400 per trip to Ha Long Bay, and spent the day on a cruising junk and kayaking. They then flew to Sapa, where Zuckerberg and Miss Chan supped on more rat meat stew.

Never say no when you travel overseas. TRY EVERYTHING [AT LEAST ONCE]!
In other words, RATATOUILLE!

-- ''The local Vietnamese people around here eat quite a lot of rat meat, caught in the cane and rice fields nearby. I was up for eating one if they would BBQ them, but they were only available raw and fresh as seen here.'' [says Expat Traveller No. 107]

Read and see and taste more here:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/kai.berlick/1/1284312677/rats.jpg/tpod.html#ixzz1hnKk0v3p

Slaughtered rats in VIETNAM are displayed for sale at a local market in Canh Nau village, about 40 km (25 miles) west of Hanoi. That's where MZ tried his rat meat stew and came away delighted!

Canh Nau is known as ''rat meat village'' where people eat rats as well as other kinds of animal meat such as pork, beef and chickens. One kilogram of slaughtered rats costs US$4. In the past, field rats and house rats were eaten as a result of poverty .....but now they are eaten at the end of every month of the lunar calendar as a special dish and local media report that an average of a 100 kilograms of rat are sold in the village every day!

PHOTO
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/slaughtered-rats-displayed-sale-market-canh-nau-village-photo-160146990.html

The Taipei Times as displayed everyday at the newspaper kiosk inside the Chiayi Train Station lobby

2011-12-29T03:36:00.000-08:00

The kiosk manager obviously has a flair for newspaper sales! Very cool concept. Caught my eye and I asked a high school girl to snap the photo for the blog here. Thanks, QWERT from Tainan!

NOTICE: That is two newspaper folded and displayed together to look like ONE FRONT PAGE, but it's an illusion! I love it!

American woman with Taiwan roots and family ties to Taiwan wins big on THE AMAZING RACE TV reality show in USA

2011-12-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, Cindy and her partner in the race, Ernie Halverson (and her
fiance, too, they couple are engaged and are planning on getting
married soon) had their eye on the prize
and they bagged it. One million US dollars. $$$$$$$$$$!

Cindy tells us her mom and dad are both from Taipei, and that she
remembers her mother telling her that when she was a high school
student
in Taiwan, she passed the college entrance exam back then with flying
colors, coming in at Number One in the test scores.

Cindy and Ernie have also already made landfall in Taiwan, and they
hope to come back again in the summer of 2012. For the TV show, Cindy
and Ernie -- for leg 1 of THE AMAZING RACE -- came to Taiwan and shot
the video here.

"We went to the Xi Men Ding commercial district, then to Confucious
temple, then to Da Jia Riverside Park to do dragon boat races and
lastly to the National Martyr's shrine for our pit stop," Cindy told
this blog in a recent email. Taiwan, land of her ancestors, still
shines brightly in Cindy's heart, and Ernie has a good feel for Taiwan
now, too, after
shooting the TV show here last year.

Next summer, the couple will be travelling to China for some
sightseeing adventures, and Cindy said she hopes that she and Ernie
can stop over in Taiwan too for a few days
and enjoy the sights in a more leisurely way, and maybe even give some
good interviews to local reporters at TVBS and FTV, not to mention
APPLE DAILY and the LIBERTY TIMES and the UNITED DAILY NEWS. The
English language newspapers will also be invited to the press
conference as well.

Their visit might be sponsored by the ROC Tourism Bureau, as a PR
event. Or they might come on their own and enjoy the view as
sightseers not invovled in a major TV show. Which they won! ONE
MILLION DOLLARS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwAEVHDlxLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qWq5wbwUvE&feature=relmfu

">Cindy Chiang grew up in America, the daughter of parents who emigrated
from Taipei to the USA before she was born, and now her name
is in the news -- worldwide! -- for wining the Million Dollar Prize in
the popular US TV reality show called THE AMAZING RACE.

Rats! There's rat on the menu and it's delicious! Never say no when you travel overseas. TRY EVERTHING [AT LEAST ONCE]!

2011-12-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

RATATOUILLE!

-- ''The local Vietnamese people around here eat quite a lot of rat meat, caught in the cane and rice fields nearby. I was up for eating one if they would BBQ them, but they were only available raw and fresh as seen here.'' [says Expat Traveller No. 107]

Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/kai.berlick/1/1284312677/rats.jpg/tpod.html#ixzz1hnKk0v3pSlaughtered rats in VIETNAM are displayed for sale at a local market in Canh Nau village, about 40 km (25 miles) west of Hanoi. Canh Nau is known as ''rat meat village'' where people eat rats as well as other kinds of animal meat such as pork, beef and chickens. One kilogram of slaughtered rats costs US$4. In the past, field rats and house rats were eaten as a result of poverty .....but now they are eaten at the end of every month of the lunar calendar as a special dish and local media report that an average of a 100 kilograms of rat are sold in the village every day!

TAIWAN also sells a special dish called LAO SU RO SAN BEI or TIEN SU RO SAN BEI, which are large farm field rats that feed on sugarcane and are delicious when cooked up with garlic and ginger seasonings in a special concoction that goes down well with Taiwan Beer on the side. Oishii!

PHOTO
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/slaughtered-rats-displayed-sale-market-canh-nau-village-photo-160146990.html

Spot the spelling errors? There are two. To be fixed later.

2011-12-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

Wang Sheng Hsiung from Talin, Chiayi County - LO LAT to you!

2011-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

Wang Sheng Hsiung

Mr Wang of Talin, Chiayi County, wearing green bandana around neck, his bike, he cycled from Seattle to DC a few years ago and all around Hokkaido as well. Retired elementary school teacher in his 60 making the most of his retirement days. BRAVO. Here he is playing the erhu outside the main gate of Chung Cheng University on a quiet Tuesday night in late December, just to interact with the students walking by....

New Year's Song, composed by George Wallace, words by Biko Lang, for 2012

2011-12-26T19:29:00.001-08:00

New Year Dance by songsterhiragana

An interview with Taiwanese children's book author CHOU YAO-PING - - Author of 《鐘聲喚醒的故事》。

2011-12-26T04:33:00.000-08:00

繪者: Miss 羅喬殷 (book illustrator)

一九九一年生於臺中，目前就讀於國立臺北藝術大學美術系。二Ｏ一Ｏ年參加金車仲夏插畫祭奇幻旅行繪本比賽獲第三名，之後便一頭栽入繪本的世界，《鐘聲喚醒的故事》為個人首次參與的圖畫書繪圖，今後打算繼續朝此方面邁進，相信只要自己在創作過程中覺得快樂，一定能畫出滿意、精采的作品。

An interview with CHOU YAO-PING [周姚萍], author of a children's book in Taiwan --in Chinese only for now, an English translation might be published later --about an old '''bomb bell'' in the village of Tomiac in Chenggong Township in Taitung County in southern Taiwan. The bells dates back to a chapter of World War II that took place in Taiwan, more than 60 years ago, when Taiwan was a colony of Imperial Japan, and therefore was part of the Japanese Imperial Army fighting the Americans in the war. As a result, under the circumstances, American warplanes dropped bombs on many parts of Taiwan, in an attempt to defeat the enemy, which was Japan and her Formosan colony.

What follows are a series of questions posed by American reporter Danny Bloom to author Chou Yao-ping, and her answers follow in Mandarin. The book was illustrated by Taiwanese artist 羅喬殷

LISTEN TO THE BELL HERE:

DANNY BLOOM: What is the Chinese title of your book and what does the Chinese title mean?

CHOU YAO-PING: 中文書名是《鐘聲喚醒的故事》。過去，這個炸彈鐘在部落裡用來召集大家一起打獵、捕魚，有火警等意外發生時，也用來警告人們。後來炸彈鐘被丟在草叢裡，成了一塊廢鐵，然而，孩子們寫下計畫書，動員大夥兒重新復原炸彈鐘，當鐘聲又響起的時候，過去炸彈鐘與部落一起經歷的一個個故事，也在人們心中甦醒了。而且，炸彈鐘還會繼續在豐年祭要舉行時，在召集大家去?預部落的每件事時，一次次敲響，鐘聲每敲響一次，就代表一個屬於部落的新故事又發生了，這也是書名代表的意義。 [In the past, long ago, this old ''bomb bell'' was used when the tribe wanted to call everybody to go hunting together, or to catch fish, or if there was a big accident nearby or there was a fire (to warn the villagers). But at some point in time, the bell was thrown away and ended up in a grassy field, to become scrap iron. But the children in the vilalge had an idea, and they mobilized everybody to bring the bomb bell back into public use, and the story of the bell resonted deeply in the hearts and minds of the local people.]

2. The story is set in Taitung. Why is the story set in Taitung?

CHOU YAO-PING: 炸彈鐘真正存在於台東一個叫做「''重安''」的部落，如果人們開車經過東海岸，到重安走一走，就可以親眼看到掛在高處的炸彈鐘。因此，我將故事背景設定在台東。 [The bomb bell really exists in Tomiac Village in Taitung, and you drive in that area along the east coast of southern Taiwan, you can see with your own eyes where the peace bell is hanging. So I based my story for the book on that village in Taitung.]

3. Do you live in Taitung? Where do you live in Taiwan?

CHOU YAO-PING: 我住在台北。[I live in Taipei in northern Taiwan].

4. Why do you know the story about the ''bomb bell'' of Tomiac Village? Who told you about it?

CHOU YAO-PING: 炸彈鐘在重安被修復後，?與修復工作的孩子，受到一個青少年志工大會的表揚，《張老師月刊》的總編輯呂政達先生，在表揚大會上遇到這群孩子，知道他們的故事，於是寫了一篇短文，登在《國語日報》上。我是看到這篇短文而知道這個故事的。 [The bomb bell was in the news a while back, and I read the news about the bell at my home in Taipei and the story resonated with me, touched my heart. That is how I heard about this interesting story in Taiwan's past.]

5. What age group is the book for? Children aged 3 to 8? Ages 8 to 12? Adults too?

CHOU YAO-PING: 這個故事比較適合 8 to 12 歲的小孩閱讀。當然也適合成人。[The book is quite suitable for boys and girls from ages 8 to 12, and for adults, too, of course.]

6. What is the theme of the book? Is it about war? Is it about peace? is it about Aboriginal people or Aboriginal culture in Taitung?

CHOU YAO-PING: 我想在故事中表達的意涵有關於戰爭的。這部分藉由因戰爭失去所有家人的金義阿公來呈現。炸彈鐘原本是個炸彈，殺傷力很強，部落的人們卻將它變成一個凝聚重安每個人的工具。後來炸彈鐘修復了，志豪等孩子更寫卡片給金義阿公，邀請他前來敲鐘，金義阿公也接受了孩子的關心，在最後出現，用力敲響炸彈鐘，讓傷痛得到釋放，心變得平靜。所以可以說，金義阿公因炸彈而受傷很深，也因一顆被改頭換面的炸彈(炸彈鐘)獲得心的平靜。同時，這個故事也呈現出了台東阿美族人人口流失、傳統文化斷層的困境。這其實是台灣許多偏鄉地區的困境。還有，我想說，炸彈鐘是重安的寶貝，台灣許多地方也各自有屬於他們的寶貝，大人應該帶著孩子去找出屬於自己居住地的寶貝，這寶貝也許像炸彈鐘一樣跟歷史有關，或是跟文化有關，或是大自然的一種動物或植物。當孩子找到屬於他們居住地的寶貝後，就會更珍惜自己所住的地方，也會好好保護它，做更多事讓它變得更好。

7. The Japanese ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. Was this a good time for Taiwan or a bad time for Taiwan? Did the Japanese do good things for Taiwan? Did they do bad things to Taiwan?

CHOU YAO-PING: 日本統治台灣的期間，治安良好，人們不用擔心小偷強盜等問題。日本政府也很有計畫的為台灣做了許多田野調查，包括物種、資源等等，留下重要而珍貴的紀錄。不過，他們這麼做，都是為了充分使用台灣的資源。另外，為了統治上更順利，日本人從孩子小學就開始教他們：天皇是神，替天皇效命是很偉大的……也由於害怕台灣人受太多教育，懂得思考了，會起來反抗他們，因此臺灣人受高等教育的機會很少。這些都是被殖民者所受到的不平等待遇。

8. The bomb in the village was dropped by an American airplane flying over Taiwan during the U.S. war against Japan, part of World War II. Why did the USA want to bomb
Taiwan?

CHOU YAO-PING: 第二次世界大戰時，日本偷襲珍珠港，美國於是對日本開戰，當時台灣是日本的殖民地，被當成日本的一部分，所以美軍轟炸日本本土，也轟炸台灣。

9. Today the bomb is a bell. Who had that idea? Was there one man or one woman had the idea first?

CHOU YAO-PING: 我去採訪重安的老人家，他們說，阿美族有年齡階層，也就是一種自治組織，每四歲一個階層(比方12到16歲，16到20歲)，年紀大的那一個階層可以指派比較年輕的階層為部落出力執行公共事務，像是抓魚，幫某一戶人家蓋屋子。當時，炸彈由最年輕的年齡階層，一共八個人從小港漁港搬回重安。重安的老人家沒有具體說明將炸彈當成鐘來使用，是誰的點子，但大概可以推測當時長老要聚集人們時，並不方便，所以很可能是長老的想法。

10. When children read your book, how do you think they feel?

CHOU YAO-PING: 十一月 [The book was published in November 2011]。

我到中正紀年堂廣場講故事給小朋友聽，原本想講這個故事，但因為小孩的年紀太小，很多都才念幼稚園，所以我改講了其他比較適合的故事。不過現場有《鐘聲喚醒的故事》這本書，有一位念三年級的小女孩自己去拿來看完，頗受吸引的模樣。另外，十二月我到彰化，對中山國小的家長演講，其中也有家長帶小孩來，小孩和大人聽著這個故事都顯得很專注，但由於這場演講是針對成人的，所以我並沒有藉由這本書跟孩子互動。很抱歉，這個問題似乎沒有具體的答案。

倒是我去台東辦新書的分享會，有一位故事媽媽，在分享會舉行前已經買了這本書，並打算要去一些學校跟孩子們講這個故事。我們在分享會上放了YouTube 上題名為「美國炸彈」的影片(也就是重安修復炸彈鐘的影片)，她看了很興奮，決定為學校孩子說完故事後，藉由影片帶他們去看看炸彈鐘的真實模樣。

VIDEO LINK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro4T9TbtBtk

A WWII 'bomb bell' guards an Amis tribal village for 60 years, reports a December 2011 English newspaper in Taiwan

A 500-pound unexploded bomb dropped by the United States on Taiwan during World War II has been anything but a dud over the past six decades, at least in the eyes of one indigenous tribe in Taitung County.

The Amis village of Tomiac in Chenggong Township has embraced the bomb as a good luck charm ever since it was found in Siaogang Harbor in the eastern Taiwan township and carried back to the village after being processed properly.

The community's elders decided to make it a warning bell, positioning it at the highest point in the village to alert the tribespeople to emergencies such as fires and earthquakes or to mobilize them for town meetings.
The story returned to the public eye in 2011 when a respected Taiwanese author of children's books, Chou Yao-ping, published a children's picture book in November 2011 based on the “bomb bell” story.

Chu Shih-chieh, a worker from cultural and historical workshop “One and Half Studio,” explained that people used to live in thatched houses, so fires were commonplace.

Whoever noticed the fire first would run up the hill to ring the “bomb bell,” alerting villagers to the threat and getting them to help deal with the blaze.

Fires became less frequent with time because the village's thatched houses were gradually phased out, so the bell became used by elders primarily when there were important matters to inform other members of the tribe.

After years of exposure to wind and rain, the bell grew rusty, and in 2006, the village repainted the iconic symbol and built a pavilion to shelter it.

The rehabilitation of the bell and the building of the pavilion was made into an 8-minute short film that won an award from Taiwan's National Youth Commission in 2006.

PHOTO CAPTION: An undetonated American bomb is seen hanging as a bell along Taiwan's east coast in Taitung. The swaying, 500-pound bomb was located in the mountains of the Amis indigenous tribe. Ironically, what was once created in wartime to destroy homes and human beings now serves as a “lucky bell” that watches over the safety of an Aboriginal tribal community in southern Taiwan.

繪者 羅喬殷 (book illustrator)

一九九一年生於臺中，目前就讀於國立臺北藝術大學美術系。二Ｏ一Ｏ年參加金車仲夏插畫祭奇幻旅行繪本比賽獲第三名，之後便一頭栽入繪本的世界，《鐘聲喚醒的故事》為個人首次參與的圖畫書繪圖，今後打算繼續朝此方面邁進，相信只要自己在創作過程中覺得快樂，一定能畫出滿意、精采的作品。

The Tuvalu Ground Zero Climate Change Interview

2011-12-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: You have relocated your virtual offices of the Polar Cities Research Institute to Tuvalu. Why?

DANNY: I wanted to come to what I consider to be the Ground Zero of climate change in the western Pacific and to see for myself what impact the rising sea levels will have on this island nation. I plan to speak with local people about their fears and anxieties, and also about their religious beliefs, as I have heard some people say that they are not worried about rising sea levels or climate change because in their naive interpretation of the story of Noah in the Old Testament, they believe that God (who of course does not even exist, pardon my French) will protect them as he protected Noah. Can you believe it. One man in Tonga, Tuvalu, even said that in public on a recent National Geographic TV special about climate change.

Question: What's in it for you, being here?

Danny: I just want to be up close and personal with Ground Zero in the battle against climate change.
Virtually. We all need to focus on this. Otherwise, it's curtains. I don't want to hear a big chorus of "We're doomed, we're doomed" in the future. I hope the people of Tuvalu can
serve as witnesses to the very big problem we are facing.

Question: How long will you stay here?

Danny: For the duration. This is the beginning and the end of human
life on Planet Earth, in today's fight against climate change. I want to have a front seat view. It's breath-taking being here, the views are stunning, as my friend Ann Stout told me on Facebook, but at the same time, this is not a pretty picture at all!

Jody Chiang TV ad with Phil from New Zealand with text in romaji from the spoken Hoklo (tai-gi)

2011-12-25T02:11:00.001-08:00

new dialog for TV ad for Jiang Hui, Jody Chiang, for NEXT YEAR...maybe?

> Someone asked me why my music can touch so many people in Taiwan

我想用一輩子的時間認真做好一件事情自然就會感動人
> I think doing one thing well within a lifetime will touch many people.

> 3.一首好歌可以安慰所有人的心一杯好酒也可以溫暖你我的心
> a good song can comfort everyone's heart.

> a good wine can also warm your heart.....

GAM SHA LO LAT.....

Taiwan honors Big Nosed foreigners who contributed their life work to Taiwan -- List of 1000 "big noses" created by government

2011-12-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

A 9-meter-tall stainless steel tree sculpture honoring the contributions of 10,000 Big Nosed Foreigners was donated to the Council for Cultural Affairs on Dec. 17, according to the CCA.

“Taiwan has benefited tremendously over the past century from the contribution of big nose foreign missionaries, big nose teachers, big nose volunteers and big nose medical workers. Even Jesus was a Big Nose guy, Jesus Adoah, haha,” Small Nosed Vice President Vincent Hsaio of Chiayi City said at a ceremony marking the donation.

Created by artist and National Taiwan University of Arts professor Small Nose (Wax Apple Nose) Liu Po-chun, the tree was gifted by the Foundation of Taiwan Organizations of Philanthropic Education as part of the ROC centennial celebrations.

The sculpture bears some 1,000 names of big nosed foreign aid workers who have served the country for over 30 years. Among them are Big Nose Adoah David Landsborough III, a British missionary in central Taiwan and the founder of Changhua Christian Hospital, Big Nose Adoah William Campbell, a Scottish missionary who established Taiwan’s first school for the blind, and Very Big Nose Gian Carlo Michelini, an Italian missionary who founded the Lan-yang Dancers, Taiwan’s prime preserver of Yilan’s folk dance traditions.

“The tree stands as a symbol of the Big Noses' far-reaching benevolence and a reminder for the Taiwanese people to be thankful at all times,” the small nosed vice president said.

THE LIST INCLUDES: (full list of names to appear here soon, once we get them):

There’s no full list of the names available online; however, we do have a few names provided by the organization responsible for this project

:財團法人台灣公益組織教育基金會

(F.T.O.P.E, Foundation of Taiwan Organizations for Philanthropic Education)

David Landsborough, the Third

David Landsborough the IVth

Bjarne Gieslefoss,

Alfhild J. Gieslefoss,

Luis Gutheinz,

Francis Burkhardt

István Jaschkó,

Gian Carlo Michelini

William Campbell

A permanent reminder of the centennial celebrations was erected in Taipei's Huashan 1914 Creative Park. A six-meter-tall stainless steel “tree” inscribed with the names of 1,500 big nosed non-Taiwanese who e made great contributions to Taiwan, it will honor the likes of Christian medical missionary George Mackay (1844-1901) and others. A Canadian missionary who spent more than half his life here, the bearded big nosed Mackay is remembered for his pioneering work in the fields of medical care and education and a hospital was named after him in Taipei, too.

The “Big Nose Gratitude Tree” was unveiled on December 10, 2011......International Human Rights Day. The Foundation of Taiwan Organizations for Philanthropic Education, the small nosed body in charge of the project, is sifting nominations in four big nose categories:

1. Medicine and public health
2. social welfare
3. education and culture
4. democracy and human rights

The foundation is also planning to promote a website, TV programs, and books about the most influential big noses in the small nosed country's history.

YILAN TREES GET MARRIED

2011-12-23T02:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.bcc.com.tw/news/newsview.asp?cde=1652766

另類婚禮宜蘭百年老樹證婚典禮

宜蘭縣羅東林業文化園區內有兩株樹齡近百歲的「茄苳」與「榕樹」環抱在一起生長，就像是一對恩愛夫妻相擁，羅東林區管理處經對外票選，命名為「羅苳公」和「林榕婆」，今天舉行擬人化的證婚儀式，見證自然界的世紀婚禮。(賴沁沁報導)

(t)林務局羅東林區管理處舉行羅東林業文化園區展示蘭陽山林步道之美的「森動館」啟用儀式，同時為在森動館庭園內兩株樹齡近百歲的夫妻樹舉行證婚典禮，羅東林區管理處長林鴻忠指出，茄苳樹和老榕樹緊緊環抱在一起，兩樹枝繁葉茂，尤其是主幹相互纏繞，就像是夫妻般恩愛相擁，不少遊客都覺得非常新奇，經過命名活動取名為「羅苳公」和「林榕婆」，幫他們舉行結婚儀式，見證大自然的力量。(t)

百年老樹羅苳公和林榕婆樹除了有結婚證書，現場還準備喜糖、湯圓與民眾分享這對新人的喜事。

(攝影:賴沁沁)

I am relocating virtually to Tuvalu, there to observe climate change first-hand and up close and personal

2011-12-23T01:24:00.000-08:00

Someday this island will be under water. What then?

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com/

NEW YEAR's DANCE SONG ROCKS THE WORLD

2011-12-23T01:17:00.000-08:00

New Year Dance 发布人 songsterhiragana

George Wallace hopes his
song for New Year's Eve 2011 will result in a global embrace of a
fresh
New Year's anthem.

Wallace worked over a six-month period
to come up with a collaboration that culminated with a rousing
anthem of a song titled "New Year Dance."

"What we're really trying to do is put out a cool song with a cool
message that somehow makes the world a more peaceful place to live,"
Wallace says.

The goal was to create an international celebration song to be played
up to and during the New Year, he said. The song includes "call outs"
of "Happy New Year" in eight different languages: Spanish, Chinese,
Japanese, French, Russian, Norwegian, Hebrew and English.

"We created the song and have made it available online for free as a
gift to the world, just for fun, and to celebrate the New Year
worldwide with a global anthem," he says.

After being barraged by holiday music during this season of the year,
there is kind of a lull in celebratory music in the week leading up to
New Year's, Wallace says. With the exception of the tradition of "Auld
Lang Syne" being played at midnight of January 1, there isn't much New
Year's-specific music out there, he adds.

On the web:
To hear "New Year's Dance" for free, click here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/songsterhiragana/video/x2yv92_new-year-dance

Wallace went to work in his home
studio and came up with the arrangement as the mew
global song
began to take shape. After sketching up a musical background and
reworking the lyrics a little bit, Wallace mixed his own voice with
14-year-old Taylor Vidic's vocals.

"It was really cool because I knew I was the ... first person to sing
it," the Taylor says."It's just a really fun, upbeat happy song."

"I had the easy part, just writing the words," the lyricist says. "George
did all the heavy lifting and turned a simple happy-feel lyric into a
resounding choral song."

Wallace says he hopes the song will proliferate through the
Internet and become a tune associated annually with the holiday,
around the world.

"It's a global song, a global anthem," Wallace says.

江蕙金酒廣告 - Jody Chiang TV commercial with Phil Tchernegovski in Taiwan for Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor

2011-12-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

A NEW JODY CHIANG TV AD says, [thanks to Jerry's translation below]:

''Someone once asked me why my music can touch foreigners........[referring to New Zealand Phil shown in the ad, who loves her songs]....

.....I think that doing one thing well[such as singing] in one's lifetime can touch people everywhere.......

.....a good song can comfort a person's heart anywhere in the world.....

...and a good alcoholic beverage [such as Taiwan's Kinmen Kaoliang] can also warm one's heart......

@jerry255255

1.有人問我為什麼台語歌可以感動外國人
Someone asked me why my music can touch Foreigners
2.我想用一輩子的時間認真做好一件事情自然就會感動人
I think doing one thing well with a life time will touch people.
3.一首好歌可以安慰所有人的心一杯好酒也可以溫暖你我的心
a good song can comfort everyone's heart.
a good wine can also warm your heart
translation by jerry255255 on Youtube

Recently, a camera crew from an advertising agency in Taipei flew popular singer Jody Chiang [江蕙] -- a native of Chiayi, by the way -- to New Zealand to shoot a new commerical featuring Jody interacting with Phil Tchernegovski, a sculptor there, who became a big fan of Miss Chiang, stemming from 12 years ago when he came to Taiwan to look for his missing son who had died while hiking on a mountain trail on Ali Mountain.

Phil came to Taiwan on six occasions to look for his son, but to no avail. But while in Taiwan looking for his son, Phil found comfort from listening to Jody’s songs when he was introduced to her music by Taiwanese friends he made in Taiwan during that sad time. A reporter wrote about his story in the newspapers and Jody found out about it. She then personally invited Phil to her September 2010 concert in Taipei and introduced him in the audience during the show. It's a heartwarming story.

This commerical aired in Taiwan during the months of December 2011 and January 2012, and there were several TV news reports about the new ad, too. This blog hopes that some TV stations and newspapers in New Zealand will also report this very good and positive news about how a tragedy was turned into something magical by the good graces of two amazing people, Jody Chiang and Phil Tchernegovski.

Becasue his last name is so hard to spell and pronounce in Taiwan, among Chinese Mandarin speakers, he is always referred to as "Phil" in the newspaper stories and TV reports.

BRAVO! And LO LAT to both Jody and Phil, it's a great commerical, and a great testament to cross-cultural interaction and friendship! BRAVO!

LO LAT PLEDGE, spoken proposal to sign LO LAT PLEDGE, voiced in Taiwanese by ''Taiwan-gi-bang''

2011-12-17T18:30:00.001-08:00

English language information services at Chiayi Hospital in Taiwan (video) for BIG NOSE white people? - Did they really say ADOAH in this govt sponsored video?

2011-11-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

The film, which was shown at the recent award ceremony in Taipei, focused on the difficulties encountered by foreign nationals in Taiwan who cannot speak Chinese and the help an English service establishment can offer in such circumstances.

The top prize of US$500 went to Albert Chiu, director of the Media Center at Chia-yi Christian Hospital (CYCH). His film clip, set to rap music, showed some native English speakers having difficulty obtaining medical help until they finds CYCH, which allegedly provides very good English services. Need to confirm if true. But most hospitals in Taiwan while not bilgingual do provide English help for tourists and foreigners living in Taiwan.

"We also wanted to depict the lively culture at our hospital through the use of a humorous approach in the film," Chiu said.

NOTE: in the beginning, at the bus stop, a man calls the foreign man an ADOAH, which is Hoklo dialect for BIG NOSE PERSON. It's a funny comical warm fuzzy term for white people in Taiwan, but it's also an insult and racially insensitive and should no longer be used in modern Taiwan. Sadly, it still is, usually behind Western people's back. It's not as bad as nigger or whop or kike or cunt, all it means is BIG NOSE WHITE PERSON, but in 2011 and 2012, isn't it time to retire that word and just call white people as WAH GO LANG, which means OUTSIDE COUNTRY PEOPLE or yes, foreigners? ADOAH is a comical word to Taiwanese ears, but an insult to Western ears. Will things ever change? It's up to Taiwan

to show a more international spirit and stop using the term ADOAH.

Taiwan's Oscars -- 'Seediq Bale' gallops off with top Golden Horse film prize at Hollywood-on-Formosa mecca of up-and-coming directors, actors and screenwriters

2011-11-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

The Taiwanese historical saga about Aborigines standing up to Japanese
colonizers "Seediq Bale" recently won the best movie gong at this
year's Golden Horse Awards
in Taiwan. Call it the Oscars of Asia. The annual film awards for
Mandarin-language movies in the Asia region is sponsored by the
government film office and was named after the two outlying
islands of Jin-men and Ma-tsu ("jin" means gold and "ma" means horse
in Mandarin) that separate democratic Taiwan from communist China. The
2011 ceremony this month marked the
48th year of the film fest, with top film directors and actors from
Hong Kong also attending.

"Seediq Bale" depicts an Aboriginal uprising against Japanese Imperial
Army soldiers during the 1930s.

The Taiwan winner, possibly an Oscar contender for best foreign film,
was also a vehicle for Aboriginal actor Bokeh Kosang to get the best
supporting actor gong. The awards show
was televised live in Taiwan, and in a nation of 23 million people,
news of one of country's blockbusters winning prizes was front paged
in all three national newspapers the next day.

Taiwanese actor Chen-tung Ko won the award for best new performer for
his role in the popular teen romance movie "You are the Apple of My
Eye."

Among other winners in Taiwan, composer Ricky Ho picked up the best
film score gong for "Seediq Bale," and Ascent Chen won for best
original film song for the movie "Jump Ashin!"
The best sound effects gong went to Tu Duu-chih, Tang Hsiang-chu and
Wu Shu-yao for "Seediq Bale." In addition, the outstanding Taiwanese
filmmaker of the year award went to Wong Wei-liu. A special lifetime
achievement award was presented to Ting Shan-Hsi of Taiwan as well.

Celebrities from overseas also attended the Golden Horse awards and
several of them picked up awards as well, along them: Hong Kong's Andy
Lau for his role in "A Simple Life" and Deanie Ip for role in the same
movie. Taiwan's well-known film director Hou Shiao-shien, a veteran of
the movie business and a role model for younger talent on the colorful
and film-crazy island nation,
also attended the awards ceremony and served as a stage presenter as well.

Some good movies from Taiwan's geopolitical rival communist China were
also represented at the film ceremony, but mostly came away with
smaller and technical gongs. This year,
the Golden Horse awards put Taiwan in the spotlight, a focus that is
well deserved and promises a bright future for this
Hollywood-on-Formosa mecca of up-and-coming directors, actors
and screenwriters.

Hoklo subtitles...

2011-11-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

LO LAT TV show with Ju Ger Liang on the JU GER ICHIBAN show on Next TV, aired November 16, 2011 on Channel 70 and MOD TV

2011-11-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

(c) COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED NEXT MEDIA TV
for private use onkly as educational material with Hoklo Taiwanese subtitles added by a very good friend in Taipei, LO LAT, good sir!

ENJOY the Hoklo lomajo lesson, all ye who are learning Hoklo!

LO LAT COLA

2011-11-16T20:28:00.001-08:00

Photo by 阿楊 at CCU

我的 Lo - Lat 宣言

2011-11-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

我的 Lo - Lat 宣言:

從現在開始,我願意養成習慣,每年365天,每週七天,每天早中晚三個時段,每個時段至少對別人說一次 Lo-Lat.
對象包括我的家人,我的同事,我的上司,學校老師,公車司機,隔壁鄰居….等.
我也願意努力鼓勵我周遭的人養成說 Lo-Lat的習慣.
本宣言完全自願性,用來自我激勵.
加油! 加油! 加油!

姓名:________________
日期 :________________
E-Mail :______________
FaceBook :____________

Email 我的 Lo - Lat 宣言 to: bikolang@gmail.com

[translation thanks to efforts of Mr Chen in Tainan. Lo Lat to you, sir!] French and English versions
also available. BELOW is a Hoklo Taiwanese version, written by Dyer Tung in Chiayi, a Hoklo teacher
in the elementary schools program and a member of Team Lo Lat. Cyril in Pintung wrote the French translation and Biko Lang in Chiayi wrote the English version. all members of Team Lo Lat]

Guá ê lóo-lat suan-giân:

àn tsit-má khai-sí, guá guān-ì ióng-sîng sip-kuàn, tak tang 365 kang, tak lé-pài tshit kang, tak kang tsá-khí tiong-tàu àm-sî sann ê sî-tuānn, tak ê sî-tuānn tsì-tsió tuì pat-lâng kóng tsit-pái lóo-lat.
tuì-siōng pau-kuah guán tau ê lâng, guá ê tông-sū, guá ê tíng-si, hak-hāu ê lāu-su, kong-tshia su-ki, tshù-pinn-keh-piah tíng-tíng.
guá mā guān-ì phah-piànn lâi kóo-bú guá sin-khu pinn-á sóo-ū ê lâng ióng-sîng kóng lóo-lat ê sip-kuàn.
pún suan-giân uân-tsuân sī tsū-guān ê, iōng-lâi tsū-ngóo kik-lē.
ka-iû, ka-iû, ka-iû.
sènn-miâ:_______________
jit-kî:__________________
E-mail:_________________
Facebook:______________

TO SIGN THE PLEDGE ONLINE HERE, PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME IN CHINESE OR HOKLO OR FRENCH OR ENGLISH OR GERMAN OR ITALIAN IN THE COMMENTS BELOW:

Today on Culture Road in Chiayi while handing out printed copies of the LO LAT PLEDGE in Chinese Mandarin for 4 hours in the afternoon, I met about 50 young people, including these two junior high school girls, Hannah and her classmate. They read the pledge and took it home with them, saying they will try to follow the pledge and report back to me later how people react to them when they say LO LAT three times a day. Here is a photo Hannah took with her cellphone camera. .....Bravo!

LO LAT TV show with subtitles in Hoklo Taiwanese

2011-11-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

豬哥壹級棒 LO LAT segment with Chris Downs and Dan Bloom, Hosts Are Ju Ger Liang and Miao Ker Li - taped in June 23, aired on November 8

2011-11-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

[HD] 20111109 豬哥壹級棒 - 白雲 4/4
Show video is here:

A variety show talk show format with hosts Ju Ger Liang and Miao Ker Li talking to American expat in Taiwan named Dan Bloom about LO LAT, with Canadian expat and TV actor Chris Downs rounding out the show. 14 minutes. Aired on cable TV at 8 pm, repeated the next night on 11 pm. FUN!

LO LAT POSTCARD, designed by Jennifer at Chiayi train station.....!!!

2011-11-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

Milo Thornberry speaks about use of the word LO LAT in Taiwan and overseas during recent USA speech to FAPA event

2011-10-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Click on this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm6bCVJ6qDA&feature=player_embedded

And move to minute 28.30. Judith is finishing her presentation. Milo begins his
presentation with the ''lo-lat'' introduction.

Listen for it -- JIN LO LAT and the applause that follows!~

NICE

LO LAT CD has first public loudspeaker airing at local arts fair, photos by Yi Hsuan in Chiayi City, October 29

2011-10-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

老美迷台語/要走全台錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

2011-09-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

老美迷台語/要走全台錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

DAN BLOOM 迷台語/要走全台錄萬人台灣新竹市說 LO LAT

[新竹市] -- September 10, 2011 -- 旅居台灣十年的美國人丹布隆（Dan Bloom）喜歡台灣、愛台語，無意中聽到他人說「勞力（LO LAT）」，覺得音調、語意很美，逢人即推廣，發願走遍全台錄萬人說LO LAT，日前從居住的嘉義到台南錄音，很多人受其熱情感動，即使不認識或不懂LO LAT意思，但都共襄盛舉。

丹布隆說，已錄下約一百人說LO LAT，錄到目標數後，打算送給台灣文學館，表達自己愛台語的一分心意，也要剪輯上傳網路；為方便推廣，自己以「小星星」的曲調，譜寫LO LAT之歌「感謝、感謝、真LO LAT，謝謝、謝謝、真LO LAT，台灣、台灣、水噹噹，阿嬤、阿公真愛我，爸爸、媽媽真愛我」，希望有朝一日能獲歌手支持共同推廣。

六十二歲的丹布隆，在中正大學兼差教英文，也教小朋友英文，向周遭人打聽才知道LO LAT是台語「感謝、謝謝辛苦」的意思，但也發現很多人不知道LO LAT，覺得不可思議，這麼美與真誠的語詞，怎麼少人使用，決定盡己之力宣傳。

丹布隆說，六月收錄LO LAT的範圍以雲林、嘉義、台南為主，七月要去高雄、屏東及東部，八月去中、北部。

國、台語不很流暢的丹布隆，為了錄LO LAT，國、台、英語夾雜向陌生人說明，大家看到一個老外對台語如此熱情都被感染，樂於開口說LO LAT。

-- 新竹市

Jewish community in Taiwan celebrates arrival of new Torah in September 2011

2011-09-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

[Based on a press release from the Taipei Jewish Center, a Chabad
outreach group run by Orthodox rabbi Shlomi Tabib, an Israeli national.]

On a bright sunny Sunday afternoon in tasty, tantalizing and terrific Taipei, a group of around 200 people marched through the city streets celebrating the arrival of a Hebrew-language Torah scroll, donated by an Israeli businessman who flew in for the occasion as well.

The festive parade, comprised of overseas Jews working or studying in Taiwan along with staff from the Israeli trade office in Taipei and local Taiwanese supporters of Israel, marched from the iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper to the newly-opened Taipei Jewish Center.

Rabbi Shlomi Tabib, director of the Chabad-affiliated center, led the parade, and of course there was plenty of singing and dancing of traditional Hebrew songs. A set of drums, specially brought over to Taiwan from Israel for the parade, escorted the marchers
as they made their way through the city streets.

The guest of honor was Avi Netanel of Israel, who flew over to Taiwan with the Torah scroll to donate it to the local Jewish community. In addition, Israeli trade office representative to Taiwan, Simona Halperin, together with the trade office's press and media coordinator Anna Shen attended the event. [Since Israel does not recognize Taiwan (The Republic of China) as a formal nation, following the same "One China" policy that most United Nation member countries follow, including the USA and Canada, there is no formal Israeli Embassy in Taipei, and the Israeli trade office services as the de facto embassy instead. Still, relations between the ROC and Israel are great and getting better year by year, according to diplomatic observers.]

Others attending the parade and dinner that evening included the president of the Taipei Jewish community, Don Shapiro, the treasurer, Yoram Aharoni, and Ohad Hirsch from the Jewish community in Taichung. The longtime rabbi of Taiwan, Rabbi Ephraim Einhorn originally from Poland – who just turned 93 years old – was the keynote speaker at a post-parade dinner later taht evening. He spoke about the recent opening of the Chabad center and the important role that Rabbi Shlomi and his wife Rachel can play for the small congregation of Jews from around the world working and living in Taipei, some of whom have married Taiwanese spouses and are raising bilingual and bi-cultural children within their families.

The Taipei Jewish Center provides religious services and religious counselling for local Jews and their families working and living in Taiwan -- and for overseas guests who visit the island
nation for business and travel excursions.

The center is also the only place in Taiwan where one can find kosher food, a service which has become popular due to the increasing numbers of Jewish travelers visiting Taiwan.

Dave Bidini on why ebooks will not replace paper books

2011-09-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Dave Bidini, the Canadian journalist for the National Post, writes about why ebooks will not replace paper books:

[After dinner] talk turned to [the paper books versus digital books] .....subject: the future.

This was broached by discussions about the e-book and downloading and all of that until it was finally decided — with a sigh of neglect and relief — that books wouldn’t suffer, as the music industry had, because of illegal downloads. In the end, people didn’t care enough to want to hoard them digitally for themselves. One of the writers at our table was the tech writer, William Powers (his excellent book is ''Hamlet’s BlackBerry'') and he talked about what might happen if, for some reason, kids started pirating books.

“If books were free, we’d all be out of work,” someone said; half hopefully, half fearfully. “Like the Kindle,” said another. “I mean, if people started throwing those files on to their computers, look out!” he added/

It was left to [me ] to offer [my Bindini] ]theory. Which is: one of the reasons e-books won’t destroy the book world is because almost anyone I know who owns a Kindle or similar digital device is over 40, and because they’re over 40, the same kids who begat Napster and file-sharing of rock ’n’ roll will run as far from the phenomenon as possible.

When Grandma’s seen reading her space age digi-book, junior will do the opposite. In fact, kids may save books, instead of destroying them. I hope it happens. I know my kids read books, and they read them lots.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/will-children-save-printed-books/245272

Will Children Save Printed Books?

By Edward Tenner

Sep 19 2011

E-books are targeted towards working adults, and kids tend to shy away
from trends that are popular with their parents

Will the new generation of digital natives finally see print off?
That's the consensus of many e-book enthusiasts and elegiac
traditionalists alike. And it's plausible. But there's another
conceivable model, just raised by the Canadian writer David Bidini in
the National Post:

[O]ne of the reasons e-books won't destroy the book world is because
almost anyone I know who owns a Kindle or similar digital device is
over 40, and because they're over 40, the same kids who begat Napster
and file-sharing of rock 'n' roll will run as far from the phenomenon
as possible. When Grandma's seen reading her space age digi-book,
junior will do the opposite. In fact, kids may save books, instead of
destroying them. I hope it happens. I know my kids read books, and
they read them lots.

While all kinds of statistics on the so-called Millennials can be
cited on the other side, the scenario isn't so far-fetched. Who in the
1950s would have thought that organic farming would ever return? Or
that bicycles and electric cars would be trendy again? Or in the
heyday of 1970s men's fashion and hair styles, who would have imagined
that the Mad Men look, symbol of an overturned, repressive culture,
would be sending so many wide neckties to Goodwill?

Not that generational pro-book rebellion is inevitable. Nothing is.
But most of the professional futurists I've met are really in the
business of alternative scenarios. This is one that's definitely
possible. And that should help encourage friends of print not to let
inevitability talk get them down.

[Thanks to Dan Bloom for the link.]

丹布隆 say「''lo lat'' }

2011-09-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

丹布隆是位在台灣已住了的美國人，他最近正發起一項運動，say「lo lat」。他說，問了很多年輕人，都不知道「lo lat」是代表「感謝」，他覺得用「lo lat」當成見面問候語，非常的妙

The Lo Lat Project

2011-09-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Lo Lat Project is thousands of people photographing -- [and
sometimes photoshopping] -- and posting images of the Taiwanese Hoklo
term LO LAT spelled out in big letters in various landscapes or photo images that they make in their home countries.

It's a feel good kind
of thing. LO LAT means "thank you very much" and is a term that is
over 300 years old from Taiwan and it's really means something like
"thank you very much sincerely from the bottom of my heart". But the
term today is hardly used in modern Taiwan, it is deemed to be too
old-fashioned for most people
under the age of 40 now, but it is the hope of the LO LAT Project to
show Taiwanese people young and old that the LO LAT term still has a
power
and fascinattion the world over.

So send in your LO LAT photos wherever you are.

And LO LAT to you!

ABOUT THE LO LAT PROJECT: It is non-profit and for fun. It is to share
the spirit of Taiwan's Hoklo languag with people around the world.
We welcome your participation wherever you live and whatver language you speak. Use your imagination to set your own version of LO LAT spelled out in English letters in any setting you can think of and with any background you want and with any animals or pets or landscapes you dream of.

LO LAT!

LO LAT photos - Hsinchu

2011-09-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

LO LAT sign with Vietnamese workers and care-givers in a Hsinchu City park - LO LAT!

2011-09-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

Photo by Vietnamese worker, Mr Trang

Electronia Version of LO LAT SONG for Santaizi Dance Perforamance

2011-09-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

LO LAT ! TINO JIAN AND AMANDA LEE, THE COMPOSER AND THE VOCALIST! BRAVO!

by LIBERTY TIMES reporter in YUNLIN COUNTY, 斗六, MISS LIAO: May 8

因為一個笑容，美國人丹布隆在斗六火車站教人說台語﹁LO LAT﹂(意為感謝)，還發願要錄製一萬個人說﹁LO LAT﹂，尤其碰到年輕人、小朋友，就夾雜著美語、及不太﹁輪轉﹂的台灣話、國語，向人說明﹁LO LAT﹂的意思，用錄音機請人留下﹁LO LAT﹂一句話，還不忘帶上一句我是﹁新台灣人﹂，讓人印象深刻。

　﹁LO LAT﹂、﹁LO LAT﹂、﹁LO LAT﹂，近日來在斗六火車站附近，常見到有一個外國人拿著錄音機，到處請人說﹁LO LAT﹂，原本是一句台灣人極為常用的通俗話，為什麼能讓這個外國人如此著迷？

　丹布隆說，他在美國阿拉斯加出生，旅遊過數十個國家，到台灣十餘年，特別喜愛台灣，自稱新台灣人，近年來定居嘉義，在學校兼差教英文、幫CHINA POST翻譯寫文章，偶而也出書，一個月前，偶然聽到﹁LO LAT﹂這句話，結果問他的朋友，很多人都不知道什麼意思。

　日前丹布隆到一家麵店吃東西時，對麵店老板說﹁LO LAT﹂，老板竟然笑得很燦爛，一問原來這個五十歲的麵店老板懂﹁LO LAT﹂的意思，再問，才知道這句好話大多是中高齡者才說，年輕人很少用，回到學校問學生，學生們大都不知道，甚至不曾聽過，更不會說。

　但因為那個麵店老板的笑容，留給丹布隆極深的印象，於是發願要錄製一萬個人說﹁LO LAT﹂，尤其是針對年輕人及小孩子，因此，他特別利用假日搭火車從嘉義到斗六，在街頭教年輕人說﹁LO LAT﹂。

　在斗六火車站旁開美容院的余淑芬說，這個外國人拿著錄音機到店裡一直說﹁LO LAT﹂時，根本沒有人搞懂他的意思，後來經過交談，才知道丹布隆的用心，還收到一張很可愛的名片，覺得很有意思，更佩服他的勇氣。

　丹布隆則認為，住在台灣多年，愈來愈發現台灣話很有趣又有意思，但年輕人卻很少使用，才會突發奇想準備錄製一萬個人說﹁LO LAT﹂，完成後ＰＯ在網路上宣導，由於才第一個星期，錄到的人不多，也碰到不少人因為恐懼或不好意思，不敢對著錄音機說話，讓他有點受傷，希望大家以後在街頭看到一個拿錄音機的外國人，可以大方對他說﹁LO LAT﹂，讓他早日圓夢。

　本身精研台語的前雲林縣府教育處長郭清江指出，﹁LO LAT﹂，參考吳崑松的﹁通用台語字典﹂寫成﹁憦力﹂，即感謝、多謝、勞神、費神、辛苦，另在五南圖書出版的台灣閩南語辭典則寫成﹁努力﹂，看到有外國人這麼用心推台語，讓人感動，但其實要能普及還是得要政府重視。

------------------------

沒聽過LO-LAT 美國人教你說台語

【聯合報╱記者柯永輝／嘉義報導】 2011.05.01

美國人搶救台語老詞彙LO-LAT / 柯永輝來台15年的美國人丹布隆愛上台灣，自稱「新台灣人」，他最近在公車聽到有人向司機說「LO-LAT」，好奇詢問得知是台語「謝謝」的意思，但他詢問年輕一輩的台灣人，幾乎都不知道，他很感慨，除了用童謠改編成「The LO-LAT Song」上傳網路，還展開「萬人說LO-LAT」行動，希望搶救這個台語老詞彙。

「我有一個夢，希望白冰冰、澎恰恰、伍佰、吳宗憲、張菲等知名藝人，有一天能把LO-LAT歌錄成CD，讓小朋友和年輕一輩的台灣人能重新認識這個代表感恩的詞彙！」丹布隆知道他的心願不容易實現，但他相信有夢最美、事在人為。

43歲的丹布隆來自美國波士頓，他從大學畢業就開始到各國旅遊，包括歐美、日本等地，15年前應台灣友人邀請到嘉義旅遊，沒想到這麼一遊就不想走了，停下漂泊的腳步，把台灣當成第二個家，寫了「哈上台灣」、「哈上台灣夜市」兩本書，甚至說「將來我走後，把骨灰撒在嘉義的山上」。

丹布隆說，1個多月前在嘉義市搭公車，聽到一位歐吉桑下車時跟司機說「LO-LAT」，他覺得很納悶，詢問後得知是台語老詞彙，意思是謝謝別人幫我們付出的「勞力」，但是他詢問了許多大學生，還有幼稚園、小學生，幾乎都沒人知道。

丹布隆覺得這個詞的用意很好，若逐漸沒人使用而消失，非常可惜，於是把童謠「小星星」改編成「LO-LAT」歌，並錄了影音後上傳YouTube，希望讓台灣的幼稚園、國小學童朗朗上口，傳承這個感恩的詞彙。網址

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OQ35wVU6Vc

為了讓更多年輕人知道這個詞彙，他也展開「萬人說LO-LAT」行動，要用錄音機錄下1萬人說「LO-LAT」，已有近百人響應。

新聞辭典／LO-LAT：多謝

嘉義大學中文系副教授陳茂仁表示，「LO-LAT」可寫成「勞力（台語）」是表示勞煩你做某件事，這個表示謝謝的用語可說是農業社會的產物，因農業社會收割需要很多人力，有時候需要鄰居的幫忙，所以會說「勞你的勞力」。

另有一說是寫成「櫓力（台語）」，早期靠水生活的人，因為時常坐船，為感謝船夫搖櫓而產生這個詞，與「勞力」兩者都通。

陳茂仁也指出，其他表示謝謝的台語有「感謝」、「感恩」，至於「多謝」因為「多」的台語發音和台語的刀子相近，有用刀去射人的感覺，所以民間較少用

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/05/10/2003502879

LO LAT news interview by Yi-ting Huang from CCU communications department for campus news show

2011-09-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

LO LAT in California license plate, designed by Sonia Chang in Thousand Oaks !!!!

2011-08-29T22:23:00.001-07:00

LO LAT idea, designed by Cyril in Pintung, his ideas, his images !!! (something to think about?)

2011-08-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

LO LAT - summer 2011 - Chiayi City - Wilson, Mode, Dan, Vicky

2011-08-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Photos by Visual Way Communications, Taichung

LO LAT in a parking lot at sunset.......summer 2011

2011-08-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

Photo by Vicky and Wilson and Mode

VISUAL WAY COMMUNICATIONS, Taichung

道綺全球傳播有限公司

Vision Way Communication Co., Ltd.
台中市復興路一段152巷6弄2號1樓
Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/visionway

LO LAT

2011-08-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

You think Hollywood has the market corrned on big signs? Check this one out! A huge LO LAT sign
in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan!

What US President Barack Obama or VP Joe Biden might tell the China leaders today, channeling Ronald Reagan in his famous 1987 Berlin wall speech, of course

2011-08-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

ONLINE LINK:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2011/08/23/2003511418

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8c

HU JINTAO,
TEAR DOWN THOSE GATES!

Longtime observers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have said:
“The ‘China question’ is open as long as the CCP rules China.”

And as long as the gates of freedom in China remain closed, as long as
these ungainly scars of gates are permitted to stand, it is not the
China question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom
for all humankind.

Yet, today there is a quiet yet growing message of hope inside China,
a message of triumph, where slowly people are trying to take matters
into their own hands and set up a democratic movement inside the
country that can finally replace the CCP.

Can this revolution happen, and will it happen?

Time will tell and history will be the judge.

Leaders of democratic countries around the world have long understood
the practical importance of liberty — that just as truth can flourish
only when journalists are given freedom of speech, so prosperity can
come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic
freedom. China will learn that in time.

In fact, even now, in a limited way, China’s current leaders may be
coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from
Beijing about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political
prisoners have been released, here and there. Certain foreign news
broadcasts and Internet sites are no longer being jammed. Some
economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater
freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the CCP? Or are they
token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West or to
strengthen the Chinese system without changing it?

One must welcome change and openness; for democratic nations believe
that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human
liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one
sign the CCP can make that would be unmistakable that would advance
dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), if you seek peace, if you seek
prosperity for China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, if you seek
liberalization: Go soon to those gates of tyranny and replace them
with the gates of freedom.

Former US president Ronald Reagan, who understood the old Soviet Union
so well, would surely understand the fear of war and the pain of
division that afflict the leaders of China today — and he would know
that the West could use all its efforts to help China overcome those
burdens. When freedom finally comes to the Chinese people, they and
their leaders will be surprised how wonderful it feels.

Today represents a moment of hope.

We in the democratic nations stand ready to cooperate with China to
promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to
create a safer, freer world.

The authoritarian world produces backwardness because it does such
violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to
enjoy, to worship.

The authoritarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.

As one looks at China today, from across the seas, one can perhaps
catch a glimpse of some words crudely spray-painted upon a city gate,
perhaps by a young Beijinger: “This gate will fall. Beliefs will
become reality.”

Yes, across China, those unsightly gates will fall someday.

For China, as Reagan knew so well, cannot withstand faith; it cannot
withstand truth. The gates of China will not be able to withstand
freedom.

Taiwanese banker dies in mountain-climbing tragedy that some speculate might have been SUICIDE

2011-08-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

obtained via by ''Webrumors'' (link)

It may have been destiny — a fate that the victim himself foresaw on a
number of occasions. Or it may have
been a well-planned yet secret ''suicide'', crime observers speculate.

Prominent Taiwan banker Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝), who had been an avid
hiker and mountain climber since his teenage days, allegedly ''fell
off a cliff'' to his death while hiking in AT NIGHT AT 9 PM in lan
County on Aug. 10, succumbing either to a passion for Aboriginal
legends that had gripped him for the past 9 years or to a suicidal
impulse.

The 51-year-old president of Taishin Financial Holding Co was climbing
Shusuei Mountain (束穗山) AT NIGHT AT 9 pm with two Aboriginal guides
near Nanao Township (南澳) when he allegedly and reportedly ''tripped
and fell'' in the darkness at 9 PM while negotiating a narrow trail
pass above a steep cliff.

The accident occurred in an area so remote that the guides needed 11
hours to reach town to call for help after seeing Lin’s lifeless body
and it took three days before his corpse was airlifted out of the
mountains and sent home.

Lin had been drawn to the area for the first time nine years earlier,
when he decided to pursue the legend of an Atayal girl who fell to her
death in a turbulent stream at the end of World War II.

His curiosity about the story surrounding the 17-year-old Atayal girl
named Sayion led him to spend six years retracing the long-abandoned
tribal route she walked from deep in the mountains in southern Yilan
County to the coastal town of Nanao.

According to the legend, Sayion was carrying the belongings of her
Japanese mentor — a policeman stationed in the mountains — to the
coast after he had been called back to Japan just before the end of
World War II. She had almost reached her destination when she
apparently slipped into the stream and was killed by the fall. The
Atayal found her corpse and buried it, along with, they hoped, news of
the accident.

Pulling Lin to the story was a song — one he had listened to since
childhood and had become fond of — that became the theme song of a
Japanese movie based on Sayion’s story, known as Sayion’s Bell.

However, the real lure for Lin was how a “minor accident turned into a
great legend.”

The Japanese colonialists used it for propaganda purposes to extol the
virtues of following Japanese rule, while the then-Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) government made a point of trying to erase it from memory.

At the time of Lin’s death, he had embarked on a new mission that
would form the basis of his second book — tracing how a group of
Atayal people called the Klesan trekked across the mountains from what
is now Nantou County to Yilan about 300 years ago. If anything, the
new venture posed greater risks than his pursuit of Sayion’s legend
and he knew it.

In one TV interview, Lin ''JOKED'' that he might not find his way home
one day in the future because his hobby was leading him to
increasingly remote and dangerous destinations, but as he recounted in
his book on the Sayion legend, ''Finding the Way — Moonlight, Sayion
and the Klesan'', the temptation of discovery was too much for him to
resist. OR WAS IT SUICIDE?

To Lin, retracing Sayion’s trail was a serendipitous pursuit.

“New findings, which bounced out one after another, made them endless
new traps, magnetizing me to jump into a series of dreamlike, yet
solidly true experiences,” he wrote. “Once I started, I could not
stop.”

Though Lin had a doctorate in economics from the University of
Washington and taught finance at National Taiwan University (NTU),
where he earned his undergraduate degree, his passion for the Atayal
legend was not a surprise. Those who knew him said he had ''a poetic
and compassionate side''. So suicide is a possibility with such a
tender and sensitive personality, crime observers have opined.

Also, note his early love life and how it was flooded with romantic
tragedy, too, they say.

He went with his NTU sweetheart for postgraduate studies to the US,
where she fell ill with cancer and never recovered. He took care of
her until her death and remained single until he was 46, many years
after returning to Taiwan.

He later conveniently fell in love with his ''secretary'' and they got
married in the mountains near Nanao.

Lin was also a philanthropist, inviting Nanao elementary-school
students and teachers to tour Taipei 101; sending LED lamps and
translation machines to graduates in the village; sponsoring school
choirs to perform in Taipei; and financing roots-seeking programs for
Atayal children.

In his free time, Lin hit the hiking trails as often as possible, a
hobby he developed during his childhood. He had climbed many mountains
in Taiwan and abroad over the past three decades, including Mount
Rainier in the US.

However, he could not escape the perhaps DARK thoughts that the
mountain treks needed to pursue his passion for Atayal culture might
come to a sad end. Even in suicide?
Nothing can be ruled out, according to crime observers.

In his letter to a friend from the NTU Mountaineering Club in 2009
after an NTU alumnus, a medical doctor, fell to his death while
scaling Siangyang, Lin ONCE wrote that he often thought during solo
climbs that he ''might fall and end up stuck in a place where he would
not be found''. ''Exhibit A'', say crime observers.

“If that were to happen, I would miss my family very much and would
yell out of my heart to them that I love them. I hope everybody would
be strong enough to forgive my negligence,” Lin wrote RATHER
CRYPTICALLY.

So night-time climbing accident or secretly planned suicide by a
romantic poet haunted by the past? You decide. Time will tell.

777

2011-08-17T03:47:00.000-07:00

TEAM LO LAT -- comments from around the country and overseas as well !

2011-08-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr Dan Bloom:
Regarding the article and vidoe in the United Daily News today, August 17:
今天看聯合報說你瘋台語，要錄萬人說(囉啦)。我想台語 (LO LAT) 譯成囉啦不妥，那意思是~~完了~~壞事了~~等等不好的預期。不如寫成(努力)，意思是~~勞你的大力幫忙(不同於國語文的意思)。與客語的(承蒙你安仔細)意義相通。或則請報社直接用 LO LAT。

老美瘋台語要錄萬人說「囉啦」
【聯合報╱記者唐復年／台中報導】
2011.08.17 0
丹布隆要錄1萬人說LO LAT / 唐復年
丹布隆推動說「LO LAT」，還會隨身攜帶標語。
記者唐復年／攝影
40歲以下的年輕人，很少人知道台語的「感謝」發音除了「甘霞」外，還可以說「囉啦（LO LAT）」，來台定居15年的美籍人士丹布隆Dan
Bloom近來推動說「LO LAT」運動，他打算用錄音機錄下1萬人說「LO LAT」。

Hi Dan,
I read about you from the UDN.com news, that you're doing something about saying Lo Lat.
Interesting!
Nowadays young people speak more Mandarin than Minnan (Taiwanese).
Not to mention speak it correctly. Some words are replaced by "loan words".
Your action reminds us to re-think and regain the good part of the beautiful language.
Lo Lat!.....Steven Chen

你好，丹布隆先生。我目前在台中東海大學的華語中心教外國人中文，偶然在報紙上看到您關於萬人說lo lat的計畫，我想我可以幫點忙。
劉彥欣

Hi Bloom!
Good job today in the United Daily News! Loo-lat!
--Taiffalo......
Taiffalo's Study of Eco-linguistics of Society.......Tai-gi / Oat-lam Gian-kiu-sek & Center for Taiwanese Languages Testing & Department of Taiwanese Literature........National Cheng Kung University, TAIWAN

Dear Dan,........Immediately after reading your UDN news story of promoting the way of using local Taiwanese language from the news paper, I as a local Taiwanese was mixed with joy and also sad feelings for what we see from the present generation in Taiwan. ........I am happy to seeing more of your Lo Lat activity seen on the media. ......By the way, just a small correcetion, sir, I saw your video played on the news media and found the "Lat" would be more perfectly pronunced if you finished it with a more clear cut sound. It's like a "staccato" finish. .......Happy to see more of your news.
Regards,
Yao-Ting

Dear Mr. Bloom,
It's fascinating to read your story in the UDN news.
But, I am more curious about the reason why you chose to stay in Taiwan?
I am here learning English in CA, and you are there learning my language?
Can you tell me why?
Sonia
Thousand oaks, CA.Sent from her iPod

Literally, "used your labour"
Extended to mean ''thank-you'' therefore.
That's what I know. Good luck
Sent from my iPhone

Dan, the UDN news and video is great!
I just came back from hospital.
Scheduled to have artificial knee implant next month.
I am depressed of course.....Mr Huang in Taichung

Hi Dan,
My name is Yawen Lien. ........I am a Taiwanese who lives in Denver, Colorado now. I read an article about you online and thought what you have been doing about "LO LAT" is a GREAT GREAT GREAT idea! Keep on doing it!! ......God bless you!
Yawen

丹布隆您好！
看到報導很感動，也非常感謝您！您的做法無形中讓大家知道，美好的事物就在我們身旁，就在一些生活鎖事裡。
國父孫中山說過，把一件事澈底做成功就是大事，您現在做的事就是一件大事哦！加油！

能不能請問一下為什麼喜歡 "LO LAT"？
---- Richard asks

Mr.Danbloom: Good day
有關LOLAT一詞 (各人認為) 是-勞力-的閩南語,其意思是勞煩你的出力或幫忙,另外閩南語有一詞- 多謝- 其意思相似. 祈安
遠宜材料科學檢驗中心
台中市

Dear Mr. Dan Bloom：
We're Vicky & Wilson from Taichung.
Nice to meet you.
We read your information about "LO LAT" from the UDN newspaper today.
We're very interested and want to be friends with you.
If you agree, we can meet soemday in 嘉義.
Thank you and Thanks you love Taiwan so much.

Dear Sir: 台語 ''LO LAT'' 應是(`勞力 )勞煩人家出力,感謝之意. Thank you.

''Dear DanBloom:「囉啦」二字應作「勞力」來寫，有勞煩您費力、或勞煩您出力的意思，也就是感謝對方的幫忙。如果是以「勞力」這兩個字來解，我認為它既不是台語、也不是客語或平埔族語，倒是比較像是中原的河洛語。因為「勞力」二字的語法要比「感謝」二字更來的委婉、親近，文字的洗鍊也更深一些。''

Dear Danbloom:
I read your news from the UDN paper.
It's interesting !.
I am a teacher for Chinese and I suppose that I can support some
useful answers.
The "lo lat " is from ancient Chinese indeed.

"lo lat "若寫成中文，應為「勞力」，並非口語，而是文言，
台語為中古音，部分仍保留古代用法，
所謂「勞力」，指的是「勞您的力」，也就是「麻煩您」的古雅說法。
就像台語說「chin tssi」，許多人以為是「隨便」，其實不是。
它指的是「請裁」，請您裁奪，也就是請您決定，
原語意是極為客氣的。

以上說法，來自許久以前聽聞一位「河洛語」學者的講解，
大意如此。
很抱歉我的英文不大行，
翻譯成英文有點吃力，
但我想您旅台十六年，
中文底子應該不錯。
謹提供您參考！
黃靖雅敬上
"loo2-lat8" if writing in Chinese characters, it should be "勞力", it is
not vernacular form, but literary form, Taiwanese is Mid-age sounds,
some are still remain their ancient usage. The "勞力" means "to labor
your strength", that is "to bother you" in ancient and elegant way.
Just as Taiwanese says "tshin3-tshai2", many people think it is
"anyhow, just as may be convenient", but not so. It means "please
judge", please judge by yourself, that is you can decide it, please.
The original meaning is extremely polite.
The above point of view is come from a scholar of Taiwanese that I
heard a long time ago. That what the term means roughly.
I am sorry for my English is not so good enough. For me, it is
difficult to translate Chinese into English. However, I think you
have been staying here for sixteen years. Your Chenese chould be
pretty good. This is just for you to investigate. Your sincerely,
Huang2 Jing4-ia3.

Hello Danbloom

It's interesting that u found Lo lat was an interesting word for thank u . I hope u have a good time for learning Taiwan ese. I was surprised nowadays these young people don't know this word lo lat .

LO LAT LA, means ”勞力“﹐”辛苦“。
It is classic Minnan dialect, it is close to "thanks for your time".

When I was a kid in Taiwan, this expression was still quite commonly used. I believe Lo-lat literally is "Labor-strength", (my keyboard here at work doesn't work with Chinese input). Older generation Taiwanese use to to show their appreciation of favors rendered to them. It's an elegant expression forgotten by the younger generation. Sort of like "Much-obliged".

-- Joseph Lin , CANADA

I saw your news and I think it will be very cool to have you to our English club.
My fridends and me(4 English teachers and 1 psychiatrist) have run an English Club,it shows we have 131 members on fans page.
it's totally free, and we have run it for almost 2 years in Hsin Chu where is techology district (aka science park) located.
and we have special event every now and then.
and I think that will be our honor to invite you to record "LO LAT" here and you can share your TW experience, too.
Your transport fee will be paid.
Looking forward to your reply
Best regards
Sunny 刷刷

1. ......In earlier times, instead of paying in
currency, farmers exchanged labor as a form of mutual aid. ****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis
2.....Thus, I believe,
began the expressing of one's gratitude for the help given in the form of
physical labor. ****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis
3........Lo Lat thus means thanks for your labor. And, it's
expected that the favor should and will be returned in due time. ****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis
4..........Older Taiwanese keep a written account of favors received and returned.
It's a family tradition. Maybe it's disappearing in Taiwan. ****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis****I　DID NOT KNOW　THis

Richard Gere's Iranian "lookalike" in Taiwan?

2011-08-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

PHOTO CAPTION: "Hamzeh, said to be a dead ringer for Hollywood
actor Richard Gere, thanked Taiwan from the bottom of his heart."

Richard Gere has starred in all sorts of Hollywood movies, from
"Pretty Woman" to "Red Corner," and his face is well-known in Asia --
and especially in Taiwan -- and while he hasn't visited this island
nation very often, he's a very '''hot recognizable face'' among female
-- and male -- Taiwanwese movie fans.

So when a visiting Iranian businessman named Vazir Nia Mahzen, 28,
made the news in Taipei the other day after losing his wallet in a
local taxi, he was said by local people to look a lot like Gere. But does he?

The story has a happy ending, resulting
in the cab driver finding the purse in the backseat and calling the
police to try to find the owner.
The media naturally had a
field day with the story -- even going so far
as to call the Iranian man the ''spitting image'' of Richard Gere! A
lookalike, a doppelganger, Richard Gere's Iranian double. The news
made the newspapers,
the TV shows and the very active Taiwanese internet, as you can imagine.

Of course, in Asia -- and I am joking here, sort of -- all white

people look alike to Asian eyes, as do

all black people and all Persian people, so it wasn't too hard a stretch,

apparently, for the Taiwanese
media to compare Mr Hamzeh to Mr Gere. After all, they do look alike.
Sort of. Apparently. Really?

Here's the story, culled from a media montage: "A visiting Iranian

businessman was lucky enough to
have his lost wallet returned intact and complete, less than two days
after inadvertently leaving it in a Taipei cab, the media reported in
both Chinese and English newspapers. Vazir Nia Hamzeh, a 28-year-old
business manager for an electronics company in Iran, arrived in Taipei
for a two-week stay, his first visit to Taiwan. He took a taxi back
to his hotel one evening and it was not until he returned to his room
that he realized he had unwittingly left behind his purse, containing
his money, his clients' numbers, his passport and his bank
information."

Oops.

However, as Lady Luck would have it, or in the case of Taiwan, the

gods of good fortune, the kindly middle-aged taxi driver,found the
wallet and after discovering that the owner was a foreigner, he

decided to try to find him.

A Taiwanese government official was able to trace Hamzeh through her
computer and
found the name of his hotel. She phoned the hotel to say that

Hamzeh's purse was waiting for him at her office at the foreign
ministry.

The now-elated businessman took a cab over to the ministry as
fast as possible amidst Taipei's traffic gridlock -- it's called
"water dragon traffic" in Mandarin -- to retrieve his
stuff. Of course, he was more than overwhelmed, according to media reports,

and ''although his Muslim faith prevented him from shaking hands with
the government official to thank her, he bowed deeply several times in
gratitude and said “shieh shieh" many times in Mandarin, one of the

few Chinese phrases he knew.''

End of story? Not yet.

In the photo that appeared in a local English newspaper the next day,
the caption read: "Hamzeh, said to be a dead ringer for Hollywood

actor Richard Gere, thanked Taiwan from the bottom of his heart."

But, readers, to be honest, Hamzeh does not look anything at all like Richard
Gere. Or does he?

''Taiwaneers'': Jon Stewart on his Comedy Central show in the USA refers to the people behind Next Media Animation videos as "Taiwaneers" - meaniing pioneers, puppeteers, cool animators

2011-08-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

According to an alert reader and listener in Taipei, Jon Stewart called the NMA people as "Taiwaneers" in during a recent August 2011 show. Here's the inside skinny on this new coinage for NMA's animators. Perhaps ''Taiwaneers'' is Stewart's homage to "puppeteers'' and 'video pioneers?"

Our source in Taipei notes: "Jon Stewart recently praised the Taiwanese ''imagineers'' who do the kind of animation presented by NMA videos, coining them as pioneering "Taiwaneers".

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-august-2-2011-jason-bateman

He then added: ''The Daily Show segment at issue was from Tuesday, August 2. Stewart takes issue with the fact that a Daily Show segment from the week before (in which Stewart himself praises the UK parliament for its in-your-face parliamentary discussion following the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal and its alleged connections to the Prime Minister's office) had actually been censored in the UK, where it is illegal to use parliamentary discussion in a comedic or satirical program.

THEN JON SAYS: .....''......although with the help of our Taiwanese imagineering

friends.........or as we call them Taiwaneers....''

He furthermore brings up that The Daily Show had run into this type of censorship before with its animated portrayal of the royal wedding, attended by Hitler, featuring honeymoon night, with William sadistically whipping Kate in bed, all brought to life by Taiwanese ''imaingeers '' who he calls "Taiwaneers". When Stewart mentions "Taiwanese", someone in the audience applauds and shouts in approval. At 6:12 is the point of the program at which he begins talking about the Taiwanese ''imagineers'' ... but the entire segment, critical of British censorship of politics in satire, is hilarious and makes a hell of a strong point.

Don't know the link. I'm sure it must be available on The Daily Show's website.

Taiwaneers!

What's next for Wang Chien-ming after the suicide of his grandfather?

2011-08-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

What's next for Wang Chien-ming after the suicide of his grandfather? [Wang is known in the USA as ''Chien-ming Wang'', which like calling Adam Kilgore as Kilgore Adam or Phil Wood as Wood Phil, but oh well.]

Wood Phil, aka Phil Wood, notes:

Through 2 starts and 9 innings, Wang Chien-Ming has recorded two losses and an ERA of 6.00. Many sports fan feel that they have seen enough, and feel the Washington Nationals should chalk another one up to experience, and just move on and let Wang go.

Between Independence Day 2009 and his start this past July 29, Wang underwent some very serious shoulder surgery and intensive rehabilitation work. The Nationals signed him as a free agent prior to the 2010 season, knowing full well he might not make it back to the big leagues by season's end. They signed him again last winter, and he showed sufficient promise in 6 minor league starts that they brought him up to the big club once his allotted time on rehab was exhausted.

Wang's big league sample size is hardly big enough to decide whether or not he has a future with Washington. Has he pitched some clean innings? Have we seen flashes of the great heavy sinker that bores in on hitters? Does he have his old velocity? Yes, yes and for the most part, yes, says Phil Wood.

Admittedly, there have been some other issues regarding command. He's never been a big strikeout pitcher, and despite his throwing error against the Braves, was always a pretty solid fielder with the Yankees.

Look, the Nats have invested US$3 million in Wang thus far, and were they in the thick if a pennant race, there wouldn't be any question that they'd find a way to keep him on the disabled list. They're not, however, and GM Mike Rizzo needs to see a much bigger sample size before deciding whether or not Wang is part of the picture for 2012. Wang feels a sense of obligation to the Nationals for sticking with him the past two years, and would like very much to justify their investment.

His next chance comes at Wrigley Field, against a Cubs team that's won seven of their last 10. The Cubs are a good offensive team, but their pitching staff has allowed 100 more runs than the Nationals' staff. After splitting four with the Rockies, the Nats hope to pick up some ground in Chicago before a day off and then three in Philadelphia.

Wang, barring a setback, will get another start at Citizen's Bank Park next weekend before the club comes home for a 10-game homestand. If it becomes painfully obvious that he can't compete, Wang will be the first to know.

Meanwhile, sports pundits across America are wondering what impact the recent suicide of Wang's Taiwanese grandfather will have on the pitcher. While the news was reported in every newspaper in Taiwan, including the three major English expat papers there, not one American paper has seen the light on this one. Apparently, family doesn't matter in this case. If it was an American player, and maybe someone with the Yankees or the Red Sox, it would be page one news in the sports sections.

But maybe the Nationals don't matter, and maybe Wang's Taiwanese roots are not germane to American sports writers.

But this is a baseball story with an
overseas twist, from Taiwan, and with a tragic arc as well.

The 82-year-old biological grandfather of Washington Nationals star
pitcher Chien-Ming Wang was found dead hanging from a tree in a local
neighborhood park in
Taiwan earlier this month, according to police reports, and while there was no
suicide note found at the scene or at his home, police observers
suspect it was
a suicide, as foul play has been ruled out.

While the news hit all the
national newspapers in Wang's homeland of Taiwan, in both Chinese and English
editions, not one American
newspaper
or sports blog in Washington DC or Manhattan -- where Wang also
pitched for the Yankees -- has reported the sad family saga. Not Kilgore Adam, aka Adam Kilgore, not Wood Phil, aka Phil Wood, nobody.
Just brave blogger Lilja Nick, aka Nick Lilja, did a post on this, the only one in the North America to do down that road.

As readers know, Wang started playing baseball as a kid in the
fourth grade in Taiwan, and it was through baseball that he learned an
important part of his personal story, according to a 2006 story in the
New York Times.

"We were going out to a competition and needed our personal
documents," Wang told the New York Times, explaining that meant
the names, relationships and birthdates of family members. "When I got
my documents, I learned who my biological parents were. My parents
didn't tell me."

Wang found out then that his biological father was the man he knew as
his uncle, Ping-Yin Wang. Wang's parents had no children of their own
and offered to raise him.

Fast forward now to August 2011 and this news item: "The biological
grandfather of Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang
found hanging in Taiwan park; police suspect suicide."

Does this incident impact Wang? Has anyone asked him about it? Does anyone care?

Or is sports just stats and salaries and who's on first?

~~blogged or blobbed by Bloom Danny~~

LO LAT photographs as the LO LAT WAVE catches on nationwide, islandwide....

2011-08-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

LO LAT song video mix mash with Techno Neon Gods Santaizi dancing in amateur video not for public viewing

2011-08-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

他還一直說電音三太子好棒我用手機幫他錄下來他拿錄音機放這首歌做成小MV 做完他一直謝謝我我好感動拜託各位幫忙把這MV分享出去我每天晚上看他都很認真的在找資料原來都是在做我們台灣人自己都不曾做過的功課說真的他昨晚跟我解釋LO-LAT 的意思心中頓時有一種感動原來自以為說了30年的台語竟然還要一個外國人來教我說台語說真的比起政治口水比起紛擾這才是真正的用心愛台灣不是嗎?

jary0224

他昨晚一直在聽最新版的羅拉羅拉還轉很大聲電音版的耶我想說他是在聽甚麼碗糕聽起來好像念經仔細一聽才知道是台語不過他一直跟我說蘿拉我還真的不知道甚麼意思後來他說蘿拉等於台灣話感謝的意思我還轉不過來@@ 因為活了30年真的不知道好慚愧!

THE LO LAT SONG, set to electronica music composed by Tino, vocals by Amanda !!!

2011-07-30T17:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwFvUnkMZE

background information about LO LAT SONG:

http://zippy1300.blogspot.com

美國「白龍王」名流搶見

2011-07-25T04:07:00.000-07:00

In Israel, some gullible and superstitious (and rich and famous) people flock to Jewish ''wonder rabbit''.

美國「白龍王」名流搶見

猶太智者助解運祈福迅速竄紅

2011年 07月25日【羅彥傑╱綜合外電報導】

http://tw.nextmedia.com/applenews/article/art_id/33550703/IssueID/20110725

By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press

擁有神力的猶太教拉比（Jewish rabbit，宗教導師或智者）歷史悠久，但在以色列本土，過去向來只被貧困的中東猶太人認同。但近年來，一股拉比熱開始擴散到以色列世俗菁英，甚至美國名人圈。其中又以如美國版「白龍王」的品托迅速竄紅且最出名。

以色列

品托現年38歲，有輕微駝背，蓄著長鬚及一頭亂髮，外表看起來比實際年齡還老，而且講話輕聲細語，訪客必須弓身才能聽到他講的話。他雖不會講英語，但現在大部分時間都待在美國曼哈頓中城，在當地置產，也同樣擁有眾多信徒。

前國防部長成信徒
不過，每個月有數天的傍晚，品托會在自己發跡的以色列濱海城市阿什杜德，接見包括以色列前國防部長班-伊萊瑟在內的數名政商名流。這些人大排長龍，只求他花數分鐘指點迷津，或運用神力祈福治病。

「用愛來解釋問題」
班-伊萊瑟說，品托3月間讓他從瀕死昏迷中醒來。一名房仲業老闆也說，沒有商業訓練、沒念過大學的品托幫他躲過一筆差點虧大錢的收購案。品托建議說：「民眾會杞人憂天，拉比的工作是用愛解釋，這些問題只是小事。」

品托小檔案
原名：Yoshiyahu Pinto
年齡：38歲
住處：現多旅居紐約曼哈頓中城
家族：知名西班牙系猶太教拉比 Baba Sali 的外曾孫
神力：幫人開運致富、指點迷津及甦醒
信徒：以色列、美國政商名流
資料來源：綜合外電

The US “white Dragon King” the celebrities snatch see the Judea wise to help Xie Yun to pray become popular all at once on July 25, rapidly 2011 [Luo Yanjie ╱ synthesis foreign news dispatch report]Has the supernatural power Judaism rabbi (rabbi, religious teacher or the wise) the history is glorious, but in the Israeli native place, is only approved in the past always by the impoverished Middle East Jew. But in recent years, pulled the specific heat to start to proliferate to Israeli common custom cyanine UK, even American celebrity circle. And by like US issue “white Dragon King” holds to become popular all at once rapidly, and most famous. Israel holds currently 38 years old, has slightly humpbacked, gathers long must and an uncombed hair, the semblance looks like the physical age is also older than, moreover speaks the song, the visitor must bow the words which in a soft voice can hear him to say. Although he will not speak English, but the present majority of time treat in the American Manhattan the city, will purchase real estate in the locality, also will have the numerous followers similarly. Former Department of Defense grows into the follower, every month has several day-long evening, the request in own gain of fame and fortune Israeli Binhai city Ashdod, will receive including Israel former secretary of defense class - Iraq Lether the proper name politics business celebrities. These Knesset queues, only asks him to spend several minute direction wrong ways, or prays using the supernatural power treats an illness. “with likes explaining that the question” class - Iraq Lether said that holds in March between to let him from be on the verge of death in the stupor to wake. Boss Fang a Zhongye also said that does not have the commercial training, not to attend the university the request to help him to hide one almost to owe the good money purchase document. Held the suggestion saying:“the populace will have groundless fears, the rabbi work will be with likes explaining, these questions only will be the minor matter.” Holds the small file old name: Yoshiyahu Pinto age: 38 year old of dwelling: Presently lives abroad in New York Manhattan the city family: Well-known Spain is Judaism rabbi Baba Sali outside great-grandson supernatural power: Helps the human to begin to have good luck becoming rich, to direct the wrong way and the regaining consciousness follower: Israeli, US state policy business celebrities data source: Comprehensive foreign news dispatch APPLE DAILY TABLOID JULY 25, 2011

Racism (hope this is how u spell it)

2011-07-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: This video after getting some hits on the YouTube channel has been marked PRIVATE now and is available only to those people permitted to view it by the channel webmaster. For her own reasons of privacy, and her parents' reasons as well, the video is now private, and we must respect that. Still, it was a very powerful video. But in this case, as the girl is very young, best to keep the video private and in the family only. Maybe she did not even have her parents permission to make the videos? Whatever, she is a very articulate and wise 12 year old, whoever she is. She might surface on the Web later when she turns 18 and goes to college. I see a bright future for this frank speaker.

Her name is ______, and she's just a young girl, in Japan, in her early
teens, 11 or 12 years old, and she makes her own videos now at her summer vacation
holiday home in Tokyo, although she does not live in Japan. Still trying to find out where she
does live most of the time, and what grade she is and her age, etc. An amazing young girl, for sure,
very articulate and powerful thinker and not afraid to speak her mind.

One of her videos this summer, just released, talks about racism
toward Asians, and while she's still a young girl, as you can see from
the video, she
has a mature mind and speaks well, explaing her own point of view
about why racism is bad and shouldn't be tolerated. [It was originally
titled by _____as ''Reicess (hope this is how u spell it)'', but
she has fixed it online now. Still, the original spelling had a
certain power to it, too.]

______ doesn't scream, and her video is not a rant -- it's a kid

speaking truth to the world. Give it a listen and a viewing, and make

your comments

known in the blogosphere. This girl' a star, not for being famous or

winning an award show, but for speaking up, frankly and candidly, a

low-key and quiet way,

as only a kid can. But the kid is way beyond her years. Quite interesting!

When asked about the video, she told this blog: "thank u [for your
note in the comments section]. u know, I just started making these
videos and u know its just fun to talk about my feelings about stuff
to people. there might be hate comments, but who cares. again thank
you a lot! :)."

Excerpts:

"I'm gonna talk about racism, and I've already seen some videos about this...."

"You see, I'm Asian and I really get offended when people say racist
things about
Asiams. They think it's funny and I don't think it's funny....."

"I'm Asian and I'm glad about myself...."

"What gets me pissed of is that people that are not Asian are very
popular seriously, but Asians are never popular...."

UPDATE: This video after getting some hits on the YouTube channel has been marked PRIVATE now and is available only to those people permitted to view it by the channel webmaster. For her own reasons of privacy, and her parents' reasons as well, the video is now private, and we must respect that. Still, it was a very powerful video. But in this case, as the girl is very young, best to keep the video private and in the family only. Maybe she did not even have her parents permission to make the videos? Whatever, she is a very articulate and wise 12 year old, whoever she is. She might surface on the Web later when she turns 18 and goes to college. I see a bright future for this frank speaker.

Lisa Furtado Pens Expat Asia Novel

2011-07-24T03:54:00.000-07:00

Lisa Furtado has lived in Taiwan for over ten years, teaching English
to school children in after-school cram schools and recently published
a novel titled "Her Apparitions & Other Human Longings." The book is available via
Amazon.com's ordering site, and a Chinese Mandarin translation is due on the Taiwan market soon, according to the author.

The book has received good reviews in Taiwan, with one critic calling
it "gripping". In an interview with a local blog in Taipei,
Furtado explained how the book came to be, and how she came to be in
Taiwan -- where she has apparently settled down.

"Taiwan hit me quickly, I fell in love with everything Taiwan and
stayed," she told The Wild East blog. "They say you are a changed
person when you make the move [to Taiwan]. That was very true for me.
Now I get reverse culture shock going home [to Canada].''

When asked what she thinks about life in Taiwan and the culture of
this island nation just south of Japan and a bit east of communist
China, she said: "It is lovely, I love everything about it. And I’m
hoping in my next life I can come back as a Taiwanese person living in
Taiwan. To come back as a movie director like Ang Lee, a clothing
designer like Jason Wu, or a best selling writer like Jiu Ba-dao.
Wouldn’t that be something?"

Furtado said that after her first novel, she is contemplating writing
a second book, telling Wild East: "I call it the 'gem collecting'
phase, where I’m keeping a collection of insights, plots, characters
for the book, and once I’m ready, I’ll put it all together for [my new
novel.]"

"Apparitions & Other Human Longings” is a story that takes place
during the early 1980s and focuses on the psychological responses of a
girl named Fatima, a teenager who is from Indiana, according to
Furtado. ''The girl falls for an older married man, Laurence. She is
convinced he is her soulmate, but he leaves for Bangkok, Thailand for
a photography contract with the war remnants museum in Vietnam. She
ends up following him, backpacking across southeast Asia, getting
involved with heavy drugs, and in the meantime she becomes
schizophrenic. So for part of the book, you are in her schizophrenic
mind rediscovering southeast Asia."

It's that kind of Asia-as-seen-by-an-expat book, and it's that good.
No movie deal yet, but it could happen. Remember "The Beach" with
Leonardo DiCaprio? It could happen with Lisa Furtado's debut novel,
too.

So what kind of music does Furtado listen to in Taiwan? "I have an
endless stream of music which I listen to. And what I listen to always
changes on a weekly basis. I have listened to ''No Means No'', ''The
Ghost is Dancing'', ''Bat For Lashes'', ''Day Glo Abortions'',
''Arcade Fire'', and ''Paramore''. I’m also a fan of Lady Gaga’s
videos and her artistic point of view."

Asked about her younger sister's rise as a singer and actress in
North America, Lisa Furtado told Wild East: "[She] came out when
Barbie-looking singers were the norm. She brought a fresh perspective
to the pop scene in year 2000. She’s sorta the girl next door…and at
the beginning she attracted a lot of fans worldwide from all walks of
life, from the young to grannies."

Furtado, who says her 'big love is writing" and hopes to ''write lots
of meaningful, uplifting books that will hold the test of time," told
Wild East
that she came from humble beginnings, adding: "My parents immigrated
to Canada with no education and little English. What my parents have
accomplished as a whole, inspires me every day. My family had to jump
many impossible, and endless hurdles in Canada to achieve their
dreams. A lot of hard work, vision, and determinatin."

What was it like growing up in the Furtado family?

Furtado tells Wild East: "It was fun, but difficult. There were few
Portuguese people around, and my parents struggled financially. We
didn’t have babysitters or a nanny when my mother worked as a
housekeeper at a motel six days a week. My dad was a self-taught
mason, he worked very hard! Those concrete blocks are very heavy! My
parents didn’t have much time to be with us, we were often alone. When
we wanted to join swimming or gymnastics class my mother would tell
us, 'Look it up in the phone book and call them yourself.' She wasn’t
being mean or sarcastic, she just didn’t have the time to help us with
these kinds of things, so we learned to be ambitious and independent
at a very young age. We were taught to be independent at six or seven
years of age! But it was fun because my brother, sister and I created
stuff all the time and played a lot as kids-- we had unsupervised WWF
wrestling matches with sofa cushions and crazy food fights, too! But
we stuck together, and dreamed a lot. A lot of imagination and strong
personalities evolved through our crazy childhoods and the result was
that we were often chosen by teachers for plays, musicals, dance
troupes and band groups.''

"Music was an escape at a very young age," Furtado went on, noting:
"My father loved American pop music. His record collection was ABBA,
Billy Joel, Neil Diamond and Lionel Ritchie and all the big names at
that time. When my parents were out working we were allowed to use
their record player anytime. We just sang all the time and had music
playing in our house always. Also Traditional Portuguese Fado music
was playing and we sang it, too."

Asked by Wild East if she ever visits the lands of her parents, she
said: "Yes, I love the Azores, Sao Miguel (a small island off the
coast of Portugal). I’ve been going there every second year or so."

LINK:
http://www.thewildeast.net/news/2010/01/exclusive-interview-with-lisa-furtado/

Norwegian terror suspect admits he got it all wrong in his head, hired two hookers for sex romp a week before mass murders

2011-07-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, single, childless (that we know of), unmarried, looking at 31 years in the slammer and then some more. RIP. He has left this world for good now.

Taiwan's Keystone Cops Caper -- YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS, BUT.....

2011-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Movies often have car chases, kidnappings, ransom appeals, screeching
tires and police sirens blaring down Sunset Boulevard. Think Mel
Gibson, "Miami Vice", "The Naked Gun".

But this story from Taiwan is not a movie script, not yet at least,
although it could be someday. Read it and smile.

Now, to begin with, you are not going to read this news story in an
American newspaper because it appeared in the Chinese-language Liberty
Times in Taiwan, but there's
a cautionary tale here for all who value humor, international
relations and China's "peaceful rise" in Asia and the Western world.
Taiwan, the free and
democratic nation just 100 miles off the coast of communist China has
recently allowed tourists from China to start coming over in
planeloads to shop,
nosh on local dishes and get involved with Keystone Cops capers like this one.

Hold on to your seat belts, dear American readers, because you are not
going to believe this. But it really happened, and I know,
because I read it in the newspapers here and I saw the news on TV, too.

In an Asian nutshell, this is what transpired: Taiwanese police chased
a local taxi for two miles before stopping it and discovering five
shamed-faced Chinese tourists squeerzed inside,
with one additional tourist in the half-open trunk of the cab with her
hand dangling out to passing cars. See? I told you you weren't going
to believe this. Welcome to life
in the Far East, where thawing relations between Red China and Free
Taiwan are sometimes the inspiration for human comedy of the highest
order. Well, it's better than war.

My sources in Taipei tell me that three police cars recently chased
and stopped a taxi after receiving a call from a member of the public
that he saw ''a hand waving from the trunk of a taxi'' and suggesting
the driver might have been ''kidnapping'' someone. Turns out that the
rather bizarre ''Keystone Cops incident'' was the result of six cheap
Red Chinese tourists squeezing into one Taiwanese taxi in order to
save money. See? They didn't want to take two cabs, so they took one
and one guy had to ''sit'' in the trunk. That's when the cops came
running.

Police here said they got a call from a passing driver who said he saw
"a taxi with its trunk half open and someone waving from inside". The
caller told police he suspected the taxi had ''kidnapped'' someone and
that the alleged victim was apparently making some kind of SOS signal.
Cue the soundtrack!

When asked for more information, the caller said he saw the betel-nut
chewing Taiwanese cab driver on a major highway and gave the police
the vehicle’s licenseplate number: ''HU-007''.

Then a convoy of squad cars and heavy-duty motorcycles made a beeline
for the the taxi in question, stoped the driver and demanded to know
what the heck was going on.

When the cops asked the driver who exactly was in the trunk, he
sheepishly said it was ''a passenger''. Then our dear trunked Red
China passenger crawled out from the baking, back trunk -- with
temperatures hovering near 100 degreees -- and ''smiled
shamefacedly''.

So what happened? Well, the six Chinese passengers told the cops how
they had been planning to visit some friends in Taiwan, but felt that
taking two cabs would be too expensive.

According to the Taiwanese cabbie, the Chinese tourists insisted on
squeezing all six of them into one cab, with one riding shotgun, four
squashed into the backseat and one in the trunk.

And here's the kicker: Concerned about ventilation, the passenger in
the trunk persuaded the cabbie to leave the trunk open, which the
tourist then held open with one hand," the Liberty
Times reported in straight-forward Mandarin newspaper prose.

So, no kidnapping, nobody hurt, case closed, everyone happy now.

Welcome to a day in the life of Island Nation Taiwan, where things
don't always turn out to be what they ''appear'' to be.Is there a
movie here? Stay tuned.

Frankly, Frank Nuessel Knows Names

2011-07-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

And He's the Go-To Guy for Naming Conventions

by Leinad Moolb
~~Web Reporter~~

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Longtime Louisville Kentucky language lover Frank Nuessel grew up in Chicago and from an early age always had a natural curiosity about the world around him. Since Chicago was and is a multilingual and multicultural city, he heard different languages spoken on a daily basis -- and perhaps it was in this cultural incubator that his career path
was born. Today, Nuesell, is often in the news as an expert on names and naming conventions, especially on the theme of ''aptonyms'' and other names that reflect a person's job title or career choices. A June news report in the Wall Street Journal quoted Nuessel at length and put his name once again in lights. Here's...the rest of the story!]

Frank Nuessel coined the word aptonym in a book published in 1992. titled ,The Study of Names: A Guide to the Principles and Topics.'' When asked how he came up with the apt term
he told this reporter: "I was already familiar with the word “aptronym”, commonly meant to be a name
appropriate to the person who bears it ...and there are other
terms for this phenomenon, namely, Bob Levey of the Washington Post uses the
acronym PFLN (“Perfect Fit Last Names”)"

Gene Weingarten at the Washington Post also like to call these kinds of funny names aptonyms, and sometimes even inaptonyms. For some reason, Weingarten refuses
to answer his phone or his emails about this very urgent story, but maybe that's because his last name means in Yiddish "curmudgeon who does not feel any need to answer
his email from prying reporters, even if they live 10,ooo miles away overseas."

Actually, the whole issue of aptonyums has a long and valued history. The expression “aptronym” was coined by Franklin Adams, a pre-Neil Steinberg Chicagoan and newspaper columnist with a long
career working for various New York newspapers. According to sources, Adams didn't use the term aptonym, no, he settled for the oddly-named aptronym term, reputedly taken
the widely-used word “patronym.”His intention, of course, was to suggest the word “apt”, but I think he failed.

Some people with first or last names will sometimes enter a profession that in
some way reflects that name in either a serious or humorous way. Of course, most of
the time, this does not happen, and the few instances when this does happen
the world takes notice, sometimes in a serious way, sometimes in a humorous way.

Think Peter Apps, who writes about social media for Reuters News Service out of London.
Think Ben Pillow, who is the current night editor at the Washington Post. (There we go again, a third
reference to the Washington Post and this article is not even over yet!)

According to Nuessel, who knows a thing or two about names, ''some people pay attention to 'aptonyms because they appear to provide
evidence that a person’s name may indicate a person’s professional destiny. Most popular
essays on aptonyms approach the correlation between a person’s name and occupation as
a source of humor rather than in a serious, deterministic fashion.''

Weingarten, who still has not answered my emails, even a few paragraphs down the page,
coined the term "inaptonym" to mean a name that is not apt at all, but in a funny or
humorous way. What's an inaptonym? You'll have to ask Weingarten, but he's known for not answering his email or his Facebook messages. Hunorists are like that.
Especially when they work for the Washington Post.

Has Weingarten evver contacted Dr Nuessel to get his expert opinion on naming conventions? No, not once.
Gene does not venture outside his comfort zone, apparently.

I asked Nuessel if his own name might be an aptonym in any way, in that he
is known to be a frank man who is always frank with reporters? Does Nuessel
have any meaning in its European root word, I asked the good professor?

A man who does answer his email -- and promotly, in Internet time! -- Nuessel replied: "I have never considered my name to be an “aptonym”. Nevertheless, I always try to be honest and forthright with reporters and all other people with whom I interact. My paternal family name is of German origin. [Ed note: His grandparents made it over to Ellis Island
via ship, long ago, as happened in many American families.] It literally means "little (wal)nut". The
final "-el" is a diminutive form. The root of the word "Nuess-" means the edible item
(wal)nut. But no, I don't think my name has had any influence on my choice of becoming a linguist."

Nuessel is now the go-to guy for newspaper reporters around the world who want a good quote from you about stories they are writing about
naming conventions and aptonyms. Google his name and you will see. Every reporter who wants a good quoteworthy quote hightails it
over to Louisville by email and asks the good professor what he thinks about such and such. Always a good egg, Nuessel obliges and hands over a perfect quote. Again,
Google his name and you shall see! He's been doing this for almost 20 years, too.

Newspapers from time to time are full of articles with headlines such as a 1988
story in the The Indianapolis Star titled "Names and Jobs go Hand in Hand." They all quote Nuessel. He's everywhere.

Dr Nuessel's local paper is The Courier-Journal. And reporters
from that newspaper have contacted him over the years about stories they were writing about names and linguistics and have always been very kind and cited him accurately.

When a blooming reporter asked Dr Nuessel recently if he felt that his own last name might in some small way
have perhaps maybe sort of influenced him in his own career choice or professional life -- since his family name of Nuessel
comes from Germany where it means something like "little walnut" or "littlle nut" (and therefore, the reporter wondered, Dr Nuessel as a young boy might have dreamed of cracking open the walnuts of human knowledge as a language maven) -- the answer was a polite but firm no.

He said: "No. I don't believe that my name influenced my choice of being a linguist. I think I just had a natural curiosity about the world around me. Also, I lived in Chicago, which is a multilingual and multicultural city, so I heard different languages on a daily basis.''

Frank Nuessel Knows Names -- And Frankly, He's the Go-To Guy for Inquiring Reporters Nationwide

2011-07-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

webposted, July 17, 2011

EDITOR'S NOTE: Longtime Louisville language lover Frank Nuessel grew up in Chicago and notes that from an early age he always had a natural curiosity about the world around him. Since his hometown of Chicago was and is a multilingual and multicultural city, he heard different languages spoken on a daily basis. Today, Dr Nuesell, Ph.D, is often in the news as an expert on names and naming conventions, especially on the theme of ''aptonyms'' and other names that reflect a person's job title or career choices. A June news report in the Wall Street Journal by WSJ reporter Rachel Emma Silverman quoted Dr Nuessel at length and put his name once again in lights. In a recent interview with this blog conducted by email, Dr Nuessel was kind enough to take the time to answers a few of our questions. Thank you, Dr Nuessel!

DAN BLOOM: You coined the word aptonym in your book published in 1992. titled ,The Study of Names: A Guide to the Principles and Topics. Can you tell me how you came up with that word?

FRANK NUESSEL: I was already familiar with the word “aptronym”, commonly meant to be a name
appropriate to the person who bears it (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym, this
web site contains a listing of such names). As the Wiki post indicates, there are other
terms for this phenomenon, namely, Bob Levey of the Washington Post who uses the
acronym PFLN (“Perfect Fit Last Names”).

The expression “aptronym” was allegedly coined by Franklin P. Adams (1881-1960; see
http://www.mgilleland.com/fpabio.htm), an American newspaper columnist with a long
career working for various New York City newspapers. Adams is reputed to have taken
the widely used word “patronym” and changed the order of the letters of the first part of
the word to form “aptronym”. His intention was to suggest the word “apt” (see http://
www.gurucareersnetwork.com/blog/guru-news/do-you-know-any-aptronyms/).

The reason for the inclusion of the “r” was the fact that Adams used the pre-existing
word “patronym” and changed the letters of the first part. He thought it suggested the
word “apt”.

When I was writing my 1992 book The Study of Names: A Guide to the Principles and Topics,
I made the decision to use the term “aptonym” to reflect the meaning of this expression.
It is simply a combination of the adjective “apt” and “-nym” (Greek etymon for ‘name’),
which I thought captured the idea better, i.e., a name that reflects the occupation of the
person.

DAN BLOOM: Some people with first or last names will sometimes enter a profession that in
some way reflects that name in either a serious or humorous way. Of course, most of
the time, this does not happen, and the few instances when this does happen
the world takes notice, sometimes in a serious way, sometimes in a humorous way.
Why do you think people take notice of such aptonyms?

FRANK NUESSEL: Ernest Abel (a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Psychology, at Wayne
State University in Detroit) wrote an article titled “Influence of Names on Career
Choices in Medicine” in NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics (2010): pp. 65-74 (the
journal of which I am editor). In it, he does a literature review on this topic and he also
presents the results of his own research in which he argues for a significant relationship
between name and profession in medicine.

I think that some people pay attention to such aptonyms because they appear to provide
evidence that a person’s name may indicate a person’s professional destiny. Most popular
essays on aptonyms approach the correlation between a person’s name and occupation as
a source of humor rather than in a serious, deterministic fashion.

DAN BLOOM: There are aptonyms and Washington Post Gene Weingarten, a born humorist, has
coined the term "inaptonym" to mean a name that is not apt at all, but in a funny or
humorous way. Has Gene ever contacted you and what did he say to you? Or have
you ever contacted him? Do you follow inaptonyms, too, or just focus on aptonyms?

FRANK NUESSEL: No. The Post's columnist and humorist Gene Weingarten has not contacted me, nor have I contacted him. Indeed, I would enjoy speaking with him. His notion of “inaptonyms” is certainly
intriguing. It would definitely provide a source for humor.

DAN BLOOM: Do aptonyms also occur in other non-English languages, such as in German or
French or Italian or Hebrew or Chinese or Japanese, that you are aware of? Any examples?

FRANK NUESSEL: I would note that in the distant past some surnames represented a person’s
occupation, e.g., Miller, Cooper (barrel maker), Wagner (from Waggoner, or wagon
maker), Smith (blacksmith), and so forth (see http://www.mayrand.org/meaning-e.htm).

In this sense, a person’s occupation and name once had a close relationship. Nowadays,
however, the argument for “nominal determinism”, or the belief that an individual’s name
predetermines that person’s occupational choice is tenuous.

Some Italian surnames are similar to those just mentioned for English, i.e., the surnames
reflected the occupation of an individual or an entire family, e.g., Farina (‘flour’)
for a baker, Martelli (‘hammers’) for a carpenter or smith, and so forth (see http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy/surnames/).

DAN BLOOM: Your name is Frank Nuessel. Is your name an aptonym in any way, in that you
are known to be a frank man who is always frank with reporters? Does Nuessel
have any meaning in its European root word?

FRANK NUESSEL: I have never considered my name to be an “aptonym”. Nevertheless, I always try to be honest and forthright with reporters and all other people with whom I interact.

My paternal family name is of German origin. It literally means "little (wal)nut". The
final "-el" is a diminutive form. The root of the word "Nuess-" means the edible item
(wal)nut.

DAN BLOOM: You are becoming the go-to guy for newspaper reporters around the USA and
Canada who want a good quote from you about stories they are writing about
naming conventions and aptonyms? How many calls or emails do you get per month
now, and for how long has the media been interested in talking to you for a good
quote or two, from The Wall Street Journal to this blog here in Taiwan?

FRANK NUESSEL: In my capacity as the editor of ''NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics'', I receive frequent requests for telephone interviews from across the United States. The number of telephone calls
and emails that I receive varies greatly from month to month. After I was consulted by the world’s largest professional network Linkedin® (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn) in April of 2011 to provide some interpretation of the frequency of first name data that they had collected from their huge data base worldwide of approximately 100 million names, I received daily requests for about a month.

Usually, I receive about one request per week, but that can vary.

The media have been contacting me since the appearance of my book ''The Study of
Names: A Guide to the Principles and Practices'' published by Greenwood Press in 1992.
That would be almost two decades ago.

DAN BLOOM: According to some research I have seen, a Chicago newspaper
columnist coined the term ''aptronym'' in the 1940s and used it a few times in his newspaper column. His term was aptronym, and his name was Franklin P. Adams. Are you aware of this name and his earlier work?
Why did he an a "r" in the middle of the word APTONYM to make it harder to say , as APTRO-NYM? Any feelings on this?

FRANK NUESSEL: Yes. The expression “aptronym” was allegedly coined by Franklin P. Adams (1881-
1960; see http://www.mgilleland.com/fpabio.htm), an American newspaper columnist,
who took the widely used word “patronym” and changed the letters of the first part of
the word to form “aptronym”.

His intention, of course, was to suggest the word “apt” (see http://
www.gurucareersnetwork.com/blog/guru-news/do-you-know-any-aptronyms/).

The reason for the inclusion of the “r” was the fact that Adams used the pre-existing
word “patronym” and changed the letters of the first part. He thought it suggested the
word “apt”.

When I wrote my book on names in 1992 (''The Study of Names: A Guide to the Principles
and Practices''), I felt that the actual word “apt” followed by “-nym” (Greek etymon
for ‘name’) was much more comprehensible and semantically related to its meaning.
Therefore, I coined the word “aptonym”, which is semantically related to the meaning I
that I wanted to signify.

DAN BLOOM: There is now currently a journalist named Benjamin Pillow, who is a
night editor at Washington Post newspaper. And there is a reporter who covers social media and iPhones for Reuters wire service in London named Peter Apps. Any comments on these names in the newspaper business?

FRANK NUESSEL: Their names are, of course, just more examples of “aptonyms”. There are
numerous web sites with listings.

[ For a listing of “aptonyms” see the following two sites:
1. http://homepage.mac.com/chapmandave/aptonyms/index2.html
2. http://homepage.mac.com/chapmandave/aptonyms/en/list.html

Under the heading of “aptronym”, see the following web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym ]

DAN BLOOM: Newspapers from time to time are full of articles with headlines such as a 1988
story in the The Indianapolis Star titled "Names and Jobs go Hand in Hand." Can you tell me of any special and outstanding names and jobs that go hand in hand?

FRANK NUESSEL: I would refer you to my response to the question above in which I list web sites with
people whose names seem related to their occupations.

DAN BLOOM: You live in Louisville, Kentucky and you are a professor at the U of Louisville. Have the
local newspapers or even the college newspaper there every profiled your very interesting profile for a big feature story in the local press there?

FRANK NUESSEL: The major local newspaper here is The Courier-Journal. Various reporters
from that newspaper have contacted me over the years about stories they were writing about names and linguistics. They have always been very kind and they have always cited me accurately, which I appreciate very much.

One aspect of my job as a professor and University Scholar at the University of Louisville is to provide this type of service to the local community. I am always happy to do so.

DAN BLOOM: Thank you, sir, for your very interesting answers here.

FRANK NUESSEL: Thank you for your interest in my work.

==================================
(c) 2011 by Blooming Idiot Productions

NOTE: When an overseas reporter asked Dr Nuessel recently if he felt that his own last name might
have influenced him in his own career choice or professional life -- since his family name of Nuessel
comes from Germany where it means something like "little walnut" or "littlle nut" (and therefore, the reporter wondered, Dr Nuessel as a young boy might have dreamed of cracking open the walnuts of human knowledge as a language maven) -- the answer was a polite but firm no.

He told this blog: "No. I don't believe that my name influenced my choice of being a linguist. I think I just had a natural curiosity about the world around me. Also, I lived in Chicago, which is a multilingual and multicultural city, so I heard different languages on a daily basis.''

-30 -

The Foreigner Who Loves 'Tora-san' - a YouTube story from the 1990s

2011-07-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya579gUSIpk

Leinad Moolb, who lived in Tokyo for five years in the 1990s, is an
American with a strong interest in Tora-san. As readers know, Tora-san
is the name of the character played by the late Atsumi Kiyoshi in the
long-running "Otoko wa Tsurai Yo" film series. In November 1995, Moolb
appeared in a brief segment on a Japanese TV variety show, dressed up
as Tora-san and walking around the streets of Shinjuku.

Moolb, now based in Taiwan, still loves watching Tora-san movies, and
from time to time they play on late night TV in Taiwan, where
Japanese culture is still strong among older people who lived or where
born during the Japanese Colonial Period of Taiwan (1895-1945).

Here are his recollections:

"One of my particular interests when I lived in Japan was Tora-san. I
don't know why, I just liked him, his character, the movies he was in.
I guess I'm just a fan of the Tora-san movies and the star of the
long-running series, the late Atsumi Kiyoshi (1928-1996). I've seen
most of the Tora-san movies on video, from the first film released in
1969 to the last in the series, Number 48, released in December 1995.

"In addition, in the early 1990s, when I was working in Tokyo as a
reporter for an English-language newspaper, I had the opportunity to
attend several press conferences where director Yoki Yamada spoke
about the long-lasting Tora-san phenomenon. And like many Tora-san
fans, I made the film fan pilgrimmage to Shibamata in Tokyo's
Katsushika Ward several times, walking through the narrow the
shoten-gai past Tora-san's dango-ya and into the nearby shrine,
noshing on tasty yakitori sold from sidewalk stalls along the way. And
every summer, for old time's sake, I took the "yagiri no watashi"
ferry from one side of the Edogawa River to the other (and back -- all
for 200 yen), a scene that appears in some of the early Tora-san
films.

''It was my way of paying respect to the Atsumi Kiyoshi and to the
whole Tora-san phenomenon. I can't explain it, really, but I was and
still am a big fan of the films. In the early 1990s, I waited outside
film theaters showing the latest Tora-san movie during the New Year's
season with hundreds of elderly Japanese, waiting for their chance to
catch another glimpse of Torajiro Kuruma, the character played in all
the films by Atsumi Kiyoshi. 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 -- every
December I was out there in line waiting to get in. It felt like a
kind of a ritual, a tradition and it was fun to be a part of it.
Inside the theater, once the curtain went up, the latest installment
in the series would begin and I would sit there enthralled with the
music, the familiar cast of characters, the Shibamata set, the scenes
of everyday life that I -- as a foreigner -- could not always see by
myself. The Tora-san films opened up a window on Japan for me that was
and still is invaluable.

Moolb's 'Brief' Appearance on Japanese TV as 'Tora-san'

''A few years back, in November 1995, I was contacted by a producer at
Tokyo-TV (Channel 12) about appearing on an upcoming variety show
about foriegners in Japan: their hobbies, their special interests,
their after-work activities. Word had somehow reached the producers
that I was a fan of the Tora-san films and they asked me if I would be
interested in being a part of the show on November 13. Sure, I said,
sounds like fun!

''For my segment, I was dressed up by the wardrobe stylist in a
Tora-san suit, complete with haramaki, sandals, old-fashioned
"dabu-shirt," omomori and the famous brown suitcase Tora-san always
carries around with him. I was filmed walking around the streets of
Shinjuku for three hours in this get-up, visiting a small yatai and
drinking some sake, going into a karaoke place to sing the Tora-san
theme song and greeting people, young and old, on the streets. I shook
hands with bar hostesses and drunk salarymen as Tora-san, carrying the
suitcase from street corner to street corner, and trying my best to
walk in those seta.

''From the the three-hour video shoot, the producers chose about 45
seconds for me to make my debut on Japanese TV and midway through the
show, introduced by American TV star in Japan Dave Spector, my brief
segment aired. The night walking around Kabukicho was a real adventure
and it opened my eyes up further to the amazing "drawing power" of
Tora-san. I mean, I don't look like Tora-san at all, but because of
the costume I was in, a rented Tora-san outfit, I was transformed in
the eyes of passersby into a symbol of one of Japan's most famous film
stars!

''People didn't look at my face, they "took in" the whole outfit in
one glance and actually saw, not me, but Tora-san on the streets of
Kabukicho. Young people, old people, salarymen, office ladies,
gangsters, peep show toots, even children reached out to shake my
hand, to pat me on the back or say "Gambatte, Tora-san!" as the TV
camera crew followed my stroll. Young college students called out and
said "Hello, Tora-san!" even though they knew that I was just a
foreigner having some fun with an outfit.

''It was truly amazing for me, a foreigner who had not been in Japan
for that long, to witness the reactions from passersby. The experience
made me realize how close people still felt to Tora-san at the time,
even in this age of hi-tech mobile phones and computers.

"That night in Kabukicho even young people who had never seen
a Tora-san movie were delighted to "bask" in his "presence" -- hat and
suitcase and all -- even though it was just an illusion created by
some enterprising TV producers. I hope to rent a Tora-san suit again
someday and do some more ''Tora-san-ing'' in Tokyo, even though the man
who brought the character to life is no longer alive. I want to learn
more about why Tora-san was such a beloved character in the Japanese
imagination. If you see me pass by, in your dreams, by all means say hello.

FUN　LINKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxaUO-UepWU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPtX2Fofvak&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkCGiHf7dFk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbfadIUTqg8&feature=related

ＴＲＩＢＵＴＥ：
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkPcBSTpIDk&feature=related

A Taiwanese man tells this blog today:
During the past about 15 years, I always look for Tora-san song and movies but I cannot find them here in Taiwan now in 2011. . A long time ago those movies were broadcast on Taiwan’s TV. I love those movies very much. WHY? Because in some ways, Mr Atsumi Kyoshi the actor -- (渥美清) -- looks a lot like like my father, too.......and his hat that he wears in the movies waslike the hat my father wore in Taiwan...(my father use the same mode of hat) .......and tummy band the undergarment protecting the abdomen (my father always used it all the winter). The other reason is I like the theme song of movie is that this song has an exuberance of feeling. thank you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya579gUSIpk

Tora-san

2009-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

LO LAT LO -- LO LAT LA

Mark Zuckerberg does Vietnam, noshes on rat meat dishes

The Taipei Times as displayed everyday at the newspaper kiosk inside the Chiayi Train Station lobby

American woman with Taiwan roots and family ties to Taiwan wins big on THE AMAZING RACE TV reality show in USA

Rats! There's rat on the menu and it's delicious! Never say no when you travel overseas. TRY EVERTHING [AT LEAST ONCE]!

Spot the spelling errors? There are two. To be fixed later.

Wang Sheng Hsiung from Talin, Chiayi County - LO LAT to you!

New Year's Song, composed by George Wallace, words by Biko Lang, for 2012

An interview with Taiwanese children's book author CHOU YAO-PING - - Author of 《鐘聲喚醒的故事》。

A WWII 'bomb bell' guards an Amis tribal village for 60 years, reports a December 2011 English newspaper in Taiwan

The Tuvalu Ground Zero Climate Change Interview

Jody Chiang TV ad with Phil from New Zealand with text in romaji from the spoken Hoklo (tai-gi)

Taiwan honors Big Nosed foreigners who contributed their life work to Taiwan -- List of 1000 "big noses" created by government

YILAN TREES GET MARRIED

I am relocating virtually to Tuvalu, there to observe climate change first-hand and up close and personal

NEW YEAR's DANCE SONG ROCKS THE WORLD

江蕙 金酒廣告 - Jody Chiang TV commercial with Phil Tchernegovski in Taiwan for Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor

LO LAT PLEDGE, spoken proposal to sign LO LAT PLEDGE, voiced in Taiwanese by ''Taiwan-gi-bang''

English language information services at Chiayi Hospital in Taiwan (video) for BIG NOSE white people? - Did they really say ADOAH in this govt sponsored video?

Taiwan's Oscars -- 'Seediq Bale' gallops off with top Golden Horse film prize at Hollywood-on-Formosa mecca of up-and-coming directors, actors and screenwriters

Hoklo subtitles...

LO LAT TV show with Ju Ger Liang on the JU GER ICHIBAN show on Next TV, aired November 16, 2011 on Channel 70 and MOD TV

LO LAT COLA

我的 Lo - Lat 宣言

LO LAT TV show with subtitles in Hoklo Taiwanese

豬哥壹級棒 LO LAT segment with Chris Downs and Dan Bloom, Hosts Are Ju Ger Liang and Miao Ker Li - taped in June 23, aired on November 8

LO LAT POSTCARD, designed by Jennifer at Chiayi train station.....!!!

Milo Thornberry speaks about use of the word LO LAT in Taiwan and overseas during recent USA speech to FAPA event

LO LAT CD has first public loudspeaker airing at local arts fair, photos by Yi Hsuan in Chiayi City, October 29

老美迷台語/要走全台 錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

老美迷台語/要走全台 錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

Jewish community in Taiwan celebrates arrival of new Torah in September 2011

Dave Bidini on why ebooks will not replace paper books

丹布隆 say「''lo lat'' }

The Lo Lat Project

LO LAT photos - Hsinchu

LO LAT sign with Vietnamese workers and care-givers in a Hsinchu City park - LO LAT!

Electronia Version of LO LAT SONG for Santaizi Dance Perforamance

LO LAT news interview by Yi-ting Huang from CCU communications department for campus news show

LO LAT in California license plate, designed by Sonia Chang in Thousand Oaks !!!!

LO LAT idea, designed by Cyril in Pintung, his ideas, his images !!! (something to think about?)

LO LAT - summer 2011 - Chiayi City - Wilson, Mode, Dan, Vicky

LO LAT in a parking lot at sunset.......summer 2011

LO LAT

What US President Barack Obama or VP Joe Biden might tell the China leaders today, channeling Ronald Reagan in his famous 1987 Berlin wall speech, of course

Taiwanese banker dies in mountain-climbing tragedy that some speculate might have been SUICIDE

777

TEAM LO LAT -- comments from around the country and overseas as well !

Richard Gere's Iranian "lookalike" in Taiwan?

''Taiwaneers'': Jon Stewart on his Comedy Central show in the USA refers to the people behind Next Media Animation videos as "Taiwaneers" - meaniing pioneers, puppeteers, cool animators

What's next for Wang Chien-ming after the suicide of his grandfather?

LO LAT photographs as the LO LAT WAVE catches on nationwide, islandwide....

LO LAT song video mix mash with Techno Neon Gods Santaizi dancing in amateur video not for public viewing

THE LO LAT SONG, set to electronica music composed by Tino, vocals by Amanda !!!

美國「白龍王」 名流搶見

Racism (hope this is how u spell it)

Lisa Furtado Pens Expat Asia Novel

Norwegian terror suspect admits he got it all wrong in his head, hired two hookers for sex romp a week before mass murders

Taiwan's Keystone Cops Caper -- YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS, BUT.....

Frankly, Frank Nuessel Knows Names

Frank Nuessel Knows Names -- And Frankly, He's the Go-To Guy for Inquiring Reporters Nationwide

The Foreigner Who Loves 'Tora-san' - a YouTube story from the 1990s

Tora-san

江蕙金酒廣告 - Jody Chiang TV commercial with Phil Tchernegovski in Taiwan for Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor

老美迷台語/要走全台錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

老美迷台語/要走全台錄萬人說 LO LAT 新竹市

美國「白龍王」名流搶見