Photos of 9-9 Rally

Saturday September 9, 2006

I had never joined a demonstration before; however, this one seemed not only important to me but also to all the people who live on this island.

join 加入
demonstration 遊行
seem 似乎

I went on the Kaitakelan Boulevard yesterday at about 3 pm, seeing over 100,000 local people rally to demand the resignation of President Chen Shui-bian. Most of us do believe that he must step down due to his series of alleged corruption scandals involving his family members and close aides.

Kaitakelan Boulevard 凱達格蘭大道
rally 集會
demand 要求
resignation 辭職
step down 下臺
series of 一連串的
alleged 被聲稱的
corruption 貪污
scandal 醜聞
involve 牽涉
close aides 親信

Most of the protesters wore red to express their anger. We shouted slogans and gave the thumbs-down sign as we marched through the broad way in front of the Presidential Palace.

protester 示威者
express 表達
shout 吼叫
slogan 口號
thumbs-down 拇指向下
sign 手勢
march 前進
Presidential Palace 總統府

Frankly I don't think the president will be ousted from his position of power. The reason why I took part in this rally is just to let him know how pissed off I was. I stayed there for about an hour and took off as soon as it had started to pour.

frankly 坦白說
oust 驅逐
position of power 權力位置
took part in 參加
pissed off 憤怒
took off 離開
pour 下大雨

Nothing but happy

Five years ago as I moved back in Taiwan, I had never thought about that one day I would stick to a teaching job like this for such a long time. It is all due to the help from Bruce, a friend of mine who I met in the US. If you wish to know more about what'd happened between he and me, pelase refer to my earlier articles on this blog. I hope you can find it.

stick to something 堅定於
due to 由於
refer to 參考

I am not a good team player, as a matter of fact. That's why I couldn't always stay working in one office too long. I hate seeing politics going around in the workplace, let along become a brown nose of my boss. I always try to get away from those who get into a fight with one another. To me, office is like hell where everyone should distort themselves in front of others.

team player 團隊的一份子
as a matter of fact 事實上
workplace 職場
let along 更不用說
brown nose 馬屁精
distort 扭曲

After I have become a teacher, I am so surprised that I can handle the situation better than before. I don't need to live a hypocritical life, and who I am faced with in my daily life differ than the former. My students come up to me with the view to soaking up knowledge from me. I try everything I can to help them get better in preparing a test. My life can't be just as simple as it is now.

hypocritical 虛偽的
differ from 不同於
the former 前者
soak up 吸收

I don't know how much longer I can be a on this job, but I never get tired of this. That is strange, I think. The closer I go to the classroom, the happier I feel. Oh, God. This is what the doctor ordered.

what the doctor ordered 剛好是我想要的

It's in your hand.

The question that people often ask me is about how to improve their TOEIC scores. I think to answer the question is quite simple. Usually before giving an advice I would ask how many tests, both the real and simulated ones, they have already taken so far. Not surprisingly, most of them just did very few times to the tests. No wonder they wanted to know if there are some sort of instant way to get improved. Fat chance!

simulated 模擬的
not surprisingly 不令人驚訝的
no wonder 難怪
instant 快速的
fat chance 不可能

My idea for it is, to prepare for a test, practicing on end is the key to success. It is not enough to do just one test or two. To get familiar with most of the test formats in TOEIC, such as word forms, word choice, sentence structure, grammar, listening skills, and so and so forth, you must try learning them from different testbooks over and over and again. I'll say, taking ten different ones is the minimum requirement before you know what TOEIC is about. No kidding.

on end 不斷地
get familiar with 對...熟悉
format 型態
structure 架構
and so forth 等等
minimum requirement 最小要求

By the way, I am not asking you to take the real tests, for which will hit your pocket badly. I just mean try as many simulated tests as you can at home from various sources. Online test, school's old tests, or the one you got from the used book store...whichever way you can get them by. Remember, to either ace it or srew it up, it is in your hand.

by the way 順便一提
hit your pocket 荷包失血
various 不同的
sources 來源
online 線上, 網路的
ace something 做的好某事
srew something up 搞雜某事

I am back.

Hey! What's up? I guess the first question you wish to ask is, "Where have you been, sir?" hmmm.....where have I been? If you know it, you know it. If you don't, I am afraid I can't tell you. There is something I have to seal my lips, or I 'll be in trouble. That is all I can say. Sorry about that.

seal one's lips 閉嘴

Well...at least I am back. I will the usaul post some stuff here. I think I may have lost a lot of readers of mine, haven't I? This sounds like I'm making fun of myself. Ya...I think I am exactly doing that at this moment.

at least 至少

In Chinese culture, people see themselves as "being busy like a dog". I don't know why people would call themselves dogs if they really fit in that situation. Maybe it is because dogs are good runners or something like that. Uh...I am not like a dog but I've been as hectic as a dog in the past few weeks. But now, things have been back to normal. Let me think of what I have to write for next time....

fit in 適合
situation 情況
hectic 急忙的

Catch you later!