frequently meaning in english的八卦，Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

《光明軒》
My Abode of Illumination (English version below)

有一回，與徒弟及學生到南部的欣葉中餐館用膳，有位來自中國的女侍應生，在吾的正前方，突然冒出一句：「師父好正。」 這句突如其來的話，「驚醒」定中用膳的吾。被「驚醒」的原因，乃是其話中的那個「正」字。因為這「正」字在近代，常被用來形容女生的漂亮與美，那就是「正點」。但吾很快的就意識到，她所謂的「師父好正」，是代表吾的為人形像端正。在此要感謝那位中國同胞，「師父好正」這句贊語，將是吾一生精進的目標之一。

能得如此的殊榮，本就應歸功於，吾之根本上師，聖尊蓮生活佛，及佛教教主南無本師釋迦牟尼佛。祂們慈悲偉大的「身教」及「言教」，老早已植在吾之識田裡，只因累世的貪、嗔、癡、妒、慢、疑，滋生大片的雜草，遮蓋吾本清淨明朗的識田，行屍走肉，度日如年的荒廢吾好長的一段人生歲月啊！還好在是日已過，命已隨減的危機下，清淨又清涼的佛光，照破吾那昏天暗地的識田，讓吾之識田重新發光發熱，最終成佛離苦得樂。

多年前，有一男一女的弟子，幫吾整理一些移居前的物品。女弟子在入屋前一碰鐵門，有一種觸電的感覺，她甚感不可思議，於是問吾為何因。吾淡然地告於她，這乃多年的結界之故。她聽後依然覺得，實在不可思議。之後她就進入屋內，還不到兩步她又有另一番覺受。她哇的一聲說：「師父您的家真清淨又舒服呀！」 她其實有問那男弟子，是否有何覺受，男弟子說，這裡（指吾家）好好睡哦！是的，這不長進的男弟子，到現在依然「未醒」，且「愈越睡愈深」，已接近「來不及醒」的階段。

吾給自己居住的地方命名為「光明軒」，乃日夜持誦光明聖號、光明咒，食衣住行皆供養，佛菩薩諸神明常往來，久而久之，光明擴長又擴長，吾之居所自然就成就光明軒，清淨又舒服的光明軒。

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

There was one occasion when I was dining with my disciple and student at Shin Yeh Chinese Restaurant, located at the southern part of Singapore. A female waitress of Chinese nationality was standing in front of me when she suddenly remarked, "Master is awesome!". This sudden remark "woke" me from my meditative stillness while having my meal. The reason being this word "awesome" is also often used nowadays to describe beautiful girls. Of course, I understood her meaning almost instantly. She meant to say that I portray an image of righteousness and properness. I have to thank this lady from China for her lavish praise, for her remark will be my lifetime goal, which I will diligently strive towards.

For this honour, all the credit must go to my Root Guru Master, His Holiness Living Buddha Lian-Sheng, as well as Lord Buddha, Namo Shakyamuni. Their compassionate and noble teachings through Their speech, body and mind, had long been planted in my subconsciousness. But afflictions from my past lives - greed, hatred, ignorance, jealousy, arrogance and doubt, have germinated into a huge wasteland of weeds, enshrouding the pristine nature of my consciousness.

Days feel like years and I walk around like a living dead, squandering a long period of my life! Thankfully, under the impending danger of my dwindling life span as each day passes, the pristine and refreshing illumination from the Buddhas penetrated my overcast consciousness, and my consciousness regains its Light and Radiance. That will eventually lead me to enlightenment and Buddhahood, liberating myself from sufferings and achieving eternal bliss.

Many years ago, two disciples of mine, one male and the other female, helped me to pack my belongings for house-moving. Just as the female disciple touched the metal gate, prior to entering my home, her hand felt a stream of "electric" current. She was baffled and asked me why. I nonchalantly told her that it was due to my years of demarcating the house. She was in awe after hearing my words. It sounded very unfathomable to her. After she stepped into my home, just a step or two into the house, she exclaimed, "Wah! Master, your house is filled with such pure and comfortable energies!" She went on to ask the male disciple if he felt anything. The male disciple replied that my house was a comfortable place to take a nap! Yes, this lazy disciple is still "unawakened" till now. His "slumber" is getting deeper and deeper, and it is nearing the stage that he might not "awake" in the nick of time.

I have named my home The Abode of Illumination. Day and night, I do my recitations of the Holy names and mantras of radiance. I am diligent and consistent in making offerings of food, clothing, accommodation and transport. These acts invoke the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Heavenly Beings. As such, They frequently visit my humble abode. Over time, the illumination expanded and my place naturally became the Abode of Illumination, a home that is pure, pristine and comfortable.

www.masterdaihu.com/my-abode-of-illumination/

Taipei Times 英文臺北時報今刊出讀者投書致賴揆：
官方一直示範菜英文，還想列英文為第二官語？

舉例之一：交通部觀光局行之五年的「借問站」計劃英文宣傳名稱「Taiwan Ask Me」是「菜英文」。無誤！

繼之前的菜英文「Taiwan Touch Your Heart」之後，不意外。

最後這一段切中要害：

// Finally, Premier Lai, how can Taiwan effectively pursue the valuable and challenging goal of making English an official language of this country if the ROC government’s own ministries are not even able to correctly compose a simple advertisement in English? //

猜測作者 Xue Meng-ren 很可能是薛孟仁（Dr. Bruce G. Shapiro），逢甲大學外國語文學系副教授。

謝謝薛教授用專業的聲音告誡政府勿失策。

以下全文轉錄投書內容，連結見留言。

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

An open letter to Premier William Lai

By Xue Meng-ren

Wed, Oct 24, 2018

Dear Premier William Lai (賴清德):

You have admirably and lately led Taiwan in an ongoing discussion about whether to make English a second “official” language. Many articles have appeared defending both sides of this argument.

As it stands, Taiwan uses the traditional style of Mandarin Chinese for all official government, legal and business documents. However, the Taiwanese government frequently uses English in a non-official capacity to facilitate outreach initiatives and better communication with non-Chinese-speaking residents and tourists.

“Taiwan Ask Me” is one such governmental initiative, which the Ministry of Transportation and Communications initiated five years ago.

As a Cabinet-level governmental body charged with communications, the ministry’s standard of English should be a model of English usage for the rest of the nation, particularly the tourism industry, which the ministry also officially administers.

Unfortunately, the ministry has demonstrated that its use of English is both inept and even — albeit inadvertently — insulting.

On the Republic of China’s National Day, on page 5 of the Taipei Times, the ministry’s Tourism Bureau published an announcement about the fifth anniversary of the “Taiwan Ask Me” initiative. This announcement features not only elementary grammatical errors, but also incorrect English usage that renders it meaningless and embarrassing.

To begin, in English, the phrase “Taiwan Ask Me” is nonsense, that is, it has no meaning. It must at least have some defining punctuation, such as, “Taiwan? Ask Me” or “Taiwan, Ask Me.”

The service is supposed to be for tourists in need of answers to questions about traveling around Taiwan, but the phrase “Taiwan Ask Me” absurdly means that Taiwan should ask someone, “me,” something about itself.

And, who does this “me” refer to? Certainly, the initiative does not limit itself to employing a single individual, but rather a team of individuals. Therefore, the phrase should be “Taiwan, Ask Us” not “me.”

This type of error, along with the rest of the advertisement, not only demonstrates poor English usage, but more importantly, it suggests a lack of awareness about what service to others actually means.

It suggests that the initiative “Taiwan Ask Me” is merely paying lip service to a valuable concept of a democratic government that it does not truly value or even understand. This poorly written advertisement reveals that it is more interested in celebrating its own anniversary than it is in providing the service for which it is lauding itself.

The announcement states that the ministry “launched the ‘Taiwan Ask Me’ friendly travel information service” five years ago, and now has 450 Information Stations “that prove warm and friendly services.”

Obviously, the Information Services must provide not “prove” their services. “Prove” is the incorrect English word, unless the intention is for the ministry to pat itself on the back by saying that over the past five years the service has “proved its services are warm and friendly,” but then the grammar is still incorrect.

Furthermore, the use of both “warm” and “friendly” is repetitive, since the words are synonymous in this context. Using repetitive words in this way is a feature of the elementary English usage quite common in Taiwan, but governmental English has no excuse for being elementary.

In addition to offering “domestic and foreign tourists the warmest greetings,” through the Taiwan Ask Me Information Stations, “the service further incorporates rich travel elements.” The phrase “rich travel elements” is verbal nonsense. It correctly connects words that have no discernible meaning. The article does not define or elaborate upon them.

In the following run-on sentence, the article connects these “rich travel elements” with “five unique features,” the first of which is “local gourmets.” Why would a tourist want to meet a gourmet? And what kind of a gourmet?

The ministry probably means “local food” or perhaps “local delicacies,” whereas a “gourmet” is a food connoisseur, that is, a lover of good food. “Gourmets” is an example of another English error common in Taiwan, which is to use the incorrect English word to say something related to that word.

Using Google Translate often helps Taiwanese students make these ridiculous English errors. Unfortunately, government ministers are no longer students. Thus, one expects them to have a better grasp of English, certainly as it pertains to their own special purpose or field of employment.

Together, the “five unique features” mentioned in the article are supposed to “form [a] synergistic local economy of tourism,” whatever that is. Thus, the advertisement uses yet another nonsensical phrase, the meaning of which even the necessary grammatical insertion of “a” does not clarify.

The tourist economy in Taiwan is definitely important, and it is possibly important to connect different aspects of the tourist economy into a unified plan for development. However, linking the so-called five unique features does not create an economic synergy.

Taiwan Ask Me is a free information service. It does not make money or use money to link things together to form economic relationships. Even a government minister should recognize that specious phrases reveal fake values.

For the fifth anniversary event, “Eunice LIN,” (which should be “Eunice Lin,”) “is invited to be the tour guide, and experience the friendliness of ‘Taiwan Ask Me.” This sentence means that Ms Lin is going act as a tourist guide and experience for herself the friendly services of the Information Stations. More absurd nonsense, for why would she be both the tourist guide and the tourist?

Furthermore, the ministry should take responsibility for inviting Ms Lin. Instead of writing “Eunice LIN, a popular TV personality, is invited,” the correct sentence would be: “The MOTC has invited Eunice Lin, a popular TV personality, to be a tour guide.”

Finally, Ms Lin may be a local celebrity, but she is a Taiwanese film and television actor, not a TV personality. The latter is someone who appears on TV as herself, perhaps as the host of a variety show, but not someone who appears as characters in films or a TV series. (“Actor” refers to either male or female, the distinction “actress” being no longer necessary.)

The next sentence in the article is so riddled with grammatical errors, it would take several more paragraphs to explain them all. Suffice it to say that much of what the sentence tries to say means the opposite of what it must intend, which is the major problem with the article in question, especially its conclusion.

The advertisement closes with an egregious insult to all foreign residents and tourists.

Setting aside the grammatical errors and confusing phrasing, the advertisement announces the “Hi Taiwan! Give Me 5 Point Collection Campaign,” which started on Oct. 1.

However, this campaign is only for “all citizens of Taiwan [who] are invited to visit Information Stations and get a taste of the warm and friendly services of ‘Taiwan Ask Me.’”

Apparently, foreign tourists are not allowed to “experience in-depth local travels” and only “citizens will also get an opportunity to win lovely prizes!”

Who in the world is this advertisement for? It would seem to be for foreign tourists and residents since it is in English and appears in the only English print newspaper published in Taiwan. And what citizen of Taiwan needs to read an English advertisement? Surely, any citizen of Taiwan can read all about “Taiwan Ask Me” in Chinese. And yet, this advertisement about a tourism service concludes by disinviting the foreign residents and tourists who are not only most likely to read the advertisement, but also most likely to benefit from the Taiwan Ask Me initiative.

With this appalling advertisement, the ministry makes a mockery of not only the government’s attempts to use English effectively but also its own ministerial responsibility over communication and tourism in Taiwan.

If the Taiwanese government does have the personnel to compose articles in correct English that do not insult English readers and tourists and perhaps visiting foreign dignitaries, then it should hire copy editors with the skills to do it for them. It is certainly worth the expense when compared to the embarrassing cost of losing face, which means so much to Taiwanese society.

Finally, Premier Lai, how can Taiwan effectively pursue the valuable and challenging goal of making English an official language of this country if the ROC government’s own ministries are not even able to correctly compose a simple advertisement in English?

What a conundrum, and where does one begin to solve it?

Respectfully yours,

Xue Meng-ren

Taichung