Would you like to link to
this website? Please use
one of the buttons below. Thank you!
Webdesign & contents
by ClaireWorks.
Copyright 2000-2002
Beverly Claire L. Fangonon.
All rights reserved.
All graphics & photographs
by ClaireWorks,
unless otherwise indicated.
Truly Terrific Tokyo
(01 January 2002) Editor's Note: Ah, the English language! My friend Aik Hong and I are from Malaysia and the Philippines, respectively, and while we are not so-called "native speakers" of English, it is the language we use most often. Both of us have the habit of reaching for Merriam Webster's when in doubt, and although we are multilingual, are very much aware that we can't live without English in all its idiosyncracies. Thus you find us pondering its deep, dark secrets, and grimacing when we make mistakes in its usage. English may be the language wherein we could best express ourselves, yet it is not fully ours, and probably never will be (which may, in the end, be all for the better!). In this letter Aik Hong laughs at some of the boo boos that arise when speaking this language that we can't run away from, try as we might.
Letter from Tokyo: Mr. G and Parkinson's Disease by Bernager Teh Aik Hong
(07 November 2001) Dearest Claire,
So we've been back to our once-in-a-blue-moon mode of e-correspondence. Good, then we won't be running out of topics that often (though it seems that you never have a writer's block) and there'll be no more guilty feelings for late replies.
I know you're breathless being buried in loads of work: your hands are tied by school work and your feet company's work. And not forgetting updating your website for your ardent readers. I'm a half-ardent-er, as I dropped by only this Monday and found some new Japanese pages. Of course I ain't supposed to write and congratulate you every time you update your website, like a teacher praises a child every time he/she passes up the homework. Still, here's some encouragement and praise from me as you did try your best, even though being tied like a potato (^o^) by tonnes of work, to spare a few drops of sweat for the website. Whereas I've yet to start even a stroke for my cyber world which I daringly and shamelessly promised to be ready by August!
Today I'm as free as a pig, in stark contrast to your being as busy as a bee. I attended an English lesson this morning by a Mr. G from Britain. He said that I didn't need to take the lesson as he teaches very simple business English. Still, in that short lesson I learned some new things, or realized some old mistakes. For self-introduction, I said I was doing something about Parkinson's disease; but I never knew that "doing something about Parkinson's disease" is only reserved for the big-name real scientists, until he "enlightened" me. So, for small fries like me, we are doing research, but not something, on Parkinson's disease until we get the Nobel Prize!
You see, I still have a lot of those little prickles in my English to get rid of. I have a very dedicated Japanese teacher here in my school: she is always ready to crawl deep into every hole of my uncertainties and mistakes, and bury them off for me. And that I don't even pay a penny for the service is ever the best incentive, of course! I have also come near to having such a French teacher, but I've to sacrifice French for my one thousand other things. This morning I got such an English sir who has a rotund voice and a very rotund waist. Judging from his cheerfulness and playfulness and humour, he shall be happy to answer every e-question of mine. You know, I had been looking for one since I came to Japan. I had one back in Malaysia, but alas he uses only typewriters. For this Mr. G, I'm going to grind him with my nebulae of questions, though I know he can easily counterattack my every blow without a sweat.
Claire, don't you think the word "nil" is a common word? When I used it during a seminar, nobody, not even my professor, knew what it meant. Nowadays the more I hear my professor talk, the less he seems to know about both English and biology. Once he asked me "Do you have any empty time?" There's another anecdote which happened two years ago when I worked for a Japanese teacher in my university. One day I was typing at the computer and then a foreign student came in. He called in the morning but my sensei ("teacher") was away. When she saw him, she said she was sorry that when he called, "I... I disappeared!" Luckily they went out of the room right away, else I would have burst out laughing before their very eyes. Phew! See, even though I myself also make many mistakes, I always laugh at other people's slipups.
OK, time's up for my missive, and it's time for you to continue with your thousand missions. I've to go and plan my first take on that Mr. G. You too, all the best and best of life!
Aik Hong
About the Author
Teh Aik Hong, from Malaysia, is currently a Biology student at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. At present, he is trying to extract protein from some shockingly expensive silkworms. "These silkworms will never make it to mothdom, as they will be squashed and their juices extracted...", he wrote to me late last year. Aik Hong is a ClaireWorks Contributor and you'll be seeing more of his stuff here whether you like it or not. =)
Talk back!
Please use the form below to comment on the above article. Your input will be posted on this page within 24 hours. Thank you for your time! (Note: '**' means the field is required.)
Readers' Comments
Date: 2002-2-26
Name: Chris Houser
Comments:
A native speaker of English, I say 'nil' all the time. I'm seldom understood. Sigh. English is such a big language, no one knows all of it!
Related Links Tokyo Institute of Technology - official website. Tanaka Kenkyushitsu - Aik Hong, who claims to have superb aesthetic sense, built this web site for his research lab. Check it out.
About the Author
