Direct translation ... duh!

When I was in Beijing, everytime when I boarded a cab there will be an automated machine which will say something like 'Thank you for taking Beijing taxi'. Basically the local will try to translate word by word from Chinese to English, hence it sounded a bit funny.

Anyway, this happened to a relative of mine in Beijing. At the airport he needed to withdraw money from the ATM. He walked up the ATM and put in his foreign ATM card. After a few seconds, a female voice spoken out from the machine and my relative making a a mild whispering to the machine! The line at the back was wondering what went wrong. The whispering continues and can be overheard.

Later, we found out the machine actually said something like 'Please tell me your password'. (Directly translated but the meaning became distorted). So my relative actually thought it was voice recognition and telling the machine his password over and over again!!! What the machine actually meant was to key in your password onto the pad!

Migration..who said it's tough?!

During my trips back and forth to Sydney and Melbourne airport, I have seen some changes. The cab drivers, lately I have seen so many BEEP (certain nationality which I like to censor here) has became drivers instead. Then I started to question myself, how did they come here in the first place?

When I was applying for my migration, it was a pretty tough thing to do. I have to justify my skills and knowledge before they considered to take you in. In another words, tonnes of paperwork and justifications. So how come, the cab drivers here came with their families, seems so easy?!!! Something is not right I told myself.

I then learnt from an old friend who worked for a university. She told me there were various ways, it seems there were some illegal ways, as long as you are willing to pay! And also, some came here to study a college (a lousy college to be exact), and once graduate they apply for a PR!

So I was telling myself, it's not really at hard as I thought!!! Is it the system's gap which has causes this? I don't know, but I know the cities are swarmed with BEEP.

Kiasu Tips # 10: Where to surf in Australia?

In the city of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane? Need to find a free hotspot for surfing? As you may know there isn't many free things in Sydney! However, you can find the link below provides the good free stuffs! Check it out before you visit the cities!

http://www.freewifiaustralia.com/

The Couple

Last week when I was in Melbourne, I made a dinner arrangement with my ex schoolmate Will and Karan. They are now happily married with 2 kids. When I arrived at the lobby of their apartment, Will and Karan came down to greet me, then as we walked into the lift, they looked at each other hoping one of them carry the key to the lift and room. However, both of them did not carry, as they were taking things for granted - he or she will carry the keys.

There is no backup key kept anywhere else especially to their room. Will started to feel agigated and then panicked and wasn't very happy at Karan. He started preaching how many times he has told her not to be so careless and went on and on! I can felt the tense between the 2 of them while we were standing in the lift. But what surprises me was, Karan remained calm, in fact she didn't rebuke and she just smile. Then later when Will calmed down, Karan kinda admitted both of them were at fault and should not take things for advantage.

I believe most couple has experienced the same scenario before. However, I think what Karan does did work, in fact Will admitted later - the 2 couple has to have certain traits to work hand in hand in their relationship. The whole scenario in the lift can turned out to be worst than I expect, however, the couple was so natural in handling the issues. Hence if the couple has similar behavior or traits, I believe it make it harder to handle.

Does samaritan really exist??

We always believe to look after ourselves first before other ..at least for the chinese. When people try to be helpful or nice to you, sometimes we feel fear instead of thankful. We just can't trust anyone!

I was walking around Victoria Market in Melbourne yesterday under a gloomy cloud of cold winter. This place has a lot of arts and neat stuffs which I can learn and try to make it at home :))

Along the shops or at the five foot lane, you will see a few homeless sitting on the street. Usually people will walk passed them as if they did not exist. For me I was walking passed McDonald, there this middle age homeless man sitting there sketching some gothics figures. Although it's gothic but you can see it's really not bad, he has talents! He has a small container hoping people will drop some money for him. I can only tell you at least I didn't give him any money, in fact I was scared. I am not sure if he is psycho where he will stand up and scream at you for giving him less!

Anyway, on my way back I bumped into him on the street again continuing with his sketches. A young lady, walked near him, and asked him, "Are you hungry?". Then she handed over a wrap, which I believe is food, to him. He said "Yes", then smile like a little kid, and thanks the lady.

I actually felt bad right after that. I think I had formed this opinion that he is a psycho path and do not need any of my help. So instead I can choose to be a samaritan, I chose to ignore. Kudos to the young girl who has the compassion and guts. What about you ? What will you do?

Kiasu Tips # 9 : Magic Vest

It;s winter in Sydney now, and when you found your working shirts have creases and you ran out of time to iron them. Easy! Put on a vest on top of your shirt. Then don on a jacket over your shirt .. Ta Dah .. you look as neat as a cat. Bye bye to ironing .. phew!

The teacher story ...

Early of the year, I went up to Gold Coast to attend a friend's wedding. There I met a lovely couple who gave me a lift in their car to the wedding reception. The husband of this couple actually works as a teacher. Knowing the kids are so hard to handle these days I wonder how can he cope.

To my horror, I discovered some of the things he could not do especially in the high school especially when you are a male teacher. There are some rules he will follow strictly to avoid any complications. For example, going to a toilet, if he saw 2 female students around the area and if he is alone, he will not go to the toilet. He needs to bring a colleague along to be a witness. According to him, male teacher got trapped by the students who dislikes them by claiming the teacher has molested them!!! This is soooo ridiculous when I heard it.

Also, when a female student hold you arms or hand, he has to gently decline them by moving away from them. There are so many things he has to pay attention to before he became a prey. I could not believe what this world has became. I am not sure in other city, but this happened here in Sydney. When we are young we respect our teacher and we are well disciplined. Today, the students can be so spiteful and revengeful. I totally agree, becoming a teacher especially if you are male is so difficult!

Ringgit has a little penny now!

One of my reader Ringgit has became a proud father of a baby girl. I emailed Ringgit asking how he felt at this moment. He replied with his I-Phone, quoting, Worried, Excited, Tired!

Oh well Ringgit, Congratulations and hope you sleep well.

Driving in Sydney .. stress!

I was sitting on a cab. The street is narrow and cars are moving very fast. If you plan to turn to left or right into another lane, you got to do it fast, or else, the car behind will honk you like a mad dog! That's how stressful it is I find driving in Sydney.

I noticed the people here like to talk about their rights, from office to work! If its their road and if you are blocking them, some will even show you the finger sign. Worst still, there are also Mat Rempit here (The bikies). They have been many groups of mat rempit but usually formed by the same cultural background. Sydney is a multi racial cities, however, it has many problem of it owns. The gang from different cultures and background seems to be making headlines on the news!

I just hope when I drive one day on the road, they will just leave me alone. Probably the P plate is a good thing to put up! At least they know you will be slow and will avoid you rather than competing with you!