CCSF ESL Student Blog: February 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A Funny Thing in Hong Kong Alfred Tsang

Is English the only language with similar sounding words? In Hong Kong, Cantonese is too. I remember a funny thing. Last year, my wife and I went to Hong Kong to visit my parents. We had spent a lot of time to prepare this vacation. We were in Hong Kong for three weeks. Hong Kong is a popular international tourist destination same as San Francisco. There are plenty of famous landmarks including The Peak, Victoria Harbor, Lantau Island features the world’s tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha, along with the Po Lin Monastery, Tai O village on stilts, Ngong Ping 360, and Hong Kong Disneyland. There are also plenty of excellent hotels, nightclubs and wonderful restaurants. Hong Kong has more than 11,000 restaurants, many of them clustered in defined food districts. Enjoying the best Cantonese and regional Chinese food, visitors must try dishes are dim sum and fresh seafood.

When my wife and I arrived in Hong Kong, we lived in a hotel near my parents’ home. ongHOne day, my parents told us that my siblings wanted to eat out with us at a hot pot restaurant. In the restaurant, we ordered many foods to eat and everybody was full. One of my siblings wanted to eat one more piece of squid, so he told a waiter that he ordered squid. But he said double “Luk” of squid. Sound of Cantonese “Luk” meaning “boil”, another similar sounding word is “six”. When the waiter gave us a dish of six squids, my brother asked the waiter. “Why did you give us six squids?” The waited said that he ordered to boil six squids. Everyone stared at the dish of six squids and laughed.

Finally, we finished the six squids and everybody really was very full. I will never forget that day. We learned about that we should speak clearly to everyone, so no more misunderstanding will be happened.

Sabrina Schussmann

February/18/09

THE MYSTERY COFFEE LOVE

Do you like Coffee?

I do. For does people who don`t know what coffee is, I will explain it. Coffee is a hot strong drink similar like Tee but with caffeine so it is very strong. Coffee is my favorite hot drink. When I was in USA for my first time, one year ago, I had a very confuse experience. I was in New York for two weeks, together with my Boyfriend. It was his Birthday trip and we both need coffee to wake up in the morning. So we went out and searching for a coffee bar where we can take seat and order some coffee. I love the Italian coffee called “Latte Macchiato” that’s a kind of coffee with a very strong espresso and a lot of milk, usually you can order it with flavor like almond, vanilla or without. I was really happy to find a very nice and snugly coffee bar which was open and so I thought my day was saved. We looked at the menu and ordered breakfast with our favorite coffee. And at this time we were really hungry and thirsty. And a few minutes later we got our breakfast and the coffee. But I was upset because we only got a small cup of coffee without milk. I wasn`t sure if the waitress didn`t understand what we ordered or made a mistake. That’s the reason why I asked her and wanted to know why we only got this small cup of coffee without milk. The waitress thought that I was joking but I mean it very seriously. She explained me that in US a “Latte Macchiato” is only a strong espresso whit a little bit milk. She told us if we want to have a big cup of strong coffee with a lot of milk, we have to order “Cafe au lait”. We ordered the “Cafe au lait” and then we got what we wanted. You see only coffee can make some misunderstanding.

In the end, the waitress was very nice and helpful, we visited some other coffee bars and know how to get the right coffee. We enjoyed our two week trip and for the future we will come back to this beautiful town and see what happened next.

SALTY MILK TEA Jessica lee

SALTY MILK TEA

Have you ever drunk a salty milk tea? I had drunk once on my vacation in 1999. I went to THAILAND with my brother for our first vacation. We had a very difficult time there. We didn’t know TAI, but we had 5 days vacation and we like Tai food and massage there my friend recommended to me.
One day in the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. When we ordered hot milk tea, we had to put sugar in it. They already had some sugar, salt and pepper on the table, but they wrote in TAI. We were in a hurry to join the tourists. We only had half an hour to eat breakfast. We didn’t know how to ask someone in TAI, so my brother decided to make one cup first. He opened the bag then put all bag of “sugar” into the milk tea. He tasted it then he told me that he made a right decision. It was delicious! You tried it! He recommended it, but he didn’t look like he was pulling my leg. I tried it. It was so terrible. I hadn’t had that taste before. My brother was laughing at me. He secretly told me that didn’t tell anybody, we kept it secretly. Then we ordered another one cup.
We finished the breakfast. Suddenly, my brother said that why he didn’t taste the “sugar” first then put it to the milk tea. I said:”that’s ok. We take a lesson this time.” No more next time, that was unforgettable lesson, he said. However, we still had a good time there.
To summarize, a salty milk tea hasn’t been forgotten in my life. After that travel, I learned if I do something confusing, I would think of any more details then do it. Anyway, I love to travel to THAILAND again. I love Tai food and Tai style massage. I hope I’ll go there soon.

Using the Right Currency by Louisa

Different counties use different currency that caused troubles for me when I traveled in China and Macau. I remember it happened in last year. my family came back to China for travel which my husband and I planned for a long time. We prepared a lot of things, and we were considering the currency exchange. Should we exchange currency in the U.S., China or Hong Kong China? We decided to exchange Hong Kong dollars in the U.S. first and to exchange Renminbi in China. So we carried three currencies throughout our travel.

We had three currencies while we were travelling, thought we had a little trouble to use them when we were in Macau. Macau is near my hometown and the casino was developed well these years. We went to the biggest casino. The outside of that casino looks very beautiful and it was similar to the one in Las Vegas. The inside of that casino was high quality, but there were not too many people playing games. We walked around the tables and it seems we were in Las Vegas.

I didn’t like playing games. But my husband wanted to play some. He asked me for four hundred dollars and I said that was no problem. I took the money from my right pocket and gave him. He took the money from my hand without any watch and then put on the table. He asked the banker to exchange chips, but the banker said that we should go to the Exchange first. My husband said that didn’t you accept Hong Kong dollars? The banker answered yes, but that was Renminbi and wasn’t Hong Kong dollars. My husband felt a little bit embarrassed because he didn’t realize that the money I gave him was Renminbi. I did know they used Hong Kong dollars in the casino. Why I gave the wrong currency to my husband? I confused the Hong Kong dollars with Renminbi because the one hundred Hong Kong dollars and the one hundred Renminbi are almost the same red color, and the light in that casino was a little bit dark.I find out the Hong Kong dollars in my left pocket and we played some games. I asked my husband to stop playing as soon as he won about three hundred dollars. We had some Dim Sum inside the casino which was delicious. When we came back to my hometown, I remembered to used Renminbi after we crossed the customs.

In conclusion, we had a wonderful time in Macau and China; I would organize the currency well and used them carefully when I traveled next time. I learned how to count and use different currency while I was travelling. I hope I wouldn’t confuse the currency any more.

Vacation confusion Stella

Have you ever made a mistake like that in your life? I did. I took a trip at Hawaii in 2005. I stayed in the embassy hotel with my husband and my son. Hawaii is the nice place and I like it a lot. It is beautiful and very relaxing. So I bought the timeshare over there in 2003 when I was on my honeymoon.
We checked in to our room, and explored the hotel. Every two days, the housekeeper will come clean and organize the room. Thank you for the hard works. I put some tips on the night stand and left the room. Later we came back. The room was cleaned. But the tips were still there. I was curious. How come they didn’t take the tips? Don’t they accept the tips? In the evening, we went swimming at the pool and used up the bath towels. I called the front desk to ask for some clean bath towels. The housekeeper brought the towels to me. By the way, I asked the housekeeper about it. The housekeeper told me, they were accepting the tips. If you put it in the bed, or put it in the bathroom, they will take it. Because I put it in the wrong place, so they didn’t take it.
After that I understudied it.

In the end of the tips, I checked out of the room. I put the tips in the bed. From that I learned have to take time to work out communication problems. From that experience, every time we stay in the hotel or resort. I always put the tips in the bed. Maybe few years later, I will back to Hawaii again. But I will go to different Islands.

Stay or Get Off -- joe

Stay or Get Off

Have you ever felt to stay or get off a bus would be wrong? I had this feeling on my trip to Guangzhou. It was February 2000. After Chinese New Year break, I first time took a coach from my home back to college at night.

I got on the coach at 10 pm, and the coach should take about 7 hours to Guangzhou. There were not too many passengers on the coach, and the coach was new, and fast. Everything was smooth on the road. My coach arrived at an old bus depot was 4 am, one hour faster than before. It was dark and cold outside. The bus was station was not located in a safe area. I had to walk 3 blocks to transfer to another bus, but it was too early to get a bus to my college, and I was tired and thirsty. Some passengers took their package and gone. The driver turned off the engine and friendly told me I can stay on the bus for one more hour. Should I stay of get off the bus? The bus was dark and the air was not flash. It was hand to sleep and I should take care of my package too.

After half hour, just I still stayed on the coach. I fell a little embarrassed and thought I should leave and find something to eat. I got off my coach and asked the driver where I can find a restaurant. He told me there was a restaurant open 24 hours a day, but I need to walk 3 blocks. I followed his directions and found the restaurant. I stayed inside until 6 am.

In conclusion, stayed in the coach was an uncomfortable felling. However, I came back to college in safe. I think I should not take a coach back to college at night. After that experience, I usually come back to college at daytime and with other students. It would be a little more safe and under control.

Unhappy Day in Singapore. Li Li Chang

Have you ever had an unhappy vacation? I remembered three years ago. My husband and I with my daughter traveled to Singapore. We made a reservation ahead of time to make sure when we arrived to get room for us family. We looked forward to the vacation coming soon
.
The first thing we did was we contacted a travel agency to make a reservation. We told the travel agency that we wanted twin double beds in one room for 3 persons. The travel agent said that he made twin double beds. Unfortunately, we arrived at the hotel to checking in. The hotel front desk gave us a single double bed room. We complained about it. The front desk told us that the travel agency didn’t make twin double beds and said that single double bed could sleep for three persons. I couldn’t believe it. How can a single double bed to sleep three persons? That couldn’t be comfortable. Oh, my goodness.

Then we tried to solve the problem, first of all, solving problem is the most important. We communicated with the front desk and spent a lot of time. The time was very late. We hadn’t had dinner yet. The front desk tried to change the room for us, but no way because hotel was full house. We were very hungry and tired. During we were communication time. My daughter told me that she was very tired. Finally, they added a rollaway for my daughter. Also they charged extra money.

This special experience I won’t forget forever. I’ve never had any such as experience like this. I felt unhappy travel for this time. We wasted too much time and spend more money. Who got misunderstanding even now I don’t know.

In conclusion, we learned about that when you make any reservation or plan. You should better double check. In this case, we believed that everything is no problem. Our mistake was careless. We didn’t to do confirm. However, even though this misunderstanding to make us spent more money, but during the next few days we enjoyed and relaxed our vacation in Singapore. Next time, we will pay more attention. Make sure everything is correct and no mistake or no misunderstanding.

Do I look like a terrorist? (I hope not!)

Have you ever been in a situation where nothing else seems to works but admit you are the stupidest person in the place? Well… I have. It was January 3rd, 2008 and I was at the Camaguey Airport, in Cuba. We, my boyfriend and I, had been in his parent’s house spending the holydays, but once he got his plane to the Bahamas, it was my turn to go back home, in Havana City.

First of all, I didn’t have any tickets, so I was at the airport just waiting for an “extra-plane” in one of the busiest day of the year, when “normal people” were peacefully traveling with their reservations, and transportation everywhere were collapsed. But there I was, just waiting for some luck.

As it always happens, the “international-woman-voice” (I really think there is just one woman in the world, who is in charge of every airport announcement no matter what country is) said I got lucky and a flight to Havana was arriving. Finally I’d get home! I was pumped! But it was right then when the odyssey began.

I had never taken a plane by myself, that was actually the second time I would ever been in one, so I didn’t know what I was allowed to carry as hand luggage or what wasn’t. I just went there, got in line, and waited my turn.

Once it arrived and my luggage was checked, one guy told me I needed to leave the line and go to an office. Everybody in there was upset at me because I was carrying scissors, one knife and fork in my hand bag. They said maybe I was a terrorist. But the funniest thing was that they were even thinking I would hijack the plane to come to the USA! Anyway, after more than one hour arguing with them, they realized I was just one tired (dumb?) girl who didn’t know anything about airports and just wanted to get home.

Finally, after confirming I wasn’t a terrorist, they allowed me to leave. I was the last person who got the plane that night, but 2 hours later I was arriving home. There I fell asleep right away, because it was the only possible way to get over such a misunderstanding day. I also learned a lesson: from that day forward I never go to an airport without checking my luggage at least 3 times. And I really hope I will never go to that airport again!

WHY IT WAS A SPECIAL DAY? Amanda

Everyone should have a special day in their whole life, isn’t it? We were planning to travel to the United States and Canada by ourselves in 1990. It would be my first time to travel to other countries with my husband. Our trip would be 14 days. We would go to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington and Ontario. It would be a long trip for us. We were very excited to get more information for the trip. We used a lot of time to prepare for the trip. My husband booked air tickets, made reservations in hotels, and rented cars in each cities. I was in charge of buying traveling necessities. We packed some luggage and were ready to go.

Early in the morning, we ate breakfast at home before we took a shuttle bus to the airport. On the way, we were very excited. We were talking about the trip and created many nice pictures in our mind. I decided when we went to each city; we must buy one special souvenir to remind us of this vacation. My husband would take a lot of photos in each city. When we arrived to the airport, there wasn’t time to check-in, so we walked around and took some photos in the airport. Until time to check-in, we went to the check-in counter and found the passports, but we couldn’t find the passports in our pockets. My husband told me to check all luggage but I still couldn’t find them. We didn’t know what we should do. We felt very nervous. Finally, my husband decided to go home and get the passports. It would take more than an hour. I stayed in the airport and was waiting until my husband got back the passports. I felt very unhappy in that moment….

More than an hour later, my husband came back. We went to the check-in counter again; there had a lot of people in line. At check-in, the receptionist told us our passports weren’t valid; it must have 180 valid days. We were very surprised about that. We never checked the passports before we used them. My husband was mad at me; he said why didn’t you check the passports before used. I said my responsibility was prepared all traveling necessities. We were upset for a whole week. Finally, we missed the trip. My husband needed to cancel all reservations in hotels, and rented cars in each city, and also cancelled some air tickets in other countries. We didn’t talk to each other for a week.

In conclusion, although we misunderstood about who took care of the passports which wasted a long vacation, we learned from this mistake. Next time, we will check our passports before we travel. Even thought this trip was very disappointed but we learned something special. We never argue about passports again. We will have an experience for future.

A Boring Flag-Raising Ceremony (Cynthia Chen)

Have you ever gone to see a flag-raising ceremony? I have. I am sure it has been one of the most boring times I have ever had. Last year, I and my friends planned to watch the flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square. We never saw it before. We wanted to see it at the best time because it’s really an important ceremony in my country. We searched the internet to get the information before we went there. In fact, the honor guards raise the national flag every day. But the difference is that the National Day and the Labor Day, which are the only two special days in a year, have the band plays a march during the march. That will be the exactly wonderful ceremony that we wanted to see! We decided to go on the National Day because there was a big break for the celebration of the National Day.

We set off at 6:00 pm. The weather was nice but a little cold. After 2 hours in the subway, we arrived at Tiananmen Square. I was surprised that there were about 100 people already there. We put down the newspaper, sat down and began the long waiting time.

While the time was passing, more and more people came towards the square, so it started to be very crowded. Even we are all sat on the ground; it was still very uncomfortable because everyone just had such a small space that we can’t move a little, just like one and one statues. I felt that my back was frozen and my legs had already run out of blood. Du told me that her neck seemed not belong to her any more. It sounded funny but it was the real feeling we had.

After the midnight, people started to stand up and moved forwards, so the police asked people to calm down and sat down time and time. I said to myself “Are they crazy???” Near the flag-raising time, people began to push each other; I and one of my friends were pushed to the front of the people while the others were pushed to the back. I couldn’t believe that, how can they do this, we were together first!!! My friend who was with me asked me where the others went, she really worried about that if they were pushed out of the people. I called them and make sure that they were all safe.

Finally, the most important time came. First came the band. They played the march and marched uniform with the honor guards who hold the national flag and the guns. People were very exciting and pushed each other again……I thought I must be thinnest in my whole life at that time—I was pushed just like the beef between two breaks. It was 7:00 am after the ceremony; all the near subway was still closed. We had to wall for a long time to find the bus station.

In conclusion, it is not as exciting as I expected. Actually, it is very boring. It could be a little worth to see, if I ignored the terrible boring long waiting time and how crowded the people were. However, I don’t think I will go to watch it again. One of my friends complained that the flag-raising was exciting but too short while we were taking bus to go back. The voice in my mind said “Do you forget how long you have been waiting there? It’s too short? God will know this.” We were really hungry and tired when we got home, so we slept the whole day after the breakfast. So, when you decide to watch a flag-raising ceremony, think about my experience—get ready for the boring time!