【相煎何太急】(English writing below)
「90%以上的風水師都把基本原理搞錯了!」
那天看到某個剛出道的本地年輕人,在其網站上如此寫著。
我第一個感想就是:有必要為了錢,就這樣踩人和騙人嗎?
全世界的風水師,你都見證過他們的功夫嗎?
遠的不說,就說說新加坡吧!全職、兼職、玩票性質的都算的話,我想可能有幾千幾百位風水師。有的是拜師學藝或祖傳的,有的是在外上課程,然後就自己出來看。
這些你全部都已摸清他們的底細,來下此結論嗎?還是是道聽途說?
如果沒有真實查證,那就是在唬人,故意讓看過其他師父的客人,內心生起不安而來找你。
很大的口氣,很不道德的行銷法,來博名利雙收。
●
幾年前,有位女風水師寫貼文抹黑我。我的一位風水講座的出席者好心為我打抱不平,安慰我之餘,告訴我她的朋友認識那位風水師,而她的性傾向是......
我沒給她說完,便切斷她的話:「我們再講下去,就是在聊是非了。這不是我的作風。」
抹黑我和她喜歡誰是兩碼事。
抹黑我,來贏得臉書上的讚,是她人品的問題。我如果取笑她的性傾向,那就是我人格的問題。己所不欲,勿施於人,我沒有想要在背後傷害她,何必同流合污呢?
再說,喜歡誰,不影響我們的專業能力和志向。
只是說,一個會製造假象的風水師,客人是否還可以把自己和家人的命運交到她手中?
●
某位女讀者告訴我,她家人和馬國一位有名風水師的經歷。說著說著,她提到這位風水師不會說華文。字裡行間彷彿帶著取笑的味道。
我回她說,我不討論別人的是是非非。
這風水師能把中華玄學帶到全世界,讓洋人對我們華人文化刮目相看,也是美事一樁。再說,他的崛起也讓年輕的華人再度重視中華玄學。我們為何要去挑他的不足來興論一番?有何意義呢?口袋不會多一點錢,造了口業,自己的福報還會被扣給他,不值得。
●
我們風水命理師都必須精通八卦學,為的是去利益眾生,而不是把自己變成「八卦新聞台」,去娛樂大家。
套我大師姐以前常跟我說的一句話:「不要自己的餅乾做不好,而變成一個“笑餅”。」
外面已經有很多人看不起我們,不相信我們,甚至取笑我們是「無知識」、「搞神通」、「騙人錢」的江湖術士。如果我們風水師都在那兒,又是屠龍刀又是倚天劍又是降龍十八掌的自相殘殺,人家只是看笑話而已。不但贏不到客人,我們還終歸是最大的輸家。
無論是什麼學派的風水,追溯到底的話,大家『本是同根生』。
各位英雄豪傑,何不把精力用在教育大眾,以身試範如何做個上等人,以配得起一個上等命呢?
.......................
"More than 90% Feng Shui practitioners are doing the basics wrong!"
I saw this from website of a young Feng Shui entrepreneur, who just started to ply his trade.
My first thought was: is it necessary to trample over others and deceive others, for the sake of money?
Have you witnessed the abilities of all Feng Shui Masters from all over the world?
Let's not go too far, and just take Singapore for instance. If we include all the full-timers, part-timers and hobbyists, I think there are easily several hundreds, if not thousands, Feng Shui practitioners. Some of them studied under a Master for years, while some acquire the knowledge from their ancestors. And there are those who become consultants, after attending external courses.
Did you do a very thorough check on their skills, before drawing this conclusion? Or did you base your statement on hearsay?
If there is no verifiable truth and authentic checks, then you are just trying to bluff your way through. You deliberately stir up emotions of insecurity in people who have consulted other masters, so as to lure them to you.
What big words. What unethical way of marketing just to make yourself some money.
●
Few years ago, a lady Feng Shui practitioner wrote untruths about me on her FB. One workshop participant of mine felt unjust for me, and as she offered words of consolation to me, she mentioned that a friend of hers knew that Feng Shui practitioner whose sexual orientation was actually...
I did not let her finish her words, "If we continue talking about this, we would be engaging in gossip. That is not my style."
Smearing my name and who she likes are two different matters.
To defame me so as to win more FB Likes is a problem in her character. If I laugh at her sexual orientation with others so as to feel better, that becomes my morality problem. Do not do unto others what you do not wish for others to do to you. I have no intention to hurt her behind her back, so why should I wallow in the mire together?
Moreover, whoever we like does not have any influence on our professional capability and aspiration.
The only thing that matters: Is a Feng Shui practitioner who deliberately creates falsehoods deserving of clients' trust, for them to place their destinies and families in her hands?
●
One female reader told me about her family's experience with a well-known Feng Shui master. As the conversation progressed, she mentioned how this master was unable to speak Mandarin. There seemed to be a hidden veil of mockery in her words.
My reply to her: I do not gossip about others.
This Feng Shui Master brought Chinese Metaphysics to the whole world, allowing the Westerners to sit up and take notice of our Chinese culture. That is a good thing after all. Secondly, his emergence inspired the younger generation of Chinese to pay attention to Chinese Metaphysics once again. Why should we focus on his weak point and make a hooha about it? What meaning is there? Not like we will have more money in our pockets. Also when we commit sins in our speech by gossiping about him, we will cede our good fortune to him.
No way is it worth it.
●
As Chinese Metaphysics practitioners, we have to study the Bagua very well to be able to benefit sentient beings. Not study gossip and become an entertainment news station for the amusement of the masses.
There are already many outsiders who look down on us, disbelieve us and even laugh at us as conmen who are ignorant, promoting supernatural stuff and cheat others of money. If we continue to cut at one another's throats, these people will just be eating popcorn as they watch us.
Instead of winning over more clients, we will turn out to be the biggest losers.
No matter what school of Feng Shui we are from, if we trace all the way back to the origins, we are all born from the same root.
To all fellow heroes and comrades, why don't we focus our efforts in educating the masses? Lead by example and demonstrate to them how to be a first-class human worthy of a premium Destiny.
mockery meaning 在 翻譯這檔事 Facebook 的最佳解答
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
mockery meaning 在 Mockery - GitHub 的推薦與評價
Mockery is a simple yet flexible PHP mock object framework for use in unit ... or a method isn't marked private, does not mean it constitutes part of the ... ... <看更多>
mockery meaning 在 Mockery Meaning - YouTube 的推薦與評價
... <看更多>