Learning foreign languages/Carlos Pueblo

Learning foreign languages/Carlos Pueblo

One of my life time hobbies is learning foreign languages. Like Mandarin

Chinese and English, I may have a breakthrough in Japanese and Spanish

Which I am taking lessons now. I understand some basic grammars yet I

still don’t own them due to lack of practice. I visit Japan and Spain quite

often and have the opportunity to speak briefly until I am lost and each

time I always make up my mind to improve it.

There is a Precinct Community Center on Wirt Road not far from my house

on driving where some language classes are offered. Many people are taking

advantage of such offers to learn additional knowledge of their life. I have

had Spanish and French occasionally since the early 2000’s. Most of my efforts

were interrupted by some reasons either of my schedule conflict or lack of

classes. After these years, I feel very comfortable to re-join the beginner’s

class with some background.

Both Japanese and Spanish are contained with grammars, i.e. verbal conjugation

and sentences patterns with certain requirement such as a subject, verb, and

object, etc. It can be easier after learning English because that there is no obvious

grammars enforcement in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese language. It may

be a little bit late for me to remember new vocabulary for new language to make

them my own command yet I am pleased of my effort and make up my plenty of

retirement life.

What I am going to do next is to compose in Japanese and Spanish like what I am

doing in both Chinese Kanji and English writing regularly. By that experience, I

feel more comfortable of practicing the new languages and make them my own.

When I was a child at school, there were requirement to compose articles regularly

until I was a freshman at college for a major Chinese language art class. Now, it has

become my hobby to write on my blog every day to express myself of my life.

老年人教育/莊峻華

老年人教育/莊峻華

去年底，峻嚴相邀上日文初級班，這是曼都薩中心，多項活動之

一，約是十七年前，我就在此中心，開始上西班牙文課，同時也

開始再台灣人會館上日文，不想一轉眼，這麽多年飛馳而過，我

的西日語進度緩慢，但我已喜歡上旅行此兩國家，而且去過多次

，派上所學用場，如今，重拾教科書，倍感親切。

我看中心，隨時有十幾項活動課程，包羅萬項，像我們之日西語

課，都有十位學生以上，師生認真，進度神速，若不下功夫，真

是跟不上進度，因為是成人教育，真無學習態度，和教學熱誠之

問題，這是最有效率之學校教育。

每週，時間真快，週二夜網球局，週四日文，週六網球局後，西

班牙語課，幾位同學，從日語上到西班牙語課，補回年輕時代之

遺憾，有些美國青年，因出差外國故，也不放棄此機會，前來溫

習外語，我覺得此為最佳之途徑，活動中心，也提供市民服務。

我喜歡此兩課程，因為兩老師，都有很好之教學經驗，我學此二

語言，如此之久，我仍舊能享受其趣，其實，我也喜歡聽悅耳之

北京語和英語，語言之表達，已經到藝術之境界，再來就是文學

之表達，這已是文明之範圍。

Language classes on board/Carlos Pueblo

Language classes on board/Carlos Pueblo

One of my interests to cruise is the language class on board provided

by the cruise director’s staff. It gets me started and continued by my

daughters from Philippine and some male Indonesian staff on board.

I keep their notes along with the handouts from classes to my trips and

practice them whenever I can. Now, I can handle some basic greetings

on both Tagalog and Malays on board especially at the end of the trip.

There are four basic language classes offered by the cruise staff, the

Mandarin, Tagalog, Portuguese, and Afrikkans. Learning foreign language

has become my life time hobby which making my senior life time occupied.

I have had a good command of my native tongue Amoy, Mandarin Kanji

and English followed, and now I may have a small breakthrough of

Japanese and Spanish after several attempts more than 15 years.

I walked into a Brazilian Portuguese class right after a latitudes drinking

party on the first sea day afternoon. The instructor was on the page of

instruction of 1492 and mentioning the Pope divided the American into

two, Spanish and Portugal. I didn’t catch very much; however, I did keep

his notes. My daughter Christine at O’sheenhan’s reminded me the Taglog

classes and I was the only student on the lesson 2 class. Taglog has some

influence from Spanish as I notice and I am very sure that I’ll make good

progress.

There are about 10 million Afrikaans speakers in South African nations in

total. It is the third large language in that country. Afrikaans is a language

derived from 1600 Dutch language. I learned Boer War when I was at the

study of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s speeches and later in the 90’s when I read the

story of Cecil Rhode. Now, I know that many parts of South African territory

have adopted such language in practice. Two of my daughters on board

reinforce me some greeting after the class. I am getting into German language

system now such as Dutch, current day Prussian German, and English, etc.

It is amazing.

I always feel interest of the human movement or immigration around the

world by the tract of language similarity. My Japanese professor Nagamoto

mentioned that Japanese language was from Asian Hindu which I should

discuss more about it with him, the proof. I am not in argument yet I can’t

let my interest of learning language skid away from me.

郵輪語言課/莊峻華

郵輪語言課/莊峻華

郵輪活動部，開上四種語言初級班，北京語，塔軋勞，南非語，和

葡萄牙語，除北京語外，我參加其他三種，其中塔軋勞菲語兩次，

南非語一次，船上南非愛女，又補上幾課，非常有趣，我一生喜愛

學習外語，中英文已有突破，日西語正在進步中，菲語，馬來語，

可以簡短一兩句，法語滯留，現在我想嚐嗜南非語，這是十七世紀

初葉之荷蘭語，也是西德意志語，非常有趣。

我高中讀三民主義演講稿，孫文提到當年剛結束之波爾戰爭，波爾

人就是南非白人，和英帝國有過兩次決戰，在十九世紀末，和二十

世紀出，孫提到波爾人之戰術，就是伏地射擊，孫歿後，毛澤東之

遊擊戰法，韓戰和越戰，都首創於南非波爾人，講師年輕人也，不

知這段歴史，南非曼德拉執政前之總統，帝克拉克，就是波爾人，

英國雖然征服南非，波爾人後代，仍舊頑抗，鄰近幾國，像珍巴威

，是舊白人羅德西亞，現在也講南非語，就是十七世紀初之荷語，

據曰，近日德語和荷語，與南非語可通，我考船上酒食長官麥克，

德國人也，彼曰美國之亞美許人，是法國胡根那語，非德語系，他

勉強可了解荷語，南非語，但今日德語，實在是柏林流行幾千年之

普魯士德語，我還想嚐嗜法語，德語字長，我早投降矣。

我在其它船上，學過塔軋勞菲律賓語，這是馬尼拉附近之語言，菲

國國語，菲語中很多是西班牙語，我可以講幾句應對菲語，若不小

心流入西語，船上愛女，也能諒解，而我又聲稱為宿霧人，宿霧語

據說與塔軋勞完全不同，我又在臆惻，宿霧語和我祖先平埔語同系

，都是大洋族系，只是我無資料足夠，台灣有學者，李曉峰教授提

到此事，但平埔語，早已煙歿。

葡萄牙語課，我在酒後闖入，原是聽到講師提到，教皇瓜分中南美

為二，葡萄牙之巴西，和西班牙其餘，我有一些巴西愛女，更多秘

魯，哥倫比亞，和阿根廷愛女，可以嚐嗜西語交談，巴西則是葡萄

牙語。船上有人誤以為我是日本人，廚師和年輕侍者，常鼓起勇氣

日語問候，於是我又日語信心十足。

有位印尼姑娘，和我講普通話，她曾在牙嘉達中餐廳工作，很有趣

，講中文害羞不已，說老公，我一猜就是廣東餐廳，廣東人老闆。

Adopted daughters on Pearl/Carlos Pueblo

Adopted daughters on Pearl/Carlos Pueblo

Getting acquainted with pretty and hardworking staff on board of

a cruise ship is a joy of my cruise trip especially that I therefore

adopted them as my daughters. The routine procedure is taking several

photos together and the e-mail address in return to photos after I

finishing posted on my desk top computer. Some of them did correspond

with me later. This is a group of youngsters who are well educated and

with a good manners in the world.

I can bring up some of my adopted daughters from Jade and Dawn to the

more senior staff such as the waitress, hostess, or matrie D’hotel for their

previous colleague experience. Amazingly, they all have a fond remember

among them and know where they are after years departure. It is the

friendship and now I have joined them at least on myself. The administration

on board encourages its staff to keep their best to customers and make sure

like coming home. There are about 40 of them adopted on Pearl and it is very

hard for me to describe them all with such a limited time, 10 days, yet let me

start.

Hristina, pronounced Cristina, is from Bulgaria who used to work with Cristina

of the old Jade and Imelda of the Sky and Dawn. They are all in the level of

manager in the restaurant. She came to manage the Garden Café in the morning

and back to her steak house, Cagney’s, at night. She lives by the Black sea where

the Danube enters to while her sister lives in Sofia, the Capital City, on the west

near Serbia. I mentioned to her that my neighbors, Christine and John owners of

my favorite dog Forest, would be on the Danube from Nuremberg to Budapest in

April. She encourages me to visit her country and perhaps I shall.

Nelfa is a close friend of Imelda. She informed Imelda immediately after we met

of my appearance. Her husband has a Chinese surname, Sy, and she also mentioned

her grandfather was a Japanese with a last name of Fujimoto. I knew it right away

the similar story of Fabian Miyaco of the Jade and Dawn. It was the 1942 invasion

of Philippine by the Japanese Imperial Army and after the War those Japanese

youngsters stayed behind and married the locals. She is very pretty and kind and her

partner of the Summer Palace, Florabell, is also very charming. I don’t think that I have

had Nelfa’s photos taken. I’ll do it next time if there is.

I met and adopted several Chinese daughters on board as well. There are more Chinese

staff transferred from Joy, the oriental route ship in China, to the rest of the fleet. I

am very happy to meet so many of them whom I can communicate with them in Mandarin.

珍珠號愛女/莊峻華

珍珠號愛女/莊峻華

搭船認愛女，變成我郵輪旅行，主要目的，雖然首搭珍珠號，船

上愛女美麗親切，一如寶玉號，和黎明號，兩艘我先後搭乘四次

和五次，都是三年內，一共認收愛女，近兩百位，回家後，整理

合照相片，分別寄出，如今，愛女們已隨調職機會，分散全球。

這次，郵輪仍舊安排我住第八層甲板房間，緊鄰奧西罕餐廳，奧

西罕是24小時開放，一上船，從第十二層花園自助餐廳，喫畢冰

淇淋和水果後，就下樓到奧西罕，因珍珠號無高座設備，我一時

找不到愛座，而且此輪客滿，餐廳也隨時客滿，招待忙得團團轉

，我甚難搭訕，其主要招待是菲籍克莉斯汀，是位親切美女，郵

輪安排職位，條件一致，各大餐廳經理，招待，和侍者，都需要

來奧西罕執班，如此，我一開始，就認了許多大餐廳，在奧西罕

執班之愛女， 像佛洛拉貝兒和洛些兒，是夏宮大餐廳兩主招待，

一前一後，洛些兒和黎明號愛女伊美達是閨友。還有來自印度七

姊妹之桑妮亞，是法菜列畢斯陀餐廳招待，與黎明號之卡薩相識

。

這次也認上幾位軍階愛女，保加利亞籍之克莉斯汀娜，早上在花

園，晚上在牛排餐廳凱格尼執勤，非常親切美麗，與愛女伊美達

和受傷之愛女克莉斯汀娜，同事多年，她家濱臨黑海，有姊妹住

首都蘇菲亞，西東兩地，她甚高興我知多腦河，經保加利亞入黑

海。花園餐廳門口，有位淨手愛女愛莉，很能歌唱，晚上在法國

餐廳福務，過去在其他船，都在四層員工廚房服務，甚少露面。

行駛中國之喜悅號，已經調回阿拉斯加州，中國籍船員，分別安

排到全球各船隻，所以我之中國愛女增加，這些甚佳教育出身，

英語流利之美女，勤奮工作，令人喜愛，我最近常在網誌，觀看

西瓜視頻之中國農村生活，與愛女有些話題，我有一些生活經驗

，像山東東北角沿海，河南之臨漳，浙江之溫州，巧婦九妹之廣

西，有愛女曰，九妹是老片矣，其夫母年代節目，一位愛女丹丹

，浙江溫州人也，提醒我遊記描述，我知回來後事煩，耽誤許多

，我和丹丹提到南懷瑾大師，溫州學者，我為其私淑弟子也。

合照相片已在桌上型電腦，稍加整理後，將一一寄出。

Arthur’s cataract procedure/Carlos Pueblo

Arthur’s cataract procedure/Carlos Pueblo

Yesterday morning, I accompanied my son Arthur to his cataract procedure,

a small surgery on his right eye which bothered his vision lately. We arrived

an hour early before the appointment with a full room of patients. Dr. Jong

has a very successful practice. It was 9:48 am when he entered to the surgery

room and came out at 11:00 am with a successful result. The cataract surgery

is the removal of white membrane which growing through the years outside

of the natural cataract hinder the vision. The surgeon will replace it with an

artificial one to help the vision. I have been done on both of my eyes and now

with a 20/20 vision for far sight reaches. Arthur is still needed prescribed glass

for his astigmatism on his new right eye.

Cataract pocedure is very common for the senior with Arthur’s case is very rare

for the people at young age. Dr. Jong has arranged 27 surgery in the morning and

five simultaneously. I can see the instant report on a screen at the waiting room.

The modern medical technology has been improved that you don’t need to have

the surgery eye covered after the procedure. After 24 hours, the patient goes

back to the clinic to be checked and that’s it. Last time when I had had my left

eye done, I did check on the medical dictionary, the cataract surgery was developed

almost 3000 years ago in India. My Asian Indian surgeon mentioned it that there was

no anesthesia available; therefore, it was very painful.

We’re very thankful for that Arthur is in good health in compare to his turbulent

beginning of his life. He has been working his current job for 11 years with health

insurance. After returning home, I checked his income tax information available

for filing that his dividend income has exceeded his salary last year. It is working

for his financial strategy built by both of us.