Starting on Book 3, Grade 3

Today we started on the 3rd and final book of the Grade 3 textbook. The text is a condescending lecture of the importance of not wasting time, which is not particularly interesting. With this new book, the load for homework is increased a little bit. There is one additional reading material per week. But the nice thing about it is that the additional reading material is actually a text that was in the Grade 2, so it's a nice review.

For hand-writing exercises, instead of writing and dictating short phrases, the homework now requires writing whole sentences, with one of the sentences to be dictated in class.

Book Two of the Third Grade is Done

It took quite a bit longer than I had expected, but we finally finished the Book Two of the 3rd grade today with a review class. My daughter had exciting soccer games in both yesterday and today, so she is tired by the time we had our class in the evening. We did not do a whole lot in our review.

nciku: A New Online Dictionary

There are certainly quite a few online dictionary and translation tools for Chinese language. But most of them did not solve the problem that one could only look up a Chinese character by its pinyin, which requires the knowledge of the character's pronunciation.

In a traditional Chinese dictionary, one could look up a character either by its pinyin (which is curiously ordered by the English alphabet) or by its radicals and strokes. The latter method is much more useful when encountering an unknown character while reading a book.

Through Pinyin News, I learned a new online dictionary which provides this most important feature: the nciku. It allows the search of characters by radicals, ordered by stroke counts just as a traditional dictionary.

What's more, it also allows one to "write" or draw a character with the mouse. As one draws the character, a table of potential matches are displayed and updated for selection.

The user interface seems to need a little bit of work, but it's a pretty nifty tool.

Community College Gets Into the Frenzy

In an apparent first for community colleges, the small College of Lake County is sending its students to China for a study-abroad program. The director of the program, Yu LiHua, was quoted as saying "China today is the most important, significant country in the world. You cannot avoid China today."

But interestingly enough, according the report, the courses these students have to take in China are to be taught in English. But these courses will cost only a fraction of that in the U.S.

The program is funded by a DOE grant (of $115,000) and a pledge ($275,000) by the college itself.

Frogs Should Not Talk

Another off week, another translation from my daughter:

The Frog Moves Away

A pair of big geese and a frog were best friends. Together they lived by a lake for a long time. They were so close to each other, they were like a family. One year, there wasn’t any rain, the lake slowly dried out. Soon, there will be no drinking water. The big geese want to fly to where there is water. But, they couldn’t leave the frog behind. What could they do? The frog couldn’t fly, so to bring the frog wasn’t very easy.

The frog was very smart and after thinking he said, “If you get a stick, both of you bite the two ends, I bite the middle and you fly, and then, can’t you bring me?”

The geese thought this idea was very good. They decided to start at once. So, the two geese bit the two ends of the stick, the frog bit the middle and they flew to the sky. When the people saw this, they were very confused. The people yelled, “Quick, come and see! Two big geese are carrying a frog and flying, what a great idea!”

The frog thought, this was my idea, why are they saying it was the geese’s idea?

They continued to fly, and more people saw them. Everybody yelled with surprise, “Quick, come and see! Two big geese are carrying a frog and flying, what a great idea!”

The frog thought, this was my idea! This time, the frog almost spoke out.

They flew and flew, and more and more people saw them. More people yelled with surprise, “Quick, come and see! Two big geese are carrying a frog and flying, what a great idea!” The frog couldn’t stand it anymore, “This was my… …” Right when he opened his mouth, he fell from the sky and died.

青蛙搬家

一对大雁和一只青蛙是最好的朋友。它们一起在湖边住了很久，亲热得就像是一家人。有一年，一直不下雨，湖水慢慢干了，眼看就要没水喝了。大雁想飞到有水的地方去，但是又舍不得把青蛙留下来。怎么办呢？青蛙不能飞，要带着青蛙走，这可不是一件容易的事。

青蛙非常聪明，它想了想就说：“用一根小棒子，你俩咬着两头，我咬着中间，你们一飞，不就可以把我带走了吗？”

大雁觉得这个主意很好，就决定立刻动身。就这样，两只大雁用嘴咬着小棒的两头，青蛙用嘴咬着小棒的中间，它们在天空里飞了起来。地上的人看见了，都很奇怪。人们喊着：“快来看哪，大雁带着青蛙飞，真有办法！”

青蛙心想：这是我想的办法呀，怎么说是大雁的办法呢？

它们继续往前飞，又有许多人看见了。大家都惊奇地喊着：“快来看哪，大雁带着青蛙飞，真有办法！”

青蛙心想：这是我想的办法呀！这一次，青蛙差一点说出了口。

它们飞啊飞，有更多更多的人看见了。更多的人在惊奇地喊道：“快来看哪，大雁带着青蛙飞，真有办法！”青蛙再也忍不住了：“这是我... ...”它刚一张嘴，就从天上掉下来，摔死了。

Gotta Learn To Share

This is our off-week, for my daughter to catch up on her homework. She had just produced another translation.

It's interesting to note that she had overlooked a subtle character difference and mistaken "middle of the river" (中间) for "river in China" (中国).

Hurting Oneself

A river in China had an island. On the island was a peach tree, and in the peach tree there were a lot of red peaches.

The fox thought about eating the peaches, but couldn’t cross the river. The monkey thought about eating the peaches, but couldn’t cross the river. The fox and the monkey decided to think of a plan together on how to cross the river. They used a lot effort, carried a log, and lay it down from the river bank to the island, and built a bridge.

But, the bridge was too narrow. The fox and monkey couldn’t cross at the same time. The fox said, “Let me cross first, then you can cross.” The monkey agreed.

Once the fox made it to the island, he turned around, purposely pushed the log off into the river. He laughed meanly and told the monkey, “Friend, please go back! I don’t want to share these peaches with you!”

The monkey heard this and was very angry, but he soon laughed and said, “Ha! Ha! You can eat the peaches, but you can never come back!”

The fox started worrying, and said to the monkey, “Monkey, we are good friends, please make a method to get me back!” The monkey didn’t say a word, and turned around and left.

自己害自己

河的中间有一个小岛，岛上长着一棵桃树，树上结满了红红的桃子。

狐狸想吃桃子，可是过不了河。猴子想吃桃子，也过不了河。狐狸和猴子决定一起想办法过河去。它们用了很大的力气，扛了一根木头来，从岸边架到小岛上，做成了一座桥。

但是，这桥太窄了，狐狸和猴子不能同时走。狐狸说：“让我先过去，你再过去吧。”猴子答应了。

谁知道狐狸到了岛上，一转身，就故意把木头推到河里去了。它哈哈大笑着对猴子说：“朋友，请回吧！我不想和你分这些桃子！”

猴子听了非常生气，可是它马上笑起来说：“哈哈，你能吃到桃子，但是，你永远回不来啦！”

狐狸这才着急起来，只好求猴子：“猴子，我们是好朋友，请你想个办法让我回去吧！”猴子连一句话也不说，转身走开了。

Another Afanti Story

Here is another story about the Smart Afanti, translated by my daughter:

Ā Fán Tí Borrows a Pot

Once upon a time there was a person who was an official. He was very rich. He had lots of money, but very selfish. He only wanted other people’s stuff, but wouldn’t help other people. He was never willing to lend his own stuff to other people. One day, Ā Fán Tí begged him for a long time and finally borrowed a pot from him. He promised to return it in 3 days.

The next day, Ā Fán Tí held a small pot. He happily visited the official’s house. He entered through the door and yelled, “Congratulations! Congratulations! Last night your big pot had a child!” That person unexpectedly got a free pot. He was very happy, so he told Ā Fán Tí, “Tomorrow, you do not need to return the big pot, let the pot stay at your house for a longer time. Let it have more children for me.”

Several days later, Ā Fán Tí came again. He told the person, “Not good! Yesterday, the big pot died! I am very sad for you.”

“Nonsense! How can pots die? You are a liar!”

“Oh, dear master, if there is birth, there is death. If the pot can give birth, why can’t the pot die?” Hearing what Ā Fán Tí said, the person was speechless.

The original Chinese:

阿凡提借锅

从前有一个做官的人，家里很富有。他虽然很有钱，但是非常小气。他只想要人家的东西，却不肯帮助别人。他家的东西，从来不愿意借给别人。有一天，阿凡提求了他很久，终于从他那里借到了一只锅子，说好第三天就还回来。

第二天，阿凡提拿着一只小锅子，喜气洋洋地来到了那家人家。他一进门就高声喊：“恭喜！恭喜！昨天晚上，您家的大锅生了孩子！”那人白白地得到一只锅子，很高兴，就对阿凡提说：“你明天不用还我那只大锅子了，就让它在你家里多留些日子，为我多生几只小锅子吧！”

过了几天，阿凡提又来了。他对那人说：“不好了！您家的大锅子昨天死了！我真替你难过。”

“胡说！锅子怎么可能会死？你骗人！”

“啊，亲爱的老爷，有生就有死。既然锅子会生孩子，那它为什么不会死呢？”听了阿凡提的话，那人什么话也说不上来了。