發表文章

目前顯示的是 6月, 2025的文章

Understanding Addresses in Taiwan

圖片
Taiwanese addresses, while appearing complex at first glance, follow a structured system that makes navigation straightforward once you understand the components. Unlike many Western countries that start with the house number, Taiwan's addresses generally begin with the largest administrative division and narrow down to the smallest. A typical address in Taiwan starts with the city (市 shì) or county (縣xiàn), followed by the district (區qū), or in some cases, the township (鎮zhèn) or village (鄉xiāng).  Next comes the road (路lù) or street (街jiē) name, often divided into sections (段duàn). These sections are numbered, and you'll commonly see numbers like "一段" (Section 1), "二段" (Section 2), and so on. After the road and section, you'll find the lane (巷xiàng) number, followed by the alley (弄nòng) number if applicable. Finally, the address concludes with the house number (號hào), which might also include a floor (樓lóu) or apartment number (室shì).  Sometimes, a ...

English and Chinese, LEGO and Clay

For us Chinese speakers, we don't really care about when an action happened or in what state   it occurred. It's not just tenses; many grammatical concepts present in English like the indispensability of "subject, verb, object" or clear distinction between main and subordinate clauses—simply don't exist in Chinese. This isn't a flaw in Chinese; rather, it highlights that Chinese prioritizes different aspects when describing the world and expressing ideas. English is like LEGOs, with strict rules for how pieces fit together—studs into anti-studs. Chinese, on the other hand, is like clay. You can mold it here, knead it there, and no one can really say you're wrong. As Professor Liu Mei-chun puts it, English is sentence-oriented, while Chinese is context-oriented. English relies on its grammatical system, whereas Chinese values the art of "leaving space" (implying meaning without explicit words). # language