Monday, February 25, 2008

Yoon Eun Hye singing in single "Saranghae"

credit: smr05 @ soompi for the translation

YEH will be featuring in newbie Hiphop duo Mighty Mouth's new single "Saranghae / I love You" and has finished the recording of the song."Saranghae" is a song about the emotions of pure love formed by Mighty Mouth's witty rapping and YEH's beautiful and sweet vocal line.Mighty Mouse is a new group who debuted from the same agency as Han Ga In, Kim Jong Kook, Ju Seok and JJ.Lee Hyun Do (producer / former Deuce member)) who personally knows YEH's agency rep, Park Geun Soo told PGS that, "I will be overjoyed if YEH is able to vocally carry out the emotions of this song" and asked for her to be a part of the song. To this request, YEH answered, "Ever since I was young I have always been a fan of Deuce and have always liked Lee Hyun Do's music" and accepted the offer. ___________________________________________________________________
Chinese version of the news

Woah! Can't wait to hear her sing again ever since BabyVox disbanded.

Website of 101- mightymouth
CY of 101 entertainment

KJK's in the same company as well, and he filmed a chrismas video msg for fans during Mighty Mouth's recording. That kinda explain why KJK and YEH was there at the recording studio....
KJK was only passing by? Hahaha. Yeah, he was merely just dropping by to say Hi to his friends.

Can't wait to hear the full song soon!

Death Note Movie Review: L change the World






The chocolate I got after buying the movie ticket. Still can't bear to eat it yet....



Watched the movie on sat and I think the movie is quite enjoyable and worth the watch even if you’re not a Death Note fan or even if you have not watched the previous 2 movies before.

The story is about how L spent his 23days before his death.




Review



I think the plot is not that interesting and even abit dull compared to the previous movies as Death Note is supposed to be an intelligent story, filled with twists and suspense and interesting battle of the wits between the characters. However what we get this time in the movie is nothing about battle of intelligence or exciting and unpredictable moves by the characters. Without the intelligent Kira in this movie to match up to the wit of L, L seems less intelligent and the story become abit lame. *Spolier* For example I don’t understand why would L just sit back and do nothing when the little girl injected the virus into her own body. When I was watching that scene, I was full of anticipation for L to press some keys on his high tech system to prevent the girl from injecting the virus. But none of it happened. Instead, only L chose to appear and played hero to save the girl from the enemies after she injected the virus into her body. Well I guess they have to let the girl inject the virus into her body to drive the plot for the movie. If she didn’t inject the virus into her body, there will be no storyline for the movie and the movie won’t be made in the first place. The plot just became dull and normal like what you will expect from other ‘hero save the day’ movie. L become less mysterious and more humane in the story as we get to see another side of him for example how he interact with others etc.

However, despite the dull plot, the movie is still an enjoyable one with the focus on the character of L. We get to see much more of L and understand more about him in this movie as compared to the previous 2 Death Note movies. Kenichi Matsuyama continued his good job in his portrayal of L in this movie. L's cute and funny antics in the movie served as a good comedy relief for the audience. He amuses us with the way he walk, the way he sit, the way he reacts, the way he held items etc. I can’t help but just find L so loveable and adorable. *Spoiler* I like the part where L tried to stand up straight and walk. He looked like an idiot when he was trying to walk with his back straight (but a cute one of course). The way they showed the scene where he straightened his back was really hilarious.



So kudos to Kenichi Matsuyama for bringing live to L and I must applaud him for his impressive performance as L. He made this movie possible.





To sum it up, you really should go and catch this movie if you’re a Death Note or L fan (Duh!) , but if you’re not a Death Note fan, this movie is worth the watch as well. I think you’ll end up falling for L and can’t help but think he’s cute. For those who have watched this movie (but not the previous 2 Death Note movie) and think that this movie is good, you really got to watch the 2 previous movies. I can assure you the plot of the previous 2 Death Note movie is much much better and you’ll be impressed by it.



Advice: If you are planning to watch the movie, stay till the end of the credits!!! There's a scene after the credits but I missed it! argh. So stay after the credits to catch that scene!




Found this on Youtube. (credit calimerokei for the clips)






These handphone straps are soo cute! Hope I'll be able to get them in Sg

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Shipping~~

Woohoo. Been on board different ships and reading all the things that they have in their forum since I've finished going through most of the stuffs in the JYC chinese website and didn't have much things to do now. Well, its really interesting reading all the 'evidences' and speculations made on the different ships.

I must say that Hyoonies have good translators since lotsof stuffs there are translated from Korean to Chinese. There's quite alot of YEH related news there too. I registered there just to see what kinda concrete evidences do they really have but was quite dissapointed at the evidences. Maybe its because I didn't have enough post there. Like I mentioned in my previous post, if there's really strong evidences that Joo Ji Hoon and Yoon Eun Hye are a couple, I wouldn't mind them being a couple at all as long as Yoon Eun Hye is happy.

I registered with my usual nickname since there's no rule saying that I can't drop by there to take a look. Yes, I admit that I made quite alot of posts there as well, but I did it so that I could get to see better evidences which needed higher number of post since those evidences which I could see were quite limited. Besides that, I didn't even post any negative or snide remarks on the JJH-YEH chinese forum. All the comments I left there was true. JJH and YEH does have quite a few things in common and there were some sweet moments between them off screen. Sometimes after reading those post at the JJH-YEH forum, I would just smile and wonder how could YEH do that?!!?

Goong was the first Korean drama I watched and got hooked onto, so of course I would be curious about the couple as their on screen chemistry were really good. But well, I guess not everyone is so open minded about it.... I got banned from the forum just because they knew that I'm a JYC. Well, how great. Actually there's quite a few members from JYC.cn who are also members of JJH-YEH chinese websites as well and they even post news they got from other shippers on the JYC.cn forum and credited those news accordingly to JJH-YEH site. But JYCs are quite open minded about it and didn't make a fuss out of posting stuffs from other camps. Well, if you want, why not just ban all those people as well? Sigh, I just wanted to get to know more about YEH....I didn't even discuss all those stuffs I saw in the forum with other people or leak out anything , so there's no real harm done... The reason why I registered myself using my regular nick is because I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If I really wanted to spy and report my 'findings' or whatever, would I be so stupid to use back my usual nick?

Besides that, I'm a YEH fan, of course I'd like to know more about her, about her friends, private life etc. So after seeing the JJH-YEH thread, and also YEH soompi thread, it seems like there's lotsof stuffs I don't know about and those people at the thread seems to know YEH's personal life quite well. So I got more and more curious about it and I visited JJH-YEH baidu and realised that JJH-YEH forum is open for member recruitment. So I grabbed this chance and registered myself there.

Reading the stuffs on JJH-YEH chinese forum made me feel like watching Goong again. It bring back memories of the time where I was a JJH-YEH supporter. Their interaction on screen was so sweet and to add on, those BTS scenes of their interaction shows that they're both really comfortable around each other.

Photobucket

Photobucket
Sometimes I can't help but wonder if YEH is two timing. (Just Joking!) Of course she won't do that!
I think I'll watch Goong again soon....

I've also been back tracking on YEH soompi thread lately since there's really very little news and updates about YEH these few days. Its really interesting reading all the comments especially shipping comments. I still remembered when I first discovered soompi and YEH's thread, I was still more of a JJH-YEH supporter and I would be happy to read those evidences of JJH and YEH. Still remembered the incident of the picture YEH posted on her CY during KJK's brother's wedding. JYCs were claiming that the guy was KJK and compared the shirt KJK wore during Xman to the shirt of the driver, but in the end Hyoonies pointed out and proved that the shirt didn't match! I was laughing after seeing that the evidence was being dis-proved and I don't remember caring much when JYCs brought up another shirt of KJK and proved that the driver was KJK. But now when I backtracked at the forum, I'm supporting the other party and its really funny how my stand will greatly affect and influence my views and judgements. Its also amusing to think back and compare my stand current stand with my views in the past since both views are opposing and it's like a complete 360 degree change in my opinion.

Besides that, while backlogging, its funny sometimes to see that the post made by a person and the signature of a person doesn't match. There were people who was trying to make peace and they were basically middle person who does not belong to any ship. So their post will be like saying that they don't mind who YEH will end up with and they're okay with YEH being with either KJK or JJH. But when you read on, the signature of the people will show a banner belonging to a certain camp, so it ended up quite ironic.

I don't really know how the shipper thingy come about, but in the beginning of the thread, things were quite peaceful. Even though there may be some amount of shipping, they were more of discussions instead of arguements or shootings. Its quite fun to see 'evidences' being brought up by one camp, but shot down by another camp in the end. But as the thread procceed, people started to be stronger believers and each form different opinions and support different camps, so in the end, the healthy discussion turned into arguements instead.

Come to think of it, we're all fans of Yoon Eun Hye, so why do we have to fight and argue among ourselves? It seems so foolish to do so. I think situations are worse in Korea where those anti fans are really capable of doing anything to the celebrities which they don't like or support. That's the reason why its really hard for Korean celebrities to admit their relationship. We don't really see that happening in other Asian countries. Korean fans may just throw out criticism at the celebrity or even go all out to harm the celebrity physically. Cases which I know of include Mi Youn and Chae Youn. I think Chae Youn was attacked by netizens after she announced on Xman that she knew KJK for quite long and that she's a big fan of him. Mi Youn's case was quite long ago and I'm not really clear about it but it she was also attacked by anti fans I think because fans of her (rumored?) boyfriend did not like her to be with that guy.

Alright, enough said. All I wanna say now is YEH FTW!
Peace. There's no point attacking and throwing insults at each other.
And since I'm already banned at the other camp, my journey of discovery will just end here... I'm still a JYC at the end of the day, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to any other evidences from other camp.

P.S there's no point in shooting me in the forum.
I don't wanna create a mess in the AF thread so I wrote this entry here. But dunno whether those on the other camp will read this.
I was really quite irritated after reading the posts on AF JJH-YEH thread, but after calming down and thinking about it, it seems quite silly to attack back.
And to all Hyoonies: I think JYC chinese forum welcome any member there so long as you don't post hurtful or negative comments there, so if you all want, you all can register there and take a look as well.

PEACE. And I beg you all to please stop those name callings and flaming of KJK... I know its JJH-YEH thread, but that doesn't mean that we can just criticise any other celebrities and say those hurtful comments about them. How would you all feel if people started criticising JJH? Its still an open forum afterall and anybody can just visit the thread the read the stuffs there. So if you all wanna criticise, maybe you all can do it in the special forum dedicated to JJH-YEH?

Saturday, February 16, 2008

YEH Valentine's baking

Looks like YEH really did make cookies (and marshmallows?) for valentines


cookies
cookies
Looks nice huh?


marshmallows
marshmallow
not sure if these are made by YEH as well, but they were posted on YEH assistant's CY.
the marshmellows seem nice as well.

The question is who are those for?

Friday, February 15, 2008

Korean Valentine's Day






Valentine's day in Korea

Feb 14-Valentines Day: girls give chocolate to guys they like
March 14- White Day :guys give chocolate/candy (white chocolate or marshmallow?) to girls they like
April 14- Black Day: those that did not receive any chocolate/candy gather and have Jajang noodle together.

Source: Wikipedia
Website
Website2

Elaborated version

Version 1

14th May: Rose Day: guys give roses to girls they like to confess their love if they are too shy to confess it through words
14th June: Kiss Day
14th July: Silver Day: give ring to your partner
14th August: Green Day: go hiking together
14th September: Photo Day(?): sing love songs for your love ones even though you may be tone deaf. Take down the sweet smiles on his/her faces
14th October: Wine Day: have a romantic day drinking wine
14th November: Movie Day: Watch a movie together
14th December: Hugging Day: After 1 year, we'll still loving each other!

version 2
14th Jan: Calendar Day(?): most sincere day for couple to give each other promise item
14th Feb: Western Valentine's Day: Girls have to give the guys they like chocolate candy, if not the guy will not give any gift to the girl
14th March: White Day: Korean Traditional Valentine's Day
14th April: Sakura Day: couples like to admire the view of Sakura blossom on this day
14th May: Rose Day: Guys will give girls roses(mostly red roses) to confess their love
14th June: Lover's Music Day: Lovers will choose a song they like and sing it for their partner
14th July: Ring Day: Lovers will exchange and give each other a couple ring which they chose together
14th August: Dancing Day: the streets can also be turned into a dance floor for couple
14th September: Photo Day: there will be more lovers visiting differnet places and taking pictures
14th October: Drinking Day: self explanatory
14th November: Movie Day: self explanatory
14th December: Money Day: married couple- husband will discuss with their wife their financial situation (how much they earned this year, how much they spent, how much money to save etc)


Source: version 1
version 2

My translation may not be accurate....
_________________________________________________________________

Dunno how reliable are these....
Won't they be very busy if there's valentine's day on every month??

Now I know why YEH's bro left the message on YEH's CY saying Chocolate...
Wonder who will be the lucky guy to receive YEH's chocolate and who will be the one giving her chocolate/candies next month?

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Is Singapore spoken English that BAD?

I find this song really appropriate for this incident.

It all started with the episode of Kang Xi Lai Le (康熙來了) on 28th Jan 2008. The episode was supposed to be about celebrities with bad English and how they deal with encounters with foreigners etc. However halfway through the show, they started talking about how Singapore English sounds weird to them and started mocking and making fun the English pronunciation of Singaporeans (they started 'imitating' how Singaporeans speak and made a joke out of it).
Watch the video here

The press blew the incident out of proportion by publishing an article on it.
________________________________________________________________________
taken from the Newspaper, 5 Feb 2008 (credit to Felicia aka CE fanZ!! @ AF forum)

ENGLISH, as spoken by Singaporeans, is "weird". At least, that's what some TAIWAN CELEBRITIES think. And they wasted no time in making their opinions known on a variety programme in Taiwan.

In the 28 Jan epsiodes of the popular variety show Mr Con and Ms Csi aka Kang Xi lai le, the hosts and guests were seen making fun of the way Singaporeans speak English.

ARROY SHEN, former member of COMICBOYZ, describe Singapore's English as " weird" because Singaporeans intone the second syllable of word upwards instead of downwards.

He said that he was taught to shorten " thank you" to " thank". Only problem was, it sounded more like " dance" when he said it.

ARROY also demonstrated how Singaporeans pronounce "SORRY" while he was on a recent two month visit to Singapore.

He repeated " sorry" exaggeratedly, to much laughter from the show's hosts, Tsai Kang Yong and SELINA REN...

He then showed how Singaporean pronounce " tissue paper", and this was again meet with roaring laughter from the hosts and other guests.

- one host then laughingly likened the Singaporean accents to the way THAI people speak English.

Xu Wei, an English teacher who was also a guest on the same episode describe an encounter with an immigration officer on a trip to Singapore.

She say in mandarin: I was wearing a loose fitting dress and the officer ask me " pegnan? pregnant? It than dawned on me that he mean if I was pregnant.

Another guest Ma Guo Xian also made fun of how Singaporeans refer to older people as uncle and aunties.

They are always "uncle" and " aunties" - just don't understand what they mean," he said.

After this episodes was shown in Taiwan, a segment of it was posted on youtube.
_______________________________________________________________________

After this article was published on the Newpaper, more Sinpaporeans got to know of the incident and it stirred up a heated discussion on forums as well as youtube. Just look at the total number of comments left there. There are 1558 comments and 44,474 views at the moment, but I think there'll be more and more comments streaming in.


Stand up for Singapore~ Do the best you can~




Mockery/Comments mentioned in the video


1) Arroy: Thank You= Thanks
Is there anything wrong with that?
No.
Sound like Dance?
Well, maybe it does sound abit like dance if you slang it the American way.
But in SG we pronounce it the British way and 'Dance' will sound like dah-nce instead of dense.
But if you pronounce it properly, there's the TH sound in THanks, so it won't sound like dance.

Sorry> Sorry? (with a higher tone on the end syllabus)


Its not wrong to say sorry? As it’s another way to say pardon?


So what’s the problem?

2) Girl in red- Hurry Up
I've never hear Singaporeans pronounce Hurry Up as "Her-ry ahhhh~~~~" And to add on, the girl in red said something that sounded like One da di Two da di. I don't think any Singaporeans will understand what she said when they hear it the first time round. So how is it considered to be Singaporean English when Singaporeans don't even understand her?

3) Uncle Auntie guy

what’s the problem which he was highlighting?
- we stressed too much on the end syllabus? eg Anklllleeeee, Antiiiiii instead of Ankle, Anti?
- its weird to call others uncle, auntie?

If its the tone and pronunciation, then he don't have the right to laugh at us because he's also wrong in his pronunciation. We don't pronounce Uncle, Auntie as Ankle, Anti. Haha. Even a 5 year old child knows how to pronounce Uncle, Auntie.

Is there anything wrong in addressing others as Uncle and Auntie? That's just our way of addressing others.

4) Pregnant English Teacher
Pregnant> Pegnen?
I think she's either trying to say that our pronunciation is not accurate or that we shouldn't say it in a tone with that question mark behind (pregnant??)
If she's saying that the pronunciation of the immigrant officer is not accurate, therefore she couldn't understand him, then maybe her standard of English is not very good as well. Even Cai Kang Yong(the MC) could understand that she was saying "pregnant".

If the problem lies in the 'fact' that we shouldn't raise the tone and make it sound like there's a ? behind, than I think its not very valid. The immigration officer was obviously trying to ask her a question and if he had asked the question in the 'correct' American tone which she demonstrated, then doesn't it mean that the officer was declaring her to be pregnant (instead of it being a question)?

Their imitation of Singaporeans were not even done properly in the first place and they don’t even sound the least like a Singaporean. IF they wanted to imitate Singaporeans, why don’t they do a better job? If they had done it better, I think that most Singaporeans would not have responded so strongly.

Besides that, they their 'jokes' were NOT funny at all.


Different countries have different slang. For example the Americans have the American slang,
Australians have their own aussie slang and British has their own slang as well. So even though we’ll all speaking English, there are different slang, so it may sound different. When we don't speak that particular slang, does that mean that our English is incorrect/ weird? Yes, maybe foreigners may not get use to listening to colloquial English in the beginning, but people will understand and get use to it.
Does that mean that just because Singaporeans don't slang like an American so our English is incorrect and laughable? The English standard of the people on the show is not that GREAT either, so why do they sound like they are really familiar with English but just can't understand Singaporeans because Singaporeans speak bad English? Besides that, who are they to judge our English when Singaporeans are much more proficient in English then Taiwanese? Most of the Taiwanese can't even complete a complete sentence in English while in Singapore; English is our first language and main mode of communication among the various races.


That’s the way I felt after reading the article and watching the video.

I’ve also read the comments left at Youtube and also at some other forums and its really entertaining reading the comments left by fellow Singaporeans (especially in Youtube). Some of the comments are really amusing and hilarious.

Its good to see Singaporeans standing up and reacting to the incident instead of just having a heck-care attitude in respond to the incident. Our fellow Singaporeans had bombarded the blog of Aaroy and also the English teacher to demand an apology from them and to voice out their unhappiness.

Arroy's blog– should be the most attacked area (712 comments so far)

Ruby(Xu Wei), the English teacher’s blog -there WAS about 10 pages of comments left by Singaporeans so far, but she deleted all those comments left by Singaporeans

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/rubyatnews98/guestbook?page=1

Doris Lai (Wei Ru)- girl in red- around 4 pages of comments so far

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!m3irDb.fEQ7yu6ArxqBj_ZHnmg--/guestbook?page=1

SHE's blog- the comments are all sealed, so not sure how many Singaporeans left messages for Selina there.

Actually, I think we should watch the whole episode of the programme first
before making any comments.

The part 1 of the Full episode can be found here. I think there are links to the other parts there.

After watching the full episode, and re-watching the video of the incident, I think that they didn’t really mean to mock/laugh at Singaporeans. From the start, they were laughing at their own English (especially Arroy who admitted that his English was really lousy and he was trying to make people laugh with his lousy English).

The part where they mentioned Singaporean was also not on purpose. I’ll analyse what happened then.

First, Arroy spoke in English, talking about one size and saying Sorry, and Thanks (he wasn’t trying to imitate Singaporeans here. There’s how he usually speak. He also didn’t mention Singapore here)

The guests laughed at his English pronunciation.

Selina: Are you saying dance?

Arroy: My friend told me that the short form for Thank You is Thanks. He also added that his friend 自以为他在教我英文, meaning that in his opinion, that's incorrect. (there's still no mention of Singapore up to this point)

Cai Kang Yong commented on his way of saying sorry.

Arroy said "Sorry" again.

Wei Ru said "好像有那种泰国腔哦"he sound like he has Thai accent.

Selina said " 是新加坡腔"Is Singapore accent.

Arroy said " 对,腔很怪。。。" Right, the accent is weird. (I have a weird accent when speaking English.) [he was not saying that the Singapore accent is weird here. I think he was referring to his own accent]


Arroy: I worked in Singapore for 2 months, 所以才会这种英文 (thats why my English is like that)

[Cai Kang Yong laughed]

Selina: 所以变成这种英文 That's why your English is like that

Arroy: Right, they taught me something else too. [demonstrated how he said tissue paper]

The others repeated and said Tissue paper with the American slang.

Someone asked(sounds like its Wei Ru): 这是哪一国的口音? Which country's slang is this?

Arroy answered: Singapore

A guy commented(should be the Uncle, Auntie guy): 新家坡发音都很奇怪 Singapore's accent is very weird( I don't think he meant it in a bad way. He was just saying it's different)

Selina:对,就往上扬的 Right, they raise the tone on the last syllable.

Arroy: demonstrated how he said tissue paper again.

girl in red(Wei Ru): “Her-ry ahhhh~~~~ "

The uncle, auntie guy said "对,就是新加坡,我都听不懂他们讲什么."
Right, it's Singapore. I don't understand them. [it was quite noisy here cause they were all trying to give their comments]

While she was saying that, someone said( I think was Selina): 这是泰国的吗?
Is this Thai accent?

Wei Ru was still demonstrating :"One da di Two da di” [pointing to her watch action](she was trying to say one thirty, two thirty)( in my opinion, she was doing an imitation of the Thai accent and not Singapore accent as she mentioned in the front part of the episode that she had gone to Thailand and had a small incident there as she couldn’t speak English well )

Uncle Auntie guy: "他们叫什么Ankle, Anti, 他们就ankle anti"
They address the elders as uncle, auntie.

Arroy:"Uncle, aunttttiiiieeeeeee"

Some others echoed him.

Cai Kang Yong questioned: 这不是。。。。 这不是菲律宾或马来西亚吗?是新加坡?
Isn't this.... Isn't this Philippines or Malaysian accent? Are you sure its Singapore accent?

someone said " 对阿,好像哦."
yes, it sound like (the accent sound like Philippines/Malaysian accent)

Selina:一样,那都是。。。 新马那一代。
Its the same... The area around Singapore and Malaysia.

English teacher :"我去新加坡有一次通过海关,我也听不懂他们讲的英文。因为那一天我穿那种宽松的衣服,然后背包斜背那我过去的时候他就跟我讲"Pegnen? Pegnen? [laughed and said]我真的听不懂他讲什么。"
Once I was at the Singapore custom and I couldn't understand their English. I wore loose clothings and carried a sling bag around that day and when I went over,he said to me" Pegnen? Pegnen? [laughed and said] I really couldn't understand what he said.

Cai Kang Yong : "他说你怀孕吗?" Was he was asking you whether you were pregnant?

English teacher: "对,他说我是不是 Pregnant(with the American accent) 是不是怀孕。我说 no 可是刚开始他讲就是(那个)Pregnant, 我真的听不懂。
Yes, he was asking me whether I was PREGnant (with the American accent). I answered No, but I really didn't understand him in the beginning.

都很奇怪啊。对。
( end of clip)

So that’s how the incident happened.

First, Arroy didn’t intentionally bring Singapore into the picture when he was saying the Sorry and Thanks.

I think Arroy was trying to make people laugh (at his lousy English) when he said Sorry?

Wei Ru(girl in red) was doing a Thai accent and not a Singapore accent. (she commented that Arroy sounded Thai)


In my opinion, the uncle and auntie guy was just trying to point out that Singaporeans have a unique way of addressing the elders. ( I don’t that he meant anything bad here. Its just that he find it Different. Maybe its his wrong choice of the word “qi guai” that made it sound like we’re weird)

The pregnant woman was referring to Singaporeans in particular and it seems like she was trying to say that our spoken English is incomprehensible or that our slang is hard to understand. (the way she said it was like we’re wrong because we didn’t do the correct American slang like we ought to)

Aaron and the English teacher left an apology on their blogs

News report of their apology on AF forum: Taiwan celebrity apologises on blog for rude comments - Sorry, my English isn't good either


The English teacher’s apology (she didn’t create an entry on her blog to apologise for it. Its only a response to a comment left on her blog.) Edit: She deleted all the comments left by Singaporeans including her response to the angry Singaporean)


I think that the celebrities and MC didn’t have the intention to criticise or mock Singaporean’s English in general. To me, I think the only offensive thing was the pregnant incident mentioned by the English teacher and that casual comment made by Selina. (so that's why your English is like that)

In her apology, the English teacher said that she only brought up that incident to highlight her lack of listening ability. But it doesn’t seem that way in the show judging by her tone and the way she told the incident. It’s like she was trying to correct something that is incorrect. Furthermore, after watching the whole episode, we’ll know that the role of the English teacher was to correct the English of the guests or to provide the right sentences/phrases to use during the circumstances described by them. If you watched the whole episode, you’ll know that she mentioned a racist ‘joke’ on national TV and said it as if it was a personal encounter at first. And she also mentioned the incident she had in the American’s custom where those who didn’t know how to speak English had to line up in a line and stripe down to their undergarment for a check while those who could speak English was being put in another line and they didn’t have to go through the strip check.

The first story is obvious a joke and all of us know it. But the 2nd story sounds real and personal, but I don’t think it’s really her personal encounter. So the pregnant incident could be just a story cooked up by her ( I realised that her stories all happened in the airport)

So I think that this incident is not really Aaroy’s faulty (so please don’t bombard his blog with those strong hurting comments anymore) Furthermore, he had already apologised for it. He mentioned in his apology that he admitted that he was too straightforward and was too over in his jokes. I think that’s quite true since we can see that he didn’t even intended to criticise Singaporeans. His purpose was to make the audience laugh with no intention of hurting anybody. So that’s why in his apology, he said sorry for being to straightforward and got too carried away in his jokes. His apology sounded insincere to me when I read it before watching the full episode of the show, but after re-watching it in detail, I think that to him, he didn’t really understand what he did wrong as his purpose was not to criticise Singaporeans but merely to make the audience laugh which his lousy English in the beginning. But its only after the other guests on the show commented that he sounded like Singaporeans that he got linked to imitating Singaporeans and resulted in the criticism thrown at him by Singaporeans. I think it’s not really his fault to begin with, but he just apologised to Singaporeans for his actions if he had caused the unhappiness. So just stop flaming him ya? It made it seems like Singaporeans are petty and cannot take jokes.

On the other hand, I think that the apology by the English teacher was insincere. Her pregnant incident she brought up was clearly pointing and directed at Singaporeans and her motive for bringing it up seems to be criticising our English. Well, it may be what she claimed that the editing had made her words sound offensive. Well, we’ll never know the truth. So since she had already apologised, why not just let the matter rest? Singaporeans had already bombed her with our unhappiness and she had already know the damage she had done. So give her a slack.


The programme was after all only a variety show and those comments made were mostly just casual comments by the celebrities. So just take it more lighted heartedly and treat it as an entertainment. In Singapore, the regulations for TV programmes are more strict, so its rare for us to see Singapore variety shows joking so openly about sensitive issues for example making racial jokes on national TV. However, things are different in Taiwan, so its unfair to judge their variety shows by our own standard. In Taiwan they can just openly joke about their ministers and even mimicked their ministers to make a laughing joke out of them. So just watch the clip as entertainment purposes and don’t take the incident to heart since most of the celebrities involved did not have any purposes/ intention of criticising Singapore in the first place. Besides that, it’s also quite unfair to attack the entire Taiwan population just because of the comments made by the few celebrities. They do not represent the voice of the entire Taiwan population and its not fair to attack the whole Taiwan population just because of that.

I’m still a loyal and true Singaporean even though I seem to be siding the other party now(I'm really not trying to defend them. I'm just looking at the incident more objectively) It was funny reading the comments on Youtube and all those comments siding Taiwan were all being marked as spam ( I was happily giving thumbs down to those negative comments too when I read them before watching the whole episode and looking at the clips again). Hopefully Singaporeans would look at the matter more closely and judge them again without being influenced by the press or article which you’ve read. I think the main reason for Singaporeans to get so worked up was because of the article that was published. It influenced my judging and opinions regarding the matter at first. Since most of us got to know of the article after reading the article and only watched the short clip after that to judge and voice our opinions on it, it's not very fair to the people involved by passing our judging so fast. They were just discussing on our slang and how it sounded different with no intention of criticising us or putting us down. They didn't say their English is better either. Most of them(except maybe the English teacher) were not trying to correct us or anything. In order to judge if a person is guilty or not, the intention of the person is very important right?? (Well, I still don't really like the English teacher. Can't stand her face when she was demostrating the correct way to say pregnant. To add on, she deleted ALL the comments left by Singaporeans on her blog. What a good way to handle the matter)



The article was posted on Asian Fanatics forum and also drew quite a lot of negative responses from foreigners. Read them here. I think the reason the incident got blown up was mainly because of the media…

Its nice to see Singaporeans so united due to this incident. Way to go Singaporeans!( but I think we can should stop the flaming) .... I can understand why we(Singaporeans) got so worked up in the first place, but maybe we should look at the matter in another perspective... The video just turned out to sound offensive even though they don't really mean it that way. Yes, I was also offended by their remarks at first after reading the article and viewing the clip, but I tried to put myself in their shoes and analyse the situation more objectively and it kind of changed my views on the incident.

PS: Sorry if the post is abit unorganized. I edited it a few times and kept going back to add in more stuffs in between the paragraphs along the way...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

[News][05.02.08]Edison Sex Scandal

Star apologizes to six artistes in 1,300 racy internet photos
Source: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=12&art_id=61190&sid=17445450&con_type=1

Singer and actor Edison Chen Koon- hei, embroiled in an internet porn scandal, yesterday apologized to those who may have been affected by the posting of compromising nude photographs - and called on the public not to further circulate such pictures to allow the victims to heal their wounds.
For the first time in the scandal, which purportedly involves Hong Kong pop and movie stars, Chen also confirmed he was assisting the police with their inquiries into the case. Chen's apology, which was contained in a video released by his lawyer, came as police said they had uncovered more than 1,300 pictures involving six women, two of whom had yet to be identified.
In the video, Chen said he was "hurt, pained and perplexed" that a number of people's lives had been affected.
He urged internet users not to transfer the pictures anymore so as to help those affected heal their wounds. He said he had been cooperating with police since the saga erupted but that he could not comment further since there was now the possibility the case could end up in court.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Vincent Wong Fook-chuen said the source of the pictures had been traced. But he would not confirm reports they had been taken from Chen's computer.
"The source of the case has been found. We believe very much that [it was] because of [someone taking his] computer for repairs and that others had, via illegal means, taken out the [obscene] information," he said.
He added whether the pictures were authentic or not is now the focus of police investigation.
The 23-year-old man arrested in Central last Saturday will be charged with the dishonest use of computers with criminal intent, which has a maximum penalty of five years' jail. The man will appear in Eastern Court today.
Wong said of the six women found in the photographs, two were not known to them - but he was certain that no overseas artistes were involved. None of the women were named.
People who had only transferred the obscene picture files to friends had not violated the law, but those who transferred them to the public - for example via internet web pages - were breaking the law, said Wong.
He said there were three clauses relating to the possession of obscene material that constitute a violation of the law, namely: publishing obscene material; possession for publishing; and inserting obscene material for publishing. He also maintained the police had not used excessive manpower as the whole case had been handled by 19 men from the Commercial Crime Bureau.
He said those unhappy with the eight-week detention of the first person detained in the case, 29-year-old Chung Yik-tin, can appeal through normal procedures.
Wong said it may not be necessary for all those affected in the case to appear in court in the future, though the police will contact the six women "if there is a chance to do so."
Wong urged anyone whose nude pictures had been posted on the internet to report to the police.
"In my 20-plus years as a policeman, I have not come across such an issue," Wong said in response to questions as to why police had not acted against other obscene photos circulating on the internet.
___________________________________________________________________
Another news source http://www.stuff.co.nz/4388381a1860.html

You can view the video by going to any of the links below
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=io9n4XwJQG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogJovxujLg
http://www.xin.sg/video.php

Well, he had finally come forward to say something about the incident.But it seems like he was reading from a script provided by his manager/lawyer....
The article mentioned that " police said they had uncovered more than 1,300 pictures ".
That's quite alot isn't it? Well, Edison Chen had a bad boy image all the while and he kinda looks like a player type, but the girls who he took the photos with will certainly have their image tarnished. Celebrities involved in the scandal which I know of include Gillian Chung from Twins, Cecilia Cheung and Bobo. The police had already confirmed that those pictures are not photoshopped, so the career of the celebs will definitely be affected by it....

Gillian has a pure, innocent and squeaky clean image all the while, so I think her image would be totally tarnished after this incident. Wonder how she's gonna cope with this since its been confirmed by the police that those photos are not photoshopped. Hope she won't get too depressed about this incident since there's remour that she attempted suicide....

Cecilia had always been know as a wild girl, so I guess it won't affect her career as much as it will affect Gillian. But she's afterall a mother with a child now, so its kinda bad for her child... Imagine how would the child react when he/she grow up and know of the incident.

Whenever things like this happen, it alway gotta be the girl who are more pitiful. But I think that its now solely Edison's responsibility that such a thing happened. The person who put the pictures on the web should be the one at fault. If he didn't post it on the web and spread the pictures without caring about the feelings and consequences of his actions, then the images would be circulated.... Besides that, Edison Chen is at fault as well. But apart from Edison Chen, it is also the fault of the female celebrities too. Even though they seems to be the victim of the incident, isn't Edison Chen also the victim as well? Of course he didn't want such a thing to happen. So both Edison Chen and the female celebrities shouldn't have taken the picture in the first place. Edison should have been more careful and the female celebrities should have protected themselves and not let anyone just take naked pictures of them.... Now that the incident had already taken place, there's nothing much that they can do about it.

[News][02.02.08] Is love in the air for Joo Ji-hoon and Song Ji-hyo?





sources: Celebrity X-Files http://coolbreeze.tistory.com/282


Sukiyaki @soompi


Kpopped.com









According to a report in Celebrity X-Files, Joo Ji Hoon and Song Ji Hyo have continued their romance even after the finish of drama "Goong" where they both starred in.


Celebrity X-Files is a report compiled by journalists, e-news reporters, advertising agencys and star managements officials.





Song Ji Hyo has been seen frequenting Joo Ji Hoon's house, to the extent that she practically lives there.It has also been pointed out that Song Ji Hyo has been seen carrying 2 boxes of cherries every time she visits, bringing about a strange discussion between netizens.





Apart from this little revelation, it has also been reported that at the end of 2007, fans have spotted Song Ji-hyo riding at the back of her Romeo's motorcycle.





Could Song Ji Hyo be the reason why Joo Ji Hoon stated in an interview http://news.chol.com/index.php?cmd=doc&sd=20060418&ed=20060418&cat=ENT&newsid=ILGAN_339378 that Yoon Eun Hye isn't his type?





December 2007 Song Ji Hyo was quoted saying: "Joo Ji Hoon is good for dating" http://sports.khan.co.kr/news/sk_index.htm...40101&pt=nv





December 3, 2007 Joo Ji Hoon attended Song Ji Hyo's movie premiere "Sex Is Zero 2" he was there to support her with Hwanghumama.





___________________________________________________________________





Well, hope that the news is true and they'll confirm it someday. But I doubt they'll do that since Korean celebs usually deny their relationship.... JJH look quite good with SJH....





But whatever it is, I still think that there's a much higher possibility of YEH being with KJK rather than JJH....

We'll just hafta wait patiently to see what will happens...

Monday, February 4, 2008

Witch Yoo Hee





Watched finished the drama Witch Yoo Hee. Well, its not bad, butthey storyline is quite typical.
The drama is mainly about Yoo Hee(Han Ga In), who is a fierce and work-oriented girl who has an established career and is very capable in her work.but one thing she needed and wanted most is a boyfriend. Therefore she went for alot of matchmaking sessions to find a suitable partner,but unfortunatly, she's always end up being rejected by the guys as she's too fierce and demanding (that's why she's know as theinfamous Witch), scaring all the guys away.Pretty soon, match making agencies heard about the infamous Witch and started rejecting her as a member. Then she met Chae Moo Ryong (Jae Hee) , a talented and skilled but unlucky Chef who is not appreciated by his head chef. He gave up studying medicine to cook. He knows alot about making dishes and is a very frank and honest guy who ain't shy to voice out his opinion and give his comments on the dishes prepared. But due to this, people may find him arrogant and proud since he is in no position to give his comments. Therefore he offended quite a few bosses and became know as a troublemaker.

Chae Moo Ryong went for a match making session to do a favour for his friend even though he's attached. He faked his particulars and pretended to be a doctor and it ended up that the girl he was supposed to meet was Yoo Hee.So they had a dinner but as expected, the match making didn't end up well and both left after an arguement.
The next day, Chae Moo Ryong was helping out in his family noodle store,delivering Jjang noodle. He accidentally crashed into a car and coincidentally, the driver happened to be Yoo Hee. He had to pay for the conpensation fee but he didn't have any money. To add on, he was just fired from his Chef job and was jobless now. He didn't want to ask his parents or gf for help and wanted to settle his own problem by himself.
So in the end, he ended up being a house cleaner for Yoo Hee (YooHee had trouble finding a house cleaner as she was very strict and full of demand. So the house cleaners she hired all quitted one after another and in the end no one wanted to work for her after knowing about her demanding nature)
Moo Ryong was a hard worker and gave all his best in cleaning and taking care of her house, so she was quite satisfied with his work performance....
After some incidents and failed attempts at match making, Yoo Hee signed a contract agreement with Moo Ryong to hire his to be her dating coach for a certain amount. Moo Ryong gave her warobe a complete makeover and changed herdull black and white image totally. Everyone was surprised to see the NEW Yoo Hee with her new image and as she was like an ugly duckling turned into a complete swan....
Yoo Hee changed her attitude and her behaviour. She got rid of her demading manners and learnt to be polite and sweet.In the end, she was no longer the business liked and unfeeling YooHee instead she was more sympathetic and had more emotions.
There was 3 guys who were interest/connected with her.




1) Chae Moo Ryong (Jae Hee)




2) Yoo Joon Ha (Kim Jung Hoon)




3) Famous Chef -Johnny Crooger(Dennis Oh)




Yoo Joon Ha was Yoo Hee's first love and she was still in love with him after so many years.Dennis Oh is Yoo Hee's good friend and he liked Yoo Hee but didn't confess to her all these while. He's satisfied just being good friends with Yoo Hee.

At first, its not clear who Yoo Hee would end up with in the end coz these 3 guys didn't make much move and its not very obvious in the plot. Even though Yoo Hee and Moo Ryong got along quite well,Moo Ryong already had a stable girlfriend called Nam Sung Mi acted by Jeon Hye Bin. They knew each other since young and their relationship seems to be matured and stable.Even though Yoo Hee liked Joon Ha ,Joon Ha was gonna be engaged soon and it was only a one sided love of Yoo Hee. So there was not much chance of their relationship.At first, the relationship between Johnny Crooger(Dennis Oh) and Yoo Hee does not seems to be very clear too. We were only aware that they are long-time friends.It was only in further more episodes that we were aware of Johnny Crooger's love for Yoo Hee.
I was hoping Johnny Crooger would end up with Yoo Hee in the end, but it turned out that he was too passive and didn't grab his opportunities. I was also hoping for Moo Ryong to be with Sang Mei since Sung Mi was a very supporting and understand girl who stood by Moo Ryong all the time.


The charaters are quite alright. Most of them are good people and I would say the evil characters are only Yoo Joon Ha(KJH) and Yoo Hee's dad. Yoo Joon Ha was scheming and sly and he only cared about money and his career. Yoo Hee's dad was very irritating. I was really hoping that he would die in one of the episodes (he fell sick and was sent to the hospital a few times, but unfortunately, he was always okay after collasping and being sent to the hospital) If he had died, things wouldn't be as complicated and Yoo Hee and Moo Ryong can be together as they wished. Well fortunately, the father finally gave in in the end and let Yoo Hee be with the guy she wanted instead of forcing her tobe with the guy which the father liked/preferred.
Well overall the drama was quite alright, but I thought there was too much dreaming scenes.... Yes, it make may the drama funnier, but I thought it was too over....Besides that, the storyline seems very typical Kdrama. The owning of money and contract agreement thingy is very a very common plot in Kdramas.... One thing I like about the drama is the cast. The whole cast is good looking. The girls are pretty and the guys are cute. They're definately eyecandies.



Dennis Oh is definitely hot. Kim Jung Hoon is okay ( last time when I first saw him in Goong, I thought he's really good looking, but I find him quite average now..) Jae Hee don't really look good with that hairstyle in the drama. I prefer him with other styles, but he got a really nice smile. He look much better with a longer hair and without the curls for example in Blue Dragon Award.



http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=h_F7a-_XqQ0 (credit goonglovelyfan)










Sunday, February 3, 2008

Coffee Prince Novel in Chinese




The Chinese version of Coffee Prince novel will be out in Taiwan soon.




date of publish: 20th Feb 2008

Language: Traditional Chinese

Cost: TWD $280

Promotional Price: TWD $252

If you order 10 copies, it'll be TWD$224 each.

Pages: 400




Friday, February 1, 2008

Romantic Princess

I've finally finished watching Romantic Princess after leaving it there for so long. Well I find the later episodes more enjoyable to watch(ep7 to 13). Although the show may be abit lame and stupid at some point, its quite funny overall.

I like the part in episode 7 where Jin grabbed a women's top and said its nice,and insisted that guys can try it too coz the design is nice. So he went to the fitting room and tried on low cut the woman's top coz Xiao Mai wanted to have some time alone with him and asked him to get some clothes and go into the fitting room to "try" them.

Ep9: Besides that I think the part in episode 9, where each of the 4 guys took turns to go to Xiao Mai to give her food was really sweet. Then the idea of a vacation and everyone having their individual motives and plans were quite amusing as well.

Ep10- Jin found out Muo Li like Cai.Jin nv tell Xiao Mai abt his plan and Xiao Mai nv tell Jin abt the fact tt Muo Li is a fake. So Jin dunno about it also. If Xiao Mai told Jin abt it things wouldn't be as complicated....

Well maybe I've watched too much Kdrama, but this drama is quite different from the other dramas I've watched before. Usually in a drama, the lead would be quarrelling and argueing alot with each other before they made up. But in this drama there seems to be very very little arguing between Xiao Mai and Jin. They were quite a peaceful couple. But it would have been better if there's more sweet moments of Jin and Xiao Mai together....