Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year!! :D

新年快乐,恭喜发财,身体健康! (xin1 nian2 kuai4 le4, gong1 xi3 fa1 cai2, shen1 ti3 jian4 kang1!)

The above means: Happy New Year, may your year be prosperous and full of good wishes, and may your body be healthy!

I went home for the weekend for Chinese New Year. Ate. So. Much. Food. It's going to take a while to work all this off, oh well. I said the above Chinese to my grandparents before I left for school again. It was nice hearing my grandparents' laughter - it's so full-bodied and full of life, just ripples through and puts a smile on your face. I truly mean the words above when I say it to them.

One of my primary life goals is to be like my grandparents - to be healthy (my grandparents have VERY few health problems, *knocks on wood*) and happy in my old age, and surrounded by family. All else is pretty secondary.

Oh, and I got the traditional red envelop (see example below) with about $100 inside from my parents. I'll put this in the bank in a couple days.

---TANGENT---
So, my youngest brother is getting a B/B+ in his English class. My parents are annoyed that he got C's on two of his essays. To which my other brother remarks, "It doesn't matter if he gets a B or a C, it's failing anyway." This obviously refers to the Asian benchmark that if it's not an A, then it's failing. We got a good laugh out of this. My youngest brother already got into the school of engineering here, so my parents don't actually care that much about this class (unless he gets less than a B).

To be fair though, my youngest brother is only one of 3 guys in his English class. And his teacher is apparently a huge feminist and they have to read feminist books, short stories, and articles all the time. In all honesty, if I had to read what he reads, I'd be bored out of my mind and probably get a B as well.
---END TANGENT---

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ew, I had an English teacher just like that. In order to pass an English class, you must find what the teacher wants, then give them that in your writing. That really goes for any class, but especially for English teachers.

Hey, that's not just an Asian benchmark. It's also my benchmark and my mother's. Anything less than an A is failing. I had someone recently proclaim to me (happily), that they got a B+ plus in a class. I declared (perhaps too harshly now that I think about it), "that's terrible!" I probably shouldn't have mentioned the undergrad 4.0 I had...just made him feel worse I'm sure. XD

Happy new year Aek ^_^

Seth said...

A happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to you!! (without attemtping to butcher the words in Chinese)

:)

tracy said...

Hi!

Happy New Year, Aek! The year of the Ox...heh, "my" year!

Your grandparents sound so lovely!

Tris said...

Happy Chinese new year!

charlie said...

Happy new year man! I wish you all the luck you deserve :)

It's fun here, because some asiatic people are doing some parties, and blow up some fireworks, and nobody knows what it is :D

One girl said it is my year, because she says I'm closing my eyes slowly, like an ox... I already got better compliments...

J said...

i think i had an asian mom the, because if i made below an A then she would just freak out and start yelling at me.

and to this day i dont know why

Mike said...

Happy New Year!!!