關於 word page setting ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

[專頁公告] 英文學習「 生態系」

Hello, everyone! I hope you had a great start on the new year. I’ve been radio silent (銷聲匿跡) for a few days because I am currently setting up my Instagram to provide more English learning materials for you guys. Remember my new year goal of providing an "ecosystem" of learning materials?

大家好！希望各位在新年都有一個新的開始。近來我有些 「電波靜默」(銷聲匿跡)，是因為我目前正在設置我的IG以提供給各位更多免費的教育資源。還記得我要提供學習資源生態圈的新年目標嗎？

以下是我們目前的資源:

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Fanpage 📣📣📣

專頁: https://www.facebook.com/ericsenglishlounge

On our main fan page, you can read about hot topic current events, editorials, posts on English education. We also provide free educational resources, hold book drawings, and perform charitable activities.

在我們主要的粉絲專頁中，你可以閱讀引起共鳴的熱門時事、社論與英文教育類文章。我們還提供免費的教育資源、贈書抽獎以及舉辦一些慈善活動。

專頁宗旨與目標: https://bit.ly/2BaENzJ

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FB groups and Google Meet 📣📣📣

關鍵思考英文學習團+Google Meet 時事討論
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ericsenglishlounge

In our critical thinking FB group, you can read in depth news stories and discuss these issues with me. We have periodic livestreams on news topics, providing analysis and discussions available to public think tanks. In our class groups, you'll get constant updates and extra information relating to our courses! Google meet is where we hold our live discussions.

在我們的關鍵思考學習社團，你可以更深入地閱讀新聞報導後和我討論相關議題。我們會有定期直播討論相關新聞主題，並提供從公開智庫找到的分析和討論。在我們的班群社團，你可以得到即時更新，並獲得與我們課程有關的資訊！Google Meet是我們舉行線上討論的地方。

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YouTube and Blog 📣📣📣

YouTube: http://bit.ly/2MhEt7h

部落格: http://bit.ly/2Ybp8L8

To be honest, I haven’t updated YouTube for awhile because of the high cost of producing a video (both money and time). However, you can still check out the channel for English learning videos, and I will update it whenever I can.

Our blog, which gets about 2000 visitors a day, is a compilation of all the free resources I published on all media. Thus, if you do not want to get on FB, feel free to check it out.

說實在的，因為做一部影片要成本過高，我已經一陣子沒有更新YouTube。 但是你還是能夠在頻道上觀看英文學習影片，如果有值得我們關注的議題就會有所更新。

我們的部落格每天有大約2000人來訪，匯集了所有我網路上免費資源；所以如果你不想上臉書，歡迎使用我們的部落格。

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Instagram 📣📣📣

IG: https://www.instagram.com/esenglishlounge/

I started working on Instagram a few months ago and so far I have three types of posts:

我幾個月前也開始投入IG！目前有三種貼文：

1. Word of the Day: I go over the pronunciation, collocations and provide example sentences. All these words are high frequency tier-2, cross-domain vocabulary words that appear in both academic texts and the news.

每日單字：我會針對發音、搭配詞、單字用法進行說明。所有的單字都來自高頻Tier 2跨領域學術詞彙，你會常在學術文章和新聞看到它們。

2. News English: I publish abridged, translated, and audio versions of news stories found in the NY Times, Reuters, the Guardian, and so on. These take a bit of time to do, so please use these resources as a part of your learning.

時事英文：我會發布來自紐約時報、路透社、衛報等網站的新聞，並且花了不少時間提供三合一服務（新聞摘要、翻譯、有聲版）。言下之意就是多使用這些資源吧！

3. Daily life English topics: Anything that I find interesting or useful to students

生活英文主題：只要是有趣或是實用的資訊都會出現～

So, if you need any of these resources, feel free to follow. Everything is free and I will do my best to keep it that way. Do follow me on Instagram if you need News English and want to expand your vocabulary!

如果你需要任何上述的資源，歡迎關注。我會盡力維持全部免費，如果你想要讀英文新聞並且增加單字量，追蹤我的IG吧！

📣 https://www.instagram.com/esenglishlounge/ 📣

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還有需要其他的資源可以在這邊找到:

英文學習資源大全: https://bit.ly/35HMkBy

找不到的話也歡迎來信詢問~

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Onwards to the new year!

邁向新的一年！

Be well-supplied during this financial drought:

““Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son. For Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.’” She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah.” (1 Kings‬ ‭17:9-16‬ ‭WEB)

Jesus uses weak things to demonstrate His perfect power.

Of all people, Yahweh (the pre-incarnate Jesus) commanded a poor widow to feed the prophet.
She already had no husband to take care of her and still had to feed a son.

Why would the Lord ask so much sacrifice from her?
He could have chosen a rich man to feed Elijah, but why didn’t He?

He was setting up an opportunity to bless the widow. If she responded in faith, she would receive a miracle.

Remember that it was a time of drought and famine in the land.
The worldly, logical thing to do would be to keep her last morsel of food for her son and herself.
After all, she didn’t know the prophet personally. Why should she feed him?

Yet the widow responded to Yahweh’s command with faith. Even though she expected to die for her choice, she still did it.

That faith allowed her to receive a miraculous multiplication of her food. That little morsel of meal and oil did not run out until the day that the drought ended.

If she had selfishly kept the food and chose to fend for herself, she would prolong her life for a few days, but still end up dying.

In this season of financial drought and famine upon the world, don’t stop your gestures of giving and kindness.

You may think that stopping your giving is the smart thing to do to ensure your survival, but that is only a temporary band-aid, which still leads to no breakthrough.

Money is a type of seed. If you sow no financial seeds, you have no basis to expect to receive any harvests

“Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭9:6‬ ‭WEB‬‬)

Remember that the widow would have starved to death if she didn’t give the little she had by faith.

In this season, look out for whoever the Holy Spirit leads you to be a blessing to. If He prompts you to be generous to a fellow Christian brother or sister, don’t harden your heart just because it’s a scary time of uncertainty.

Recognize that Jesus is setting you up to receive a financial blessing. Whenever you give by faith as instructed by Him, even if it doesn’t seem smart to do so, He will multiply a huge harvest of blessings back to you.
It will last you all the way till the end of the financial drought—you will be well provided for when you respond in faith.

Look at the proportion the widow received: she gave a little bit of meal and oil, but received a few years worth of food supply in return!

When you give to someone the Lord leads you to. He will pay you back much more. His grace will abound towards you so that you can be abundantly supplied for every good work!

Are you left with only a little bit of provision?
I’m sure Jesus is preparing opportunities for you to be a blessing to someone so that you can receive in abundance.

Be on the lookout with an open heart, and be excited to give cheerfully because it’s the godly way to receive multiplication of provision!

In case I’m the one the Lord leads you to be a blessing to, I will share how you can do so. Thanks in advance for we are in a similar situation as the widow 🙏

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#Jesus #Faith

Taipei Times 英文臺北時報今刊出讀者投書致賴揆：
官方一直示範菜英文，還想列英文為第二官語？

舉例之一：交通部觀光局行之五年的「借問站」計劃英文宣傳名稱「Taiwan Ask Me」是「菜英文」。無誤！

繼之前的菜英文「Taiwan Touch Your Heart」之後，不意外。

最後這一段切中要害：

// Finally, Premier Lai, how can Taiwan effectively pursue the valuable and challenging goal of making English an official language of this country if the ROC government’s own ministries are not even able to correctly compose a simple advertisement in English? //

猜測作者 Xue Meng-ren 很可能是薛孟仁（Dr. Bruce G. Shapiro），逢甲大學外國語文學系副教授。

謝謝薛教授用專業的聲音告誡政府勿失策。

以下全文轉錄投書內容，連結見留言。

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An open letter to Premier William Lai

By Xue Meng-ren

Wed, Oct 24, 2018

Dear Premier William Lai (賴清德):

You have admirably and lately led Taiwan in an ongoing discussion about whether to make English a second “official” language. Many articles have appeared defending both sides of this argument.

As it stands, Taiwan uses the traditional style of Mandarin Chinese for all official government, legal and business documents. However, the Taiwanese government frequently uses English in a non-official capacity to facilitate outreach initiatives and better communication with non-Chinese-speaking residents and tourists.

“Taiwan Ask Me” is one such governmental initiative, which the Ministry of Transportation and Communications initiated five years ago.

As a Cabinet-level governmental body charged with communications, the ministry’s standard of English should be a model of English usage for the rest of the nation, particularly the tourism industry, which the ministry also officially administers.

Unfortunately, the ministry has demonstrated that its use of English is both inept and even — albeit inadvertently — insulting.

On the Republic of China’s National Day, on page 5 of the Taipei Times, the ministry’s Tourism Bureau published an announcement about the fifth anniversary of the “Taiwan Ask Me” initiative. This announcement features not only elementary grammatical errors, but also incorrect English usage that renders it meaningless and embarrassing.

To begin, in English, the phrase “Taiwan Ask Me” is nonsense, that is, it has no meaning. It must at least have some defining punctuation, such as, “Taiwan? Ask Me” or “Taiwan, Ask Me.”

The service is supposed to be for tourists in need of answers to questions about traveling around Taiwan, but the phrase “Taiwan Ask Me” absurdly means that Taiwan should ask someone, “me,” something about itself.

And, who does this “me” refer to? Certainly, the initiative does not limit itself to employing a single individual, but rather a team of individuals. Therefore, the phrase should be “Taiwan, Ask Us” not “me.”

This type of error, along with the rest of the advertisement, not only demonstrates poor English usage, but more importantly, it suggests a lack of awareness about what service to others actually means.

It suggests that the initiative “Taiwan Ask Me” is merely paying lip service to a valuable concept of a democratic government that it does not truly value or even understand. This poorly written advertisement reveals that it is more interested in celebrating its own anniversary than it is in providing the service for which it is lauding itself.

The announcement states that the ministry “launched the ‘Taiwan Ask Me’ friendly travel information service” five years ago, and now has 450 Information Stations “that prove warm and friendly services.”

Obviously, the Information Services must provide not “prove” their services. “Prove” is the incorrect English word, unless the intention is for the ministry to pat itself on the back by saying that over the past five years the service has “proved its services are warm and friendly,” but then the grammar is still incorrect.

Furthermore, the use of both “warm” and “friendly” is repetitive, since the words are synonymous in this context. Using repetitive words in this way is a feature of the elementary English usage quite common in Taiwan, but governmental English has no excuse for being elementary.

In addition to offering “domestic and foreign tourists the warmest greetings,” through the Taiwan Ask Me Information Stations, “the service further incorporates rich travel elements.” The phrase “rich travel elements” is verbal nonsense. It correctly connects words that have no discernible meaning. The article does not define or elaborate upon them.

In the following run-on sentence, the article connects these “rich travel elements” with “five unique features,” the first of which is “local gourmets.” Why would a tourist want to meet a gourmet? And what kind of a gourmet?

The ministry probably means “local food” or perhaps “local delicacies,” whereas a “gourmet” is a food connoisseur, that is, a lover of good food. “Gourmets” is an example of another English error common in Taiwan, which is to use the incorrect English word to say something related to that word.

Using Google Translate often helps Taiwanese students make these ridiculous English errors. Unfortunately, government ministers are no longer students. Thus, one expects them to have a better grasp of English, certainly as it pertains to their own special purpose or field of employment.

Together, the “five unique features” mentioned in the article are supposed to “form [a] synergistic local economy of tourism,” whatever that is. Thus, the advertisement uses yet another nonsensical phrase, the meaning of which even the necessary grammatical insertion of “a” does not clarify.

The tourist economy in Taiwan is definitely important, and it is possibly important to connect different aspects of the tourist economy into a unified plan for development. However, linking the so-called five unique features does not create an economic synergy.

Taiwan Ask Me is a free information service. It does not make money or use money to link things together to form economic relationships. Even a government minister should recognize that specious phrases reveal fake values.

For the fifth anniversary event, “Eunice LIN,” (which should be “Eunice Lin,”) “is invited to be the tour guide, and experience the friendliness of ‘Taiwan Ask Me.” This sentence means that Ms Lin is going act as a tourist guide and experience for herself the friendly services of the Information Stations. More absurd nonsense, for why would she be both the tourist guide and the tourist?

Furthermore, the ministry should take responsibility for inviting Ms Lin. Instead of writing “Eunice LIN, a popular TV personality, is invited,” the correct sentence would be: “The MOTC has invited Eunice Lin, a popular TV personality, to be a tour guide.”

Finally, Ms Lin may be a local celebrity, but she is a Taiwanese film and television actor, not a TV personality. The latter is someone who appears on TV as herself, perhaps as the host of a variety show, but not someone who appears as characters in films or a TV series. (“Actor” refers to either male or female, the distinction “actress” being no longer necessary.)

The next sentence in the article is so riddled with grammatical errors, it would take several more paragraphs to explain them all. Suffice it to say that much of what the sentence tries to say means the opposite of what it must intend, which is the major problem with the article in question, especially its conclusion.

The advertisement closes with an egregious insult to all foreign residents and tourists.

Setting aside the grammatical errors and confusing phrasing, the advertisement announces the “Hi Taiwan! Give Me 5 Point Collection Campaign,” which started on Oct. 1.

However, this campaign is only for “all citizens of Taiwan [who] are invited to visit Information Stations and get a taste of the warm and friendly services of ‘Taiwan Ask Me.’”

Apparently, foreign tourists are not allowed to “experience in-depth local travels” and only “citizens will also get an opportunity to win lovely prizes!”

Who in the world is this advertisement for? It would seem to be for foreign tourists and residents since it is in English and appears in the only English print newspaper published in Taiwan. And what citizen of Taiwan needs to read an English advertisement? Surely, any citizen of Taiwan can read all about “Taiwan Ask Me” in Chinese. And yet, this advertisement about a tourism service concludes by disinviting the foreign residents and tourists who are not only most likely to read the advertisement, but also most likely to benefit from the Taiwan Ask Me initiative.

With this appalling advertisement, the ministry makes a mockery of not only the government’s attempts to use English effectively but also its own ministerial responsibility over communication and tourism in Taiwan.

If the Taiwanese government does have the personnel to compose articles in correct English that do not insult English readers and tourists and perhaps visiting foreign dignitaries, then it should hire copy editors with the skills to do it for them. It is certainly worth the expense when compared to the embarrassing cost of losing face, which means so much to Taiwanese society.

Finally, Premier Lai, how can Taiwan effectively pursue the valuable and challenging goal of making English an official language of this country if the ROC government’s own ministries are not even able to correctly compose a simple advertisement in English?

What a conundrum, and where does one begin to solve it?

Respectfully yours,

Xue Meng-ren

Taichung