Found a good website for learning languages.

As it turned out, About.com has
http://japanese.about.com/od/wordoftheday/p/Word-Of-The-Day-Tameiki.htm
where people can go and learn Japanese. There are other languages too. Warning: for self-motivators only.

I just learnt a word from it:
tameiki　ためいき　ため息
meaning: a sigh; a deep breath
ははは大きなため息をついた。
Mommy took a big breath.
Is this correct? I made up this sentence myself, and ははは, is it correct in Japanese?

Went to Putra Jaya on 18 Mar, 2012, expecting to see the hot-air-balloons once I got there. Only to overheard that only in the early morning like around 7am and evening like 6~8pm do they let fly the hot-air-balloons. Terrific. Did not see anything about the time the hot-air-balloons fly on newspaper. Then I realised that all other hot-air-balloons activities always take part during early morning and evening, as the changes in the atmosphere temperature made it easier for hot-air-balloons to airborne. I blame the organizers for not posting this particular detail. And this is Malaysia, so I guess the organizers can always officially point the finger at the people who had no idea about this particular detail.

Finally, hit the book, sort of speak.

I finally start my learning curve on Japanese by putting my experience online. Maybe it will be the same as sending the records into space, as I could be the only one reading it. But at least I can look back and remember what I did, what I had learned, and how I learned.

First thing first, how to read.

Japanese writing consists of
Kanji,
Hiragana,
Katakana,
and European alphabets, and Arabic numbers.
I mesmerized the Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji, well I actually had to remember their pronunciations one by one in the context they are used, as the pronunciations are varied according to the context. Hard for a foreigner, huh?

My first Japanese phrase:
こんいちは。
わたしは。。。。です。
どぞよろしくお願いします。

They cannot tell?

My Sarawakian friend told me this on 17 Feb, 2009:

He was going into the loo at The Garden Mall, Midvalley. The loo was located near the Isetan on 1st floor, that's level 2 for American. Just as he walked in, he saw three middle and above aged, city dweller lookingly dressed Chinese men lined up facing the wall to his right. At first he did not think much about that; but as he walked pass them to go to the urinal and toilet booth section, suddenly he noticed they were standing in the way men are passing urine. Huh? They were facing the hand washing basins. Surely they know those are hand washing basins, with mirrors on the wall, and the automatic faucets, right? No! They are really urinating into the hand washing basin. Only in Malaysia, right?

They know there is only one Malaysia, right?

Living in this bizarre country, I come to realise that the people, especially among the Chinese ethinicity,  always think that only the peninsula part of Malaysia is the Malaysia, the part lies all the way across the South China Sea, on Borneo Island, is not part of Malaysia.

One story I heard from a Sarawakian goes like this,"
Once upon a time, in the Subang International Airport, some Malaysians were greeting a group from Sarawak, 'Welcome to Malaysia,' they said. The Sarawakians just ignored them and left the airport on their own."

In fact, according to the same Sarawakian, a lot of ministers, both past and present in the cabinet are of the same mind, they actually considered Sarawak and Sabah to be foreign lands but controlled by Malaysian government, like they are colonies. Only in Malaysia, right?

住在這離奇的國家，我發現這裡的人民，特別是華人，總是以為馬來半島就是馬來西亞。至於在南中國海另一方，婆羅洲上的砂拉越州與沙巴州，則不是。

I know Malaysia is in 3rd world, but backwater?

The other day I was at the cineplex for Avatar(in 3D); as I was getting the 3D glasses from the doorman, an "auntie" said to her someone in her group, "Need to wear glasses? I've to wear 2 then?"

Just what did those Malaysians think "3D movie" means? Go into the cinema and see the actual live show on screen? Like one can see those characters, sets, props from up, down, left, right, front, back, all 6 sides of them? They actually did not know that we need to wear those plastic glasses with sellotape thin one red lens, one blue lens, to look at those otherwise meaningless projections on the silver screen? This is no 3rd world, this is backwater, especially at the age of Information Superhighway. This is in Malaysia only, right?

那天去看3D版Avatar；在門口拿3D眼鏡時，後面的安娣對她的同伴說：“要戴眼鏡呀？那我不是要戴兩副？＂

天啊！地啊！那些馬來西亞人以為3D電影是甚麼？看真人表演啊？不知道要戴眼鏡來的？這是第三世界，還是僻壤？只在馬來西亞，對嗎？

Why do you want to make a police report?

"Why do you want to make this police report?"

After being robbed, or attacked, on the street of Klang Valley, walking into a police precinct to file a police report, and the powerless, nameless nano people will be hit by this question. It's bizarre, the victim of the crime actually had to explain to the police why the victim wanted to make a police report. A crime had happened. A person had been robbed, or injured, or both or more, one word, victimized; and the victim had to justify why a police report must be lodged. This is in Malaysia only, right?

By the way, anyone in Malaysia know that there is any particular type of crime that the police will accept the report without asking this question?

＂你為何要報警？＂

在馬來西亞，被打劫，被攻擊之後，去報警時，一定被問＂你為何要報警？＂
只在馬來西亞，對嗎？

有誰知道，有哪種罪案報警時不會被問＂你為何要報警？＂的？