The once-every-four-years World Cup is nearing its final stage. Never a football player growing up, I used to be a fan before I left China, like everyone else. I still watch a couple of games here and there, most recently the England-Portugal game and the France-Brazil game. Yet I was greatly disappointed. Below are my random observations and thoughts.
1. The penalty kick shootout is a joke. Given the randomness of the result from the penalty kick, it is insulting to the two exhaustic teams to base the outcome of the game on making a shot any serious amateur player can make. You might as well toss a coin and let the two teams play heads-or-tail! How ridiculous that two of the four quarter-final matches were determined by this pure random act? Whoever designed this rule should be hanged, or more appropriately, secured to a pole and be shot at point blank range by a flying football.
2. The game is booooring!
Few teams really attacked the other team full-heartedly. And those who did--the African teams--didn't enter the quarter finals. Instead, we saw full-fledged defense (meaning 9 people in the own half) and half-assed, no one-assed attack (only one person in the front). Of course, it is not the fault of the teams or the players--this is the best strategy especially when you are faced with elimination games. It's the damn FIFA who should get a clue and do something to the rule. Look at the NBA or NFL and learn how to design the rules to encourage offense.
3. What's with all the acting? In this World Cup, I saw some of the worst actors I have ever seen in my life--on the green turf! The Portuguese players were terrible actors, and they kept acting. Why? Because the referees either believed them, or in the case they did not, they never condemned the behavior. Again, look at the NBA. The rules are that if you flop, you will be called a foul--against you! Only by making the actors pay for their acting can you stop such behavior.
Freakonomics的博客上,Steve Levitt解释了为什么尽管根据统计规律,射点球的时候应该射向球门中间--守门员最佳的策略是扑向左或右边,而不是在中间等着,还是很少有人这么作.
因为对球员来说,面子比赢球更重要.如果往边上射,即使运气不好,被守门员扑出来,也不会有人责备你--运气不好而已. 可如果你向球门中间踢过去,虽然大部分时间可能进球,但在小概率事件发生,球被守门员拦住,你就会立刻成了历史罪人. 所以很少有人在罚点球的时候选择踢向中间. 用他的话说;:"So even though the middle is a great play statistically, kickers don’t choose it very often. There are some things that are even more important than winning, like not looking like a fool."
太精辟了!
最厉害的是最后他还引用昨天合众社的报道来证明球迷的看法:
The first kicker from Ukraine missed his shot. Then it was the Swiss player’s turn. The story from the AP describes the Swiss player’s shot as follows:
"Marco Streller’s effort for Switzerland was worse—low and directly at Shovkovskyi."
The second Swiss player also missed. Here is the AP’s description:
"Barnetta hit the crossbar."
Not pejorative at all…hitting the crossbar is apparently acceptable.
But then the third Swiss player kicked it, to the following description:
"Ricardo Cabanas looked almost amateurish on his shot directly into the middle of the goal—and again, right at the Ukranian goalkeeper."
最最最精辟的是最后一段第一句话:
"It is not just whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."
Many Americans have guilty pleasures. So did I, although for me they mean different things from most Americans.
Where should I start? Even though there are not that many, it's a good number. And the more I thought along this line, the more I discovered that can be sorted to this category.
OK, let's start from things I really miss if I could not have it in an extended period of time. As I mentioned before, the No. 1 thing I craved for when I was outside America is nothing but a common drink you'll find almost in every corner store--Dr. Pepper.
I've seen two types of people when it comes to preference of Dr. Pepper--they either like it to death or can't stand it. I've yet to know anyone in the middle. What's more interesting is a lot of the Chinese I know who, like me, loves it, all began as a hater. A number of tries after (for whatever reason), they became hooked, and could never let go. For me, Dr. Pepper is the only suger liquid (otherwise known as carbonated) I drink.
I don't remember when I got fixated to this brownish liquid with a weird flavor (pepper is not a good description), but I guess living in Texas for six years didn't hurt. Teenage girls walking around holding one of those 32-oz jumbo size seven-11 cup full of DP are as common as grandmas driving in 4x4 Ford F-150s.
So now, even after moving up to the mid-west for so long--a lifeless region from my standpoint, where DP is hard to find, I'm still holding on. And have no plan to let go, even being as health-conscious as I can be.
This thing is too good to resist.
Since we were at the topic of learning English, I might as well recall some issues faced when I was in middle school. One issue that I had thought a lot about was the accent. Let me explain. It was in the mid-late 80s and back then, the British accent was the only accent taught in middle schools. Since I already started listening to VOA, I was deeply fascinated by the American accent. Growing up in Beijing, I like the American accent better than the British one as it is closer to the Beijing dialect of mandarin. To be clear, I’m not a big fan of 京片子, especially the “blurry” nature of its pronunciation. But I like the northern dialect of Chinese (I guess I should call it 北京普通话 to avoid confusion), which features a "clearer" pronunciation than its southern counterpart. I found two things American English is similar to the Beijing dialect: 1) The “er”s at the end of a word are pronounced like 儿话音; 2) Both pronounce every bit of a word clearly, no matter how fast spoken. (Again, don’t confuse北京普通话 with 京片子); 3) Both use the stomach more to generate the sound, as opposed to speaking shallowly from the upper throat. So I began following VOA and learned to speak the American way. I was one of only two people speaking with an American accent. (The other student was, interestingly, a rock band guitarist, whose interest was probably sparked by his exposure to the popular American culture.) It was a little rebellious for a kid like me that usually went with the norm, but nonetheless cool and satisfying.
For a long time, I mimicked the VOA anchor of Special English down to every detail of their pronunciation. I can bet if you listen to both the real broadcaster and me, you will not be able to tell which is which.
The coffee shop I like to frequent, a Panera Bread (more for their free WiFi than drinks), did something unfathomable to me.
This morning, while it was not that cold outside, they had the heat on, apparently responding to the overnight low temperature people just endured. It was a little uncomfortably high—at I’d say around 78 degrees F. Which I did not give much thought to. What amazed (and annoyed) me was when I stepped into the same coffee shop this afternoon, it became freezing code! It must be 65 degrees, at most! I was already without my sweater and did not really anticipate the sudden change. After all, even after living in this country for almost ten years I would never have expected something like this to happen to me. No wonder the United States is consuming more energy per capita than any other country in the world. And there is no sign of changing.
Tuodi made an interesting comparison of Chinese and American stereotypes in his blog. One of the issues that has no Chinese explanation was this one:
"Visiting prostitutes is probably 10 times more common in China than in the US."
Even though I'm not exactly sure if that's the case, I want to offer my explanations:
1) Let's face it, there's just not enough supply in the US. To make it up instead, America has many more adult shops than China does. (But we are catching up on this one.) More DIYs, I guess. :)
2) American men have their fair share of indulgence when they are young. To poor Chinese men, they can only make it up when they have money. Sad but true.
3) Americans just have different taste than Chinese. They like to frequent so-called gentlemen's clubs, while Chinese like to go for the "real thing". I assume you've been to a gentlemen's club, Tuodi. Oh, on that note, I like the way Americans refer to this sort of things, like "gentlemen's club", "bachelor party", "escort". They sound so romantic!
That said, I must also say prostitution does not threaten marriage, but the out-of-marriage relationship. Prostitution is the exchange of money for sex, but out-of-marriage relationships involve emotions and are the most dangerous.
托的 made a good point regarding family priority. But I want to go deeper. First, one needs to distinguish first-generation Chinese immigrants like me, which is what I've been discussing, from Chinese living in mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. As I mentioned, as first-generation immigrants (with generally humble nature) we have no choice but to work ten times harder than everybody else to survive in this extremely competitive country. If that means sacrificing time with family, so be it. After all, our parents endured much rougher scenarios when they were our age. Even I myself were in much worse situations when I was in China than what I'm facing here. (For that, I'm forever grateful for the opportunities this country offered me.) Being away from my wife three, four days a week does not seem all that miserable, especially in today's 24-7 connected world.
That said, what's more ironic to me is that even though, as 托的 claimed, that Americans seem to hate to live away from their spouses, they also have a higher divorce rate. It was nice while it lasted, I guess.
It's been two hectic weeks for me--my parents were visiting me, wife just came back from China and will start working in a different city. Now that my parents left and the wife has settled into the new apartment, I'm ready to go back to my normal life (with a new, two hours commute each way once every week). I don't know what it's going to be like. But we will have a little more money now, and as economists would say, we should be strictly happier because our choice set has strictly increased. I hope we will not prove economists wrong.
I'm still in this bigger city, and will drive back to the city where I work tomorrow morning. From the hustle and bustle of big city to the quiet neighborhood of a small town. From the glitzy high-rise apartment we just moved into to the now-familiar house we've been living for two years. From the world of two to the world of myself. I feel I'm fortunate to be able to switch between the two extreme worlds. I don't know which one I will feel more attached to.
Oh well, we will see.
I didn't realize it till it's too late.
Tonight NBC was showing the men's volleyball match between US and Greece. When they started it was Game 4 and the Americans were trailing at 12-16 or something. Then the US came up and the two teams exchanged leads until the US won the game 26-24. By then, I could have imagined who'd won the match eventually. Ah, not yet. Game 5. More watching. Finally, not to my (or anybody's) surprise, the US went on to win the game and the match.
To be sure, it's a fantastic match. I've always liked watching men's volleyball and like before enjoyed the incredible spikes, blocks and digs the two teams put up to win the match. But the way NBC tailored the match to preserve and show the *whole* comeback process of the US team totally ruined it and made me want to vomit. Oh my gosh, CCTV could have done a more smooth job!
Guess I only have myself to blame. Whoever stupid enough to watch the Primetime NBC Olympic coverage, for that long, deserves this royal treatment.
Table Tennis women's doubles:
Just read about the new tournament rules of the table tennis match in this Olympics--that double players from the same country must be placed in the same half of draw. Well, guess what? We still won the gold (and the bronze), and the world did not see the best match in the finals. Sure, it's meant to break up one country's (read, Chinese) dominance, but this simply does not work--the other countries are already catching up, but this rule only hurts the legitimacy of the result. In America, this would be called discrimination! Shame on you, ITTF!
Ironical reality:
The US probably has the most guns in the hands of its citizens in the world, but they are not the best country in shooting in the Olympics. And guess who is: China, the country where no citizen has access to guns. By contrast, China has the largest number of bikers, yet claimed only one silver medal so far. Oh, by the way, we also won the women's double in tennis, which if by the average number of tennis courts per capita, China is likely ranked at the bottom. Well on a second thought, maybe that's why we won the DOUBLE. :)
Some strange things about Olympics and its coverage by NBC:
1. Michael Phelps:
Eight golds? NBC and other media for that matter, give me a break! The guy didn't even get silver in 200 Freestyle. I didn't even hear one mention of the Dutch guy that beat him after the race. It's as if there were only two athletes competing. Nothing could be farther from the Olympic spirit. Also, what's with the turn of tone after the bronze? Suddenly, the media is listening to what the kid has to say.
2. Delayed coverage:
Like any intelligent American, I cannot stand any delay (and re-packaging) in broadcasting a game. Yeah, right, at 7PM CDT it's still "tonight" in Athens. It's so painful to watch poor Bob Costas pretending everything is happening live and there's no such thing as a time difference. Even worse, the ever innocent eyes of Bob Costas make it infinitely intolerable. Hello? Did you know that the earth is round???
These are my observations so far. More to come...
As I mentioned last time, in English or any western language, the given name always comes before the family name. This presents a huge inconvenience when sorting names—because you cannot sort by the alphabetical order of the first letter of the name. If you’ve ever written a program that sorts names, you know how tedious it is just to find the right letter to sort by. During my recent trip, I was in a conference in Shanghai. The local organizers compiled a directory of all attendants and gave up on sorting by last names—they just sorted by whatever comes first. If only the creator of the name sequence had thought about this! The same frustration applies to addresses—why the heck do they start the finest detail, the street number first? And why do they have the apartment number AFTER the street name, not before the street number? The postman’s job would be much easier if they know where a letter is going by only looking at the first word in the address.
In summary, all addresses and names should be in the Chinese order:
Country, State/Province, City, Street, Number
Family Name, Given Name
For example, if you were to write to the richest guy in the world, you would write to:
USA
Washington
Redmond
Microso*t Way 1
Microso*t
Gates Bill
I've always wondered about the difference in sequence between Chinese (Eastern) and American (Western) names--in a Chinese name, family name goes first, followed by given name. In an American name, it's the reverse. My Chinese name has two characters, one for family and the other for given. When I came to the US, I went with American custom and reversed it--every Chinese in America does except Yao Ming. But because between friends, when we write email we often go with the Chinese sequence, there came the confusion for my Chinese friends. They were often not sure as to which is which as it's hard to tell just by counting the syllables.
Maybe I should be like Yao Ming and say "to hell with it" and keep my name in its original sequence?
I'm not sure, but one thing I AM sure of is not to have an American name. I hate altering my name just for others' convenience, as any American would agree. Maybe this is a sign that I'm *Americanized*? After all, there are already too many Johns, Brians, and Davids. Just tonight, I found it funny to hear the democratic presidential candidate call his running mate the same as himself. :)
Chinese names are actually not that bad compared to, say, Indian names. Once you master the Xs and the Qs, you are in good shape. I have an X in my name. Before, I don't even bother to explain to telemarketers or call center reps how to pronounce it right. Now one out of three can pronounce near perfection. See, Americans are smart and they learn, especially if it's part of the job. We just have to trust them.