WEEKEND COMING UP: WRITING A PIECE IN FRENCH

I WISH you all the best for the weekend.

Students, use the days properly to catch up on work as well as study/review what you did in the past weeks.

For others, make sure you use the time wisely too.

I will be polishing up a 15-page piece I wrote in French for a competition/project in Wallis and Futuna, the French territory in Polynesia. (It was quite an exercise for me.)

Late last year a youth officer in Wallis sent the competition/project details this way and since my French tutor knew that I had just returned from Wallis, he asked me if I was interested in participating.

I said I would and I had written something.

It was quite a challenge … to do the translation of what I “thought in English” but needed to “write it in French”. (I consulted the dictionary and other resources often to come up with the lines and dialogues for that piece.)

Even then, that will be edited.

Today my tutor emailed asking if I was still interested in submitting something for the competition.

And so, this weekend, among other things, I will have to polish up and possibly add a bit more to what I wrote last year.

I will keep all of you informed on how that goes. 

Bon week-end.  

POEM FOR THE WEEK: GOING FOR A STAR

GOING FOR A STAR
You say “I want to climb that mount”

They say “Hey, that is not sound”

You say “I want to scale that hill”

They say “You’re mentally ill”

They talk often about things here

You talk oft about things there

They want the things on the land fair

You want to soar like warm air

They say “You just cannot do it”

I say “Rise, make yourself fit”

They say “No-one can go that far”

You say “Yonder is my star”

They say “All things will never change”

We say “We will make the change”

They say “We are growing older”

We say “We’re growing younger”

They say “I want the house, and car”

We say “Let’s go for a star”

You know, they want to be kings here

But we want to serve o’er there

IT WILL BE MID-YEAR SOON … EVALUATE YOURSELF

WE are almost through the middle of 2014 so, I am reminding you to re-evaluate yourself and your goals.

For students studying, it is important that you check if you are on track … getting those good marks you planned to at the start of the year.

If you have not, it is time to make the right turn – meaning make some changes. (You may be taking life for granted.)

For some of you, that is vital because you will be sitting for exams at the end of the year.

And you cannot continue to be ignorant and hope for “heaven” to help you on the day before the exams.

That is a bad way of living.

Remember also that they say something like “luck/chance often favours prepared people”.

One way of preparing yourself every week is to review the kind of marks you are getting in your tests and assignments.

Are they above 70%, 80% or 90%?

If they are not – ask why.

When you find the answers, start making some changes – and make them fast.

Remember your life is your life – if you do good, you will eat the fruits thereof; and if you mess it up, you will be the one who will walk around with the mess. (You can’t blame someone else for your mess.)

So, evaluate and aim to do better in the next six months.

For those of us who are working, we should ask ourselves how we are progressing and make the appropriate turns also.

I made some writing/learning goals at the start of the year and am plodding on slowly – but I know I will get there.

One of my aims is to learn to write code (writing computer programmes).

With a number of other responsibilities that I have, I am plodding on slowly on that.

But with the help from free lessons offered over the internet, I know I will learn a fair bit because that goal is still before me.

I end with this: Do not be distracted and always “keep the main thing the main thing”.

Cheers.

POEM OF THE WEEK: THEY WERE BORN IN MAY ...

THIS is dedicated to all those who were born in May. (I was thinking of writing these lines for years.)

THEY WERE BORN IN MAY

They were born in May

T’was a nice cool day

That is why they are cool

Well, that is what they say

You know about May?

That’s when the fishes play

They’re plenty in the sea

The sea’s calm, the birds gay

They were born in May

No more skies grey

The rainy storms have passed

Ah bliss … and sing they may

- Written for Pacific Indigenous Writers 

VISITING PORT MORESBY'S NATURE PARK ...

LAST Friday, I visited Port Moresby’s Nature Park.

In past years, it was known as Port Moresby’s Botanical Gardens and was looked after by the University of Papua New Guinea’s Waigani Campus, which is just adjacent to it to the east (and within the city).

Today, the Park it is managed as a business and the facilities have been upgraded.

There are at least two shops where you can buy snacks and drinks, one at the main entrance at the western end (next to the Port Moresby National High School) and the other from the eastern end (the UPNG side).

I heard that there is a souvenir shop too – just next to the main entrance.

Photo: The Grey Dorcopsis Wallaby having lunch in the PM Nature Park.

Parties can be hosted there in a number of locations which are equipped with barbeque facilities. (I will show you the fees in a photo later.)

Athletes and officials coming for the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby will see a bit of the natural flora and fauna of PNG if you take the time to visit the Park.

There are animals – tree kangaroos, cockatoos, parrots, hornbills and snakes, among others - kept there.

I will post pictures of some of them for you in the next couple of days.

 Photo: The shop at the eastern end with the board showing the fees charged. 

 Photo: The flora in Port Moresby Nature Park. 

Photo: A footbridge in Port Moresby Nature Park.  

Photo: A barbeque facility in the Port Moresby Nature Park. 

MASTERING A LANGUAGE LATE IN LIFE …

HELLOW. A new week starts tomorrow.
While viewing responses to a particular question posted in Quora (the Q&A social network) this evening, it was interesting to note a particular answer.

The Q had something like: “Is it too late for me that I am still struggling to do/get something right?” 

A particular response given listed people who became successful in their late 30s, 40s and 50s – including the founders of “WhatsApp”.

One that caught my attention was of a British grandmother who started learning Russian at 54 and received her PhD when she was 74 years old.

That is consolation indeed for anybody who wants to learn/try something new – a bit late in life.

About the lady: Dr Mary Hobson studied Russian at 54 so she could read the original version of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.

Wikipedia says, at 62, she enrolled at London University.

She received her PhD when she was 74 – she did translations of a Russian author’s works as part of her doctoral thesis.

As of March 2014, Hobson, in her late 80s, continue to take on new products.

Dr Hobson’s story should be a morale booster for any of us learning a foreign language – French, Spanish, Japanese or Arabic.

May you all have a nice week.

POEM FOR THE WEEK: A BIRD I SAW

HI! I am back with a poem … and may fill in the weeks I missed in days to come.

I wrote this piece for the children’s magazine.

I started on it yesterday evening and completed it at 6.00pm today.

I have decided to sketch a pic to go with it.

Best wishes.

 

A SMALL BIRD I SAW

A small black bird I saw

It was flying awkwardly slow

And flying much too low

Oh, I could plainly see

It flew over the quiet sea

And slammed into a tree

It is silly, I thought

It might, oh, it could get caught

Boy, was the bird not taught?

But down came another

Almost the same but bigger

Oh it is its mother

It was then that I knew

It’s learning – it’s a babe new

Now its mum and it flew

 

ANOTHER MOTHER'S SONG: LA FEMME DE LA MER

THIS is the second song and is written in memory of my (late) mother who originates from a small island about 60km from the northern coast of PNG.

The verse of the song is written in PNG Tok Pisin and the chorus is in French.
(The photo of the sea below is of another place in the Pacific. For those who grew up on an island or near the coast, the sea always brings you memories and soothes you in unexplainable ways.)

LA FEMME DE LA MER

Mi bin silip, malolo i stap

Na wanpela driman em kam

Kisim tingting bilong mi …

Go bek gen long yu

Mi bin kirap hariap long bed

Na raitim dispela song

Bai mi singsing go long yu

Tingting gen long yu

Na ol arapela manmeri

Ken tingim mama blong ol

Long ol gutpela samting ol mekim

CH

Maman, la femme de la mer

Maman, cet chanson est pour toi

Maman, tu es notre chèr mere

Tes chansons sont ici encore

Tu es avec moi

TRANSLATION … THE WOMAN FROM THE SEA

I was sleeping, just resting

And a dream came to me

Took my thoughts

Back again to you

I got up quickly from the bed

And wrote this song

I will sing it to you

And think again of you

CH

Mother, the woman from the sea

Mother, this song is for you

Mother, you are our dear mother

Your songs are still here

You are with me