Sunday, July 09, 2006

Football Guys


The guys I'm playing football with during the weekend, preparing for the next World Cup.

Murder Outside on the Street


Not everyday there is a murder outside your house in Sweden. A husband in his 50s killing his wife and then failed killing himself. I stepped out of the bus and there it was like CSI Göteborg. :-/

”Hustrumordet är
en familjetragedi”

Den 57-årige man som igår sköt ihjäl sin hustru mitt i ett bostadsområde i Johanneberg, vårdas fortfarande på Sahlgrenskas intensivvårdsavdelning efter att han även försökt begå självmord.

Polisen är fortfarande förtegen om motivet till dådet men enligt presstalesmannen Jan Strannegård rör det sig om en familjetragedi.
Exakt vad som fått den 57-årige mannen att igår eftermiddag ta fram ett gevär och skjuta sin maka mitt i ett bostadsområde i Johanneberg, är fortfarande höljt i dunkel.
Mannen som tidigare är helt okänd av polisen, misstänks nu för mord samtidigt som han vårdas själv för skottskador i bålen efter ett misslyckat självmordsförsök.

SR

The Moose Affaire

Me, Wen, and her friend Wang Xinjun went to slottskogen here in Gothenburg to check out the animals.
First we got to see an adorable mother with her two moose babies. How cute.

Then we went looking for the father. To our disbelief he was perusing another babe just over the hill! The immoral culprit caught quickly went away in shame. You can see him in the background.


But we paparazzis wouldn't let him get away that easy. We got some good snaps of him hiding in a corner.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Touring Göteborg

Wen's buddy Wang Xinjun came over from Paris so me and Wen showed her around Gothenburg.

Harbour tour



Eating "mjukglass", soft ice-cream, the scary-movie way.




Ending up with some midsummer picknick out at Röda Sten.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

What's in a name 2

Some people who, like me, are studying the Chinese language choose to take a Chinese name to use among other Chinese speakers. I did that in China, and some people that I know there only know me by that name.

After some time I have realized it is a pain in the butt to have people calling me two completely different names. I used to use the Chinese name 佳宝 [jiābǎo] among Chinese speaking folks. When they met people that only knew me by my given name 'Johan', there would often be a degree of confusion. The solution? I have upon coming back to Sweden started to use a characters that resembles the Swedish pronunciation of 'Johan'. Just to make life easier.

I had a discussion with Wen about what would be a suitable characters of my name, and her buddy Wang Xinjun came up with 又一碗 [yòuyīwǎn], literally 'Again One Bowl'!. To prevent myself from being the permanent laughing stock in Chinese circles and also not ruining my chances to get invited for a meal, I opted for the more normal sounding 佑湾 [yòuwān].

That really works like a charm. The pronunciation of that is in fact very close to the Swedish pronunciation! It really improves communication when people know you by the same name, and doesn't have to learn two names. I would recommend other Westerners to do the same when possible. I'm not sure i would recommend the same to Chinese with names that are hard to pronounce and remember for Westerners though. Let's take Liu Hongchao, wouldn't you agree that for most people around here would find it easier to remember 'Allan'? It can still be a greater advantage that people are able to remember a name at all, and a smaller problem that other Chinese will not have an idea who you are talking about when referring to him by a taken foreign name. People in Hong Kong and Singapore seem to have recognized this a long time ago and many have officially two names, even printed on their passports and ID-cards.

Update to a post long time ago concerning my taken Chinese name.

Ps.
佑 [yòu] assist, protect, bless, 湾 [wān] harbor
I'm the protector of harbors ;-) ... or Taiwan? (台湾)

Gotenburg BBQ







Mr Eddie

Mr Cake

Song For Your Mum

XieDing used me to show the friendship of Chinese students for a tv-show. The show was something about wishing a song for your mother. "DianShiDianGe" something... ?