A Nice Fact

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Changi airport is one of the top-class airports globally, as evidence from a series of high-profile awards.

Therefore, it must mean something when its website offers a version in Indonesian, apart from English, Mandarin, and Japanese.

Notice from the picture below, the language selections in top-right of the webpage, and the content in Indonesian language.

Obviously, there are many possible explanations for the inclusion of this language. For a simpleton like me, I can only think that (based on the economic logic) Indonesians must be making up a significant portion of the human traffic in this world-class airport.

Thumbs up for Incheon Intl. Airport, Big Boo for Google's Language Auto-Detection

[My return flight will be departing in about 1.5 hours. Not surprisingly, there're some time to spend on, and here're the outcome...]

:)
There's a free wifi in the airport. It's one of the few airports with such a service. Most airports I've visited provides only paid wifi.


X(
Google's language auto-detect sucks.

Oh well, to clarify (now I'm a bit calmer), the idea is good. But, the execution is not perfect.

See the following screenshot. The blogger.com by default displays Korean characters. There's absolutely no clue for a layman on how to change the displayed language to English.


After a-couple-of-second's screaming within my head, I somehow became curious enough to click the top-right drop-down box. Luckily, it was what I looked for.

Btw., notice how the Flash ads are still in English?

They're all the same

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Q: What's the difference between 3 and 7?
A: As one of my lecturer said from UI, it depends on the context!

For sure, they're mathematically different, strictly speaking. But in the context of temperature, they're the same; for me, of course. It's just like how certain things work: when things go beyond or below a certain threshold, things do not matters anymore.

So, any difference between 3 and 7?
Same lah (seɪm lɑh -- Singlish), same lah (sɑmə lɑh -- Pontianak-style Indonesian which is very much Malay), sama lah (sɑmɑ lɑh -- Indonesian), sami mawon (sɑmĭ mɑwŏn -- Java).

Learning Mandarin

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

It is tough to learn a new language as an adult, eventhough the new language is supposed to be similar with one I've known. But a kick in the back is always the best source of motivation, just like a blue knight/wizard learns a new technique after being attacked by the technique.

And so, apart from witnessing how impressive Beijing & Guangzhou are, having to guess the meaning of (nearly) all the conversations which occurred within last week, I've learned "si_1 thong_3" (system), "mu_4 lu_4" (directory), "kuo_2 chi_1" (international), "kuo_2 chia_1" (national), "chi_1 chang_3 fei_1 / chi_1 chang_3 / fei_1 chi_1 chang_3" (airport). As you've probably noticed, those words are not spelled in proper hanyu pinyin and I may have confused the 2nd and the 3rd tone.

Nevertheless, a start is a start is a start.