english

Recently I internally translated an article on 『広告批評』(/Ko U Ko Ku Hi Hyo U/, meaning “advertisement critique”) about the company I work for. As some of you already know, this monthly magazine is one of the most popular and respectable magazine for advertisement industry in Japan. It was founded in 1979, and not only its content, but also its visual quality is always remarkable.

The article I translated, is in a series of reportage, and I’d like to quote some part here because it is very interesting story.

Madonna Called Me!
…
Michael was in the fashion industry before he started the company. In the beginning of his career life, he was doing marketing/sales for fashion and cosmetics and also a little bit of Internet related stuffs. “It was not the best interesting job, but I believed that by going through daily tasks, I would meet somebody important, and then I would be able to do more interesting things. So that I did all the given jobs faithfully.” said Michael. In one of those jobs, he made a web site for fashion designer Yigal Azrouel in 2000.
One day, he got a phone call in his office. “Hello, this is from Madonna’s office. I’d like you to make a web site for us like what you did to Yigal Azrouel.” Michael couldn’t believe that. It must be kidding, naughty buddy! He was dealing with the phone call quickly, and called his friend who was working as an attorney for the entertainment industry. “Hey I just got a phone call from a lady called Karif. Is there such a person in the Madonna’s office?” “yes, the office manager.” Madonna’s web site was successful, and the name of Firstborn took air in the industry.
…
International Team
“People matter” is Michael’s motto. He hires brilliant people from all over the world. “Many companies are afraid of hiring foreigners because of visa issues. But I think it is a tiny expense of attorney fee, in comparison to what those smart people can make.” Joon Park, the creative director from Korea, is one of them. “When I was little, I lived in the United States and I moved back to Korean back in Junior-High. But I am not good enough in Korean Language, and education system in Korea is very different from the United States. So I dropped out of school.” said Joon. But he has natural born talent of visual graphics and brushed up by himself. “So I thought I must be in the United States for my graphics skill.” And he became an intern by somebody’s introduction. “Like two years, I was working here. But by my personal reasons, I had to go back to Korea again.” And he worked in Korea for three years. One day, he got a call from Dan LaCivita. “Come back here! Michael bought back Firstborn’s share from other two co-founders. We are now making a fresh start and he want you to be a creative director here.” Joon was incredible and he came back to New York. Michael said “I am so happy that Joon came back here.”

I started to listen to podcast programs for Mandarin Chinese several month ago. I was trying to find on iTunes store amd listened to a few of them.  And right now I still listen to Mandarin Chinese Lesson with Serge Melnyk and World Learner Chinese.

World Learner Chinese

They have three styles of lessons.  But I only listen to Vocabulary note book, which two people just keep mumbling for like 10 to 20 words with tone.  You know, Mandarin is the most well-known Tonal Lanauge.  Me as a Japanese, I have a lot of fundamental knowledge of Chinese Characters by naturally.  It’s easier for me to read and write than most of Americans, but Tone is still very difficult.  I told my friend about how World Learner Chinese do the session a few days ago.  It goes like this:

• (Chinese Native Girl’s voice) 怎麼樣
• (English Native Man’s voice) What’s up?
• (Girl’s voice) zěn
• (Man’s voice) Third tone
• (Girl’s voice) me
• (Man’s voice) Neutral tone
• (Girl’s voice) yàng
• (Man’s voice) Fourth tone

For each session, they do around 10 to 20 words and do it for three rounds, around 20 minutes.  My friend asked me would it be a bit sleepy?  I said no.  I need to listen carefully.

Mandarin Chinese Lesson with Serge Melnyk

I really like this.  At very beginning, the teacher Melnyk 老師 has kind of characteristic way of speech, and that was a little bit disturbing me.  But I like the way he does and the way he prepares.  I even started the premium subscription ($60/half years) in order to get Lesson transcript.  But I would say this is very helpful.  For each lesson transcript, he has both Traditional (繁体字) and Simplified (简体字).  And the most importantly, Melnyk 老師 is still doing it.

So, from now on, I tried to write a lesson review, every time I listed to the lesson.

Lessonn 31: How does it taste/smell?

vocabulary

英文	漢字	拼音
[noun] taste / smell	味道	we4i da4o
[measurement word] dish	道	da4o
[adj] sweet	甜	tia2n
[adj] salty	咸	xia2n
[adj] sour	酸	sua1n
[adj] spicy	辣	la4
[adj] bitter	苦	ku3
[adj] good smell	香	xia1ng
[adj] bad smell	臭	cho4u
[verb] to try	嚐（一）嚐	cha2ng (yi4) cha2ng
[adj] good taste	好吃	hao3 chi1
[colloq] … is bad	不怎麼樣	bu2 ze3n me ya4ng
[adj] disgusting	惡心	e3 xi1n
[verb] to smell	聞一聞	we4n yi1 we4n
[colloq] … extremely	…極了	ji2 le
[noun] flavor	風味	fe1ng we4i
[noun] chinese food	中餐	zho1ng ca1n
[noun] western food	西餐	xi1 ca1n
[noun] special	特別	te4 bie2
[noun] favorite	最愛	zu4i z4i

Note

• I just realize that to use measurement word is just another way of expressing gender! Oh well, by looking at Wikipedia::Measure Word, it just says no. But it’s still in the same numeral classifiers. I guess that’s what I wanna say.
• In this lesson transcript: 糖是甜的。鹽是咸的。and 酢很酸。I’m not quite sure here… the former two are saying “A candy is sweet, Salt is salty” with “(Noun)是(Adj)的” structure. The later is, I guess quite commonly used, “(Noun)很(Adj)”. Is is just a colloquial difference? Or is there anything else I don’t know yet?
• 嚐嚐 (cha2ng) and 常常 (cha2ng) is actually the same exact pronunciation…
• 請問(qi1ng we4n) “excuse me” and 親吻(qi1n we3n) “kiss” sound very similar but mean very different.
• 極了(ji2 le) and 死了(si3 le) can be remembered as a pair.

I was reading a book called “7 frameworks for fundamental business mind” (original title: 勝間和代のビジネス頭を創る７つのフレームワーク力) by Kazuyo Katsuma.  I will write a review of the book itself soon.  It is very interesting and I have to admit that I am very influenced.  So I will try to take a note on this blog about what I learn each day.  You know, I am learning Mandarin Chinese now.  I should have started to take this so thatit could be helpful to other real beginners but anyway.  Nothing is too late.

Vocubrary

英文	漢字	拼音
shirt	襯衫	che4n sha1n
sweater	毛衣	ma2o yi1
jacket	夾克	jia2 ke4
overcoat	大衣	da4 yi1
pajamas	睡衣	shui4 yi1
sweat shirt	運動衣	yu4n do4ng yi1
sneaker	運動鞋	yu4n do4ng xie2
men’s suits	西裝	xi1 zhua1ng
women’s suits	套裝	ta4o zhua1ng
dress	洋裝	ya2ng zhua1ng
pants	褲子	ku4 zi
skirt	裙子	qu2n zi
jeans	牛仔褲	niu2 za3i ku4
swiming suits (most likely female’s)	泳衣	yo3ng yi1
swiming pants	泳褲	yo3ng ku4
hat	帽子	ma4o zi
tie	領帶	li3ng da4i
glasses	眼鏡	ya3n ji4ng
socks	襪子	wa4 zi
shoes	鞋子	xie2 zi
high heel	高跟鞋	ga1o ge1n xie2
shoes	皮鞋	pi2 xie2
sandals	涼鞋	lia2ng xie2
boots	靴子	xue1 zi
jewelry	珠寶	zhu1 ba3o
ear ring	耳環	e3r hua2n
cosmetics	化妝品	hua4 zhua1ng pi3n
to wear (for mostly clothings)	穿	chua1n
to wear (for mostly accessories)	戴	da4i
(measurement for tops and dresses)	件	jia4n
(measurement for pants, skirts / bottoms)	條	tia2o
(measurement for shoes)	雙	shua1ng
(measurement for suits)	套	ta4o
(measurement for earings)	對	dui4
foreigner	外國人 老外 洋人	wa4i guo2 re3n la3o wa2i ya2ng re3n
to swim	游泳	yo2u yo3ng
pant (for suits)	西裝褲	xi1 zhua1ng ku4
kahki pant	卡其褲	ka3 qi2 ku4
woman	女性	nu3 xi4ng
to try on	試穿	shi4 chua1ng
to fit	合適	he2 shi4
although	雖然	sui1 ra2n
if	要是	ya4o shi4
if	如果	ru4 guo3

Grammar

雖然他很好，可是我們不合適。

Although he is nice, but we were not a good match.

要是你很忙，我明天在來

If you are busy, i’ll come again tomorrow.

Yasuhisa Hasegawa, an information designer, one of my favorite blog author in Japan, he wrote an entry “クリエイティブになるための4つの視点” (Four points to be creative), and I was fascinated instantly.  And I was originally emailing this to my friend, but then I realized why don’t I translate the whole entry into English and I can make an entry!  So here it goes.

---

Four points to be creative (original title: クリエイティブになるための4つの視点)

Author: Yasuhisa Hasegawa
Translation: Takashi Mizohata

The word “creative” may imply the power of creating unprecedented things or artistic part of people/things. However, “creative” doesn’t have to be in the area of art and design got involved specifically. We all have “creative” moments, everyday.

Everyday, we have tasks and challenges. Isn’t it creative to think of how to solve those problems? It even can be creative not to do anything. Of course it is creative to find out the way to make things happen which you never think you can, or with the certain period of time.

Sometimes I hear people saying “How can I be creative?” I think it is very easy to be creative but also very complex. Here’s my four tips to be creative.

1) be a little more careful

You may find a lot more things for everyday’s task if you can look at it objectively. It is also important that you see and think how other people react with your environment and society. Those discovery often lead you to a creative hint. The first step is that you don’t stop your brain running by only receiving the information.

2) have restrictions

Deadline, budget, convention and so on… There are always some restrictions. But sometimes those make you more creative. Two very different attitudes to work with it: to accept that very limited state, or to do as much as you can under the conditions. Or oppositely, without having any restrictions, it may make an idea without border. There are people who give their full throttle as they get close to the deadline (including me), which is the actual moment of their maximum creativity. For instance, if the deadline is very close from beginning, you need to consider it to finish it quicker than usual.

3) tweak what you have

The word creativity sometimes brings people to think of it as making things from nothing. But those “creation” is a very rare case. Even in the art area, where people often consider creative, is same, they follow something already happened, society, people or various things. They are not just copying them all, and they can be creative.

Existing things are not necessarily to be perfect. There are a lot of rooms for improvement. Make hard things easy. Add a hint on what you draw before in order to change its atmosphere. Customize your email software. These small tweaks may make a big impact. “To create” doesn’t have to start with creating like God. Tweaking is a good enough start of creation.

4) have more “drawers” of ideas

You don’t know what it will happen with articles you read or movies you watched today. It is a common case that the idea you need is coming from knowledge/information that you got from totally different context. When I think of new Web service ideas, I don’t start with comparing the similar sites, but try to arrange something very different from different areas. I always try refer my knowledge from any contexts for any circumstances. Pick up pieces of information from your “drawers” of ideas, and it can be creative to combine them all together.

It is difficult though it sounds easy. Some people may be good at it, but I believe everybody has chances to be creative.

Very recently, jQuery introduced their Unit Testing framework QUnit as a top level project. It’s simple but maybe good for me as a Unit Testing another-giving-a-shot-er to start with because not many methods to worry about(!). Though it aims to help jQuery plugin development, we can use for normal not-jQuery javascript development. So I tried a few things here.

Introduction.

It’s very simple. In order to run QUnit testing, what you need are 1) one html file, 2) basic jQuery setup (jQuery and jQuery-ui) and 3) QUnit specific files (testrunner.js and testsuite.css). The html file doesn’t have to be complex since testrunner will add the result automatically and dynamically. Only element you need is <div id="main"></div>. That’s it. But well, you may just wanna use the one they use.

By looking at some examples at jQuery.com, it seems like you can use QUnit for testing HTML structure and other stuff, which sounds pretty cool, but I haven’t tried that yet. I just started to build my own javascript library a while ago, so today, I implement one idea and tried TDD (Test Driven Development).

The example I built is on the last of this entry. On that page, besides what I explained before, I added 3 more javascript files. reverse.js is the actual implementation. test_reverse.js is the holder for test cases. Json.js is an utility, which is used in test case (well, i will explain about it on the future entry).

String.reverse()

What it does? reverse () is an extension to built-in String class and is a class (static) method. It receives one argument, a String instance and will return it with reverse order. For example, if you pass “dog” to String.reverse(), it will gives you back “god”. (I realized that I should do input checking).

Before start it, I had a few ideas of how to implement it. So first I wrote test cases based on induction. This is the point I am still not quite sure about. Anybody knows basic ideas or good tips of building test cases, let me know! What I did this time is:

1. Test the minimum input
   if the input is “a”, then it should return “a”
2. Test the minimum + 1 input
   if the input is “ab”, then it should return “ba”
3. And test random input
   and do random string.

by QUnit code, it describes as follows.

  ok(String.reverse, 'String.reverse exists');
  equals('a',     String.reverse('a'),     'the one char');
  equals('ba',    String.reverse('ab'),    'the two chars');
  var rand = gen_random();
  equals(rand[1], String.reverse(rand[0]), 'and random string');

QUnit::ok() evaluates boolean value for the first argument, is equivalent to JUnit.assertTrue(). QUnit::equals() compares the first argument and the second argument, is equivalent to JUnit.assertEquals().

gen_random() is a function that I build for this test case, which will return a pair of strings, which are reverse order to each other.

String.reverse() implementation

Then, I started to write real codes. First, pick up a character from the last of the passed string, and added it to the result by String concatination. As you know, String in JavaScript is immutable, so every time, it calls a new String().

Then second, pick up a characeter from the last of the passed string, and added it to an array, then just join(”), to concatinate all chars by once.

Third one is a bit complex. It prepares two arrays, and it runs for-loop half number to the length of the passed string. One array pick up a character from the beginnning of the passed string, the other pick up a character from the last of the String. Then do join at very end.

They all passed the test cases, then I realize maybe I should do speed testing for each implementation. So here’s the test.

String Reverse Test: If you are using Internet Explorer, it looks like hang-up… I gave you a warning!!

While I was writing this entry, I suddenly remember that there is an instance method Array.reverse(). And I added to it. I was about to give a comment like… “Hmm, the (2) array join method is pretty first… But the difference between (2) and (3) may get shorter when the given string got a longer because it will make it half of counter of for-loop”… But now it found the much faster implementation… Have no comments on it… just use built-in methods.

Conclusion

• re-creatable number can be very persuasive
• test cases make it easier to do more test
• the first try may be a bit bother.
• and use the built-in methods.

I’m always a big fun of information organization.  So I (re-)started another desperate shot of using CMS.  Well this time, I have a lot more experience of building software and database, so see what’s going on.

Still I’m not quite sure about my choice right now, but I started Drupal on http://code.nydd.org/.  There are several reasons to choose this software.  Like its popularity, some level of history of its own, and being written in PHP.  So, if I like it and if there is a part I don’t like, then I can write a module for it, maybe?  Actually they seems to encourage people to write a module rather than doing a lot of tricks by default install… will see what’s going on.

So far, I tried to organize the code I have written for JavaScript.

It’s been a already kinda long time since I wrote my last post on blogs.grf-design.com.  A lot of things has changed, but it’s still me and I want to write my own again.  This is gonna be a blog for Technology, New York City and life around me.  Will be written in English mostly, I think but may be in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese as well.