My Charming Wife

Ok, we were recently assigned to give a speech in class describing a special person, whether it's someone we know personally or not. Yeah, I know, it's not rocket science -- but it is L2 learning (I'm at the upper-intermediate level, and still in the 'reviewing' stage of my current studies). Anyway, guess who I decided to talk about? Correct, it wasn't Joe DiMaggio. Apparently people in class liked my short speech, since it won the most votes (yay). I thought I'd take the chance to share it, since it accurately reflects my state of mind right now, plus some of you might get to know YT better this way -- at least, from my naturally biased perspective.

The translation is my own, and of course it sounds a lot better in Chinese (eg, not as awkward or overbearing), I find I can't get around 'Chinglish' in translation. Anyway, here you go.

"If I'm asked to describe a person with 'charm', of course I will think about my wife. She is a very special person, and there isn't anyone else in the world like her, she has so many good qualities. She is very beautiful and smart, very generous, and has a good sense of humor.

Although she was born and raised in Taiwan, we got to know each other in the US. Like me, she is also a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh, but we are in very different fields. She is studying public health, and is researching osteoporosis in men. Because her research is related to medicine, she can use some English words that many native English speakers don't know. Although her work is very serious/important, she also likes to 'play', loves going out with friends, and likes to make jokes.

She is rather extroverted, and easily shows how she is feeling and what she's thinking. Actually, when she was young, her family said she had a bad temperament because she can get upset easily. But she really only gets upset when she sees or feels that a situation is 'unjust', so I don't think it's a bad temperament. Instead she's very generous, easily mindful of others, and has a strong sense of honor.

Her sense of humor can sometimes be like a child's. She often 'performs' with our cat, making him sing 'Happy Birthday' to me {posted, couldn't resist} or a self-written song like 'Daddy We Miss You'. She's now in the US and will return after she finishes writing her dissertation, so we can only see each other over the internet.

She is a very 'vivacious' person, and when she smiles it's like everything brightens up. When I'm with her, everything is fun and interesting. I'm so captivated, it's no wonder she was willing to marry me. [haha]

Thank you everyone."

如果我要形容一位有魅力的人，我當然會想到我的老婆。她是很特別的一個人，我覺得世界上都沒有一個人比得上她，她有那麼多優點。她不但漂亮，而且聰明，很大方，很幽默。

雖然她是土生土長的台灣人，可是我們是在美國認識的。她跟我一樣在匹茲堡大學念博士，可是我們的專業完全不一樣。她是學公共衛生的，她研究的是男性骨質疏鬆症。因為她的研究跟醫科有關係，所以她會用一些一般說英語的人都不會的英文單字。雖然她的工作很重，她也是很喜歡玩，愛跟朋友聊聊，喜歡開玩笑的。

她的個性比較外向，容易讓別人看穿她的情緒、她的看法。其實她小時候家人覺得她的脾氣不太好,因為她很容易生氣。 可是其實只有看到或感覺到不公平的事情她才會生氣，所以我不覺得她的脾氣壞。反而覺得她很大方，很容易體諒別人，很有正義感。

她的幽默有時候會像小孩子。她常常和我們的貓一起表演，讓我們的貓為我唱 'Happy Birthday' 的歌，或是唱自己寫的歌叫「爸爸我們想念你」。她現在在美國，要寫完她的論文然後才回台灣來，所以我們只能在網路上見面。

她是一個很活潑的人，當她笑的時候，好像到處都亮起來。我跟她在一起，什麼都是好玩的。我那麼迷她，難怪她願意跟我結婚。

謝謝大家。

So, this one's for you honey.

Talk to you all later, BB