As we bid farewell to 2021, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) pointed out that even though 2021 was marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters, it has brought with it some strange and fantastic news. The AFP has chosen a few highlights for us to recap.
Here are two whacky stories in 2021 that AFP came up with:
‧ “Salmon chaos”
Photo: Liberty Times 照片:自由時報
Japanese sushi chain Sushiro offered free sushi for people whose name contained the Chinese characters for salmon, causing a wave of name changing to break out across Taiwan.
‧ “Four weddings”
A bank employee and his wife married four times and divorced three times over a period of 37 days. The man applied for marriage leave four times to get a total of 32 paid holidays, but the bank only granted him eight days for the first period of marriage leave. Believing that the bank owed him 24 days of leave, he filed a complaint to Taipei City’s Department of Labor. The bank was found to have violated labor laws.
(TRANSLATED BY RITA WANG, TAIPEI TIMES)
二○二一年結束之際,《法新社》指出,雖然今年受到疫情和許多天災侵擾,但仍有一些美妙有趣的新聞,他們也選出幾則新聞帶大家回顧。
以下列出兩則《法新社》選出的二○二一年新奇報導:
‧ 「鮭魚之亂」
連鎖壽司「壽司郎」台灣店為名字中有「鮭魚」中文字的人提供優惠,造成台灣人瘋狂改名。
‧ 「四場婚禮」
台灣一名銀行員在三十七天內連續跟同一個人結婚四次、離婚三次,並向公司申請四次婚假共三十二天,但銀行只准第一次結婚的八天假,行員認為公司欠他二十四天假,因此向北市勞動局提出檢舉,銀行被認為違法。
(自由時報)
A: Japanese pop diva Hikaru Utada is visiting Taiwan, as well as Aespa. B: Yeah, she will hold two concerts at the Taipei Arena over the weekend. A: When she released her 1999 debut album “First Love,” it became Japan’s best-selling album ever. B: Her No. 1 hit “First Love” from that album even topped the chart again in 2022 as the theme song of a TV drama. A: After a wait of 25 years, Taiwanese fans can finally see “Hikki” for the first time. A: 除了Aespa,日本歌后宇多田光終於要來台開唱啦。 B: 對啊,本週末將在台北小巨蛋連唱兩天。 A: 她在1999年推出首張專輯《First Love》,甚至還成為日本史上最暢銷專輯。 B: 而當年的同名冠軍歌曲《First Love》,2022年搭配日劇播出在台再度奪冠。 A: 台灣歌迷等了25年,終於等到她來台開演唱會啦! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
A: K-pop SM Entertainment’s four-member girl group Aespa is set to stage three shows in Taiwan starting Friday. B: Great, where will they be performing? A: At Taoyuan’s National Taiwan Sports University Stadium, commonly known as the Linkou Stadium. B: I hear that Aespa has even been voted by netizens as one of the top 10 girl groups. A: Yeah, other top groups include Blackpink, (G)I-DLE, NewJeans and Twice. A: 南韓SM娛樂旗下的4人女團Aespa,週五起將在台灣一連嗨唱3場! B: 太棒了,在哪唱? A: 在桃園的國立體育大學綜合體育館,就是俗稱的「林口體育館」。 B: 聽說Aespa還被網友選為10大女團? A: 對啊,前幾名的女團還有:Blackpink、(G)I-DLE、NewJeans、Twice。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Pearl milk tea is a national drink that has taken the world by storm. Although different stories are told about the origin of pearl milk tea, two of them stand out. The first comes from a tea house in Taichung named Chun Shui Tang. A staff member there named Lin Hsiu-hui was at a local market when she noticed tapioca balls (also known as “pearls”) for sale and thought to add them to her milk tea. She liked the taste, as did her colleagues with whom she shared her new drink. It started as a drink that was only shared
Why mastering ‘drift’ makes or breaks a shuttler For elite athletes to perform at their highest levels, they need to adapt. Runners must to learn how to sprint on wet track, surfers have to deal with uncertain currents, and tennis players have to learn how to switch between grass, clay and hardcourts. The challenge for badminton players is learning how to predict the effect of wind, or “drift,” on the shuttlecock. The shuttlecock, or birdie, with its open cone of goose feathers embedded in a rounded cork base, usually weighs about five grams and has feathers shorter than 70mm. Hundreds of tiny variables can affect