The parents say it means “Love Him” in Chinese, supposedly by taking the pronunciation “A-Teh” and extrapolating it out to “Ai Ta.” At least it’d be an interesting conversation starter once the kid grows up.

The NYTimes has a fascinating article on Korean men who use brokers to find brides in Vietnam. The interesting thing about the article is that it covers the experience of a practice most of us see as sad, degrading, and even comical, in a matter-of-fact manner with a seemingly objective voice. It definitely provides more details than I’ve ever heard before on this subject. Below are some excerpts:

Ahn Jae-won, a Korean broker who has long been based in Hanoi and is married to a Vietnamese woman, began: “The women have come out looking their best for you. But don’t expect them to look as pretty as Korean women.”

Ouch, I don’t think Vietnamese women would appreciate that. It’s interesting to note the author of the article is a Korean woman by the name of Su-hyun Lee.

“The parents know that their daughters will marry a Korean man. The authorities know this is happening, but there’ll be trouble if we do it in front of them. So I seek your understanding. Once we land in Hanoi, even though it’ll be very late, we’ll go meet the women right away. It’s safer to do this at night.”

You’d think it’d be safer to do these things during the day, but what do I know?

But Ms. Thuy’s father, Bui Van Vui, 52, was displeased that his daughter was marrying a man just one year younger than he was.

Now that just elicits a collective, “ewwww.”

The latest Google puzzle, based off Erich Friedman’s “Distance,” from the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship, is a pretty fun challenge. Like many puzzles, even though it involves numbers, no math skills (besides counting) are required. Rather, pattern recognition coupled with process of elimination are the keys to solving this entertaining little piece. Go play the game, and when you get the answer, check it against mine. If yours is different, let me know because I’m curious whether or not there are multiple solutions.

Alors, j’ai décidé de commencer à écrire quelques entrées en français pour (1) réapprendre du français que j’ai oublié depuis le lycée, et (2) jeter quelque chose différent dans cet site web. Je sais qu’il y aura beaucoup d’erreurs (pourrait-on dire, “un bon nombre d’erreurs?”) avec mes posts français… mais ce doit être prévu (eh, comment tu dis, “to be expected?”), sois ainsi gentil avec moi, svp. :) (mais si tu vois des erreurs, corriges-moi svp!)

Ah, et écoutes bien– n’utilises pas le babelfish pour traduire mes posts (ou seulement pour le dernier recours), parce que leurs traduction est le suck! Mais, si tu peut comprends ce que j’ai juste écrit, il n’y a pas de raison pour employer le bablefish, ouais? Et les commentaires, ils peuvent être en anglais ou français, celui que tu préfères.