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Watermelons for Good Luck

What can you do with a watermelon? You can eat it. You can make juice with
it. Or... you can make it stand to bring good luck! What?
西瓜除了拿來吃、打成西瓜汁之外，還能做什麼呢？

On Dragon Boat Festival Day in Taiwan, people make eggs stand. They do this
at noon. It is hard! But people say making an egg stand brings one year of
good luck! Well, Pingtung has a Dragon Boat Festival every year. Nine years
ago, the festival started using big watermelons, not eggs! Whoa! Why?
台灣人會在端午節的中午把雞蛋豎起來，相信這樣會幸運一整年！屏東也是，但從九年前開始，屏東人開始用西瓜代替雞蛋。

It is because Pingtung is famous for watermelons. Pingtung grows more than 60
percent of Taiwan's watermelon seedlings. These are young plants that grow
from small black watermelon seeds! Farmers in many places in Taiwan grow
watermelons from Pingtung seedlings.
這是因為屏東盛產西瓜苗，佔了全台灣的6成以上！各地農夫都來買回去種。

Nine years ago, people made 168 watermelons stand at the festival. Last
year, they made 888 watermelons stand. This year, they made more than 1,000
watermelons stand! They used plates, water bottles, ice, and more to make
them stand. There is a lot of good luck this year!
The festival had a new contest this year. People decorated 65 watermelons.
Some painted pictures on them. Some put clothes on them. The winner made a
wax apple fairy with hers. Pingtung is famous for wax apples too!
今年的端午節，屏東舉辦西瓜裝扮大賽，有65顆大西瓜參賽。最終由蓮霧仙子西瓜奪冠，而且蓮霧也是屏東特產喔！

Do you want to make a watermelon stand up? Or do you want to decorate one?
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Vocabulary

屏東的端午節喜歡用西瓜來慶祝。

1. juice 果汁。
Are you going to the market? 你要去菜市場?
I am. Do you need anything? 是的，你需要什麼嗎?
Yeah, I’d like to make watermelon juice. 我想打西瓜汁。

2. whole 完整的。
So should I get a whole watermelon? 所以我應該買一整顆西瓜?
No, that would be too heavy! 不，那太重了!

3. ice 冰。
Okay, I’ll just get a big slice, then. 那我買一大片好了。
And don’t forget some ice. 別忘了買一些冰塊。
Ice in watermelon juice. Cool! 西瓜汁加冰塊，真酷!

4. seed 種子。
Anything else? 還要什麼別的?
No, that’s all. 不用了，就那樣。Oh, and get one without too many seeds. 買一片沒有太多瓜子的。
You want me to count seeds at the market? 你要我在菜場裡數瓜子?
Sure. 當然。

你記住今天的單字了嗎? juice果汁 whole完整的 ice冰 seed種子
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Quiz

1. Where is the festival?
a. Pingtung
b. Taitung
c. Kaohsiung

2. How many watermelons stood this year?
a. 168
b. 888
c. 1,000

3. What did people do with watermelons in the new contest?
a. Dance around them
b. Decorate them
c. Eat them

Answers
1. a
2. c
3. b

 

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Hi and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I’m Allie Highsmith

And I’m Hope Ngo.

In today’s episode, Taiwan uses AI to stop Chinese influence.

And, a Pakistani man finds new work after losing both his legs.

Plus, in this episode’s News Flash: accident.

All that and more, coming up next!
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台灣用人工智慧 反制中國影響力
Taiwan uses new AI chatbot to combat Chinese influence

Quick question: When you ask an AI chatbot something in Chinese, whose
Chinese do you think it answers in?

“Whose Chinese?” Isn't Chinese just… Chinese?

Not exactly- it’s more complicated (複雜的) than that.

Of course, we know that here in Taiwan we use traditional Chinese characters
(繁體字).

In China, they use simplified ones (簡體字).

But it’s deeper than that.

People in China also use different vocabulary than we do here in Taiwan.

台灣的“國語”跟中國的“普通話”差別不只是文字；台灣人和中國人也有很多不同的用詞。

Now, here’s the problem.

If you ask most AI chatbots a question in Chinese, it probably responds to
you with Chinese that’s more… well, Chinese!

As in, from China.

That’s because most AI chatbots learn from things on the internet.

And the internet has more content (資料) from China than from Taiwan, because
China has a lot more people than Taiwan does.

Now, we know many young people use AI chatbots a lot.

So how do you think it might affect them if so much of what they read uses
different vocabulary?

Slowly, they might start to use those words too.

如果年輕人一直接觸簡體字，應該就會慢慢受影響；用的單字也可能跟中國用的接近。

But it’s not only about vocabulary- because AI chatbots read so much Chinese
content, they might also reflect (反映) opinions of Chinese media.

That could mean that people who use AI chatbots might be getting information
that is incorrect, especially (尤其是) information about Taiwan.

So then the young people that use these chatbots might not only start using
different vocabulary; they might also adopt views on Taiwan that aren’t
correct.

These chatbots might make people misunderstand (誤會) Taiwan’s language or
culture.

To fix this problem, Taiwan is building its own AI.

It’s called TAIDE.

That stands for Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine.

TAIDE uses Taiwan’s own data to train the chatbot- data like government
information or Indigenous (原住民) languages.

One expert says that, if Taiwan does not have its own AI, it’s kind of like
giving the brain of your society to an outsider.

專家說如果台灣沒有發展出自己的人工智慧，就會有點像是把整個社會的腦袋給了外人。

Another expert called TAIDE a wall (墻壁) to protect Taiwan’s language,
history, and culture.

But wait, isn’t it really hard to build an AI from scratch (從零開始)?

Yes, that’s why TAIDE didn’t start from zero- instead, the National Science
and Technology Council (國科會) used a basic model from google, and then added
their own data.

This story shows us that AI is not neutral (中立的); it’s only as neutral as the
data it takes in.

TAIDE’s first generation model was released back in 2024, but there are major
improvements coming this month because of new AI chips (晶片) from NVIDIA.

TAIDE can run on local servers for government workers, hospitals, and
companies.

It’s already being used to help make official documents.

You can try it now too!
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少了兩條腿很難找工作 但是巴基斯坦男子找到辦法！
Pakistani man finds new ways of working after losing both legs

Can you imagine how hard it would be to ride a motorbike with no legs?

Has anyone ever even done that before?

Actually yes! In Pakistan, there’s a man named Hamza Ali.

He lost both his legs 5 years ago.

But he still needed to work.

Now, Hamza works as a delivery driver (外送員), riding a motorbike to deliver
the meals to customers.

What?! How?!

Hamza has a special motorbike that has 3 wheels （輪胎） instead of two.

That helps keep it more stable (比較穩定的).

But it wasn’t always so easy for him.

Hamza said, after his accident (車禍), life was extremely difficult.

Yeah, I bet! You have to learn how to do everything all over again; how do
you shower? Or cook? Or go to school?

Losing both legs would have a big impact (影響) on your life.

Exactly. So at first, Hamza was very sad.

But then he told himself he needed to do something on his own.

He looked for a job for a long time in his hometown (老家) of Multan.

But he couldn’t get a job because of his disability (肢體障礙).

But then, a friend told him he should go to Islamabad (伊斯蘭馬巴德) instead,
because roads in the capital city (首都) are wider.

That makes it easier for him to ride the wider motorbike.

So Hamza moved to Islamabad, fixed his motorbike, and applied to be a
delivery driver.

The company just asked him if he was sure he could do the job.

He said yes.

Hamza’s coworkers say he is one of the best delivery workers.

In Pakistan, many people have disabilities, and they might have problems
getting jobs, like Hamza did.

But Hamza says, disabled people can earn their own money and take care of
themselves.

He says his mom inspired him to keep trying, because she told him to focus on
what was still possible after his accident.

Hamza先生說，有身體障礙的人找工作常常遇到很大困難，但他們其實仍然可以賺錢、照顧自己。
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RECAP

So in today’s News Bites…

Taiwan is using its own chatbot to try to fight against Chinese influence
through AI.

AI chatbots are trained on things on the internet, so they may be biased to
use certain words instead of others.

They could even reflect incorrect information that they learned from the
internet.
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And…

A man in Pakistan lost both his legs in an accident, but he didn’t give up.

Hamza Ali fixed his motorbike, moved cities, and became a delivery driver-
all without any legs!

Hamza says, his mom inspired him to focus on what is possible.
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NEWS FLASH

In today’s News Flash, our word of the day is “accident.”

An accident is something that we don’t mean to happen, but it does.

One kind of accident is a car accident- that, we would call 車禍 in Mandarin.

But if you bump into someone on the MRT, that could also be called an
accident- like a 事故.

And now you know!
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If you have a fun fact or a joke you’d like to share with us, record your
message and send us your Bite-Sized Break to newsbites@icrt.com.tw, and you
might hear it in an episode!