I'm going to admit this in public: yesterday I spent *way* too much time watching several episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City to the point of OD'ing on it. I stupidly watched all those episodes because there were a bunch that I missed from previous seasons, and they were being rerun on Bravo yesterday, so I figured since I had the time, I'd "take care" of them so I could move on. Sounds obsessive, but I wanted to put the missing story pieces together. Dumb and desperate :D
And I was back last night when I watched the newest episode, followed by a live segment. Yes, my brain was fried, and I heard shrill arguing and complaining in my head when I went to bed, constant NYC housewife chatter. They edit that show so that every conflict is caught, and what remains seems to be hyper babbling. It took me a while to get it all out of my head today as well.
And yes, I know the show is dumb, but it's probably one of the few cheesy shows I watch (though I despise The Real Housewives of New Jersey--way too sleazy and disturbing). But I definitely watched too much yesterday and I don't feel too good about it. I didn't watch any such TV today, so at least I redeemed myself.
4.30.2010
4.27.2010
Translate the Chinese bios
Sometimes I watch Taiwan Outlook, which is in English. I've never been to Taiwan, and unfortunately didn't take advantage of its close proximity to Japan when I was there. But I want to go sometime for sure.
The show is hosted by a guy who asks interesting, insightful questions, and his English is really good. But if the show is in English, and he can speak English well, why is his bio page in Chinese? We non-Chinese speakers can't read it, though I can see that he's studied law and got a PhD because those words are in English, along with a few other words.
I just can't believe that in that entire country/province (depending on how you define it), they can't find anyone who can translate his bio (or the other guy's bio--they have a "Host" link but it's meant to be plural even though the English is singular). I guess it's a good way to study Chinese, though you can also watch a live stream of that TV channel, so you can practice listening to and reading Chinese at the same time. It's just too bad this isn't all in Japanese, then it wouldn't annoy me so much :D
The show is hosted by a guy who asks interesting, insightful questions, and his English is really good. But if the show is in English, and he can speak English well, why is his bio page in Chinese? We non-Chinese speakers can't read it, though I can see that he's studied law and got a PhD because those words are in English, along with a few other words.
I just can't believe that in that entire country/province (depending on how you define it), they can't find anyone who can translate his bio (or the other guy's bio--they have a "Host" link but it's meant to be plural even though the English is singular). I guess it's a good way to study Chinese, though you can also watch a live stream of that TV channel, so you can practice listening to and reading Chinese at the same time. It's just too bad this isn't all in Japanese, then it wouldn't annoy me so much :D
4.23.2010
Resuming fiction
Since the beginning of this blog, I've been talking about writing, including fiction writing, because I've written a couple of novels (which aren't published, of course) while also writing on this blog. I eventually gave up a few years ago because I thought, "What's the point?! I'm never going to get published. It's a pipe dream!" Then I started writing for other people and pursuing radio stuff that was so consuming, I didn't have the brain power or room to try to write fiction.
Then recently, since the radio world isn't yielding much fruit, I started thinking about a story. And I started writing--by hand, on my computer, even on my cell phone (while I was waiting for a friend to show up for dinner--half an hour late, which gave me plenty of time to write).
The past couple of days I've been feeling drained and disappointed in my quest to attain dwindling radio opportunities, and today, after lying around to overcome a slight illness, I decided that I'm going to take that radio energy and put it into finishing yet another novel. It will be my third (or fourth--I've lost count over the years), and if nothing else, it will at least be a creative outlet and a way to use my mind productively.
I know that I'll be tempted to think, "Why am I wasting my time?!" or "This will never amount to anything!" But I'll take that chance--yet again. And maybe it will help me if not directly, then indirectly in another segment of life.
And I'm now using both Blogger and Facebook in Japanese :D
Then recently, since the radio world isn't yielding much fruit, I started thinking about a story. And I started writing--by hand, on my computer, even on my cell phone (while I was waiting for a friend to show up for dinner--half an hour late, which gave me plenty of time to write).
The past couple of days I've been feeling drained and disappointed in my quest to attain dwindling radio opportunities, and today, after lying around to overcome a slight illness, I decided that I'm going to take that radio energy and put it into finishing yet another novel. It will be my third (or fourth--I've lost count over the years), and if nothing else, it will at least be a creative outlet and a way to use my mind productively.
I know that I'll be tempted to think, "Why am I wasting my time?!" or "This will never amount to anything!" But I'll take that chance--yet again. And maybe it will help me if not directly, then indirectly in another segment of life.
And I'm now using both Blogger and Facebook in Japanese :D
4.20.2010
You can show off your jogging at the bowling if it's on your planning, but never play baby-foot in the pipi-room
French is beautiful, rich, and highly influential and has a reputation as one of the world's most romantic languages. However, there's one feature of French that never fails to irritate me: its ability to borrow English words and twist their meaning in a way to make them easily misunderstood by English speakers. It's the linguistic equivalent of borrowing a friend's car and turning it into a flowerbed.
This phenomenon is not limited to French and probably occurs in most languages that have borrowed from other sources. English is certainly also guilty of it. In the 1980s, if you asked for 'skor' (a Swedish word) in a Swedish shop, you would be handed a pair of shoes. If you asked for 'skor' in an American shop, you'd get a chocolate bar with toffee. Similarly, if you ask for a praline (or, more correctly, a "praliné") in France, you may get a sweet paste used to fill chocolates or even a small chocolate itself. If you ask for a praline in the United States, especially Louisiana, you'll get a chocolate-free treat consisting of pecans and caramelized sugar. It should be noted, though, that even in English, the definition of "praline" changes in different dialects, with British English retaining a meaning closer to the French source term.
In French, however, the contortion and distortion of English words (known as "faux anglicismes" or "false anglicisms") seem particularly widespread. And, to be fair, usually there is some logical connection somewhere between the English word in French and the English word in English, even if the connection isn't readily apparent, especially without context. A French-language inventories that lists "20 pulls" might befuddle an English speaker who does not speak French. A "pull" is a pullover or a sweater. Similarly, a reference to "20 smokings" might be equally confusing. It does not mean 20 cigarettes, cigars, or even smokers. It means 20 dinner jackets or 20 tuxedos, with the link being a contortion of the somewhat archaic English term "smoking jacket."
If a French article refers to "les people," it is not talking about the general public or about humanity, but specifically about celebrities (VIPs or very important people). If someone says he or she will send you a 'mail', don't wait for the letter carrier. A 'mail' in French is specifically an e-mail'. However, "mailing" refers to mass-mailings (which could involve the post) of materials to recipients. French speaker announces that he or she is going off in search of a "self," the individual is not embarking on a deep, existential journey. He or she is simply going to the nearest self-service restaurant. If a colleague tells you that you'll be picked up in a "car," it's not what you might think. A "car" in French is a bus or van.
A number of these "faux anglicismes" are formed using English gerunds, as exemplified by "smoking" above. Along those lines, if someone asks you for a "planning," the speaker is requesting a timetable or schedule. If someone is on the way to a "pressing," the person is headed to the drycleaner's. If a French couch potato talks about his or her "training" or "jogging," it probably isn't a lie. They both refer exclusively to an article of clothing known in English as a jogging suit or a tracksuit. "Bowling" doesn't refer to the sport of bowling, but rather to a bowling alley. By the same token, a "dancing" doesn't mean the act of dancing, but to a dance hall. "Shampooing" doesn't indicate the act of washing your hair but specifically "shampoo" (the product you use to wash your hair). And if a French person mentions "footing," he or she is talking about a hiking expedition.
Less frustrating are anglicisms that have been adopted in French and slightly altered, yet still understood, or may have retained the original English meaning but have become old-fashioned or outmoded in English. An example of the latter is "WC," which comes from the English expression "water closet" for a toilet. The word is alive and well in French, although in English it has largely fallen into disuse and often appears quaint or retro if used in English. The former may be illustrated by the French terms "shake-hand" and "talkie-walkie," which, respectively, mean "handshake" and "walkie-talkie" in English.
A list of these false cognates appears at Les faux anglicismes (website in French). It should be noted that in French-speaking Canada and other French-speaking countries outside France, these terms may not be used. The list also gives the date when each word entered the French language. Interestingly, yet not surprisingly, many of these terms entered French during the 20th century, a period marked by a dramatic increase in international travel and globalization.
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
This phenomenon is not limited to French and probably occurs in most languages that have borrowed from other sources. English is certainly also guilty of it. In the 1980s, if you asked for 'skor' (a Swedish word) in a Swedish shop, you would be handed a pair of shoes. If you asked for 'skor' in an American shop, you'd get a chocolate bar with toffee. Similarly, if you ask for a praline (or, more correctly, a "praliné") in France, you may get a sweet paste used to fill chocolates or even a small chocolate itself. If you ask for a praline in the United States, especially Louisiana, you'll get a chocolate-free treat consisting of pecans and caramelized sugar. It should be noted, though, that even in English, the definition of "praline" changes in different dialects, with British English retaining a meaning closer to the French source term.
In French, however, the contortion and distortion of English words (known as "faux anglicismes" or "false anglicisms") seem particularly widespread. And, to be fair, usually there is some logical connection somewhere between the English word in French and the English word in English, even if the connection isn't readily apparent, especially without context. A French-language inventories that lists "20 pulls" might befuddle an English speaker who does not speak French. A "pull" is a pullover or a sweater. Similarly, a reference to "20 smokings" might be equally confusing. It does not mean 20 cigarettes, cigars, or even smokers. It means 20 dinner jackets or 20 tuxedos, with the link being a contortion of the somewhat archaic English term "smoking jacket."
If a French article refers to "les people," it is not talking about the general public or about humanity, but specifically about celebrities (VIPs or very important people). If someone says he or she will send you a 'mail', don't wait for the letter carrier. A 'mail' in French is specifically an e-mail'. However, "mailing" refers to mass-mailings (which could involve the post) of materials to recipients. French speaker announces that he or she is going off in search of a "self," the individual is not embarking on a deep, existential journey. He or she is simply going to the nearest self-service restaurant. If a colleague tells you that you'll be picked up in a "car," it's not what you might think. A "car" in French is a bus or van.
A number of these "faux anglicismes" are formed using English gerunds, as exemplified by "smoking" above. Along those lines, if someone asks you for a "planning," the speaker is requesting a timetable or schedule. If someone is on the way to a "pressing," the person is headed to the drycleaner's. If a French couch potato talks about his or her "training" or "jogging," it probably isn't a lie. They both refer exclusively to an article of clothing known in English as a jogging suit or a tracksuit. "Bowling" doesn't refer to the sport of bowling, but rather to a bowling alley. By the same token, a "dancing" doesn't mean the act of dancing, but to a dance hall. "Shampooing" doesn't indicate the act of washing your hair but specifically "shampoo" (the product you use to wash your hair). And if a French person mentions "footing," he or she is talking about a hiking expedition.
Less frustrating are anglicisms that have been adopted in French and slightly altered, yet still understood, or may have retained the original English meaning but have become old-fashioned or outmoded in English. An example of the latter is "WC," which comes from the English expression "water closet" for a toilet. The word is alive and well in French, although in English it has largely fallen into disuse and often appears quaint or retro if used in English. The former may be illustrated by the French terms "shake-hand" and "talkie-walkie," which, respectively, mean "handshake" and "walkie-talkie" in English.
A list of these false cognates appears at Les faux anglicismes (website in French). It should be noted that in French-speaking Canada and other French-speaking countries outside France, these terms may not be used. The list also gives the date when each word entered the French language. Interestingly, yet not surprisingly, many of these terms entered French during the 20th century, a period marked by a dramatic increase in international travel and globalization.
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
4.18.2010
A successful, interesting nerd
I met a very cool, interesting, passionate guy who's definitely made the most out of his nerdiness to the point where he has an incredible career, makes good money, and speaks all around the world. And he's not a snob or arrogant at all. He didn't even get annoyed when I stopped by his office at Tribune Interactive to say "hello" and check out those fancy digs where other nerdy people make the most out of their brains :D
I interviewed him for my podcast, and he was so interesting and well-spoken, I ended up talking to him for quite a while, and posted all of it. I think we're going to see him a lot more in the media because he knows how to talk.
btw--His name is Brent Payne, aka the Bald SEO. Apparently, a ton of people know him in the SEO/computer/nerd world. Listen to the interview at this link (mp3 file).
I interviewed him for my podcast, and he was so interesting and well-spoken, I ended up talking to him for quite a while, and posted all of it. I think we're going to see him a lot more in the media because he knows how to talk.
btw--His name is Brent Payne, aka the Bald SEO. Apparently, a ton of people know him in the SEO/computer/nerd world. Listen to the interview at this link (mp3 file).
4.16.2010
Slag off
I found a really good relationship advice site that is obviously written by a Brit, because there are various phrases that I never hear in the US.
I was reading an interesting blog post over there, and came upon the phrase "slag off", which I've never used. According to Using English (a good resource for ESL teachers and learners), it means "criticize heavily", as in "I slagged her brochure off because the design was awful."
Maybe I should start using that phrase to see people's perplexed reactions :D
I was reading an interesting blog post over there, and came upon the phrase "slag off", which I've never used. According to Using English (a good resource for ESL teachers and learners), it means "criticize heavily", as in "I slagged her brochure off because the design was awful."
Maybe I should start using that phrase to see people's perplexed reactions :D
4.13.2010
Good music to chill out to
When I want to unwind, like I do now, I listen to Groovera.com. There are three channels:
Jet City Lounge, "A fine mix of chilled instrumental future lounge, nu-jazz, groove jazz, downtempo, soft techno, brokenbeat, electro-bossa, deep house, and ambient house, with intermittent vocals."
Audio Popsicle, "An aficionado's mix of chilled adult alternative pop, future lounge, vocal downtempo, nu-jazz, ambient pop, trip-hop, neo-soul, synth pop, deep house, and a few surprise classics.
And the channel that I usually listen to, Low Mercury, "A deeply-chilled mix of instrumental downtempo, soft techno, chill-out, IDM, psybient, illbient, ambient dub, ambient techno, ambient house, nu-jazz, and an occasional vocal track."
I really appreciate the fact that they consistently offer good music.
Jet City Lounge, "A fine mix of chilled instrumental future lounge, nu-jazz, groove jazz, downtempo, soft techno, brokenbeat, electro-bossa, deep house, and ambient house, with intermittent vocals."
Audio Popsicle, "An aficionado's mix of chilled adult alternative pop, future lounge, vocal downtempo, nu-jazz, ambient pop, trip-hop, neo-soul, synth pop, deep house, and a few surprise classics.
And the channel that I usually listen to, Low Mercury, "A deeply-chilled mix of instrumental downtempo, soft techno, chill-out, IDM, psybient, illbient, ambient dub, ambient techno, ambient house, nu-jazz, and an occasional vocal track."
I really appreciate the fact that they consistently offer good music.
4.10.2010
My condolences to Poland today
I have some Polish students in my ESL class, and one of them bombed their test today. Maybe this is why. A lot of people are understandably upset.
4.07.2010
Read some issues of Penny Magazine online
This is really cool: you can read some issues of Britain's Penny Magazine online! The first edition was published in 1832, where they said, "What the stage-coach has become to the middle classes, we hope our Penny Magazine will be to all classes — a universal convenience and enjoyment."
And here's what they said about the United States in 1835:
And here's what they said about the United States in 1835:
The possible destiny of the United States of America--as a nation of 100,000,000 freemen--stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, living under the laws of Alfred, and speaking the language of Shakespeare and Milton, is an august conception. Whey should we not wish to see it realized? America would then be England, viewed through a solar microscope--Great Britain in a state of glorious magnificence! How deeply to be lamented is the spirit of hostility and sneering which some of the popular books of travels have shown in treating of the Americans! They hate us no doubt, just as brothers hate, but they respect the opinion of an Englishman concerning themselves ten times as much as that of a native of any other country on earth. A very little humouring of meanour on the part of Englishmen, would work wonders, even as it is, with the public mind of the Americans.
4.05.2010
When Right is Right
As many left-handed people can verify, this is predominantly a right-handers' world, with the prejudice ranging from lefties who were encouraged or forced to write with their right hands as children to lefties who must contend with can openers and refrigerator handles designed for right-handed people. For thousands of years, the "left" has been considered by western societies, and a number of non-western societies, to be "inferior to the right." Somewhat anecdotally:
Few "complimentary" terms, in contrast, exist with connotations involving the "left." Instead, we have words such as the aforementioned "gauche" and "sinister," as well as "maladroit" ("not right"). While ambidextrous (with "dexter" as the root) means skilled with both hands, "ambisinistrous" (with "sinister" as the root) means "clumsy with both hands.
The anti-left bias is hardly restricted to English, and an extensive list of examples of negative words and terms related to the left or left-handedness in a wide variety of languages has been compiled at Wikipedia.
An exception, in a way, could be the political connotations of "left" and "right," depending on perspective. In English, as well as Spanish and a number of other languages, "left" and "right" tend to refer to liberal and conservative politics, respectively. To some, "leftist" or "left-wing" may be seen as insulting, whereas to others, "right-wing" may be pejorative.
It is curious that, in today's era of heightened linguistic sensitivities fueled by political correctness, the anti-left bias remains firmly intact.
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
First, let me say that the Latin word for left is sinister. The connection between the English word and the Latin word are obvious, but this reasoning breaks down when other languages are examined. Raymond...tells the following story: Roman priests/fortune-tellers used to point a square wooden frame towards the sky and thus watch birds fly by. If the birds came from the left (sinister), it meant trouble (sinister). If they came from the right (latin dexter if I remember well), everything was OK.The prejudice against the "left" has become ingrained in the English language. For instance, related to "right" (the direction), we have such positive terms "right" (as in correct), "upright," "right" (as in a "human right"), "upright", and "righteous," as well as "dexterous," and "dexterity" from the Latin "dexter," and "adroit" from French "droit" (right).
Raymond...also tells me that the French word "sinistre" means sinister with the obvious Latin root. Also, someone who is considered not skillful is called "gauche" (left) in French.
Rob Jordan...offers this explanation. It also has to do with shaking hands. It seems that one explanation for the origin of shaking hands (according to a Latin teacher at the high school I went to) is that people would shake hands on meeting to show that they didn't have a dagger (or similar weapon) in their (right) hand so they couldn't stab you right off as they met you. However if you were left handed, you could shake someone's hand (with your right hand) and still be able to effectively use your left hand to stab someone. Therefore left-handed people were considered
potentially more dangerous and "sinister".
Few "complimentary" terms, in contrast, exist with connotations involving the "left." Instead, we have words such as the aforementioned "gauche" and "sinister," as well as "maladroit" ("not right"). While ambidextrous (with "dexter" as the root) means skilled with both hands, "ambisinistrous" (with "sinister" as the root) means "clumsy with both hands.
The anti-left bias is hardly restricted to English, and an extensive list of examples of negative words and terms related to the left or left-handedness in a wide variety of languages has been compiled at Wikipedia.
An exception, in a way, could be the political connotations of "left" and "right," depending on perspective. In English, as well as Spanish and a number of other languages, "left" and "right" tend to refer to liberal and conservative politics, respectively. To some, "leftist" or "left-wing" may be seen as insulting, whereas to others, "right-wing" may be pejorative.
It is curious that, in today's era of heightened linguistic sensitivities fueled by political correctness, the anti-left bias remains firmly intact.
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
4.02.2010
3.31.2010
Another Japanese book I'm trying to read
I have a few Japanese books that I've been reading over a long period of time, but one day I thought, "I need something else". So I went to a Japanese book store and bought Twitter社会論 - 新たなリアルタイム・ウェブの潮流 [discussing the Twitter society - the new real time wave trend]. It's interesting to see how an instant communication tool is affecting an ancient culture. I'll probably have more to say about it as I work through the book.
3.28.2010
Death Note: I met one of the producers
I met an incredibly interesting Japanese guy who spent years working in Japanese TV and movies before doing media stuff for the Consulate. He told me that he worked on this movie, Death Note.
3.25.2010
Got paid to do this
I'm very excited because I've been posting stuff here and at Gapersblock, which is a site about Chicago, but now I've actually gotten paid to post something via a "Community News Matters" grant (!): an interview with Chicago recording artist/producer J'mme Love, who's a really great guy.
Click here to read the article and see some of the pictures I took when I hung out in his neighborhood. I had a great time over there and met some really nice people. I definitely love doing interviews.
Now I have to calm down and study Japanese :D
Click here to read the article and see some of the pictures I took when I hung out in his neighborhood. I had a great time over there and met some really nice people. I definitely love doing interviews.
Now I have to calm down and study Japanese :D
3.22.2010
Linguistic Mondegreens
Musical "mondegreens" have long been a source of amusement and laughter, perhaps because many of us have experienced them. A "mondegreen" is a misinterpretation of a phrase or statement, often applied to misheard song lyrics. For instance, Jimi Hendrix's "Scuse me while I kiss the sky" has been misheard as "Scuse me while I kiss this guy," and the line "there's a bad moon on the rise" from Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" has been misconstrued as "there's a bathroom on the right." Incidentally, the word "mondegreen" was coined in 1954 by US writer Sylvia Wright, who had misunderstood the line "They hae slain the Earl O' Moray/And laid him on the green" in the 17th-century ballad "The Ballad of Earl O'Murray" as "They hae slain the Earl O' Moray/And Lady Mondegreen."
Interestingly, there are linguistic "mondegreens" resulting from the mishearing of a word or phrase in a source language, leading to a mistranslation in the target language that is widely adopted, often by speakers who are completely unaware of the mistake.
One of the biggest musical hits in 1956 in the English-speaking world was a tune called "The Poor People of Paris." A version of the song by Les Baxter's Orchestra reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 record singles chart on March 24, 1956 and stayed there for six weeks. A few weeks later, on April 13, West Indian pianist Winifred Atwell hit number one on the UK Singles Chart with her version of "The Poor People of Paris." That would have been perfectly fine, except that this wasn't the correct name of the song.
"The Poor People of Paris" was taken from the French song "La goualante du Pauvre Jean," which has been recorded by such artists as Edith Piaf. The title literally means "The Ballad of Poor Jean." The problem is that "Pauvre Jean" ("Poor Jean") sounds exactly like "Pauvres Gens" ("Poor People"), as "Jean" and "Gens" are homophones, and the plural "s" in "Pauvres" is silent. Supposedly, the original title of the song was conveyed orally over the phone to the English-language adapter, who, without context, simply misinterpreted it and perhaps added the "of Paris" as an homage to the song's French origins. Hence, millions of music lovers have purchased and admired a tune about a big-time hustler that they have perhaps misunderstood as a moving number about the down-and-out masses of the French capital.
A similar misrendering of the English sentence "if I see you a third time, I'll scream" may have taken place in Israel/Palestine during the British occupation of the region, leading to a curious Hebrew idiom for "third time's a charm" or "we meet again," as Jacob Shwirtz explains:
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
Interestingly, there are linguistic "mondegreens" resulting from the mishearing of a word or phrase in a source language, leading to a mistranslation in the target language that is widely adopted, often by speakers who are completely unaware of the mistake.
One of the biggest musical hits in 1956 in the English-speaking world was a tune called "The Poor People of Paris." A version of the song by Les Baxter's Orchestra reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 record singles chart on March 24, 1956 and stayed there for six weeks. A few weeks later, on April 13, West Indian pianist Winifred Atwell hit number one on the UK Singles Chart with her version of "The Poor People of Paris." That would have been perfectly fine, except that this wasn't the correct name of the song.
"The Poor People of Paris" was taken from the French song "La goualante du Pauvre Jean," which has been recorded by such artists as Edith Piaf. The title literally means "The Ballad of Poor Jean." The problem is that "Pauvre Jean" ("Poor Jean") sounds exactly like "Pauvres Gens" ("Poor People"), as "Jean" and "Gens" are homophones, and the plural "s" in "Pauvres" is silent. Supposedly, the original title of the song was conveyed orally over the phone to the English-language adapter, who, without context, simply misinterpreted it and perhaps added the "of Paris" as an homage to the song's French origins. Hence, millions of music lovers have purchased and admired a tune about a big-time hustler that they have perhaps misunderstood as a moving number about the down-and-out masses of the French capital.
A similar misrendering of the English sentence "if I see you a third time, I'll scream" may have taken place in Israel/Palestine during the British occupation of the region, leading to a curious Hebrew idiom for "third time's a charm" or "we meet again," as Jacob Shwirtz explains:
The Hebrew expression for "third time’s a charm" is "pa’am shlishit glida," which translates to "third time is ice cream"; this term comes from the time of the British Mandate when the English would say, "If I see you a third time, I’ll scream." Israelis heard "ice cream" and the phrase stuck.This theory, however, is somewhat controversial and has been challenged by Balashon. Nevertheless, it might be a sweet idea, when you unexpectedly run into someone on three consecutive occasions, to invite him/her for some ice cream.
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
3.19.2010
Japanese guilt
Ugh--I was consistently studying Japanese since the new year began (since it was my New Year's resolution), and this week I dropped the ball. I think it's because Chicago has finally had some decent weather, and I kept going outside to enjoy the sun instead of sitting around inside trying to figure out kanji. I'm just stating this publicly because I feel bad, and I really have to get my act together again. So tomorrow I will most likely wake up early and study before I go teach ESL (which I've been doing every week for the past few years).
Yes, it's great to see the sun but it doesn't help Japanese study or the development of my nerdiness :D
Yes, it's great to see the sun but it doesn't help Japanese study or the development of my nerdiness :D
3.16.2010
Interview with successful newspaper columnist
I've been in the blogging world for over five years, and until recently, I hardly knew any professional journalists, though it wasn't like I talked to them often even when I barely knew them. Lately I've met more professionals who have been writing for years, and they've been lucky to make money from writing and still do, even though the Biz is dwindling.
For my podcast, I did an interview with Phil Rosenthal, who's now a columnist with the Chicago Tribune, and who spent years before that writing for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.
He talks about his career, the future of newspapers, and lots of other stuff. It might be interesting because it's usually hard to get such successful people to do a baby pod such as mine for a baby blog such as this :D
Listen to the interview at this link (mp3 file).
For my podcast, I did an interview with Phil Rosenthal, who's now a columnist with the Chicago Tribune, and who spent years before that writing for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.
He talks about his career, the future of newspapers, and lots of other stuff. It might be interesting because it's usually hard to get such successful people to do a baby pod such as mine for a baby blog such as this :D
Listen to the interview at this link (mp3 file).
3.12.2010
Live Music and Painting
I usually post here more frequently, but I've been quite busy this week, and by the time I got home yesterday, I'd been gone all day and night and had done so much, including driving over one hundred miles all around the northern suburbs of Chicago, that I was totally exhausted. I ended up falling asleep immediately, which is why I didn't post anything about the Dutch and American combo of art and music that I saw yesterday: The Mo(ve)ment Effect: Art Without Boundaries.
There are two painters: Royce Deans, who is American, and Tali Farchi, who moved from Israel to the Netherlands over 10 years ago (btw, she speaks Dutch, English, and Hebrew--impressive).
Tonight they're having a show in Chicago at Heaven Gallery at 10 pm. Tali and Royce will be painting to music performed by Wilbert de Joode (bass), Dave Rempis (reeds), and Mike Reed (drums). Wilbert de Joode is Dutch, so he and Tali came over to the US thanks to funding from various places, including The Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago (I posted that name because it's long and fancy).
You can see videos of what they've done at their site.
There are two painters: Royce Deans, who is American, and Tali Farchi, who moved from Israel to the Netherlands over 10 years ago (btw, she speaks Dutch, English, and Hebrew--impressive).
Tonight they're having a show in Chicago at Heaven Gallery at 10 pm. Tali and Royce will be painting to music performed by Wilbert de Joode (bass), Dave Rempis (reeds), and Mike Reed (drums). Wilbert de Joode is Dutch, so he and Tali came over to the US thanks to funding from various places, including The Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago (I posted that name because it's long and fancy).
You can see videos of what they've done at their site.
3.08.2010
Why can't you understand me?
It is said that it is possible for a Spanish-speaker to ask a Portuguese speaker for directions in Spanish and be fully understood. However, when the Portuguese speaker replies in Portuguese, the Spanish speaker may be completely lost. This may seem somewhat baffling, but the reason is that the two Romance languages share a degree of mutual intelligibility, but it is not absolute.
Mutual intelligibility is defined by Wikipedia as "a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort." There are levels of mutual intelligibility ranging from zero to 100%. The only language with which English enjoys a relatively high level of mutual intelligibility is Lowland Scots, which is considered to be a separate language by some linguists and merely a dialect of English by others. This is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language which is apparently fairly mutually intelligible with Irish Gaelic. There is extremely low mutual intelligibility between English and Scottish Gaelic.
Consequently, The Lowland Scots sentence "D'ye see yon hoose ower yonder" (Do you see that house off in the distance) would be relatively intelligible to an English speaker with no previous exposure to Lowland Scots.
But the Scottish Gaelic sentence "Dè an t-ainm a tha ort?" (What is your name?) would probably mean absolutely nothing to an English speaker with no previous exposure to Scottish Gaelic.
Some language sets enjoy a very high degree of mutual intelligibility. Norwegian and Swedish are, to a large degree, mutually intelligible, as are Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. Conversely, sometimes different dialects of a particular language will lack a significant degree of mutual intelligibility.
In Mutual Intelligibility in the Romance Languages, Robert Lindsay writes:
This brings up the point of the disparity between mutual intelligibility and lexical similarity (similarity of related words between languages). Differences in pronunciation and in the related forms themselves are largely responsible for this. An example is the Spanish word "tiempo," which is lexically similar to the French word "temps." Both mean "time" or "weather." Yet the pronunciations are so different that this could easily prevent comprehension. Lindsay writes:
Lindsay addresses the subject: "Frisian and English have 61% lexical similarity, but in the Frisian video (featured in a prior post)...I could not make out a single word in five minutes. It appears that 60% lexical similarity and $1.89 will get you a Slurpee at a 7-11, but little in the way of understanding another language."
There is another pitfall with lexical similarity: false cognates. "Ano" exists in both Portuguese and Spanish, but while it means "year" in Portuguese, it means "anus" in Spanish. Similarly, a Spanish-speaking woman may be "embarazada," and an English-speaking woman may be "embarrassed." However, "embarazada" does not mean "embarrassed," but "pregnant."
Curiously, as some dialects of languages are more mutually intelligible than others (for example, some dialects of German and Dutch are more mutually intelligible than Standard German and Standard Dutch), it is thought that, by tracing a chain of mutually intelligible dialects, a "dialect continuum" may be established. In Europe, for example, Continental West Germanic, North Germanic, North Slavic, South Slavic, and Romance dialect continua are said to exist (see Wikipedia about "dialect continuum").
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
Mutual intelligibility is defined by Wikipedia as "a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort." There are levels of mutual intelligibility ranging from zero to 100%. The only language with which English enjoys a relatively high level of mutual intelligibility is Lowland Scots, which is considered to be a separate language by some linguists and merely a dialect of English by others. This is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language which is apparently fairly mutually intelligible with Irish Gaelic. There is extremely low mutual intelligibility between English and Scottish Gaelic.
Consequently, The Lowland Scots sentence "D'ye see yon hoose ower yonder" (Do you see that house off in the distance) would be relatively intelligible to an English speaker with no previous exposure to Lowland Scots.
But the Scottish Gaelic sentence "Dè an t-ainm a tha ort?" (What is your name?) would probably mean absolutely nothing to an English speaker with no previous exposure to Scottish Gaelic.
Some language sets enjoy a very high degree of mutual intelligibility. Norwegian and Swedish are, to a large degree, mutually intelligible, as are Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. Conversely, sometimes different dialects of a particular language will lack a significant degree of mutual intelligibility.
In Mutual Intelligibility in the Romance Languages, Robert Lindsay writes:
What is interesting is that everyone accepts that Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are separate languages, despite 54% intelligibility for Spanish and Portuguese and even higher for Spanish and Italian.Mutual intelligibility can vary in degree with respect to the written and spoken varieties of languages. In many cases, written forms are more mutually intelligible than spoken forms as speakers of one language can recognize similar features more readily in spellings than in pronunciations. A simple example is English and Afrikaans. "My pen is in my hand." could be a sentence in English or Afrikaans, with an identical meaning and read correctly by monolingual speakers of both. However, the words are pronounced differently, which could inhibit comprehension. Furthermore, mutual intelligibility may not be equal on both sides. It is apparently easier for a Dutch speaker to understand Afrikaans than vice versa and statistically easier for a Portuguese speaker to understand Spanish than the other way around.
However, in the cases of Austrian/Bavarian, Swabian (spoken around Stuttgart) and Mainfränkisch(Moselle Franconian, close to Luxembourgeois), these three languages are only 40% intelligible with Standard German. Their status as separate languages has infuriated lots of folks who just consider them to be dialects of German, or "cheap slangs" of some type or other. Yet they have a better case for being separate languages than Spanish, Portuguese and Italian do.
This brings up the point of the disparity between mutual intelligibility and lexical similarity (similarity of related words between languages). Differences in pronunciation and in the related forms themselves are largely responsible for this. An example is the Spanish word "tiempo," which is lexically similar to the French word "temps." Both mean "time" or "weather." Yet the pronunciations are so different that this could easily prevent comprehension. Lindsay writes:
We also learn, here, that no one can understand French except the French. Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Romanians, no one can understand the damned French. This makes sense to me. I can’t understand a word of the local French-speaking tourists, and I had a semester of French. The always talk like they are holding their noses. This is interesting in light of the fact that Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian have 89%, 75%, 75%, and 75% lexical similarity with French. But all those similar words aren’t worth a hill of beans when it comes to understanding a Frenchman." [no offense, of course, is meant towards the French!]Mutual intelligibility may also decrease over time. English is very closely related to Frisian, spoken in Friesland in the Netherlands, and at one point, Old English and Old Frisian were thought to be mutually intelligible. Over the centuries, English and Frisian maintained some level of mutual intelligibility, giving rise to the sentence "Butter, bread, and green cheese is good English and good Fries," which is pronounced roughly the same and has the same meaning in both languages (in Frisian, it is "Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk"). Yet the two languages have drifted apart, with English upholding its 1000-year-old Norman French influence, and Frisian being influenced heavily by Dutch, to the extent that monolingual Frisian and English speakers probably could not understand each other today.
Lindsay addresses the subject: "Frisian and English have 61% lexical similarity, but in the Frisian video (featured in a prior post)...I could not make out a single word in five minutes. It appears that 60% lexical similarity and $1.89 will get you a Slurpee at a 7-11, but little in the way of understanding another language."
There is another pitfall with lexical similarity: false cognates. "Ano" exists in both Portuguese and Spanish, but while it means "year" in Portuguese, it means "anus" in Spanish. Similarly, a Spanish-speaking woman may be "embarazada," and an English-speaking woman may be "embarrassed." However, "embarazada" does not mean "embarrassed," but "pregnant."
Curiously, as some dialects of languages are more mutually intelligible than others (for example, some dialects of German and Dutch are more mutually intelligible than Standard German and Standard Dutch), it is thought that, by tracing a chain of mutually intelligible dialects, a "dialect continuum" may be established. In Europe, for example, Continental West Germanic, North Germanic, North Slavic, South Slavic, and Romance dialect continua are said to exist (see Wikipedia about "dialect continuum").
(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)
3.05.2010
Chat with Silas
Language fan and friend Silas McCracken, who's a guest poster here, said that he would do a chat (IM/text chat) with readers of this blog. I'm still waiting for him to give me an available date, but when it happens, which will be this month, I'll announce it here and at his Facebook fan page. So stay tuned!
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