Talking Canadian

The Cantonese-comprehending Canadian told me about a documentary called Talking Canadian from the CBC. It's all about why Canadians use certain words and talk funny. Just kidding. But they sound American, even though there are differences, of course. Their language exists between American English and British English. I love seeing the comparisons/contrasts between us and them and witnessing their confusion. Just joking. But seriously, it's worth a watch for sure.

You don't need to know Japanese to find this funny

A Polish guy I work with showed me this video, even though he doesn't know Japanese and has never been there. Which is the point: it's totally visual.

I'm a fan!

Sorry I haven't been posting here as frequently, but I *have* been reading Japanese frequently, as a part of my ongoing New Year's Resolution, and what I'm now reading is really great.

I asked my Japanese teacher about a manga that's based on reality (not fantasy like crazy fighting or fairies or whatever), and she recommended 島耕作 (Shima Kosaku). I love it! I'm reading 課長島耕作14 (Kacho Shima Kosaku) which is from the early 90's, and since then, the series became a TV show, and now, Shima Kosaku has been promoted to 社長島耕作 (Shacho Shima Kosaku). Which means that he was previously a Section Chief (課長/kacho) and is now the Company President (社長/shacho).

The manga is now in its 25th year, and I can see why! It's a great way to learn Japanese while being entertained at the same time. Even though it's taking me a lot longer to read it than a Japanese person, of course :D

Good local group: Wolfgang Jay

I saw Wolfgang Jay at an after-hours event at the Chicago Recording Company, and they were really good.

They performed Walker, Memories Of, and Now and Then.

The real Indian caste system

I know a Singaporean who comes from an Indian background, who shared some info from a Singapore newspaper about what India's caste system really is supposed to be:

Originally known as the varnashrama system, it comprises four broad scientific occupational divisions in society - the educator class, the administrator class, the entrepreneur class and the worker class - where everyone has the opportunity to take up an occupation befitting his or her natural tendencies and qualifications. This is based on the psychological propensity and character of the individual, and not on birth.

The writer also said that the classes worked together, which really should happen in any society. I'm just glad the US doesn't have caste system. That would make life quite rigid and seem more unfair than it sometimes is.

Happy Bastille Day/La Fête Nationale!

Well, it's no longer Bastille Day in France, but it's still July 14th in the USA. So Happy Bastille Day/La Fête Nationale! Even though I've translated a lot of French into English, I've never been there and would love to go!

Not surprised by these findings

A Canadian (who also knows some Cantonese) gave me a link to an article citing research that has discovered "that a significant proportion of native English speakers are unable to understand some basic sentences."

I'm not surprised by this, and actually think that because the researchers assumed "that all speakers have a core ability to use grammatical cues", they were inevitably going to run into results that would contradict that assumption.

Specifically, they discovered that "A high proportion of those who had left school at 16 began to make mistakes" and "a proportion of people with low educational attainment make errors with understanding the passive, and it appears that this and other important areas of core grammar may not be fully mastered by some speakers, even by adulthood."

I think it's quite obvious that more education or more exposure to complex reading and writing will lead to an understanding of more complex grammar. One thing that bothered me when I was studying education and language acquisition in school was that everyone would gather around a theory, and if I would suggest anecdotal or observational evidence that would contradict what they were saying, they would dismiss it because the research didn't show that. But my experience did, so why diss it? Sometimes I think that academia doesn't tolerate exceptions because it messes up their tidy little package that they want to present to their peers.

Russell Peters on accents

I've been watching a lot of Russell Peters videos, and amazingly, there are more out there.

There's a really good interview with him where he talks about culture and international themes, including accents. It's a few minutes into the video below, but the whole thing is worth watching. You can watch part 1 here. Every time I see such good interviews, I want to do more myself (which I already do at my podcast, but on a much smaller scale). Maybe I should try to do an interview with him next time I'm in LA :D

She scored

Sue from Naperville Now recommended the book Girl in Translation, which is about an immigrant child from Hong Kong. I haven't read it, but it seems to be based on what the author and her mother experienced as well. Not the plot, but the difficulties of being an immigrant.

I'm sure it will become a movie, or will at least be optioned, because it's a bestseller and has gotten a lot of press, though the author keeps mentioning the same details (or the publisher does, and interviewers don't go beyond the basics). For instance, in various interviews and even a video, she says her family was "fairly well-off in Hong Kong" but had to start over in New York. But she doesn't say how they became poor when they came to the US. How can someone go from the good life to poverty in just one move? Why does she use the same general information without further elaborating?

Another thing I'm wondering about is why her mother never learned English even though she lived in New York for so many years. I know that it's hard to learn a new language, especially if someone is so busy, but eventually I'm sure her mother had the time to learn. I just think it's odd that people, especially who are educated, would choose to live in their own language for so long.

Anyway, the author had a hard life and overcame a lot to go to the Ivy Leagues and publishing world, so she's really scored.

Happy 4th! Independence Day!

Now that the Canadians had their Canada Day, it's time for our day: Independence Day! It's not when the US became a nation, but when the colonies declared independence from England through the Declaration of Independence. From there, there was a war that the colonies eventually won, of course. Otherwise, I'd be using British words and British spelling, and wouldn't be fascinated by the differences of our English :D

You can read it online. I actually made it a part of this week's test in my ESL class, though I think they were baffled by the 18th century English.

And the Canada celebration continues

A Canadian sent me this video on Canada Day. In case you want to become Canadian.

Happy Canada Day

A Canadian sent me a link to a site that celebrates Canada Day. It claims to offer a list of "unique summer activities" that actually seem very ordinary, so don't expect to get any specific ideas there. I can do a lot of those activities any day in the USA.

But at least they give some historical information: "Formerly known as 'Dominion Day,' Canada Day marks the anniversary of the Constitution Act of 1867, joining Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province (now Ontario and Quebec) into a single country."

But you can get more, and better, information about Canada Day at Wikipedia. And if you want to find some activities, go to the government's site in Ottawa, the City of Toronto's site, or About.com. And there are all those Canadian newspapers, depending where you are.

However you celebrate it, Happy Canada Day!

I got a French spam email

Sometimes I get requests to mention someone's article or site, which usually end up being sales pitches or full of copied content from elsewhere. Or if I ask the sender a question, they don't respond, which tells me they're like robots.

Well today I got some spam in French. It looked like a real letter and was addressed to me, and it mentioned my site, but it was from someone with a seemingly shady site. I couldn't tell what the site was about because there was not much focus, just a bunch of worthless links, including gambling. Plus, the person's name was questionably phony.

But at least it wasn't in English, and I got a chance to enjoy another language naturally (instead of through textbooks or whatever).

My student is an influential

A while ago, I read the book The Influentials, which described people who are hubs in our society through which information and recommendations flow, thus helping to accelerate word of mouth which leads to increased sales. It's a marketing book, but I also saw it as an interesting study of societal patterns.

Well the other day I was talking to a student in my ESL class, and realized that she's an Influential: she's active in her community, knows a lot of people, volunteers through her church, owns a business which is next door to her husband's business, and is high energy, so she does lots of activities. And she wants to go into politics. I really believe that one day I will see that happen.

If you want to find out about the latest trends in marketing, I highly recommend this book. After reading it, I realized I'm not an Influential, but I don't aspire to be one anyway.

Turkish Star Wars with English subtitles!

This video is really trippy: it's a Turkish space adventure called "Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam" which includes scenes from "Star Wars" and soundtracks from various American movies (the explanation is at the video link). Feel free to watch it because the entire thing has been translated--thanks to the translator and the person who posted it!

Eccentric isn't negative

I thought that the Summit ESL book was great, until I saw that they define the word "eccentric" as a negative personality trait. They had a list of traits to demonstrate different kinds of adjectives, and they separated them into two lists. Eccentric went into the negative category. That is absurd. According to the dictionary, it means deviating from a norm, convention, pattern. So I guess we can conclude that the writers of that book are bland conformists. Or people who are unable to distinguish between disturbing difference and noticeable individuality.

For book lovers

If you are really into books, then you'll probably like Once Again to Zelda, which explains "the stories behind literature's most intriguing dedications." It hits several major books and gives sufficient explanations of the various backstories. It's also well written. It's clear that the writer loves books and knows that her audience does too.

An incredibly popular Japanese writer

We've been reading Banana Yoshimoto in Japanese class (her real name is Mahoko Yoshimoto, and I found out that she is insanely popular in Japan. Some of her work has been translated into several languages. She's living the dream, that's for sure.

What I like about her work is that it's very simple, but it has layers of meaning. So she's been able to attract a huge audience while also satisfying the more literary types who want to look at the symbolism, messages, themes, etc.

She's really been able to bring together commercial success and artistic integrity. It's great to create, but it's even better to be able to make a sweet living from it. Or any decent living at all, actually.

The Multilingual Teen is living his dream!

A few years ago, I met the Multilingual Teen, and now he's no longer a teen, but he's still multilingual. When I met him, he said that he really wanted to be an air traffic controller, and that is what he is now doing. Here's his latest news:

I'm done with the academy and passed all exams, so now I'm working in Hannover Tower! And besides that I'm writing poems because I love languages just as you do and I think that poems are the highest level of linguistic usage. Most poems are in German of course, but meanwhile I also dare to write in English^^ Though I'm never really sure whether my grammar is 100% correct.

I'm sure his grammar his great, because he is, after all, the Multilingual [former] Teen (I wonder if he should have a new name, even though I *did* meet him as a teen). He invited me to visit him in Germany, but my German is so bad at this point. Before he sent me an update in English, he sent out a group email in German, and I'm still deciphering it. I swear, there was a time when my German reading and speaking were pretty good.

My resolution is withering!

For the first time this year since I made a New Year's resolution to read/study Japanese daily, I have neglected to do it consistently! I've been teaching ESL a lot this summer, and I'm completely wiped out. Today I got home at a decent time, so I should've at least read a page of the Japanese book I'm reading, but I couldn't even read any English. And apparently, I've been so drained I forgot to post something here and haven't posted much elsewhere either.

So I'm saying this here because it's public, and because I love language, that I *must* resume regularly reading Japanese and doing the other writing I've been neglecting. How many people have made public promises like that? But seriously--I'm not happy about my lack of Japanese and Writing Perseverance, so that is going to change.

This seems like an interesting book

Tonight I heard a very interesting interview on the excellent show Sound Opinions with the author of a seemingly interesting book about the vocoder called How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks.

I'm interested in the vocoder not just because it's been used in a lot of music, but I also like the band Kraftwerk, which started using it several years ago. By the way, towards the beginning of the existence of this blog, I mentioned that I transcribed an interview they did, and I even translated a history that someone wrote in Portuguese, which I also mentioned here. Unfortunately, even though I spent a lot of time translating it (it was around 6000 words), they edited and altered it to the point that it barely resembled the original text. And they removed the Portuguese version from the site, too.

Anyway, they're going to post the audio interview on Monday, but meanwhile, there are a lot of interviews online (he obviously has good pr support), including this one.

I can't believe this is a real movie

Right now, a very odd, campy movie is on TV: Night of the Comet.

"A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls to fight the evil types who survive."

It sounds like a fake movie, but it's true! How did they get funding for such a movie? Why did they make it? Seriously, it's very puzzling.

You can watch it in parts online. Below is the trailer. I doubt a lot of people saw it when it came out in the 80's. I certainly didn't, and never heard of it either.

DXing

I was talking to a radio engineer, telling him that when I used to work early mornings for a show, I'd discover a lot of distant radio stations on my radio from hundreds of miles away as I drove to work. It was because I was searching for stations in the middle of the night, usually before dawn, though before that, when I worked late at night, I'd discover distant radio stations on my way home as well.

Well the engineer said that I was DXing, which I'd never heard of before: "D" is said to mean distance and "X" refers to the unknown.

I was just dialing around on my car radio, but apparently there are a lot of nerdy types out there who have complex systems that pick up stations from all over the world. I'm not so nerdy to do that, but I think it's a very cool hobby.

There's an excellent DXing site that also has audio samples from all over the world, so check it out and the other info and interviews, too.

Rip off

I hope people weren't duped into believing that paying Lulu $400 (literally $399, but it's only a dollar difference) to get their books displayed at Book Expo America would actually make a difference. What a rip off.

People were asked to send in two books to be placed on a pile or table or whatever for hundreds of dollars. And that's just *sending* the books, with no human presence required. So why would people think that randomly displaying a couple of books in a place filled with thousands of books would generate sales or publicity? Other publishers' and authors' booths would be manned, already giving them an advantage. And who knows how they would even handle the books? For all we know, they could've just removed them from the shipping box and plopped them down somewhere.

Please, I hope no one fell for this. It's pitiful when people profit from pipe dreams.

I'm still here

Sorry--I usually post every other day but last week I started teaching ESL every day for a level I've never taught before, and I also had some radio work too, which meant I didn't have much time or energy left to attempt posting. I have managed to read bits of Japanese, but that was also put on hold when I went out of town, where I got a chance to meet superstar language blogger Languagehat, who's an incredibly smart and nice guy. So now that I'm back in town and have a lighter schedule, I will resume more frequent posting.

Interviewed

I was interviewed for Outside the Loop Radio, which is a weekly radio show and podcast about Chicago. If you go to the site, you'll be able to hear other interviews about interesting people around town. I think it's a great show, and I'm surprised it hasn't been picked up by public radio or another media outlet.

The anime convention descended upon the Japanese store

I was at Mitsuwa, which is a Japanese supermarket that I usually go to, and there were a lot more people there than usual. Sprinkled among all those people were folks with costumes on who looked like anime characters. So I asked one of the costumed girls if she was part of a group, and she told me that they just came from an Anime convention. Then all the clothing and enthusiasm made sense, and it was obvious that the place was packed because they wanted to take in as much Japanese culture (and food) as possible.

Check out the convention photos at their Facebook group. I think it's really cool that all those people went and, according to some people I talked with, had an incredible time. One guy said it was a non-stop party, including a huge rave on Saturday night.

BBC language nerd angers Russell Crowe!

I've been noticing accents for a while, and amazingly, someone from the BBC noticed one as well, except that he dared to question Russell Crowe's accent, which made Crowe walk out of the interview. Crowe was promoting his latest film about Robin Hood, whom the BBC interviewer said was from Yorkshire. What made Crowe mad was that the BBC guy said he was using an Irish accent, not a northern British one. Thanks, BBC, for pointing out accent irregularities :D

Still a good TV show intro

I used to watch The Six Million Dollar Man and hadn't seen the intro of that show for years. Even though it's from the 70's, it still seems good, and now that we've been exposed to quality TV production, it seems technologically advanced for its time.

Tales of the Bogeyman and Spanish Bacon

Words for items associated with warmer climates are full of interesting etymologies. Words describing palm trees, coconuts, and cantaloupes are just a few of the linguistic curiosities that abound in tropical and subtropical regions.

The naming of "palm trees" and the "palm of the hand" is no coincidence. They both share the same Latin root: "palma." It is thought that the tree was named for the palm of the hand because the shape of the leaf formation was considered to resemble the fingers of a hand. So in Latin, the name for the part of the hand came first, followed by the tree. Interestingly, the reverse occurred in English as the two meanings of "palm" entered the language in very distinct ways and at different times:

The Latin word was borrowed into the Germanic dialects in prehistoric times in the tree sense, and now is wide spread (German palme and Dutch and Swedish palm as well as English palm). English acquired it in the 'hand' sense via Old French paume, with subsequent reversion to the Latin spelling.

Coconuts and coconut milk may be beloved for their taste, but the origin of the name could be the fodder for a creature feature film. The term "coco" is derived from the 16th-century word "coco" in Spanish and Portuguese, which meant "grin," "grimace" and even "scarecrow" or "bogeyman" (which it still means in some dialects of Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician). The word "coco," in turn, comes from a Latin expression for "skull." Supposedly the Portuguese explorers who encountered the fruit in India felt that the three-holed base of the shell resembled a human face, or rather that of the bogeyman.

The cantaloupe, a type of muskmelon is called a "spanspek" in South Africa by speakers of English and Afrikaans. "Spanspek" comes from the Afrikaans "spaanse spek," which means "Spanish bacon." The term goes back to the 19th century, when Sir Harry Smith served as Governor and High Commissioner of the Cape Colony in southern Africa. His Spanish-born wife, Juana Maria de los Dolores de Léon Smith, accompanied him. In the mornings, while Sir Harry savored bacon for breakfast, his wife would eat cantaloupe. The Afrikaans-speaking chefs started referring to cantaloupe as "Spanish bacon," and the name stuck, at least in South Africa.

Incidentally, the English word "cantaloupe" comes Cantalupo, a former papal summer estate in Italy, where the fruit was grown, although it had initially been brought to the Old World from the Americas by Christopher Columbus.

As this will be my last post on Metrolingua, I would like to thank everyone for your time and attention. I've enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm for language with you!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Bureau of Internal Revenue

While I was watching The Honeymooners (a great show that doesn't seem dated), I noticed that Ralph was talking about the "Bureau of Internal Revenue." I'd never heard that name: we say "IRS" which stands for "Internal Revenue Service."

But apparently, they changed their name in the 1950's (the same decade that "The Honeymooners" was on the air). According to the IRS site: "In the 50s, the agency was reorganized to replace a patronage system with career, professional employees. The Bureau of Internal Revenue name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service."

Yikes--what kind of patronage system did they have? Sounds like how Chicago's been run.

The "Your Japanese Name" Facebook app is wrong

If you're going to create an application for Facebook, then do it right, especially when it comes to other languages. I know someone who was proud of finding out that their Japanese name was ミケ and posted it largely for everyone to see. But their name is Mike, which is マイク in Japanese. Even if you don't know how to read katakana, you can tell that the two Japanese transliterations look different.

Bottom line: the app Your Japanese Name isn't worth it.

I OD'd on Real Housewives of NYC

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.

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

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

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.)

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).

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

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.

My condolences to Poland today

I would like to offer my condolences to the people of Poland for the unbelievable tragedy that happened today: the tragic plane crash that killed their top leaders, who were on their way to Russia, where they were going to commemorate the Katyn Massacre. What a very sad irony.

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.

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:

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.

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:

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.

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".

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).

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.)

Weird Al cares about grammar

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.

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.

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

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:

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.)

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

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).

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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!

I met this Elton John superfan

I met this guy and had no idea he was such a huge Elton John fan until I saw this video. His nickname is "Elton Jim", but I didn't know it had to do with his Elton John obsession. Jim is actually a really friendly guy, and he doesn't have a snobby attitude, even though he's on the radio everyday with Garry Meier, who's a well-known Chicago radio personality. So the next time I see him, which might be in a couple of days, I'm going to ask about his love for Elton John and maybe tell him about this post :D

Why is Toyoda Toyota?

Since I have a grasp of Japanese, people keep asking me why Toyota has a CEO named Akio Toyoda (who's the grandson of the founder of the company), because his name is spelled with a "d" instead of a "t". Here's the Japanese version of his name: 豊田章男 (Japan puts last names first, so it reads "Toyoda Akio").

Here's what's interesting: The first kanji 豊 is "toyo", which is one of the Japanese (kun) readings (as opposed to the Chinese "on" readings). But the second kanji is 田 "ta". It becomes "da" in the name because of lenition. An English version of such a sound change is when we say "waiter" like "waider": we pronounce the "t" like a "d" before the "er". So in Japanese the same thing happens: after certain sounds, the "t" becomes a "d".

So really, the name "Toyota" is a raw pronunciation of the founder's name. And what's even more interesting is what the Washington Post found out:

Writing "Toyoda" in Japanese requires 10 brush strokes...but writing "Toyota" requires eight..."Ten" consists of two strokes crossed against each other and resembles the "plus" symbol, or even a crossroads or an uncertain path. Not a good omen for a company.

And, according to the Detroit Free Press:

The number eight is considered good luck in Japan because of the way it is written: two strokes side by side, placed so that the character resembles an open mountain top.

So let's compare: this is 10 in Japanese: 十 and this is 8 in Japanese: 八

In Japanese, they decided to write the company's name in katakana instead of kanji, so "Toyoda" looks like トヨダ (10 strokes) and "Toyota looks like トヨタ (8 strokes). They decided on the latter.

What the Free Press gets wrong, however, is saying that the hard "t" sound is "softer" than the "d" sound. Even in English, "d" is softer than "t".

Well after I wrote all this, I decided to check out the popular Language Log (where linguists post, not simple language lovers like me), and saw that they discussed the topic in way more depth, including refuting what the newspapers reported.

So here's my obvious conclusion: it's ironic that they went to all that trouble to switch from "Toyoda" to "Toyota" because Americans pronounce it "Toyoda" anyway!

What I'm trying to read

In Japanese class, we were reading part of the book 盛田昭夫語録 [Morita Akio Sayings], which is about Akio Morita, who cofounded Sony. We read part of the sixth chapter 父を語る(盛田英夫) [Talking about Father (Morita Hideo)], where his son, Hideo, talks about growing up with his dad. Now I'm re-reading what we studied in class so that I can translate part of it to post here. So stay tuned...you'll find out in English what Akio Morita was like, at least from the perspective of his son.

Is Corporatese Truly "Value-Added"?

"Vision-Makers specializes in developing strategic solutions that take your company to the next level. Our mission is to become your turnkey partner for all your business performance and incentive needs; thereby helping you realize success. The focus on integrated business strategies that promote organizational growth through maximizing customer and employee performance. Through the power of incentives, we strive to create positive & measurable results. We offer a portfolio of quality products and services, which are distinguished by integrity, innovation and differentiation through teamwork. In today's increasingly complex marketplace, we understand that one principal stands apart from the rest. RELATIONSHIPS DRIVE BUSINESS."

This mission statement is the first page of a brochure issued by Vision-Makers of Marietta, Georgia, USA. Upon reading that, can you pinpoint exactly what Vision-Makers does or offers? I was not familiar with the company before reading that statement and, after reading that, had no idea as to what the company actually does. A "strategic solution" could be anything from the acquisition of new computer equipment to the acquisition of a new type of office toilet paper. "Integrated business strategies" could refer to scheduling meetings or choosing the best sandwich shop when ordering lunch for office staff. "Incentives" could be raises, opportunities for career development, days off, in-office massages, or gourmet coffee. "Quality products and services" does not specify the type of products or services (Whoopie cushions? Singing telegrams? Computer software? Employee placement?), the level of quality, or the standards for determining "good" or "bad quality." "RELATIONSHIPS DRIVE BUSINESS"? That states nothing but the obvious, since it would be difficult to transact business without a professional relationship of some sort with another party unless you enjoy doing business with yourself. And what exactly is a "turnkey partner"?

A perusal of the company website reveals further mystifying turns of phrase, such as "EmployeeExcite™ can do it all …with measurable results." The first part of the phrase, "can do it all" is simply false advertising, unless EmployeeExcite™ can fly to Jupiter, cure all ills, and develop calorie-free chocolate. And the second part, "with measurable results" is essentially meaningless since all, or at least nearly all, results of any kind are measurable, even if the measurement is zero. The same page exuberantly boasts "Customizable Turnkey Solutions…Right out of the Box!!!!!" Huh? What does this mean in concrete terms?

Many of us who have worked in nearly any capacity with a variety of corporations have encountered this impressive-sounding, but essentially vacuous lingo. Ambiguous phrases such as "leverage," "forward-thinking," and "value-added," which sound focused, professional, and assertive but are far from specific when deconstructed, are widely used these days in white-collar industries. There is, in fact, a name for this phenomenon: "Corporatese." Wikipedia defines Corporatese rather disturbingly as such: "Closely related to Politically correct phraseology and George Orwell's concept of Newspeak, Corporatese is corporate jargon characterized by sometimes unwieldy elaborations of common English phrases. It may dramatize or conceal the real meaning of what is being said."

Not everyone has been hoodwinked by Corporatese. For instance, the poll What's the Most Annoying Corporate Catchphrase shows "Give it 110%" winning so far (for the record, I voted for "leverage"). And I suspect that, the more these empty terms and phrases are used, the more cliched they will become and perhaps actually backfire, reflecting negatively upon the professionals who use them.

Wikipedia has compiled a list of examples of Corporatese and other illustrations of Corporate Jargon. I suspect that you will recognize a number of these terms.

My thanks to Ms. Liz Hunyadi for suggesting the topic of this post.

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Video of Queen Elizabeth about Diana's death

I just watched the movie The Queen on TV, which I already saw in the theater when it first came out, and I still think it's excellent. If you haven't seen it, you should. In the movie, there is a dramatization of the Queen speaking about Diana's death on TV, and below is the original broadcast of that speech.

Do not buy a video or DVD player from JVC!

In case you're looking for a video and DVD player and recorder, do NOT buy anything from JVC. Just after the one-year warranty expired, our video/DVD player/recorder broke, and when we called JVC, they didn't care. They just told us to pay to get it repaired.

No wonder they don't offer any extended warranties: they probably figure it's better to sell inferior quality products, have them break down, and then make us pay to get them fixed, which means more money for them. Some people don't think it's worth it to pay to get something fixed, so they just buy a new one. But it would mean hundreds of dollars wasted for us, so we have to unfortunately pay to keep the product going, which we regret buying.

Curiously, some JVC offices are in Illinois, which is where I live, but the products are made in Indonesia, so they probably don't have much control or care about how they're produced thousands of miles away.

Contrast JVC's response to the nice response I got from Sony. We still have a Sony TV from the mid-1990's, and it works perfectly.

The JVC model we have that's now useless is DR-MV100B. I'm just posting it here so that you don't make the same mistake we did.

Paris in a Box

A coworker who knows I'm really into language and international stuff gave me a cute gift: Paris in a Box. I love it!

This kit comes with mementos to add French ambiance to your space, including a mini Eiffel Tower, a French flag with stand, three Parisian magnets with French sayings, and a 32-page book containing the top twenty-five reasons to love Paris.

Now I just have to go to Paris--I still have never been there, and have read and heard so much about it!

ハッピー・バレンタインデー

To continue my new year's resolution to consistently study Japanese, I've decided to title my Valentine's Day post in Japanese (though it's of course in katakana since China nor Japan invented it).

There's an article about Valentine's Day in easy-to-read Japanese (they provide all the furigana for any kanji you might not know) at the Yomiuri online. It seems like the articles are for people to learn Japanese, but they are part of a series of English learning articles. Maybe they're for both English and Japanese speakers, since the information is in easy Japanese with some English phrases thrown in. There's also a cute video that will help you practice English with Japanese accents.

This book delivers

I just read Kathy Griffin's new book, and while it has her typical vulgarity, which I'm not a fan of (and would never tell her because she derides people who think that way), it really delivers. This is why: she gives good info about various people in the entertainment biz, talks about her personal struggles with guys and food, reveals secrets about her family including her criminal brother, and even gives good advice for becoming successful. Well, I think I saw just a couple of cases of direct advice, but through her story you learn about how tenacity and hard work can open doors. And meeting the right people, of course. I also like how she expresses her honest envy of people who achieve fame from barely doing anything. Check out the preview below (many pages of the book are included).

When a French kiss is not a kiss

As Valentine's Day is approaching, many individuals are discussing (or avoiding discussions of) kisses, hugs, and love. Explaining these concepts in certain languages may sometimes be more difficult than expected if a non-native speaker is relying on first-language logic and cognates. 
 
In Spanish, the logic generally follows English. A kiss/to kiss is "un beso"/"besar," and a hug/to hug is "un abrazo"/"abrazar." Similarly, in Portuguese, the same distinction is made: "um beijo"/"beijar" vs. "um abraço"/"abraçar." Moving across the Romance-language spectrum, we find the same logic in Italian with "bacio"/"baciare" vs. "abbraccio"/"abbracciar." We run into major and potentially VERY embarrassing snags when we get to French. 
 
At one point, French followed its Latin brethren, with cognates "un baiser"/"baiser" vs. "une embrassade"/"embrasser" referring to smooching and embracing.  But then something changed. Radically. Confusingly.  
 
A thread on wordreference.com describes the situation:

 
As I see it, the confusion about kissing and hugging got started in the 17th century. The exquisite preciosity (and hypocrisy) of the Versailles courtisans - who called teeth "the furnishings of the mouth", for example - made it popular among them to describe having sex with someone as "kissing" them. It was less crude, but more ambiguous too, and it soon lost its euphemistic sense and became a word just as rude as f---. The result is that, until today, if you say that a couple is baise-ing, it means they are f***ing, et point final!

This expropriation, however, created a need for a substitute to describe the simple act of kissing someone, now that “baiser” had been irretrievably expropriated for another purpose. The solution created even more confusion - the verb "embrasser", to embrace, began to be used (or misused) instead.

The result of all this is that in current French one has to find all sorts of round-about ways of describing these simple acts. For example, to say "I want to kiss you", you can choose between "Je veux t'embrasser" or – curiously - "Je veux te donner un baiser", since the noun did not meet the same fate as the verb.

“I want to hug you” is even worse, since this gesture is not very French and, what with “embrasser” now meaning “to kiss”, has to be described in detail: "Je veux t'entourer des bras", "Je veux t'enlacer", or still "Je veux te serrer dans mes bras". Curiously again, the noun retains its original meaning – the seldom used “une embrassade” still means “an embrace”.

Talk about a potential minefield of traps for non-native speakers! Consequently, "Je veux te donner un baiser" is a perfectly innocent way to say "I want to give you a kiss," yet "Je veux te baiser" means something far more intimate. And "I want to give you a hug" comes across more like an instruction manual than a simple desire, as constructions such as "I want to squeeze you with my arms" or "I want to wrap you in my arms" are generally used.   
 
As for what English-speakers call a French kiss (i.e. a tongue kiss), in France it is often called (politely) as "un baiser amoureux" ("a love kiss"), with the verb "to French kiss" being "embrasser avec la langue" ("to kiss with the tongue"). In Quebec (Canada), however, the anglicism "frencher" is sometimes used as the verb-in French. Now that's ironic! 

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Facebook in Japanese is fun!

I've been using Facebook in British English, but today I decided to mix it up and use it in Japanese. It's really great! Since I've already seen a lot of the stuff in English, I can figure out what the Japanese is, but if I want to understand all the kanji, then I go to my beloved Popjisyo to get the exact reading.

There are many cool things about the Japanese version, including: the use of さん (san) after everyone's name, the politeness of the Facebookチーム because in English they usually say nothing in an email alert, but in Japanese they have the formal closing phrase よろしくお願いいたします. And if you "like" someone's status or link, it becomes "いいね！" in Japanese. And of course, it's neato to see all the Japanese everywhere. Very cool and I highly recommend using Facebook in a language that you're learning because it's good practice. And nerdy fun!

United States language map

Mad Minerva told me about a language map that shows the percentages and numbers of language speakers in the US. You can view the entire United States or any individual state, and you can do a search of a wide variety of languages wherever you want. It also gives a breakdown of languages spoken in each of the states. Such nerdy fun!

Still studying Japanese

I said at the beginning of this year that I would make it a resolution to study Japanese consistently, and that's what I've been doing, which is unbelievable because it's hard to remain disciplined, especially while trying to still do stuff in the volatile business of Radio. I touch base with Japanese almost every day, though sometimes I take a couple days off due to complex commitments or simple laziness :D But I will definitely be studying it tomorrow as long as I can, and my brain will probably be happy and pleasantly occupied because I sometimes feel like my mind hasn't wrapped itself around enough kanji to make it settle down.

Language predictions for the coming 50-100 years

Language and languages are constantly changing, and, in my opinion, considering language evolution over decades and centuries is quite fascinating. Often when we read literature from hundreds of years ago, it becomes obvious which words, structures, and other language "trends" have gone out of fashion and which trends have become embedded somewhat permanently in language. An example is the use of "to be" in the perfect tense in English with certain verbs such as "to come" (e.g. "he is come" instead of "he has come"). This would appear to have been influenced by French, where as distinction is made between verbs, such as "venir" (to come), which form the past tense (passé composé ) with "être" ("to be"), and the majority of verbs, which form this tense "avoir" ("to have"). Look at this interesting article on the archaic "to be" vs. "to have" in English verbs like "to come".

I've decided to make some unofficial predictions about language in the future based on today's trends. Some may come true, some later, and perhaps none will ever come true. Still, it can be fun to speculate:

1) The ban on ending questions with prepositions will become archaic. When I was a child, I was taught never to end a question with a preposition. It should never be "who are you speaking for?" but "for whom are you waiting?" While this tends to still be true in formal business and academic writing, in informal writing and conversational speech, prepositions seem to come at the end of questions more often than not unless the speaker is especially careful about "correct speech" and/or is a language prescriptionist. However, even in some recent English teaching worksheets for non-native speakers, I was surprised to see it listed as allowable to end questions with prepositions. In certain other Germanic languages (to which English belongs), it is (and has been perfectly acceptable) to end questions with prepositions; Norwegian is one such example, as far as I know. In other Germanic languages, such as German, as well as the Romance and Slavic languages, the ban tends to persist in formal and informal writing and speech.

Nevertheless, this "schoolmarmish" rule in English appears to be dying out as it seems unnecessarily stilted and rigid, and I predict that in 50-100 years, even formal academic and business writing will reflect what is patently obvious in conversational speech.

2) This brings us to the next prediction: the loss of the word "whom." This accusative/dative form of "who' is one of the last vestiges of the English case system, which was, in the past more complex, more along the lines of the modern German or Slavic case systems. However, the use of "whom" mirrors the "proper" placement of prepositions in questions, and these days "whom" seems to be limited to formal business and academic writing in English and the speech of very meticulous grammar enthusiasts, who are in the minority. Its days are numbered. But those who are nostalgic for the once vibrant case system of English shouldn't be too disappointed, as cases will likely continue to remain alive and well in personal pronouns (I/my/mine/me, you/yours/your, he/his/him, she/hers/her, it/its, we/our/ours/us, they/their/theirs/them) and in the possessive apostrophe-s or s-apostrophe added to singular and plural nouns.

3) The complete merger of the subjunctive mood in English with the simple past tense. Today the subjunctive (contrary-to-fact) mood in English, which is highly complex in some languages, such many of the Romance languages, is mostly identical to other tenses, such as the past tense ("I wish he had it"), but in some cases, there are differences, most notably with "to be" (the traditional prescriptionist form being "I wish I were" rather than "I wish I was"). However, again, the use of "were" (which is historically similar to the German subjunctiv) in such cases is becoming increasingly relegated to formal and academic contexts and the speech of those who consciously wish to adhere to the rules and speak "properly." I predict that it will become archaic and fall out of use.

4) Profanity will likely become less "profane." I predict that so-called "swear words" in English will lose much of their taboo status and become more permissible in a greater number of contexts and arenas. This will, in my opinion, be the result of an increasingly less formal society in general (along the lines of women no longer wearing white gloves to public functions and the observation that far fewer people '"dress up" for air travel).

5) The ever-growing influence of technology and popular culture on English due to increased media saturation. In fact, I would guess that, over the next few decades, most new words entering English will reflect both of these spheres, some words becoming permanent fixtures of the linguistic landscape and perhaps being extended metaphorically. For instance, maybe the "Facebook verb" "to friend" ("to add someone as a friend") will gradually replace the current "to befriend" as the verb of choice when referring to act of establishing a friendship. It's possible! SMS-style shorthand, such as "u" for "you" and "lol" for "laughing out loud" will likely be around for a long time, but I doubt that these forms will become mainstream in anything but informal settings, at least not anytime soon.

6) Increased standardization of English. When I took linguistic classes as an undergraduate, I was exposed to the theory that dialects of English will eventually develop into their own distinct languages, just as dialects of Latin have developed into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and so on. The theory hypothesized that eventually there will be separate British, Canadian, American, and Australian languages, among others. However, what the theory seemingly failed to consider was that the countries (and dialects) of the Anglosphere (collection of English-speaking nations) are far less isolated on a daily basis than the constituent territories of the Roman Empire. Due to the pervasive global media, English speakers all over the world can log on or turn on various devices and be exposed to (or flooded with) English from all over the world. I believe that this cross-exposure will lead to the various Englishes borrowing more from each other and becoming more alike, with each dialect retaining some of its "quirks."

7) The increased use of English around the world. It seems hard to imagine how this could be possible, as English is today's lingua franca, but I predict that English will continue its sweep across the globe, with increasingly fewer non-English speakers. I'll also forecast that a number of historically non-English-speaking countries with large numbers of speakers of English as a second language will legally adopt English as an official language, alongside the historical national language(s), as a nod at internationalization (perhaps the Netherlands and at least one of the Scandinavian countries) or as a "neutral" compromise between rival officially national languages (such as Switzerland).

Some of these predictions may seem extremely obvious, but it is still useful, in my view, to view them as part of the dynamics of language change in English, which is going on as we speak!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Update August 2022: reader Aleksa shared this great resource for checking spelling and grammar for various languages: https://www.websiteplanet.com/webtools/spell-checker/