Download the book

Here's a preview of the anthology I put together. Now you can download it for half the price of the print version available at Amazon. It features various writers, including bloggers--check out the preview below to see the writers' bios.

Down the Block

Foot Fingers and Other Body Part Naming Curiosities

In my last post, I gave a brief outline about how different languages classify colors differently. It may come as some surprise that different languages may also provide different classifications of another subject that we may take for granted: body parts.

Slavic languages, for instance, often do not distinguish between arm/hand or leg/foot. In Russian, "ruka" may mean a hand or an arm, while "noga" may refer to a leg or a foot. Similarly, Amharic also considers the leg and foot to be part of the same entity. Lavukaleve, spoken in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, features the same word for arm, leg, and hand.

Jahai, spoken in the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, has a particularly interesting division of body parts, with different lexical terms for upper arm, lower arm, and hand, but supposedly no specific word for mouth!

While English, German, and Norwegian consider fingers and toes to be entirely separate body parts, other languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Russian, label toes as simply "foot fingers." In French, either option is possible, with "orteil" (a word for toe that is separate from "doigt," used for finger) being more formal and literary and "doigt de pied" ("foot finger") being used often in oral language.

Conversely, while English and German refer to a cheekbone as being the "bone of a cheek," in a number of Romance languages, such as French, Spanish, and Italian, the word for cheekbone has nothing to do with the word for cheek. For instance, in French, a cheek is a "joue," while a cheekbone is a "pommette."

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Analog TV signing off

On Friday, a bunch of TV stations around the US had to turn off their analog switches because the nation is becoming digital. Here's an interesting signoff: they got the original engineer, the guy who switched the TV station on when it was just starting out in the late 1940's, to come back to turn the station off (in its analog form, of course). He's 99, so it's quite a historical moment.

Also--I found a site with images of TV's from the 1940's.

Cigar party

Here's some entertaining text from a real invitation to a party that I'm going to tonight. Note: I'm not a guy, and I don't smoke cigars, but the last time I went, I had a great time. It's just that if you see the text, you'd think it's just a guy thing (which it mostly is--I think I was one of only a few females last time). I've removed various words from the invitation to just feature the interesting highlights below, but I haven't included any ellipses to represent the missing words (...) because it'd look weird.

Tonight's the night, boys!!! Final reminder to get your butt over to Jimmy P's joint for the biggest and best Cigar Party yet!! We've got cigars and booze up the ying yang! We had about 110 guys in October, smokin', eatin', drinkin', golfin', tellin' jokes and carousing with the guys and all had a great time! We're doin' it again tonight!!

Note how they mistakenly say "ying" instead of "yin". Also note how often they omitted the "g" from those various verbs.

So I'll be leaving now, and expect to smell like smoke when I get back because in addition to all the cigars, they said there will be "fire pits blazing if needed!". I'm sure the party will have the same enthusiasm the invitation did :D

Why English with English subtitles?

This is weird, but useful: in this scene from Kung Fu, there are English subtitles to go along with the English dialogue. So maybe the purpose was to learn English--you can easily read along as they speak.

I almost got published in a newspaper

I've been writing online for a while, but I think writing for print is nifty too. So when someone from the Washington Post contacted me to contribute an opinion piece, I was psyched. They found my blog--I didn't have to approach them, which is cool because we often have to chase after opportunities. In fact, I had no idea that editors from such prestigious newspapers look online for contributors. I'm not going to lie: I still think it's a big deal when someone from the print media is interested in what I have to say (which is why I was happy when Mary Beard noticed my blog).

So I spent a bit of time writing a draft of an essay, and I even turned down some extra radio work to get it to the Post early, in case they wanted me to make changes. But then they told me that they weren't going to do the topic, and I was disappointed. They said that if I had an interesting idea, I should let them know, but for some reason, even though I'm quite opinionated, I can't think of anything that they might be interested in.

Maybe one day it will happen, but until then, I'll continue toiling in obscurity :D

Japanese article about standing at Canon

There's a blog post circulating out there about how Canon is making their employees stand and walk faster at work to increase productivity and employee relationships.

If you want to see the original Japanese article, you can find it at a Japanese IT site.

The title is 本当に「いす」がなかった，キヤノン電子のオフィス (There really are no chairs at the Canon Electronics office).

And here's the introductory paragraph (no time to translate it now, though I might do it after I fulfill my radio duties):

先日，キヤノン電子の酒巻久社長に，桜が満開となっていた同社の秩父工場（写真1）を案内していただいた。酒巻社長は『椅子とパソコンをなくせば会社は伸びる！』（祥伝社）の著者であり，職場から「いす」をなくすという大胆な改革を実行した人である。秩父工場内には，応接室など一部を除き，会議室にも，開発部門や管理部門のオフィスにもいすがない。もちろん，社長室にもないという。

A color by any other name

Those of us who are sighted tend to take the colors we see for granted. The sky (at least on a sunny day) is blue, while the grass (when lush and healthy) is green. Yet these very distinctions are, to some degree, arbitrary, and vary between languages and cultures. It appears that every language has a color scheme with between two (such as Burarra, an aboriginal language spoken in Australia that divides all colors into shades of two colors that very roughly mean "light" and "dark") and twelve basic color terms (with other color terms in each language being variants of these terms), yet each language divides and assigns these colors in its own way.

Celtic languages have definitions of "blue" and "green" that are surprisingly different from those assigned in English. In Middle Irish and Old Irish, "glas" encompassed green, blue, and some shades of gray. In Modern Welsh, "gwyrdd" refers to "green,' while "glas" generally means "blue." However, "glas" can also refer to the color of grass, the color of the sea, and the color of silver, suggesting that, although the distinction between blue and green exists, the dividing point is different between Welsh and English. Increasingly, though, and probably due to the considerable influence of English in the British Isles, Welsh appears to be tending toward the eleven-color color scheme used in English, adopting "llwyd' for gray in addition to "gwyrdd" and "glas."

Other languages, such as Lakota (spoken by the Sioux), represent blue and green as shades of one color, and such languages. Yet some languages outdo English (which, admittedly, has terms such as "indigo" and "azure," but these are often considered to be shades of blue, although indigo is sometimes classified as a separate color in the spectrum) and and make further distinctions between blue and green. Greek, for instance, has six words for varying shades of blue, one word for turquoise, and four words for varying shades of green. Italian has two words for light blue, "azzurro" and "celeste," as opposed to "blu" which means "blue." More significantly, "azzurro" is generally not considered to be a shade of "blu," but an entirely separate color. Some Slavic languages, as well as Romanian, also treat light blue and blue as separate colors. Kazakh has one color ("kök") for natural green objects and another color ("jasâl") for human-made green objects. Interestingly, "kök" also refers to the color of the sky and of the sea. Japanese and Mandarin also have different color boundaries for blue and green.

Similar differing semantic fields are found for other colors. Pink and red are considered to be separate colors in English, yet shades of the same color in Mandarin. A number of African languages see blue and black as shades of the same color, as did Old Norse (and Swedish until the early 20th century).

As we can see from the examples of Welsh and Swedish, color divisions can change in a single language over time. In English, "orange" became established as a separate color as late as in the early-mid 20th century. Prior to this date it was often called "yellow-red" on artists' palettes. "Pink" and "purple" are also examples of descriptive (subordinate shades that have, respectively developed into abstract colors in their own right.

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken.)

Stayed up late with the Greeks

I was going to do a blog post yesterday, but I ended up staying out very late with the very fun Greek Media Club, where most of the people really were Greek and some thought I was too. And oddly enough, even though the word "media" is part of the club's name, I think I was part of the media minority.

Most of the people I met last night were Greek-Americans, though some were bilingual, and even though the bilingual people were born in the US, they still had a tiny accent. But you'd have to be a language fan like me to enjoyably discern it :D

Even though I was allowed to get into work "late" (6:00 AM), I barely got any sleep. So it was my usual night of sleep deprivation. But I really met some very friendly people, and I could have easily stayed out most of the night and driven straight into work.

A really long word

Word Lily has a post about a really long word, which is the name of a village in Wales:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

It's obviously the longest name in Britain, and I'm sure it's one of the longest in the world.

You can hear a pronunciation of the word here and learn about the history of the village at their official site, where they say that the name "was invented by a cobbler from Menai Bridge."

See star trek

I rarely see movies, but I decided to see "Star Trek" because I've watched several episodes of Next Generation, Voyager (my favorite series) and Deep Space Nine. But you don't have to know anything about Star Trek to enjoy this movie, and if you are totally into Star Trek's history, story lines, characters, and quirks, you will have to put all that aside because this movie is starting a new era.

You don't even have to be into sci-fi. It's just a good movie, and if you like action, special effects, good acting, and high quality production value, then you'll really like this movie.

And what's weird is that the guy who plays Kirk looks and acts like a guy I work with, which I'm going to tell him on Monday because I doubt he reads my blog :D

"-ic" vs. "ical": The distinctions can be fickle

Cheesy blog post titles aside, in my opinion, one of the trickier elements of English is the use of adjectives ending in "-ic" vs. those ending in "-ical" when they share the same root. For instance, is it "electric cord" or "electrical cord"? Although hardly scientific or academic, a simple Google search reveals 184,000 results for "electric cord" and 274,000 for "electrical cord." While the latter option is the clear winner, a very sizable minority uses the former. To make matters even more confusing, in some instances the distinction appears relatively clear. English speakers would probably feel that "electric guitar" is a much better choice than "electrical guitar" and "electric eel" is definitely preferable to "electrical eel." Similarly, English speakers would probably vastly prefer "electrical engineering" to "electric engineering." 
 
"Electric" is generally defined as something that uses, provides, produces, transmits, or is powered by electricity; "electrical" refers to something that simply has to do with electricity. Obviously, there is a considerable amount of overlap here. Why the difference? Both "electric" and "electrical" would seemingly refer to something that has to do with or powered by electricity. At first glance, this would appear to be redundant. After all, in many Romance languages, this discrepancy does not exist. In French, for instance, both "electric" and "electrical" are translated as "électrique." And a number of English roots have only one option; for example, we say "fantastic" and not "fantastical," "terrific" and not "terrifical." 
 
It would appear that the morphological rules in English regarding "-ic" and "ical" are quite complex, perhaps suggesting that the meanings of forms with "-ic" and "-ical" have either become more similar or have diverged over time. Consider "numeric" and "numerical," which would appear almost interchangeable (referring to numbers), as would "botanic" and "botanical" (referring to plants). Conversely, "economical" (referring to a thrifty solution) is quite different from "economic" (something relating to the economy), just as "politic" (an adjective meaning "prudent" or "shrewd") differs from "political" (having to do with politics).   
 
The Maven's Word of the Day site discusses the difference between "historic" and "historical," a particularly confusing pair.  It is generally accepted that something that is "historic" is important in history ("a historic event"), but that something that is "historical" simply has to do with history "a historical museum").  (And don't even get me started on the controversy between "an historic/historical" and "a historic/historical"!)
 
The site states that "The earlier word is historical, from the early fifteenth century. Historic is first found in the early seventeenth century, and the use of historic to mean 'important in history', is more recent still, from the late eighteenth century. The distinction between the two words is therefore relatively recent. Nonetheless, the distinction seems a worthwhile one, and since it is straightforward, you might as well follow it."
 
Hence, we can conclude that the rules regarding "-ic" and "-ical" are hardly set in stone, have a number of exceptions, entail varying degrees of confusion if flouted, and will likely continue to be a headache for non-native- and native English speakers! 

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

Play date

If I had a lot of time, I'd want to look up the origin of the term "play date" (or playdate--I'm not sure of the spelling). I'd also research the first usage of that word, which probably comes from an article or book about parenting.

When I was young and played with other kids, we never called such times "play dates"--we just went to kids' houses to play. Now when I talk with parents or kids, they'll tell me that they have a play date with someone instead of saying that they're going to play with their friend.

When I looked it up in Wikipedia, there was one sentence that was a sad commentary on modern life (they said "Playdates are a late 20th century innovation"):

the work schedules for busy parents, along with media warnings about leaving children unattended, prevent the kind of play that children of other generations participated in.

It reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a mother, who said she and her husband chose to live in a small town far away from Chicago because their kids can ride bikes and do other things without worrying about bad things happening. It's just sad that the sickos have to ruin kids' play time and some people are so busy they have to provide a formal word for something that kids naturally do.

Lithuanian invitations I can't read

My co-worker, who is from Lithuania, sent me an email with some information about Lithuanian concerts around the city. The only problem is that I can't read most of them (there were a bunch of them in the email). But I think it's really cool that I got all those Lithuanian mini-posters in my email, so I've posted a couple here.

Are there secrets?

I just walked outside to the store, and I passed an Asian woman speaking Chinese to her daughter. Then I saw a car pull up, and the driver was her American husband, who talked to them in English, then drove them away.

So it made me wonder about kids who grow up with parents who don't speak the same languages. In this case, they could all speak English, and I'm assuming the husband couldn't speak Chinese, otherwise they would've spoken that, since the wife could speak it a lot better than English.

So I wonder what the mother talks with the daughter about in Chinese--other than "clean your room" or "eat your vegetables." Could she be saying things to her that she doesn't want the husband to know, and can get away with secrets because he'll never understand?

How many kids have taken on the burden of keeping secrets because they were the only confidantes in the family who could understand one parent's language really well? And if they don't hear secrets, then have they eavesdropped on a parent's private conversations in the other language?

I've never thought of asking anyone this question, but maybe I will...bwahahaha.

The guy who didn't believe me

Now that I don't have as much time to do language stuff as before, for some reason it reminded me of a holiday gathering that I was at, talking to a coworker about my various interests. I told her that I've translated and studied various languages, but now that I've become more busy in radio and have had to work weird hours and put in a lot of effort and energy to make any progress, I can't study as much as before.

When I said that, another coworker nearby snorted and shook his head, as if I was making it up or trying to sound impressive. Because if you think about it, a lot of people aren't language nerds who enjoy studying and translating a bunch of languages, so it might have sounded pretentious to say "I used to speak and translate a number of languages, but now I don't have the time."

But honestly, I meant it, and I wasn't trying to show off. I truly don't have as much time as before for language pursuits, which is unbelievable because the radio industry is drying up and a lot of people are losing their jobs. But that still doesn't diminish my love for language :D

ESL videos

Someone told me about a site called ESL Basics where they have created videos to help people who are studying English as a second language (or "foreign" language as they say in England, I believe) learn vocabulary and phrases at various levels. They also offer support for teachers as well.

What strikes me about the site is that it's not only practical, but the creators seem to be genuinely interested in helping people and enthusiastic about English teaching. Since they seem sincere and intend on keeping the site free, then feel free to ask questions because they really want to help people.

The cow goes..."Hamba"?

"Onomatopoeia," in addition to being a great spelling bee word, is the term used to describe those words that are supposed to reflect an actual sound accurately. Examples of these words include "splash," "thud," and "boom." They also encompass words used to describe animal sounds. However, different languages represent animal sounds differently, sometimes with a surprising amount of variation. In Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship, Hans Heinrich Hock, et al. write that

While ordinary speakers (i.e. non-linguists) may be convinced that there is a clear connection between sound and meaning, at least in onomatopoiea,....linguists are just as firmly convinced that even here the relation is to some degree arbitrary. To support this view they can point out that other languages can employee different onomatopoetic means to express the same animal sound." (p. 228)

For instance, to an English speaker, a bird may say "tweet, tweet," while a Czech speaker will represent this sound as "jek jek," and a Spanish-speaker will swear that it's "pio pio." An English speaker will likely say that a cow says "moo," whereas a Bengali speaker will probably claim that a cow says "hamba." As for what a pig might say, the disparity indicates a real Tower of Babel. That grunting sound is interpreted by Croatian speakers as "rok-rok," English speakers as "oink oink," Chinese speakers as "hu-lu hu-lu," Japanese speakers as "buubuu," and Swedish speakers as "nöff."

Sometimes even two different dialects of the same language can produce two different representations. UK English speakers usually represent the sound a baby chicken (a chick) makes as "cheep cheep," while US English speakers often prefer "peep peep." Spanish-speaking Spaniards tend to think that a sheep says "bee," while Spanish-speaking Argentines generally feel that "meeee" is a more exact rendering of the sound. Similarly, a pig says "gruinh" to some European Portuguese speakers and "óinc-óinc" to Brazilian Portuguese speakers.

You can find more examples in this rather extensive list.

This variation in ways to mimic animal sounds could potentially cause difficulties when trying to use puns or other plays on words to a speaker who is not familiar with the terms used in a particular language. For instance, a cute greeting card with a picture of a happy cat and the caption "You're purr-fect!" might appear confusing and unfunny to a native Hungarian speaker who is used to hearing a cat's purr as "doromb."

Even humans' "primal" exclamations can vary from language to language. If you stub your toe, you may, as a reflex, cry out "Ouch!" if you're an English speaker, "Eina!" if you speak Afrikaans, and "Aie!" if you're a French speaker.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

Another Scottish show that's hard to understand

I mentioned a while ago a Scottish TV show (Star Trek featuring Scottish English) that was hard for me, a native English speaker, to understand. Now a commenter on this blog suggested another show with Scottish that's hard to understand as well. Luckily, the clip below contains both Scottish that's really hard to understand and more standard Scottish because the main character (who seems like a total loser) has to adjust his speech to communicate more clearly with one of his fellow Scotsmen.

Interesting discussion going on

I'm going to do a more decent post tomorrow, but for now, I'd just like to point out the interesting discussion that's going on at my friend Silas' [guest] post Foreign terms as convenient euphemisms. Feel free to join in.

New phrase as seen on TV

Rod Blagojevich, my former governor and neighbor, was on the Today Show, and used a new phrase: "super sensationalization".

Around the 5:55 mark in this video, he says:

"And the super sensationalization that the media gets involved in, just because someone's been accused of things that aren't true..."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Featured in METRO magazine

Down the Block Anthology featured in Metro Magazine in Minneapolis Minnesota

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape magazine metro

The anthology I put together, Down the Block, has been mentioned in METRO magazine in Minneapolis, Minnesota (thanks to Mary O'Regan, who's an editor there).

Foreign terms as convenient euphemisms

Supposedly delicate topics, especially those relating to bathroom functions, death, disease, sex or "taboo" parts of the human body, have often been difficult to express in language. One fairly clever way to solve this problem has been for cultures to adopt foreign equivalents of daring native words as 'euphemisms'.

In Japanese, the language of choice is English. A New York Times article entitled "Japan's Favorite Import From America: English" states that "English words are particularly useful as euphemisms, serving the Japanese preference for approaching delicate topics indirectly...the Japanese use sekkusu when discussing sex, and if they have trouble achieving sekkusu tashi (sex ecstasy), they can consult a sekkusu pato (sex expert. A young woman who wears daringly tight clothes is described as bodi-kon garu (body-conscious gal)." (See article about Japanese and English here.)

In traditional Jewish languages such as Yiddish, Judeo-Italian, and Ladino, words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin, with connotations of high culture and refinement, are often used as euphemisms when referring to such taboo subjects as death, certain body parts, and bathroom functions. For example, "Hebrew-Aramaic words for bathroom functions in Jewish languages are typically quite euphemistic. mashtin zayn 'urinate', nekovim gedoylim and nekovim ketanim 'big holes and 'little holes', geyn af gedoylim and geyn af ketanim "to defecate' and 'to urinate' are indirect and learned ways to avoid saying kakn or shaysn and pishn." (Read essay about Yiddish here.)

A Serbian user of the online language resource www.reference.com remarks that Greek may serve the purpose of a "cleaner language" for some South Slavs. The user posts that "Generally, in spite of having rich assortment for different nuances of "dirt", seems that Slavs are inclined to adopt foreign words as euphemisms. For example, in "children language" of Balkan countries we mostly use Greek word "kaka" (bad, unpure, like in "cacophony") for excrement, with derived verb "kakiti" or "kakati", but the adjective "kakan/a/o" means "dirty, not good for touching." (See discussion about Slavic and Greek here.)

English is not immune to this phenomenon, and we English speakers tend to use French or Latin when we wish to mention the unmentionable. French seems especially useful when discussing sex or taboo body parts, Ménage à trois, derrière, and au naturel seem, to some users of English, more acceptable and "classier" than "threesome," "butt," and "naked." Latin and Latin-based words appears to be helpful when discussing sex, having lent such terms as copulate and coitus interruptus, as well as certain awkward medical conditions, such as carcinoma (instead of the harsher-sounding "cancer"). Similarly, a woman who was inspecting was, in the past, often described as enceinte (directly from French) instead of "pregnant" (curiously, also of French origin). Interestingly, I was once told that the Spanish cognate encinta is a more delicate alternative to "embarazada" ("pregnant)."

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

Deciphering the Scottish accent

A lot of people are talking about Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who surprised the superficial crowd and judges on one of those star-manufacturing TV shows.

Well I noticed in the media-frenzied aftermath that there were a number of interviews that were done in Scotland that also display the variety of their accents. I found two videos that really show how hard it is to understand what they're saying, though I did notice that their news readers and TV talent are much clearer, probably because they have to communicate with a nation and beyond.

Unfortunately, the folks who posted the videos won't let us embed them on our own blogs, so I've provided a couple of links:

This Scottish TV interview is really hard to understand--it's as if the interviewer and Susan Boyle were so comfortable with each other, they just spoke naturally enough so that those of us outside their country would really have to strain to grasp what they're saying.

These TV interviews (the poster combined them in one video) contain Scottish accents that are clear, though at times they lapse into a thicker accent and slang that is definitely not American.

It just goes to show that English isn't a language that even us native speakers can understand :D

Yeoman blog

Recently, I've been reading American history because our country is currently going through economic problems (though they're not as bad as most countries on earth). For some reason, I'm fascinated with yeoman farmers because sometimes I wonder where the people in the more isolated parts of the country came from (their ancestors, actually).

So I ended up reading about yeoman farmers, but because they didn't record much of their lives, it's hard to find good historical information about them. So I did a search online, and found a blog by a modern-day yeoman farmer.

He doesn't come from that background, and actually had no idea about farming, but apparently he's quite successful at it now. Also check out his about page where he describes how he arrived at such a lifestyle.

More whilst usage with globalisation

A translation company asked me if they could submit something to my blog, and what I received seemed to be a self-serving piece which essentially was advertising the importance of their company. So I decided not to post the whole "article" here, but I did notice their use of "whilst", which Americans never use.

They started their promotional piece with: "Whilst there may be around 7,000 distinct languages in the world today, many of them descend from the same roots and therefore have many similar characteristics."

They used the word "whilst" later on, then concluded their ad with the word "globalisation." Note the spelling: Americans often use "z" instead of "s" in such words. Even now, my computer is telling me that "globalisation" is spelled wrong.

So an attempt to advertise a company has become an opportunity for me to point out the differences between British and American English :D

Good online Arabic sites?

A friend of mine (who is a German translator) has been studying Arabic, but the book they've been using in the class is absolutely horrible (I forgot the name of it). He asked me if I know of any good sites to learn Arabic, and I had no idea, so he had the bright idea of posting the question here.

So if you're reading this blog, and you know of good sites to learn Arabic, where there are word lists and good exercises, then let me know! He really wants to find some good resources, but they're very hard to find.

Food for thought

We obviously spend a good deal of time eating in order to survive, yet I would bet that few of us actually give much thought to where the words describing what we eat originate. The word "food" itself, of Germanic origin, is related to the word "fodder" ("food for animals") and possibly to "fat," suggesting a linguistic link that may be disturbing to dieters.

The fact that modern English is somewhat of a hybrid of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French elements is illustrated very clearly by the names of many meats in English. The words "sheep," "cow," "chicken," "calf," "deer," and "swine" are of solid Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) stock, whereas their edible counterparts ("mutton," "beef," "poultry," "veal," "venison," and "pork") are of French origin. Of course, since the Battle of Hastings English has borrowed extensively from other languages around the world, explaining how our language has been enriched with such words as "enchilada" (from Spanish for "added chile pepper"), "cookie" (an Anglicization of the Dutch word for "little cake"), "falafel" (from the plural of the Arabic word for "pepper"), and vermicelli (Italian for "little worms") to name just a few.

Our meals also have interesting origins. "Breakfast" logically means to break a fast, and the Spanish word for breakfast "desayuno," has exactly the same meaning. The French cognate "déjeuner" originally meant "breakfast," as well, but due to semantic shift has come to mean "lunch." As for "breakfast," in French it is now called a "petit déjeuner," literally "a little breaking of the fast" (perhaps a stealth nibble before the actual fast is broken!). "Supper" is closely related to the word "soup," both of French origin, and "dessert," also with Gallic roots, stems from the verb "disservir," meaning "to clear the table."

The word "restaurant," which is the French word for "restorative," originally meant a "restorative broth" for those who were unable to eat a solid meal in the evening. In the 18th century, however, the meaning shifted, and the word began to refer to places where restorative foods, including this broth, were sold and, over time, has come to mean most establishments where food is sold and eaten.

Bon appétit (or, literally, "Good appetite" in French, if you prefer)!

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

Chicago media site

If you're wondering what kind of drama exists in the Chicago media, then check out Chicagolandradioandmedia.com. I didn't start reading it until media columnist Robert Feder left the Sun-Times (which has just declared bankruptcy), and I didn't take it very seriously until I heard my co-workers talking about it and often saw the site on their computer screens.

It's a place for information but it's also a message board, and I wouldn't be surprised if I knew some of the people posting there (under pseudonyms, of course).

Watch anime and Korean dramas for free!

If you want to improve your Korean or Japanese, go to Crunchyroll. There are lots of Japanese anime (don't know if I should add an "s" because Japanese doesn't have plurals) and Korean dramas with English subtitles. I think there might be Japanese dramas but I couldn't find any in the recent list. You can also subscribe to bypass advertising and get access to even more anime.

I'm not into anime, but since they have English subtitles, they'd be hard to resist because it's a good way to improve my diminishing Japanese skills.

(thanks to Lumpy for the heads up)

Tears for Fears video: literal version

Even though this is not one of my favorite Tears for Fears songs, the literal version of it is funny, especially if you've seen the real video and have heard the real song before.

Sounds desperate and niche

I found an independent publisher that serves a total niche:

...professional development books for adjunct, part-time, full-time temporary and visiting college faculty...[and] include professional development titles for a wide cross-section of faculty who hold temporary appointments, as well as graduate students and distance educators...books [that] are designed to meet the professional needs of Academe's almost 700,000 non-tenure track faculty.

I don't have a problem with niche publishing, especially because the PIC (Publishing Industrial Complex) is crumbling after dominating the publishing industry for years, and other publishers are stepping in to satisfy more specific interests.

But what seems desperate about the market they're serving is the huge amount (700,000!) of faculty who are qualified but will never get full-time jobs with benefits.

Even the publisher's tagline "Your product source for adjunct and part-time faculty excellence" sounds desperate--not that the publisher is desperate, but the "industry" or profession is, and there are a lot of highly educated people running around, wanting a regular professor gig, but not able to get it because schools are stuffing themselves with adjunct faculty.

Actually, I'm a part-time instructor, but I don't want to teach full time anyway, so I'm not writing all this to complain about my situation. It's just something I've noticed and heard about--people want to teach in universities and colleges, but they can't because the full-time jobs are disappearing.

Origins of Names of Days of the Week

In my last installment, I discussed the names of months in Latin, Germanic, and Slavic languages. Now I'll give a brief, rather general discussion of the names of days of the week in these language groups.

Like the names of its months, the days of the week in English also have illustrious origins, but Latin influences have largely failed to gain the same momentum outside of Latin-based languages. While the Roman gods Mars and Mercury are present in the French days of the week mardi and mercredi, their English (as well as German and Dutch) equivalents Tuesday and Wednesday reflect the old Germanic gods Tiw and Woden. A concession is made in English and Dutch to the Roman god Saturn, however, who turns up in "Saturday."

A curious exception to all this in Western Europe is Portuguese, a Latin language that would reasonably be expected to reveal the names of Roman gods in the names of days of the week, has instead named most of them numerically, starting with "two." Monday through Friday are called 'segunda-feira' ("second fair") through "sexta-feira" ("sixth fair"), the use of "feira" ("fair") having mediaeval origins.

Similarly, the Slavic languages have also used a pragmatic, "counting" approach to naming most of the days of the week, with czwartek and piątek (from the roots for "four" and "five") referring to Thursday and Friday.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

On the air tonight/tomorrow morning

In case you're up during the middle of the night (or if you live in another country, where our night is your day), you can hear me on the radio from 2:00 to 4:00 AM Central Time (which is tonight but is technically tomorrow morning) on the overnight show that Geoff Pinkus hosts. You can listen via his site (scroll down and click on "Listen Live").

I will be doing the show with Bonnie, who is Geoff's producer, and George Bliss, who's a friend of the show and is one of the most connected people in Chicago (see their bios here).

During the 2:00 hour we'll be talking with Tate Gunnerson from Strangeclosets.com about the crazy spaces and people he's met around Chicago, and during the 3:00 hour we'll be talking with Corey Deitz about his change in political views and how screwed up radio has become.

We'll also be talking about other subjects, and I'll probably be on the air during the 1:00 hour as well because at this point, I'm too excited to sleep :D

Japanese commercial with English subtitles

This is a good way to practice your Japanese because you can see the English translation beneath. It's also entertaining and combines historical and modern culture.

I had to speak bad French

I've translated French, but I haven't had to speak it for years. I think the last time I had a lengthy conversation was when I was traveling in Hungary and got directions from an African medical student, and we ended up talking about traveling and our respective countries.

The other day I had to make a call to France for someone who understood nothing more than "bonjour", and asking me to help was definitely done out of desperation because my spoken French is horrible, but there was no one else around who could attempt communication. The task was simple: call a friend's mom, give her my phone number, and ask her to pass on a message. Once I wrote down my own phone number in French, I got up the nerve to call, and I even managed to sound polite. But I'm sure my friend's mom thought that my French was lame, so I told her that "je parle japonais et anglais" to let her know that I'm not an ignorant American.

But we understood each other, so I truly felt a sense of accomplishment after I hung up the phone. Which makes me miss dealing with other languages even more.

Subtle mockery in Burma

I've been reading To the Golden Shore, which is a biography of Adoniram Judson, and it's really good, not just because of what he went through, but also because I'm getting an idea of what the early 19th century was like in Asia and the US.

I keep thinking about how they describe Burma back then, and it's helped me to understand why it still has a ton of problems now (military dictatorship, democratically elected leader under house arrest, isolation, etc). Back then there was torture, death, and misery imposed by a despotic leader and very corrupt system. I seriously don't know how people have managed to survive in such countries.

What's also struck me about that country back then was how Michael Symes, the first British emissary there, was treated. I found a good article that mentions his trip in the late 18th century and compares the despotic Burmese royalty back then with the current dictatorship.

In the Judson biography, he mentions Symes' account of his trip, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava (1795) (which you can download for free). At first Judson was impressed, but once he was in India, he found out that

Symes, in his ignorance of Burmese customs, had not realized that, instead of being treated as a distinguished visitor, he had actually been led about with subtle mockery, and dealt a succession of calculated insults in the guise of compliments. The Burmese court had silently rocked with laughter during his whole mission.

I've read that a number of times, and I keep wondering what that "subtle mockery" and "calculated insults" looked like.

Keitai Shosetsu (cell phone novels)

I was reading about keitai shosetsu (ケータイ小説), which literally means cell phone [keitai] novel [shosetsu], and had no idea how popular they've become in Japan.

One article explains how it works:

Novels are posted by members of cell phone community sites to be downloaded for free and read on other cell phones...The works are published in 70-word installments, or abbreviated chapters that are the ideal length to be read between shorter train stops. This means that, despite small cell phone screens, lots of white space is left for ease of reading. Multiple short lines of compressed sentences, mostly composed of fragmentary dialogue, are strung together with lots of cell phone-only symbols. The resulting works are emotional, fast-paced and highly visual, with an impact not unlike manga.

And another article says that some authors have gotten good book deals:

These days, books aren’t selling so well, but Keitai Shosetsu, which have low production and promotion costs, have managed to create mass appeal to thousands of readers. Ironically, when they’re bound and printed, Keitai Shosetsu often wind up on the best seller list. Major publishers are starting to acknowledge this new market and there are already 30 professional Keitai Shosetsu writers in Japan.

I also managed to find the Japanese Wikipedia article about keitai shosetsu, with a number of links to books and sites.

I wonder if they'll become popular in the US eventually, or if this is just a Japanese phenomenon.

Origins of names of months

Although the names of the months in English may seem quite mundane, the origins of some of their names are nothing short of divine. A trawl through the names of our months will reveal such luminaries as the Roman gods Janus (January) and Mars (March), the Italic goddess Maia (May), and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (April) (not to mention appearances from mere mortal celebrities Julius and Augustus Caesar, represented in July and August, respectively). These names date back to the Roman calendar, which originally had ten months. As the Romans colonized many regions of the Mediterranean world, they spread their calendar and, of course, the Latin language, which helps to explain how the original Roman names found their way into modern Latin-based languages, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Gradually, the Latin-based names replaced even the original Germanic months in such languages as German, Dutch, and English, thus replacing the original names. For instance, as late as the 18th century in German, May (now "Mai" in Modern German) was known as "Wonnemonat" (Grazing Month) and July ("now "Juli" in Modern German) was "Heumonat" (Hay Month").

Interestingly, this Latin invasion affected the names of months in some Slavic languages, but not others. The old Slavic names, such as like the old Germanic names, were related more to the time of year rather than deities (for instance, "listopad," which means October in Polish and Croatian, means "falling leaves") are still evident in the names of months in Polish, Croatian, Bielorussian, Czech, and Ukrainian, but Latin loan words are used in modern Russian, Serbian, Macedonian, Slovenian, and Bulgarian. Even in some of the languages that have adopted Latin month names, Old Slavic names persist in folk literature.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

A yeoman compliment

Someone gave me a compliment, saying that my effort on a project was "yeoman's work." At first, I didn't know what they meant by that comment, and assumed it was a compliment, but to make sure what a yeoman was, I looked up the word in my European history book (which I ended up reading, which is why I didn't post this earlier).

For some odd reason, it wasn't there, even though yeomen were part of European history (!), so I looked it up online, and saw that it comes from the Middle Ages, and though back then it was a British landholder, guard, official, or attendant, it has become an adjective to commend someone on good, hard, work.

I think that's the first time that understanding a compliment required research.

Real vs fake British accents

This is funny: the characters from one of my favorite movies This is Spinal Tap were on a British TV morning show, and it's interesting and amusing to compare the real British accents with Spinal Tap's fake ones (they're all American, though Christopher Guest's dad was British).

I explored the accuracy of Spinal Tap's accents in a previous post, including quotes from articles and a real Brit's assessment of their accents (I emailed him for comments).

I finally met a Japanese person

There aren't a lot of Japanese people in Chicago, though there were more in the mid-80's to mid-90's before their economy started going down and some companies either folded or had to decrease their American branches.

The station where I work is next to a Japanese company, and I've said hello to some Japanese people from there, and have definitely eavesdropped on their conversations, but I've never really "met" anyone from there. One time I talked to a Japanese guy from another Japanese company which is located on a higher floor, and he invited me to stop by, but I wasn't sure if he meant it, plus I forgot the name of the company, and I didn't want to try to figure it out. And I forgot his name of course, so the whole opportunity was just lost.

Several months passed until I interacted with another Japanese person: one day I saw an Asian woman on the elevator, and I asked her if she was Japanese, and she said yes. Then we talked in English and I told her in Japanese that I can speak it a bit (I didn't say I could speak it pretty well because that's too arrogant for their culture, plus for all I know my Japanese could be quite lame to her ears). So we spoke a little bit of Japanese and I thought, "This could be a good opportunity to actually socialize with one of them."

So I told her where I work, and suggested we go out to lunch sometime, and she said yes, and invited me to stop by the company. This time, I made sure to get her name and of course knew where the company was, so I walked in there a few days ago and she and a couple coworkers invited me out to lunch, though I had to decline because I had other plans.

But we are actually going to get together this week, so the bottom line is: not only did I finally meet a Japanese person, but I'll be able to actually talk to them in Japanese occasionally, and will finally be able to practice Japanese outside of my Japanese class! Not a big deal to folks who live in Asia, but it is to Chicago-dwelling me!

The difference between radio and teaching ESL

I work in radio all week and then I teach ESL (English as a Second Language) on Saturdays. Usually when I wake up on Saturday, I'm so tired, I'd rather sleep in than wake up early and then drive several miles to teach a four-hour class. But every time I enter the school, I start to relax and especially after I teach, I'm in a great mood, though I'm pretty wiped out.

I think I end up feeling like my Saturday was fulfilling because the students are really nice and friendly and I've rarely had any problems with them. The teachers I work with are also nice and professional, and the Big Boss of the program and the supervisors and other folks who work in the office are all friendly. It's definitely the most positive, professional situation I've taught in. Plus, I consistently get good evaluations, which makes me feel quite successful and effective in the program. It's just a good situation all around.

It greatly contrasts with the radio world because not only are my students and coworkers easy to get along with, but I'm actually helping people and building a bridge between this country and theirs. Meanwhile, radio is full of selfish people who are insecure because the industry is collapsing, and many local shows are being replaced with syndicated ones which usually feature people who didn't come up in radio but came from other entertainment venues or professions.

But even if radio wasn't disappearing, the folks would still be egotistical because they really think they're important. Some talent who've been on the air for years act like they're survivors. Sure, they've survived a tough industry, but it's not like they've been to war and back. And some of them don't do much work, just rely on producers to do the work for them. So they basically show up, turn on the microphone, then go home while pulling in big salaries.

I often want to say to media folks to get over themselves, but then I'd be considered out of line, and who knows what would happen. So I just file it away in my mind, and sometimes report to a few ESL teachers what I've seen during the week, and watch them shake their heads because they can't believe media people can be so ludicrous.

The LA sun affected my blogging

I was going to do some posts from LA--I went there this past weekend and just got back. But the good weather there affected my ability to think enough to do any posts. I even brought my laptop and had access to other computers, but the sun was so strong, I just couldn't be serious enough to sit down and form decent sentences. I also really needed a vacation because I hadn't gone anywhere in well over a year, so my mind was pretty much turned off until I had to do work today.

Some folks out there who read this blog don't have to deal with winter, so you're probably wondering how sun can have such a debilitating effect on my brain. But we've had the worst winter here in Chicago: extreme snow, cold, wind, freeze, and no sun. Sure, the sun is out there, but we don't see it or feel it. So even though LA is "cool" (mid-60's fahrenheit) it's WAY better than Chicago at this time of year. So now I'm back in my usual grim reality, which only makes me want to write more.

Dialects With Armies and Navies

While I was taking an introductory linguistics course in the early 1990s, I was fascinated by a theory presented in our textbook (and probably put forth elsewhere) that stated that eventually the various major dialects of English would develop into their own distinct languages as the gaps between each dialect widen. For instance, at some point in the future, the world would have an "American" language, a "British" language, a "Canadian" language, an "Australian" language, and so on.

Presumably the inspiration for this theory is what has happened to other languages in the past. Today's Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, etc.) were once dialects of Latin that gradually developed into independent languages due to varying historical, linguistic, and cultural influences. Similarly, what was once 'Gaelic' is now Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, and Manx Gaelic, considered to be three separate languages. However, it remains to be seen whether the same will hold true for English since our world is far smaller, globalized, and media-infused. These days most dialects in the English-speaking world are developing in less isolation. In the virtual global marketplace, media broadcasts in a number of dialects compete for the attention of viewers and listeners. It could perhaps be argued that, instead of diverging into entirely separate languages, these dialects will become increasingly similar as they borrow from each other.

This begs the question, "when do dialects become full-fledged languages of their own?" Linguist Max Weinreich once states that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." To some degree, there is an element of politics involved. The language known prior to 1990 as Serbo-Croat is no longer classified as such, as the languages of Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are now recognized as separate languages. Of course, this does not imply that the features of these three dialects have changed radically in the past 20 years, but rather that the political and social changes in the former Yugoslavia have affected language and dialect classifications. Yet, in many ways, these three languages are mutually understandable, and a monolingual Serbo-Croat speaker in 1988 could perhaps consider him/herself trilingual today!

Similarly, while Flemish is spoken in Belgium, and Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, many linguists claim that the two "languages" are actually dialects of the same language. Afrikaans, for that matter, was once an offshoot of 17th-century Dutch in South Africa but is now considered an independent language even though quite a few elements of Afrikaans, Dutch, and Flemish are mutually understandable. Malay and Indonesian are very similar, despite divergent spelling systems due to different colonial influences, yet are labelled as separate languages. I even had a linguistics professor who used to refer to Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as a single "Scandinavian" language because of the high degree of common features and mutual intelligibility, yet the three languages are usually regarded as separate.

In contrast, a number of English dialects may not be mutually comprehensible. How easy would it be for a native English speaker from rural Appalachia, USA to be readily understood by a native English speaker from Yorkshire, UK? Within Canada, native English speakers from Ontario sometimes have trouble understanding native English speakers from Newfoundland. Yet these dialects, despite any trouble in comprehension, are all considered English. By the same token, French-speaking Canadians and speakers of European varieties of French occasionally have comprehension difficulties, and similar issues may arise between speakers of various dialects of Spanish in Europe and Latin America, yet relatively few linguists are calling for a reclassification of these dialects as separate languages.

Indeed, it seems that the fine line between dialect and language, although real, is often very subjective. Are Mandarin and Cantonese dialects of "Chinese" or separate languages?

If you're interested in listening to a variety of individuals from around the world (categorized by nationality, age, and gender) speaking a wide range of dialects and accents of English, I advise you to check out the International Dialects of English Archive at web.ku.edu/idea/index.htm. It's very interesting!

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

"Drunk" Japanese Finance Minister with Japanese Subtitles

Watch more LiveLeak videos on AOL Video

This video of the "drunk" (I put it in quotes because he didn't say he was) Finance Minister is all over the place, but this version has Japanese subtitles. So in case you don't understand drunk Japanese, you can follow what he's saying by reading the subtitles. Now I understand what the heck he was saying, because I don't understand Drunk Japanese either, especially when the vocabulary is more complicated.

The Hague is Den Haag to me

I grew up hearing about The Hague, and to me, it was always "The Hague" because I speak English and that's obviously its English name.

But when I was traveling in Asia, I met a Dutch guy who kept talking about "Den Haag", and I had no idea what he was talking about until someone gave me the English name: The Hague.

A lot of people probably know the Dutch name, but I didn't, plus I had spent a while in Japan, so the priority was to learn Japanese, not Dutch.

But what's weird is that ever since I met that Dutch guy, now whenever I hear "The Hague" in a news report or whatever, it sounds unnatural because I've gotten used to its "native" name. And what makes it more odd is that I've only spent one day in the Netherlands, and have never studied Dutch. So why does "Den Haag" stick in my mind, even though I only talked to that Dutch guy once?

Want to write, but afraid

I'm sure there are a handful of people out there who've been reading this blog for a while, and there were times in the past when I wanted to really whine about writing fiction, how hard and lonely it was, how I want to be published, etc. I posted such complaints here, but I really didn't let my true feelings show because I would've sounded really pitiful.

Well now that I've gotten some exposure as to why certain books sell and how they get media attention, thus sales and readers, I figured there really is no point in trying to write fiction anymore because I'll never get published.

But amazingly, I still want to! So what do I do? Write with the realization that it might never find an audience? Or just ignore the desire and move on?

It really hit me today, especially because I haven't written any fiction in a while: I really want to write it! And I have a good story (I've finished two novels, neither of which are marketable). So should I try? I don't know!

I've wanted to write something all day, and I didn't do anything, because I'm afraid that it will be more effort that will be "wasted"--ie, it won't become concrete, just more of the same dream. But I've really ignored that creative part of myself, so I should just do it.

Okay, rant over--I will most likely do it tomorrow, because I have to go to bed soon to wake up in the middle of the night for more radio enjoyment.

Constructed International Auxiliary Languages

In my last post I wrote about lingua francas, languages used to facilitate communication between groups that speak different languages. An interesting development to this end is the rise of constructed languages that are expressly created (as opposed to natural languages that are born “naturally”) to bridge communication gaps.

Examples of these languages include the auxiliary languages Interlingua and the better-known Esperanto. Both languages are highly regular and lack the complex gender, case, and verbal inflection systems that can stymie language learners. Interlingua and Esperanto are based heavily on Latin languages and Greek and are thus relatively easy for speakers of most western European languages to learn. The goal is to improve understanding and potentially foster peace through the use of a neutral second language (not designed to replace anyone’s first language) without political bias. Interestingly, the very Indo-European basis for Interlingua and Esperanto has been criticized for being a bias in itself, as it makes both languages very Euro-centric in structure and in psychology, which may put non-western speakers at a disadvantage. Even more interestingly, a number of these critics have seemingly adopted English, both a European language and a language with national and political connotations, as an international second language.

While a number of attempts at constructed languages have been made since ancient times, the first in modern times to gain any international attention was Volapük in the late 19th century, quickly eclipsed by Esperanto, with Interlingua being created in the mid-20th century. Esperanto, which was promoted rather widely, was hindered by the outbreak of two world wars, as well as the increasing use of English, already spoken as a first language by a large segment of the industrialized world’s population, in the role Esperanto was designed to fill. Although not as successful as it had been hoped, there are still perhaps one million Esperantists around the globe, including between 200 and 2000 children of enthusiastic Esperantists who have been taught Esperanto as a native language.

In addition to serving as linguistic bridges, constructed languages may assist in the second-language learning process in general. A number of studies and projects, including Springboard2languages in the UK, have suggested that children who learn Esperanto as their first “second language” find it easier to learn natural second languages later on. Esperanto is thought to be particularly suitable as a “taste of a foreign language” due to its regularity and logical “building-block” approach to creating words through roots and affixes, so the acquisition of Esperanto seems to require less time and difficulty.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

I love Japanese

I take Japanese once a week, and sometimes I'm so tired from work and my brain has been stretched to the point where trying to stuff Japanese in there might end up tearing it open.

But then when I look at the Japanese text, the kanji looks friendly instead of its usual scary self, and I love learning new vocabulary, even though I tend to forget it if I don't see it again for a while.

I guess that studying Japanese can be a very enjoyable diversion even though it's a brain-bender because it's stimulating and uses a part of my brain that I don't tend to use elsewhere. Not that the process is easy, but it's just really enjoyable.

New language site wants feedback

Jason, a language fan, contacted me to ask me about my language pursuits, and he told me about a language site that he's developed (still in the beta stage, I think) called Sanbit which has lots of stuff going on: essays, vocabulary, games, audio, etc. He wants people to try it out, and he's open to feedback and ideas that will help him make the site better.

He's really into language--he's learning Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time (!) and when he said he was Chinese-American, I assumed he had some exposure to the language already, but he said his parents don't speak any Chinese. So he's had to start from scratch, just like the rest of us struggling Americans.

So if you want to help shape an interesting site, check it out. I've posted the introductory video below as well.

Congee disappointment

I was very happy to see mixed congee return to the Japanese store near where I work, even though I wasn't happy about the increased price. But I bought one anyway, and was going to do a glowing post about how great it was to once again consume congee whenever I wanted, but when I opened the can, it looked really watery.

I've had homemade congee, so I know that it's often like that, but the one in the can which I've bought many times was more glutinous, which is why I liked it. When it's not, I feel like I'm eating a drink that has bits of stuff in it. That's no fun.

So I'm wondering if the company that makes it has changed their recipe, or if I got an off can. Now I'm not so sure I want to shell out more money only to experience more congee disappointment :(

I'm going to a TV station!

It doesn't seem like a big deal and maybe I'm too excited about it, but I'm going to get a tour of a local TV news station by one of the anchors there. We've never met in person, just corresponded via email for work stuff, and I suggested we say "hello" in person and he offered a tour, so I said "YES"!

I've only had one other tour of a TV station, and that was the local PBS affiliate, but that was only because I was volunteering there. This is different because I'll get to get an insider's perspective and probably see areas that the public doesn't get to see.

I think I'm excited because I've been in a handful of radio stations, and at this point it's no big deal. I work in a radio station every day and even work with someone who's quite well-known locally. But TV? That's not my world and I don't know anyone who works in it, so it's cool to me!

I am really looking forward to it! Maybe I can take pictures and post them here!

When mom became mum

I came upon an article in the Daily Mail (which seems chock-full of gossip and trashy news that probably gets them a lot of readers thus advertising money) about typical over-exposed, self-indulgent American actors who have been together for a record-breaking few years.

I noticed in the article something that is definitely more British than American: the use of the word "mum" instead of "mom": "My friends were always a little bit older and when I was young, I spent a lot of time with my mum and her friends."

I doubt he really used "mum" because we *never* use that word, unless an American is a British-wannabe or has spent a lot of time over there and it's slipped into their language use. So they probably changed it for their British readers.

Radio is heartbreaking

I can honestly say that I can do a lot of different jobs, but I totally love working in radio, and I've been working in it for a few years. Especially now (because of syndication and consolidation) it's very competitive, so you have to work extra hard to prove excellence.

Thousands of people have been laid off within the past year, and since deregulation in the mid-90's, legions of people have been laid off--tens of thousands of people. I've met people who've been in radio for years, and they really seem like survivors. A coworker who works in the business side of it said that once it's in your blood, you don't want to leave, no matter what you're doing in it.

People love it so much that when they're laid off or can no longer live on the measly money they earn, they're so devastated, I really think they need counseling. I don't know why radio creates such passion in people, especially because it's dying out, and you'd think that people would want to pursue other media. But there's something about it that makes people want to devote their lives to it. It's not a cult, just a total passion.

A couple of years ago when I hit a dead-end in radio and thought I'd have to leave, I wrote the piece below, thinking that radio is like unrequited love. At this point, I'd say it's heartbreaking, because since that time I've experienced some success in one of the most active radio towns in the world, so I'd say I'm no longer experiencing unrequited love. But I'd say I'm once again feeling heartbreak.

Working in radio is like being in love with someone who doesn't have time for you.

You meet, and you totally fall in love. You proclaim your love for it, and promise to remain faithful forever. You give it all your time and your energy, you give your heart, and then it turns its back on you. It gives you promises, but it doesn't totally deliver. It pulls you along, occasionally giving you scraps of what you want, but it never wants to truly satisfy you, and knows it doesn't have to because it knows that you will be there for it, no matter how badly it treats you. But you still follow it around, hoping that one day it will love you back in the same way you love it. But it won't. And it never wanted to. It just made you think it was there for you so that you could become its slave.

Being in love with radio is unrequited love. Or receiving just enough love to keep you going, hoping that it will return what you've given it. But it's never enough. And never will be. Because it's selfish and doesn't care. And never will.

You try to talk with it about your relationship, but it won't listen. And then you try to give up and walk away, but it calls your name, and you return, just to ignore you. You offer flowers and gifts, but it just tramples on them, then looks for someone else to use.

Working in radio can break your heart.

Happy Valentine's Day, Radio!

Lingua francas

Lingua francas (or "vehicular languages") have been very useful since they have provided a means for linguistically diverse populations to communicate. Although lingua francas have existed since ancient times (Greek and Latin served this purpose), the term "lingua franca" comes from the name of a pidgin language (a simplified language used as a bridge between speakers of different languages) between around 1000 and the early 1800s in the Mediterranean region. The language was also known as Sabir and was based on some of the main languages spoken in the area (the major western Romance languages at that time, as well as Greek and Arabic). It was used by a variety of individuals, ranging from sailors to pirates coming into contact with various ethnic groups. Given how long it was in use, it must have been rather successful.

These days the most obvious use of a lingua franca is English, spread around the globe through British imperialist ventures and having been promoted even more due to the economic, cultural, and political influence of several English-speaking nations. A trawl through the internet, especially international chatrooms, reveals how extensively English is used as an international second language. Curiously, English is also used by some multilingual, multiethnic nations (such as Switzerland) because it is seen as neutral and not privileging any one local language. However, it may be a matter of time before there is a backlash against English as being a non-neutral language representing undue foreign influence.

Other lingua francas through the centuries have been French (used as a diplomatic lingua franca and also a common second language in parts of Europe and many former French colonies), German (in much of central Europe and in the international scientific community, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries), Swahili (in East Africa), Russian (throughout the Soviet Union and satellite states in Eastern Europe prior to the 1990s), and Tok Pisin (a pidgin language based on Australian English that allows many of New Guinea’s ethnic groups to communicate).

It remains to be seen what the next widespread lingua franca will be.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

A good ESL book matters!

I teach English (ESL) once a week and talked about a great book that I use (English in Action) which will unfortunately be phased out because they want the entire city to use the same one (why fix something that isn't broken?!).

Since I have a crazy work schedule, I really don't want to spend a ton of time thinking of activities for the class, so I really depend on the book to guide the class, and students like it. Last semester, all of the students said in their class evaluation that they thought the "class materials" (which were just the book and workbook) were helpful.

Before this semester started, we had to go to a seminar, and an experienced teacher was giving us all these ideas to use in the classroom. If I were teaching every day, I would use other materials and activities, but for a class that meets once a week, I don't need to. And the important thing is: I don't *want* to.

Why make things more complicated? If you have a good text book, you don't have to add anything. Plus, it makes the students' purchase worthwhile. I don't like having to buy books for a class, only to find out that it's just a small part of what we'll be doing. That's a lot of money for slight use.

Canadians like this book

I just spent the week working with Austin Hill, who wrote the book White House Confidential, and I asked him how people have responded to it. Especially around this time of year, he's been able to sell a lot of copies, but what's surprising is that Canadians seem to really like it.

He told me that Canadians are fascinated with American history and are curious about our Presidents, and seem to know more about them than we do. I seriously thought that they could care less since they have a really nice country up there, but he's experienced something different.

Maybe I should interview him for this blog--he's been making the media rounds lately.

Fascinated with the British accent

I've noticed that Americans are fascinated with the British accent. I've heard of British people being told that their accent is "cool" or "pretty" or whatever when they visit or live in the US. And some Americans like the British accent so much, they'll adopt it, even if they're just spending a semester there.

But I have to admit that sometimes I am fascinated with it too--in the early morning when I go to work, I sometimes listen to BBC radio, and I will listen to an obscure expert talk about the financial markets or whatever, knowing that if it were an American, I wouldn't pay attention.

I think it's because I want to hear the different pronunciations of words that we both use, and learn new words as well.

So I'm guilty! But it's still something I notice in my fellow countrymen.

Now a company

I went to SCORE, which was set up by the Small Business Administration, to get some advice about the direction I should take if I want to publish more books (I just published an anthology called Down the Block, which is available now for purchase, and will be available everywhere later this month).

The advisor suggested I set up a company, and I just did. Seriously. So now Metrolingua is an LLC. I've been freelancing for several years, so it makes sense to put everything under an umbrella. This year, my goal is to make the money back I've spent on the anthology, but I will most likely publish another anthology later this year or early next year. So stay tuned.

btw--If you're wondering just how corrupt Illinois is, try setting up a business here--it's the most expensive state in the US to set up a business and costs hundreds of dollars, unlike other states which cost a lot less than $100. They probably charge a lot here so that the money can go into corrupt politicians' pockets and support people who don't work. Plus, I live in Chicago, which just adds more corrupt and lazy layers. But at least I managed to do something productive.

When Japanese ends up in Chinese

When I translated Japanese years ago and did a search online, I ended up on Japanese pages. But it seems like there are a lot more Chinese sites out there recently because now if I don't know a Japanese word and do a search online to find out the meaning, I keep ending up on Chinese pages that contain the same characters as the Japanese word.

For instance, I saw the word 高分子 (koubunshi) and wanted to find out how it was used in context (it means "macromolecule" and "polymer"), and hit so many Chinese pages, I had to choose the "Japanese" option to be able to find just those pages.

Maybe it's scientific and technical stuff that is more prevalent in Chinese, especially since they block so many sites and information over there, but it really shows that they've entered the digital age because they definitely have crowded out Japanese sources online.

Japanese smell site

There's a Japanese smell site called Nioibu.com ("nioi" means "smell"), which "pinpoints and describes smells from all over the world, mapping them using Google Maps."

My friend, Chris, who I met in Japanese class, was quoted in this article:

As of Tuesday, there were just four smell reports out of North America. The balloon over Chicago—near Michigan Avenue and Ontario Street—says, "A room filled with the aroma of lightly burned coffee," Chris Kelly of the Japanese Information Center in Chicago told us. "Then it goes on to say, 'All around the United States it smells like coffee you would get at offices and schools.'"

An odd but cool site--and a good way to practice Japanese!

Contronyms

One of the more curious phenomena of language is the contronym (also called an “antagonym”), which is when a word has come to represent two opposite meanings. An example of a contronym would be "sanction," which can mean either "to punish" ("the US government sanctioned Libya") or "to bless" ("their union was sanctioned by the priest"). Similarly, "to draw the curtains" could mean "to open the curtains" or "to close the curtains," depending upon the context.

Another example of a contronym might be a word that has one meaning in one dialect and the opposite meaning in another dialect. In standard US English, "to table a bill" means to remove it from consideration (such as in Congress). North of the border, in standard Canadian English, "to table a bill" means to start discussions regarding the proposed legislation. I was talking to a US immigrant to Canada, and I'd asked about a bill that was scheduled to go before Parliament. She simply answered "it was already tabled." I wasn't sure whether she meant the US meaning she had learnt when growing up or the Canadian usage to which she may have been exposed. She must have been unaware of the difference in meanings because she looked at me, somewhat exasperated, and replied, "the bill died!"

And how can we forget the slang use of the word "hell"? In the summer, Chicago can be "hotter than hell," while six months later the same city can be "colder than hell."

I suspect that these linguistic paradoxes may have developed through a process known as "semantic shift," whereby a word's meaning can change over time. For instance, a "dairy" traditionally means a place where milk-based products are produced and/or sold. In New Zealand English nowadays, a "dairy" is a convenience store, although this is not an example of a contronym.

(posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken)

My language fan friend

Back in the late 20th century, I met a great guy named Silas who was totally into languages. He studied linguistics and translated a number of languages, and spoke French and English fluently, with excellent knowledge of a lot of other languages. He and I used to talk about language often, and I didn't know anyone else who had such a love for it.

He got married and ended up moving, and I had no idea where he went until he contacted me on Facebook. If there is one person I wanted to connect with again, it was him! So it made the social networking experience worth it, even though I'm still not a total fan of such places.

It's been over a decade since I've seen him, but he's still translating and is still totally into language. So I asked him to submit something to this blog, and he'll probably do a couple posts per month. Seriously--I wouldn't want someone who didn't have such passion to post anything here, but he's the real deal.

This movie looks better than I thought

One of the books on my "favorite" list even here is The Devil Wears Prada, which I've recommended to other people who don't really like it. I don't even think I'm the "typical" reader for this book, but I really enjoyed the truth of the writing style and the story, probably because it was a thinly-veiled memoir.

When the movie came out, I decided not to see it because I really liked the book and thought the movie wouldn't measure up. Plus, Meryl Streep seemed to portray an the book's type-A boss, high-strung, elitist boss as too subdued.

But I've been watching it on TV, and it's actually a good movie. I see that Streep's treatment of the dragon-lady carries more power because everyone around her wants to please her, even though she never has to raise her voice. And the style of the movie doesn't have the tackiness I thought it would, but seems even sophisticated.

Plus, I'd never seen Anne Hathaway in a movie, just saw her image plastered everywhere because her PR machine is powerful. But she seems like a good actress with a cheerful disposition.

So I'll probably see this movie again because it ends way past my bedtime.

I joined a German social site

I was chatting with the Multilingual Teen, and I asked him if he's on Facebook. He said he's on Studivz instead, which is a student social site. It's all in German, but its sister site, Meinvz, which is for non-students, is in German and English (the British version because they use UK spelling).

At first, I was scared to join because my German now is AWFUL! And occasionally the Multilingual Teen will leave a message in German (even though he knows English perfectly) probably to help me practice German. So I've attempted to type something in Gerglish (my German and English hybrid), and it's fun.

What I really need is a German version of my favorite Japanese-learning site Popjisyo, where you can paste Japanese text to be translated for you. That way, I wouldn't have to dig deep into my dusty head to pull out the few German words that remain.

Nog

I was just in a grocery store looking for some unhealthy stuff to eat on a freezing winter night, and I noticed that they still have egg nog. It was obviously leftover from the holidays, but it didn't expire until February, so I decided to get some.

Because egg nog is too fatty for me, I looked at the lighter versions, and saw a "light egg nog", and then saw a non-fat egg nog that was just called "Nog".

That's so cute--I guess they're being honest because if they're offering a fat-free version, then perhaps the inclusion of eggs would disqualify it from being fat-free. So "Nog" is a good shortcut.

Pronunciation of tofu

I've noticed that people pronounce "tofu" like to-FU. As if there's an accent on the second syllable. Maybe they think they're speaking French or something.

The pronunciation is TO-fu, because in Japanese it's 豆腐, where the first kanji is とう (tou) so the "o" is long, and the second kanji is ふ (fu), which is a short sound.

Happy new year!

For me, it's a New Year, though I know that other countries were already celebrating when it was still the old year for me.

2008 was a great year, and I think 2009 will be even better. Thanks for visiting--I hope your new year will be good!