On maintaining political correctness when other people’s languages still sound funny
New Mexico, USA — Christmas, 1978. In the wrapping paper-strewn living room of grandma’s house, after the midday dinner, the adults are engaged in the safe banter of nostalgia, the children, including nine-year-old syz, engrossed in the newly acquired toys, tools and trinkets.
There is no [...]
On the ineffable act of naming, the Beijing-R dissected by the white coats, and the ultimate BeijingerSometimes convergence happens. Not the dream where you’re listening to God Save the Queen belted out by a punk cover band in your company’s cafeteria, talking to Grandma Gertrude about Suzie (who you liked in high school) who’s supposed [...]
On Beizzhing v. Bay-Jing oddsmaking and how English speakers are finally going to pronounce the name of this city anyway
By this time you’ve heard from their mothers and their aunts. You might as well admit it: you’re addicted. You’ve been watching the human interest pieces, lapping up the sappy music, the soft lighting, the black-and-white [...]
On Mandarin learning challenges, the definition of language, and the best taxi-driver critique of hànzì ever recorded.
You’ll be forgiven if you missed the pins-and-needles press conference of foreign minister (wàijiāobùzhǎng, 外交部长) Yáng Jiéchí 杨洁篪 a couple of weeks ago (hat tip to Joel Martinsen at Danwei).
[Note from syz] Following up on exotic claims for tongue-twisting, deep-in-the-nasal-passages Beijing consonants, I’m pleased to present Beijing Sounds’ very first guest post. Or maybe we should call it an outpost, as our intrepid author, frequent BJS commenter, Sima, currently resides in the frigid northeast. In any case, although he doesn’t feature Beijing-R, [...]
No, it’s not sex industry, just sexy běijīnghuà. Who’s responsible for the cheap headline tricks? Blame sexybeijing.tv…
Why had I never come across SexyBeijing.tv before last week?! The hostess, Anna Sophie Loewenberg aka Su Fei, is both forever-single and singular. Whether it’s her sundresses, pretty darned good běijīnghuà, or disarmingly candid questions and commentary — she [...]
I happened to have lunch the other day with some university students, a couple of Guangdongers and a Shanghainese, in one of those Rolex-Louis Vuitton malls that clutter central Beijing, the kind where shopgirls outnumber customers 23 to 1 on gleaming floor after floor of luxury goods, until you get to the food court and [...]
An earlier post mentioned no tense in Mandarin as a bonus for the second language learner. It compared Romance languages and English. Now you can be happy you’re not learning Fyem, which I just came across here:
“Fyem, spoken in Nigeria, has, as well as a past tense, tenses for precisely yesterday and precisely earlier [...]
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Posted 28 December 2007
† syz
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From the recent deluge of email*
Dear SYZ: Is it unfathomably hard to learn Chinese, or is it actually laughably easy?
- Tone-deaf in Dōngzhímén
Dear TD in DZM
I feel your confusion. Daily. The short answer is, Yes. Another common answer is “Go to hell” (if you happen to ask someone who has just misread 农 for 衣 [...]
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