Archive for Language
November 17, 2008 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Entertainment, food, Language, Health, Law, Sport, Society
Publishing company Jiyu Kokuminsha has released its annual list of the 60 most popular Japanese catchwords and phrases of the year. This diverse collection of expressions highlights many of the events, trends and people that caught the attention of the Japanese mass media in 2008.
From this list, a panel of judges will select the 2008 Japanese catchphrase of the year (and 10 runners-up) and announce the winners on December 1. The expressions are listed below in no particular order.
* * * * *
1. Guerrilla rainstorm (gerira gōu - ゲリラ豪雨): Sudden, unpredictable rainstorms struck Japan with alarming frequency and intensity this year. Although the expression “guerrilla rainstorm” has been in use for about 30 years, this summer’s abnormally unstable weather really hammered home the meaning.
2. Dumb characters (obaka-kyara - おバカキャラ): “Dumb characters,” a.k.a. “dumb idols” (obaka-aidoru - おバカアイドル), are entertainers loved for their lack of brains. Nobody better embodies […]
Original post by Edo
November 17, 2008 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Entertainment, food, Language, Health, Law, Sport, Society
Publishing company Jiyu Kokuminsha has released its annual list of the 60 most popular Japanese catchwords and phrases of the year. This diverse collection of expressions highlights many of the events, trends and people that caught the attention of the Japanese mass media in 2008.
From this list, a panel of judges will select the 2008 Japanese catchphrase of the year (and 10 runners-up) and announce the winners on December 1. The expressions are listed below in no particular order.
* * * * *
1. Guerrilla rainstorm (gerira gōu - ゲリラ豪雨): Sudden, unpredictable rainstorms struck Japan with alarming frequency and intensity this year. Although the expression “guerrilla rainstorm” has been in use for about 30 years, this summer’s abnormally unstable weather really hammered home the meaning.
2. Dumb characters (obaka-kyara - おバカキャラ): “Dumb characters,” a.k.a. “dumb idols” (obaka-aidoru - おバカアイドル), are entertainers loved for their lack of brains. Nobody better embodies […]
Original post by Edo
November 6, 2008 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Language
Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder that affects growing children, who find it inexplicably difficult to pick up the spoken language skills that their peers acquire so effortlessly. Autism is another (perhaps more familiar) developmental disorder and many autistic children also have problems in picking up normal speech and communication. These two conditions have a common theme of language difficulties running through them, but a new study reveals a deeper connection - both are linked to a gene called CNTNAP2.
The story of CNTNAP2 actually begins with another gene, whose name will be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the genetics of language - FOXP2. Earlier this year, I wrote a long feature on the history of FOXP2 for New Scientist, but here’s a potted version.
FOXP2 was catapulted into the limelight earlier this decade when it became the first gene to be linked to an inherited language […]
Original post by Ed Yong none@example.com
October 30, 2008 at 3:20 pm · Filed under Language
Looking at a map of Stockholm’s suburbs, you find a swarm of place names denoting housing areas. The housing is almost entirely 20th century. But many of the names go back a thousand years or more. Today they’re all just suburbs. But not so long ago, all of these names were part of a hierarchical nomenclature, a ladder of names. The names on the ladder’s top rung denoted parishes and were used throughout the county. On the second rung down were the names of farmsteads, used among the surrounding few parishes, and among wayfarers in cases where a farmstead happened to be located on a major road. But many of Stockholm’s suburbs are on the third rung down: their names denoted parts of a farmstead’s lands and were only used among the surrounding few farmsteads.
I’m reading Per Vikstrand’s new book about the place names of southern Öland. Today I learned […]
Original post by Martin R none@example.com
September 4, 2008 at 10:31 am · Filed under food, Language, Art, Wearable, Society
Anata to wa chigau n desu (”I am different from you”). In the few short days since Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda uttered these words to a pesky reporter after his shock resignation, Japan has witnessed the birth of a new buzz phrase online.
At the end of the press conference following Fukuda’s resignation, a Chugoku Shimbun reporter told the Prime Minister that many people thought he often seemed detached when he spoke, almost as if the problems facing Japan were none of his business. The reporter suggested that Fukuda also sounded distant in his resignation announcement and asked what impact he thought his sudden resignation (which comes just one year after previous Prime Minister Abe suddenly resigned) would have on the country. Seemingly perturbed, Fukuda fired back at the reporter: “You said I sounded detached, but I am able to see myself objectively. I’m different from you.”
Fukuda’s jarringly out-of-character […]
Original post by Edo
August 11, 2008 at 5:43 pm · Filed under funny, Language, Short Funny Jokes, chinese, jokes, laugh, best, literal, phrase, pronunciation, translate
Learning Chinese is interesting, especially when you translate it. LITERALLY. Try these phrases for fun. I will let you try the first one. Read the Chinese pronunciation as you would, literally.
Ai Bang Mai Ne = I bumped into the coffee table
Get it?
Ai = I
Bang = bang
Mai = my
Ne = knee
Now do you get it? So try the rest and have a good laugh!
Ar U Wun Tu = A gay liberation greeting
Chin Tu Fat = You need a face lift
Dum Gai = A stupid person
Gun Pao Der = An ancient Chinese invention
Hu Flung Dung = Which one of you fertilized the field?
Hu Yu Hai Ding = We have reason to believe you are harboring a fugitive
Jan Ne Ka Sun = A former late night talk show host
Kum Hia = Approach me
Lao Zi = Not very good
Lin Ching = An illegal execution
Moon Lan Ding = Achievement of the American space […]
Original post by Pamela
January 2, 2008 at 11:24 am · Filed under Language, Cartoon & Comic
Billy Mavreas of yesway blog has a neat collection of some wonderful illustrations by Lloyd Scott for Using Our Language, a 1942 grammar book for fifth and eight graders.
This one below is my favorite, just because it has chimps:
Who knew grammar could be this much fun? Lots more here: Link 1 | 2
Original post by Alex
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