Language Log

For at least the past few thousand years, people have been thinking and debating about what "education" should be like, what its goals should be, and who should get (what kinds of) it.

Among many other issues, there's the question of whether educational content is preparation for actual use in later life, or part of incorporation into a shared culture, or just an exercise to demonstrate adequate intelligence and discipline and attentiveness. Yesterday's Frazz:

A recent cartoon by Tom Gauld:

A recent xkcd:

Mouseover title: "169 is a baker's gross."

SMBC from a couple of days ago:

I am the proud possessor of the complete run of Mangajin (pun for "magazine") from #1-#70 (1988-1997).

Mangajin was the brainchild of Vaughan P. Simmons, whom I had conversations with at several meetings of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and corresponded with for a dozen years.  I have utmost respect for him as someone who had the vision and fortitude to make a truly effective pedagogical tool for learning Japanese a reality.

I dare say that I learned more Japanese language from Mangajin than from any other single source — just as I learned more Mandarin from Guóyǔ rìbào 國語日報 (Mandarin Daily), the Republic of China newspaper that had furigana-like bopomofo rubi phonetic annotations for all hanzi, than from any other single source.

Today's SMBC:

The mouseover title: "If you mix beer and oatmeal, it's Frat Brose."

Tuesday's Frazz:

A recent xkcd:

Mouseover title: "AAAAAA A ÃA̧AȂA̦ ǍÅÂÃĀÁȂ AAAAAAA!"

Yesterday's Frazz:

Caulfield's joke illustrates several interesting linguistic points.

Well, approximately as much as lexicography does…

The current Dinosaur Comics:

Today's xkcd:

Mouseover title: "Can you pass the nackle?"

Marketoonist (3/26/23):

Today's xkcd:

Mouseover title: "You may notice the first half of these instructions are similar to the instructions for a working nuclear fusion device. After the first few dozen steps, be sure to press down firmly and fold quickly to overcome fusion pressure."