I've been going through old boxes of paper, looking for (the very small fraction of) stuff that I want to keep, and recycling the rest. I'm uncovering many interesting memories, as well as a few things that I have no recollection of at all. Representing the latter category is a faded xerox of the cartoon […]
This one amounts to a Sinitic spoonerism. In his major July 1 speech celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CCP, Xi Jinping wanted to impress people with this set phrase: yízhǐqìshǐ 頤指氣使 / 颐指气使 lit. "chin / jaw / cheek — point out / at [with a finger] — haughty attitude / bearing — command […]
I just watched a video of a man interviewing people in Washington Square Park, New York. He asked each of them a series of leading questions about why they were still wearing masks outside when it was so hot and they had all been vaccinated, and some of them had even contracted the disease and […]
Japanese giggle words Daniel Morales has a fun article in Japan Times (7/2/21): "‘PPAP,’ ‘golden jewels’ and other words that make the Japanese giggle". It begins: Unintentional comedy is actually relatively easy to pull off. All you have to do is trip and fall. Intentionally getting a laugh, on the other hand, takes practice. Especially […]
Tweet thread by Rix@Reitoji9 CALLING ALL CHINESE AUTISTICS! The current chinese word for autism is 自閉症 (lit. self, closed, disease). I am looking for a community effort into creating a new word in chinese that is far more positive. Please post suggestions. If you are not chinese, retweets are appreciated! — Rix (@Reitoji9) June 30, […]
[This is a guest post by Tom Mazanec] I recently became curious about the origins of the Cantonese word king1 gai2 傾偈 ("to chat"). Though I've never formally studied Cantonese, I'm picking up bits of it from my wife and in-laws, who moved to the U.S. from Guangzhou about 30 years ago and use Cantonese […]
From Kris V.: The attached image is of a door in the LRSM building on Penn's campus this morning. The sign in the upper right made me think of your recent Language Log post about "emergent". It's probably just a typo, but I didn't hang around to see what might emerge from the door.
Tom Mazanec saw an announcement of a course in Hong Kong, in which the teacher, Dr. Lai Chi Fung 黎智豐, proposes to teach Classical Chinese by focusing on vocabulary for everyday use, just as if one were learning a foreign language. So you learn greetings, introductions, and the like. The idea intrigued Tom, especially since […]
Amanda D'Ambrosio, "Mayo Physician Fired Over COVID Book", MedPage Today 6/24/2021: After publishing a book about his experience on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, a physician was fired from his position at the Mayo Clinic this month, he confirmed to MedPage Today. Steven Weiss, MD, an internist who practiced at the clinic's Eau Claire, […]
After reading "Bad poetry, bad translation" (6/18/21), Zihan Guo wrote: Thank you for sharing this post. While reading it, its comments, and all the selected readings related to it, I could not help but feel that translating classical Chinese poetry is the way to make sure one really understands it. Back in middle school and […]
From Julian Hook: I don’t suppose nominations are still open for Best Attachment Ambiguity of 1920, but if they are, I’d like to nominate this historical marker in Galena, Illinois.
Carl Zimmer, brother of our own Ben Zimmer, has an article in the New York Times (6/25/21) about an important archeological find in China: "Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ Skull in China May Add Species to Human Family Tree" It's about this fellow, who has been dubbed "Dragon Man", and thereby hangs a tale: Artist's impression […]