Well, Granada, I would not want to be you on the day THIS happened. I'm sure this is horrifying for the parties involved, but to me it seems pretty hilarious. Of all the screwed up things that you could let happen, this has to be somewhere near the top. I started wondering what the anthems sounded like, and if they sounded at all the same. I don't have the ability to listen to them at the moment, but I've managed to round up the national anthem of China and the national anthem of Taiwan from The National Anthems.net. They don't really sound at all the same to me.
China Anthem
Taiwan Anthem
(Please note that the above files are being hosted on my own server, and if you're reading this a good while after I posted it they could have been deleted on one of my whims. If the other site is still up you should be able to find them at the source.)
So, now that I've been talking about things sounding the same...
Color Time:
I love puns. It doesn't matter if they're terrible or clever, I just love them all. Now some of these you may have heard, and some you may not. Just bear with me here. One of these is one I made up myself so unless I just happened to come up with the same idea as someone else I hope you haven't heard it. It's bad enough that I don't think anyone got to it before me. Here we go.
1. "Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a footsore callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis!" (I still think that was clever.)
2. This comes from me watching Abbott and Costello, though I don't think they originated it:
"Man: Excuse me, but I ordered a strawberry sundae. When am I going to get it?
Costello: Well what day is it today?
Man: Friday...
Costello: Then you got two more days to wait."
3. "There was a man who entered a local paper's pun contest. He sent in ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did."
4. "A hungry lion was roaming through the jungle looking for something to eat. He came across two men. One was sitting under a tree and reading a book; the other was typing away on his typewriter. The lion quickly pounced on the man reading the book and devoured him. Even the king of the jungle knows that readers digest and writers cramp." (I didn't think that one was very good, but I included it because it was somewhat English-related.)
5. "Some people think that when you go from high school to college you stop riding a bus. Well, that's just not true. You just move to the silly bus." (Yeah, that was mine. I told you it was bad.)
I'm going to stop now before I hurt someone.
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Friday, February 9, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Dead as Disco
So I guess this is what it's all about, then.
As Latin Lay Dying
I found this whole perspective to be a bit odd. Here I was figuring it had already been dead for some time now. Anyway, I do find it rather sad because Latin is a language I've always wanted to learn, but never had any good opportunities to. If it had been offered in my high school I definitely would have taken it. Unfortunately near the end of my high school career all that was being offered was Spanish, which I somehow managed to avoid despite needing two years of a foreign language to come here. It took post secondary and internet classes to pull it off.
The idea of thinking in a language that Father Foster points out is one I've often thought about. It's unfortunate that I do not see the time in my future to do much about learning another language, especially one that would allow me to read some of my favorite books (many of which are in German, Japanese, or Chinese) in their native language.
But forget about Europe and dead languages. America can't even get the modern ones right, it seems. My high school experience has really soured me to the whole thing. I know Spanish is like the unofficial second language of the United States and everything, but a little choice might be nice. In an area where culture can be quite important, I have to wonder where the classes in Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages are. And all this is important, because learning a language on your own is not easy; I've tried.
So that's it, I guess. The one positive thing is there is a very real effort keeping Native American languages alive. A lot of people I know were able to take and enjoy that part of their heritage. I wonder how many of us others would take that chance if they were given it.
Color Time:
There's been a strange crash-bang sound coming from my walls today. Some part of me tells me that it's always been there, but today it has really started bugging me. My running theory is it has something to do with the plumbing or heating. All I know is I'll just be sitting here when it just happens and scares the crap out of me. Maybe my room is haunted and the ghosts are telling me to take out the trash. I should probably do that.
As Latin Lay Dying
I found this whole perspective to be a bit odd. Here I was figuring it had already been dead for some time now. Anyway, I do find it rather sad because Latin is a language I've always wanted to learn, but never had any good opportunities to. If it had been offered in my high school I definitely would have taken it. Unfortunately near the end of my high school career all that was being offered was Spanish, which I somehow managed to avoid despite needing two years of a foreign language to come here. It took post secondary and internet classes to pull it off.
The idea of thinking in a language that Father Foster points out is one I've often thought about. It's unfortunate that I do not see the time in my future to do much about learning another language, especially one that would allow me to read some of my favorite books (many of which are in German, Japanese, or Chinese) in their native language.
But forget about Europe and dead languages. America can't even get the modern ones right, it seems. My high school experience has really soured me to the whole thing. I know Spanish is like the unofficial second language of the United States and everything, but a little choice might be nice. In an area where culture can be quite important, I have to wonder where the classes in Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages are. And all this is important, because learning a language on your own is not easy; I've tried.
So that's it, I guess. The one positive thing is there is a very real effort keeping Native American languages alive. A lot of people I know were able to take and enjoy that part of their heritage. I wonder how many of us others would take that chance if they were given it.
Color Time:
There's been a strange crash-bang sound coming from my walls today. Some part of me tells me that it's always been there, but today it has really started bugging me. My running theory is it has something to do with the plumbing or heating. All I know is I'll just be sitting here when it just happens and scares the crap out of me. Maybe my room is haunted and the ghosts are telling me to take out the trash. I should probably do that.
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