2757: More Than Words
Huh. From Marilyn:Which is the easiest major language for a child to learn?
-John Legere, Lancaster, Pa.
Probably Spanish, because the grammar is mostly regular, the spelling is straightforward, and the words are easy to pronounce. But for an adult who just wants to be bilingual-and doesn't mind not being understood at parties-you could learn Taki-Taki (spoken in Suriname). It has only a few hundred words. By contrast, English has the most words of any language: about 250,000.
I imagine it's from English having SO MANY SYNONYMS for the same damn concept, like... how many words do we have for "cute"? [...ignoring that Thesaurus.com doesn't recognize the word] adorable, attractive, beauteous, beautiful, comely, darling, enchanting, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, handsome, lovable, lovely, pulchritudinous [XDXDXD], precious, ravishing, stunning, sweet, etc. Yet in Japanese, there's--as best I know--only kawaii [かわいい] and MAYBE kirei [きれい, "pretty"], which may be why anyone with a lick of actual Japanese language skill gets tired of the word really fast =p
Further adding to the learning curve, I've found inconsistencies in the English language that I've simply taken as read when growing up but which seem peculiar on closer inspection. For instance:What is the plural of mongoose?
This was, in fact, presented as a riddle, because most people unfamiliar with what a mongoose is in the first place will extrapolate from goose --> geese, therefore mongoose --> mongeese, but this is incorrect under proper usage.* [mongooses]
*though once I did see "mongeese" in one of those really awful comics they run in the papers now
This is similar to saying, "What is the plural of mouse? Mice." Okay. "What is the plural of louse? Lice." Okay. "What is the plural of house? Hice." Uh... "What is the plural of spouse? Spice." \='
I understand the use of a/an, because saying, "a elephant" is comparably hard to do, so the introduction of "an before a noun beginning with a vowel sound" alleviates the tongue-twistiness a bit. However, this introduces problems like "a whole nother" and "an ought" that grate on my nerves--it's either "a whole other" or "another whole"! And "an ought/aught" [as used to mean zero] is a mishearing of "a nought/naught."
Also, I don't quite get the British "herbs/(h)istory" to the American "(h)erbs/history" (silent) pronunciations of the initial H. Get consistent, forks! All or none, peas =( Then again, British vs. American English just complicates the problem, dunnit? Like learning ALL of the Chinese dialects :p
But this is our living language, and I guess English is the most alive of all of them, as Marilyn shows. Yet I can't wrap my brain around certain concepts that have seemingly become acceptable for what reason.
Anecdote: I was invited to a chatroom where Guy [I'll say] had arranged for Sheilah [I'll say] to join the chat at a certain time. Neither Guy nor I knew Sheilah except by name and reputation, but it was interesting getting to chat with her all the same. At the end of the chat when she had to leave, Guy told Sheilah, "It was great to meet you."
?o_o?
I know the phrase "We met online," and it makes sense in passing, but in this usage, it doesn't, even if Guy used it in the way he perceived as correct. If this had been a conference call instead, I wouldn't have said, "It was great to meet you," because I hadn't--talking on the phone doesn't equal a coming into each other's physical presence, which is what "to meet" suggests. A chatroom is a step further removed from talking on the phone, because people aren't necessarily who they say they are on the computer [someone could be taking dictation for another for all anyone knows]. So how can I say "we met online" of people I've never met?
As for me, I guess I don't. "I discovered Sheilah online" would make a little more sense in my strides towards accuracy, and I guess I would only say "We met online" when speaking of WoW or something like that [as unlikely as that is].
Yet just because something isn't incorrect doesn't mean it won't bother me--though, as I've pointed out, there's a difference between not liking something and "having a problem" with it, suggesting it needs correction. It's not something that's going to bother me less with repetition, either. That's the funny thing about repetition: it can make something awful more tolerable [happened to me on occasion], or it can make something tolerable really difficult to stand--something I noticed with the "Rick Rolling" phenomenon, even if I haven't reached the "used to like but can't stand" stage yet.
I received the DS USB Wi-Fi adapter, and--as I'd feared--I have to install a driver to get it to work. Basically, any computer on which I would have no problem installing the driver, I may as well use the computer itself, rather than my DS. Ungh =/ I was hoping for stealth Wi-Fi on the work computers, but it looks like I'm in for a long stretch of not winning the LC...
I did look at the upgrades for my phone, though. Not bad, I guess, though I'm still hesitant to pay even more money to get something I won't use all that much. I'm easier off tampering with the security at work... T_T if not better off =p
Also, "awfully good" and "pretty ugly"--oxymorons? =B DAMN THIS ENGRISH
-John Legere, Lancaster, Pa.
Probably Spanish, because the grammar is mostly regular, the spelling is straightforward, and the words are easy to pronounce. But for an adult who just wants to be bilingual-and doesn't mind not being understood at parties-you could learn Taki-Taki (spoken in Suriname). It has only a few hundred words. By contrast, English has the most words of any language: about 250,000.
I imagine it's from English having SO MANY SYNONYMS for the same damn concept, like... how many words do we have for "cute"? [...ignoring that Thesaurus.com doesn't recognize the word] adorable, attractive, beauteous, beautiful, comely, darling, enchanting, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, handsome, lovable, lovely, pulchritudinous [XDXDXD], precious, ravishing, stunning, sweet, etc. Yet in Japanese, there's--as best I know--only kawaii [かわいい] and MAYBE kirei [きれい, "pretty"], which may be why anyone with a lick of actual Japanese language skill gets tired of the word really fast =p
Further adding to the learning curve, I've found inconsistencies in the English language that I've simply taken as read when growing up but which seem peculiar on closer inspection. For instance:What is the plural of mongoose?
This was, in fact, presented as a riddle, because most people unfamiliar with what a mongoose is in the first place will extrapolate from goose --> geese, therefore mongoose --> mongeese, but this is incorrect under proper usage.* [mongooses]
*though once I did see "mongeese" in one of those really awful comics they run in the papers now
This is similar to saying, "What is the plural of mouse? Mice." Okay. "What is the plural of louse? Lice." Okay. "What is the plural of house? Hice." Uh... "What is the plural of spouse? Spice." \='
I understand the use of a/an, because saying, "a elephant" is comparably hard to do, so the introduction of "an before a noun beginning with a vowel sound" alleviates the tongue-twistiness a bit. However, this introduces problems like "a whole nother" and "an ought" that grate on my nerves--it's either "a whole other" or "another whole"! And "an ought/aught" [as used to mean zero] is a mishearing of "a nought/naught."
Also, I don't quite get the British "herbs/(h)istory" to the American "(h)erbs/history" (silent) pronunciations of the initial H. Get consistent, forks! All or none, peas =( Then again, British vs. American English just complicates the problem, dunnit? Like learning ALL of the Chinese dialects :p
But this is our living language, and I guess English is the most alive of all of them, as Marilyn shows. Yet I can't wrap my brain around certain concepts that have seemingly become acceptable for what reason.
Anecdote: I was invited to a chatroom where Guy [I'll say] had arranged for Sheilah [I'll say] to join the chat at a certain time. Neither Guy nor I knew Sheilah except by name and reputation, but it was interesting getting to chat with her all the same. At the end of the chat when she had to leave, Guy told Sheilah, "It was great to meet you."
?o_o?
I know the phrase "We met online," and it makes sense in passing, but in this usage, it doesn't, even if Guy used it in the way he perceived as correct. If this had been a conference call instead, I wouldn't have said, "It was great to meet you," because I hadn't--talking on the phone doesn't equal a coming into each other's physical presence, which is what "to meet" suggests. A chatroom is a step further removed from talking on the phone, because people aren't necessarily who they say they are on the computer [someone could be taking dictation for another for all anyone knows]. So how can I say "we met online" of people I've never met?
As for me, I guess I don't. "I discovered Sheilah online" would make a little more sense in my strides towards accuracy, and I guess I would only say "We met online" when speaking of WoW or something like that [as unlikely as that is].
Yet just because something isn't incorrect doesn't mean it won't bother me--though, as I've pointed out, there's a difference between not liking something and "having a problem" with it, suggesting it needs correction. It's not something that's going to bother me less with repetition, either. That's the funny thing about repetition: it can make something awful more tolerable [happened to me on occasion], or it can make something tolerable really difficult to stand--something I noticed with the "Rick Rolling" phenomenon, even if I haven't reached the "used to like but can't stand" stage yet.
I received the DS USB Wi-Fi adapter, and--as I'd feared--I have to install a driver to get it to work. Basically, any computer on which I would have no problem installing the driver, I may as well use the computer itself, rather than my DS. Ungh =/ I was hoping for stealth Wi-Fi on the work computers, but it looks like I'm in for a long stretch of not winning the LC...
I did look at the upgrades for my phone, though. Not bad, I guess, though I'm still hesitant to pay even more money to get something I won't use all that much. I'm easier off tampering with the security at work... T_T if not better off =p
Also, "awfully good" and "pretty ugly"--oxymorons? =B DAMN THIS ENGRISH