I just read a provocative essay by David Moser entitled “Why Chinese is so damn hard.” Is it really that hard? And are we talking about speaking Chinese or reading it? Hard compared to what? Hard for a foreigner or… Read More ›
By the way, MapLoco, someone should tell you that Puerto Rico is part of the United States and not a separate country, no what what Donald Trump thinks. Other than that (and a couple of other similar gaffes), this is… Read More ›
Barbara and I had an excellent dinner last night at Dorchester’s Yellow Door Taqueria, easily found by looking for… of course… the yellow door. I know that many people consider this a bar rather than a restaurant, but it’s successfully… Read More ›
One of the first things any article about sisu will tell you is that this Finnish word is untranslatable. (https://finland.fi/arts-culture/sisu-within-finnish-key-life-love-success/) ‘Sisu’ in Finnish means strength, perseverance in a task that for some may seem crazy to undertake, almost hopeless. (http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180502-sisu-the-finnish-art-of-inner-strength)… Read More ›
Hmmm… Math teacher Bowman Dickson has gathered some statistics on the frequencies of various words used by teachers of various subjects in their report-card comments on high-school students. Here’s one of his charts: The phrase “more common” in the data above… Read More ›
It’s too bad he isn’t a very plausible candidate: look at that hat! (If you don’t recognize him, that’s Democratic candidate for president Andrew Yang.)
As Tom Lehrer famously said, “the reason most reviews on Amazon are so atrocious is that they were written by the people.” Actually, that’s not quite what he said. He actually said “the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is… Read More ›
Read and enjoy this book! Don’t argue: just do it. You’ll learn a lot and will have fun along the way. As the subtitle to Babel — Around the World in Twenty Languages — suggests, Dutch linguist Gaston Dorren takes us… Read More ›
“I’m starving! I haven’t been fed in days!” says William. “Just look at that face!” That’s a typical cat lie. But is it a bald-faced lie? Or even a bold-faced lie? When I was a kid, interested in both language… Read More ›
The Hmong are a well-known ethnic group, right? Well, not exactly. They’re probably not well-known to you, unless you are particularly interested in southeast Asia or happen to live in Minneapolis or Fresno, even though there are about 15 million… Read More ›
