Archive for July, 2004

Learn chinese!:

So it seems a lot of people naturally assume
Mandarin has been the official language blah blah blah for many
generations.  Here’s some brain food for y’uns.

“Although Mandarin
(or putonghua) is the standard and
official language in mainland China, it has only been around for about
700 or 800 years , compared to the 2000-year history of Cantonese.
Cantonese, not Mandarin, is the dominant language in overseas Chinese
communities. This comes from the fact that, around the world, the
largest flow of Chinese immigrants originates from Hong Kong.”"

“The pronunciation of Chinese around the time of Qin (221-206 BC) was closer to Cantonese, Hakka, and Fukienese
than to Mandarin.  This is seen, for example, by Chinese loanwords
in Japanese; the Japanese pronunciations of early Chinese loanwords are
more similar to Cantonese and other southern languages than to
Mandarin.”

“Because
of Mainland China language policies, begun in 1949 and articulated
through the National Language Standardization Conference (October
1955), most people in China today are fluent in Mandarin.”

Sources :
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/profiles/profc01.htm
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sfung/cantonese/background.html

So
it looks like cantonese was developed during the times BEFORE the
barbarians (Qin dynasty was the time period when the Great Wall was
built).  So lets see, barbarians invade, communism takes over,
mandarin becomes the official national language.

CONGRATS to my small, but ever so adorable buddy for getting a job!  The joy ALMOST outweighs the headache I got from waking up to her enthusiasm…

Here’s a picture to remember her fustration BEFORE being employed!

The good life

• 2 weeks ago I went to pick up my clothes from the dry cleaners and the girl doesn’t charge me.
• Today I goto Arby’s and I get free food from the drive thru chick.

Life is grand!