War can easily happen, by accident or design. South Koreans are nervous. Americans are nervous. Japanese are nervous. And others are nervous, too. Everyone is looking to China to bring the North Koreans to their sense.
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May 27
minipost-Should China Ensure Order In Its Neighborhood?
Written by: Legalist | Filed under:-mini-posts, News | Tags:China, Korea, Military Conflict
122 Comments » newest
122 Comments » newest
War talks are in the air on the Korean peninsula. North Korea sank South Korea’s warship Cheonan. South Korea retaliated by imposing various sanctions on the North. The North responded by imposing its own sanctions on the South.
May 27
Expats and the Chinese Language
Written by: Legalist | Filed under:-guest-posts | Tags:Chinese, expats, language
No Comments » newest
No Comments » newest
Chinese is a difficult language, at least for me. When I was growing up in China, many aspects of the language seemed very challenging, one of which was the units of counting for countable quantities. In English and many other languages, it’s a breeze: 3 computers, 1 apple, 4 books. Very easy to master it. In Chinese, it’s a different story: san tai diannao, yi ge pinggou, si ben shu. First, you needed to learn tai, ge, ben. Then you needed to know when to use which. Very challenging indeed. As English shows, they aren’t really necessary. San dianno, yi pinggou, si shu. I don’t think there’s too much confusion dropping them, consideing the savings of time and energy required of learning these words.
I think we should start speaking Chinese without the unit words. Maybe the expats can make a big contribution to the Chinese language by leading by example. And it will save their time and energy of learning them in the first place.
What do you think?
Wo Yao Yi Pinggou (I want an apple).
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