When I was growing up, Meg wasn’t all that common a name in the US. There were plenty of Megans but not a lot of Megs. I used to have to explain that it was “Just Meg. No ‘an.’” And all those little pseudo-personalized knick-knacks you love as a kid like bicycle license plates and [...]
Like many big cities, Beijing is plastered with billboards advertising computers, mobile phones, soft drinks, etc., and along the ring roads, giant advertisements tout the city’s latest upscale housing developments and apartment buildings. While all of these places try to appear upscale and chic, targeting an appearance-conscience population, I always end up amused by their [...]
This morning’s (or possibly yesterday’s, since it’s a US source) news headlines included an article from Motley Fool announcing that “Google” has been added to The Oxford English Dictionary as a verb. The article goes on to discuss whether becoming a verb is a good thing, and it reminded me of an amusing problem I’ve [...]
Getting Sick, and Then Getting Better So the change in climate, the smog, the stress, and all the other things that come into play when moving from Texas to Beijing, finally got to me, and I developed a sinus infection last weekend. Based on years of battling every kind of cold or infection that found [...]
Learning Chinese Pronunciation The tonal language concept comes up a lot when people try to explain how difficult it is to learn Chinese, but I think that’s just because it’s a completely foreign concept that doesn’t show up when you try to learn most other languages like French, German, Japanese, etc. However (and I’m probably [...]
Fun with Tones – Our First Adventures Stateside So everyone tells you that learning Chinese is really hard because of the tones. You’re bound to hear all about how important it is to not just say things right, but to say things the right way. There’s a common example that shows up in our Chinese [...]