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I’ve been helping my son Nykolai with his spelling home work. It’s rather comical, if a little sad, to watch him come to grips with the perils of pronouncing the English language. You really have to wonder how English can become the defacto language of business and technology around the world…. The subject motivated me … Continue reading “The Perils of English Pronunciation”
I’ve been helping my son Nykolai with his spelling home work. It’s rather comical, if a little sad, to watch him come to grips with the perils of pronouncing the English language. You really have to wonder how English can become the defacto language of business and technology around the world….
The subject motivated me enough to create a new “g-rant” entry about it. It’s lurking along with a few other entries over in the Soap Box area :)
It’s hard to believe that English is becoming the “language of choice” for the business/technical world. It’s hard enough to learn as a first language, let alone as a second, third or even fourth language.
I’ve been helping my son Nykolai with his spelling home work. Each week the kids are given a list of words to learn and are tested on a Friday. Much fun and we work at it when driving in the car or at the end of the day for his homework.
At the worldly-wise age of six and a half (gotta have the half – that’s important you know :) he has discovered the joys of words that are spelt similarly but pronounced differently. He’s also discovering that some words are spelt differently but pronounced the same.
The classic today was that food and wood are different by one letter but the “oo” is either long (fewd) or short (wud) with no way of knowing except through experience. Hah! Wait until he gets to comb and tomb :)
Then, of course, he’s already meeting there, their and they’re – all pronounced the same bloody way. Hah again! I’m waiting for the moment I can run this line at him:
“As I sat with you under the yew a ewe strolled by.”
Officially, it’s about sitting with someone under a tree and watching a sheep but if you’re not up with your trees and animals, the mind boggles! :)
My second language is Spanish and I’ve really got to hand it to a language where you pronounce it how it’s written. No silly “i before e except after c” or plain old “you just have to know how it sounds” situations. Once you get the hang of the vowel sounds and accent marks, you’re away. Sure, it has irregular verbs (shudder) but don’t most languages?
Anyhow, I’m off to see if I can’t relearn my French and German (they got kicked out due to disuse when I learned Spanish – whoops :) and learn some more Thai. I figure the languages to watch though are Mandarin and Hindi, just by population numbers alone. Add in the fact that China/Asia and India (technically, also part of Asia :) are likely to be the “new barbarians” that take over after the fall of New-Rome (aka the USA), well, ni hao ma? :)
For now, here’s a few other pages with rather amusing comments on the perils of pronouncing the English language :)
Excitement is building – the BBC is going to play a new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series based on the remaining books from the “trilogy.” They’re getting the old cast together again. There’s also a movie being made and the trailer has just been released. Not showing much – just text and stars. A … Continue reading “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Excitement is building – the BBC is going to play a new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series based on the remaining books from the “trilogy.” They’re getting the old cast together again.
There’s also a movie being made and the trailer has just been released. Not showing much – just text and stars. A number of us are rather nervous that it’s going to be stuffed up (much as we’re wondering just how bad the Thunderbirds movie will be :)
Meanwhile, I’m listening to the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. It can be found out there on the ‘net in MP3 format and downloaded. Seriously funny stuff :)
Some of you may have seen an Australian IT article reporting that Australia’s anti-spam laws appear to be having an impact. Spam from Australia has decreased significantly. This is confirmed by Spam Haus.
While it does appear that the laws have driven some Australian based spammers away, I am wondering if there isn’t another variable that’s also impacting things. Back in May/June, BigPond blocked access to TCP/IP port 25 across its network. Unless your computer was talking to one of the BigPond mail servers, you kept getting errors when trying to send emails (business accounts could request that access not be blocked so they could use their own mail servers, etc). This change certainly impacted those staff at my office who were using their personal BigPond accounts when travelling – no more sending mail via our server when out on the road. Ooops…
According to an article in The Register, it is estimated that about 80% of all spam is sent from “zombies”, aka machines that have been infected by the latest viruses/worms, all of which open “back doors” that turn the machines into willing spambots. Given this, I really think that BigPond’s actions may have also contributed to the drop, not just the new law, after all, BigPond were always getting into trouble with the rest of the ‘net because they were seen as a major source of spam from Australia (ranging from not turning them off when found through to actively working with some spammers). They’re also a favourite ISP for many people who are likely targets for “zombification” – eg: home users on broadband connections without firewalls, latest service packs, virus scanners, etc.
To me, this all says that while the new law may be helping, it’s not the sole reason that spam from Australia has dropped off so dramatically. Food for thought.
After the session at Shamiana a bunch of us went back to the Abode club where I wound up doing the “Last DJ Standing” set once again. Lots of fun although thanks to a combination of tired and beer, I was fading fast at the end and have dim memories of shutting down, walking home … Continue reading “Back at Abode”
After the session at Shamiana a bunch of us went back to the Abode club where I wound up doing the “Last DJ Standing” set once again. Lots of fun although thanks to a combination of tired and beer, I was fading fast at the end and have dim memories of shutting down, walking home and collapsing in a chair near the heater :)
On Friday night I was playing at the Platinum Exclusive dinner party in Shamiana, a very stylish restaurant in the city. I wound up on the decks from about 9pm to 1am, playing from background dinner/cocktail sounds through to club beats and cruisy, groovy sounds as the night picked up. I handed over to Miss … Continue reading “Spinning at Shamiana”
On Friday night I was playing at the Platinum Exclusive dinner party in Shamiana, a very stylish restaurant in the city. I wound up on the decks from about 9pm to 1am, playing from background dinner/cocktail sounds through to club beats and cruisy, groovy sounds as the night picked up. I handed over to Miss Rene at 1am, thinking that she would be spinning until 3am, but the night wound up finishing not long after 2am. Whoops. Major embarrassment and apologies to Miss Rene – if I’d known, I would have cleared the decks way earlier.