Review: Language A to Z

Language A to Z by John McWhorter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my third book/course by John McWhorter and yet again it is excellent. I was afraid that a lot of the material would be repeated but, while there definitely was some overlap, there was so much that was refreshing and new that I find myself wishing to listen to it again just so I can take more notes. Here are some of the ones I took this time around:

Record, Recall, Rebel are all pronounced differently if a verb or noun. 

The etymology of eenie, meenie, minie moe and hickory dickory dock were excellent (both from Welsh numbers)

H for Hobbit and T for Tones were probably my favorite sections, especially his examples ('boat' and 'poat') of how tones can come into being.

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Review: Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese

Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese by Isaac Yue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, this was probably beyond my pay grade. The subject seemed a tad esoteric, and I guess it is, but it's pretty fascinating regardless. It reminded me of Tim Parks' "Translating Style", although that was for IT-EN, which is my language combination. This one dealt with late Victorian literature and the translations of some select works into Chinese. As with Tim Parks' book, I think that even someone with little or no knowledge of Chinese will get quite a bit out of this, since it is a very thorough analysis of what was going on in Late Victorian literature, and how it affected the authors. I especially enjoyed "New Women Novels and their Translations" and "Dandyism and Witticism: The importance of being Oscar Wilde in the Context of Translation".



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The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage by Daniel Kane

The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage by Daniel  Kane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many interesting tidbits, although I feel like I found this at the right time. A few years ago most of it would've been over my head, and yet I read it early enough that most of it was new to me.

The points on pronunciation and grammar were especially useful, since they addressed points and details that were never covered in my classes (like why 沒 has that darn water radical).

And apparently our words for "tea" and "ketchup" both came from Hokkien. And 葡萄 came from Greek. huh. The section on ancient pronunciation was fascinating as well.

My new favorite expressions:
畫蛇添足
井底之蛙
and definitely:
天不怕，地不怕，只怕洋鬼子說中國話


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Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar: A Student's Guide to Correct Structures and Common Errors by Qin Xue Herzberg, Larry Herzberg

Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar: A Student's Guide to Correct Structures and Common Errors by Qin Xue Herzberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is excellent for someone who has already studied some Chinese, but likes having the main grammar rules clearly spelled out as a reference, which, incidentally, was exactly what I needed.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to follow the simplified characters, since they usually confuse me, but the sentences were simple enough. I was also afraid that the "Bad Chinese" examples might stick with me more than the proper examples, but for the most part everything was very clear.


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