wikipedia

February 13 was the first time that I edited the wikipedia website.. At first, I thought it was very complicated and a lot of skill was needed to edit the website.. But I found out that it was actually a simple task to do so.. Now each time, I use the wikipedia website, I will remember that I have contributed something as well as people are reading what I have contributed.. =)

For my next challenge, it is to create a personal online cv website

Top 10 Language

While i was surfing the net, I stumbled upon a random website that shows the "top 10 most spoken language" and clicked on it.  Below are the result of the top 10 spoken language based on that website:

10)German

9)Japanese

8) Russian

7) Portuguese

6) Bengali

5) Arabic

4) Hindi - Urdu

3) English

2) Spanish

1) Mandarin

Now, this is based on an unofficial website but what got my attention is that English is not in the Top 1.. I used to think that English is the top language used in the world followed by Mandarin.. What influence the use of language? Is it the population? The politics? The development of the country? The interest of the person? Easy communication?
At the moment, the question I ask myself is whether English or Mandarin is used more and if Mandarin is used more, will it have the same impact as the usage of English??

That's something remain to be seen...

Changes in English words

     One feature of English word that I found interesting while doing my research is how it had change during a period of time. I found that the spelling of some word have evolved from the past. I also notice that there is a shift in word pronunciation from previous generation to current generation. In addition,  there is a change in spelling of words due to the popularity of better technology and increase in social network in the internet. I'll show some example below:

Spelling changes due to how it is pronounced:
1) hiccough - hiccup
2) nucular - nuclear
3) momento - memento

Shift in pronunciation of words:
1) often - /ɒfən/ to /ɒftən/
2) scallop - /skɒləp/ to /skæləp/
3) forehead - /fɒrəd/ to /fɔ:hed/


Spelling shift seen while socializing in the internet:
1) good luck - gud luck
2) enough - enuf
3) you too - u 2
4) got to go - gtg

Proper translation wanted

I browsed through my previous pictures and guess what did I found? My previous examples for translation and theory. I did not get the chance to use these example but I post it here as a reason why we need proper and accurate translation:

Hope it shows the importance of proper and accurate translation. =)

Nihon jin (Japanese) language

Konnichiwa

For this semester, I'm learning Japanese Language 1 and it has been both fun and challenging to me. From learning the "haragana" to the pronunciation of words. There are some characteristic which I have observed from the Japanese language . For example the order of the Japanese vowels, the silent "u" and the long vowel.

In English, the vowels are in this order:
"a e i o u"

In Japanese, the vowels are in this order:
"a i u e o"

I also notice that Japanese Language has a lot of silent /u/ sounds. For example:
i) journalist - janarisuto  (ja-na-ris-to)
ii) athlete - supotsusenshu (spots-sen-shu)
iii) Australia - osutoraria (os-to-ra-ria)
iv) France - furansu (fran-su)

For the long vowel, it is represent by the line above the letter such as ō or ū. How it is used is shown below:
i) teacher - kyōshi (kyoo-shi)
ii) good morning - ohayō (o-ha-yoo)
iii) thank you - arigatō (a-ri-ga-too)
iv) bank clerk - ginkōin (gin-koo-in)

However, this is just my first week in Japanese class but there are probably more examples and reasons why the Japanese language are structured like that. Hopefully, I'll get used to these changes.

2012. Getting Started

This is the first time that I'm writing a blog. A blog from my perspective is a place where people express themselves differently which can be in the form of their interests, politics, gossip and etc... But the reason for me to start this blog is because it is a requirement for me to do so for one of the course in this semester. Hopefully I'll try to keep this blog entertaining as well as informative for the readers.

Anyway, I wanna start off with some motivational posters to inspire and motivate myself to write a blog.. So here goes:

So that's it for my first post and many more to come in the future. =)