Chinese Dialects

Im just doing another one since I didn't see the chinese dialects on anyone elses blogs.

The most spoken Chinese dialects are Mandarin, Wu, and Cantonese, although many Chinese speakers see "Standard Mandarin" as "the Chinese language", and everything else as just dialects.  All of the different dialects share a common history and a common written language.  The differences between Chinese dialects are as great as the differences between Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.). Like Romance languages, the modern dialects all descended from a common proto-language (in this case, the Romance languages descended from Latin). Unlike Romance languages, the speakers remained a united nation throughout their history instead of fighting with each other and dividing up along linguistic borders.

Joy Luck Club #1

Mahjong is a game that came from China, commonly played by four players. Its a game of skill, strategy and calculation and some chance. In Asia, mahjong is also played as a gambling game and is commonly played for fun.  The game is played with 152 tiles with Chinese characters and symbols on them, although some variations use a different number of tiles. Each player receives thirteen tiles and players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the fourteenth drawn tile to form four groups and a pair.  There are many variations in the rules and the scoring system, and the minimum hand needed to win changes based on the rules being used.

Othello #6

Othello is Desdemona's husband but they don't really act like it towards the end of the book.  Othello wants to figure out what Desdemona is doing with Cassio and soon enough thinks that she has been cheating on him with Cassio.  At the end of Othello, Othello is very abusive and wants to kill Desdemona, even though she hasn't done anything, and eventually does end up killing her.

Othello #4

LODOVICO Truly, an obedient lady. I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
OTHELLO Mistress! 
DESDEMONA My lord?
OTHELLO What would you with her, sir?
LODOVICO Who, I, my lord?
OTHELLO Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn. Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on, And turn again.  And she can weep, sir, weep. And she’s obedient, as you say, obedient, Very obedient.


At the end of the scene Othello becomes very moody around Desdemona and eventually slaps her.  Then Lodovico tells Othello that he should call her back but doesn't say why at that moment.  Othello becomes very sarcastic and basically said "oh no, I didn't want to talk to you it was him that wanted to call you back," when Lodovico really intended Othello to call her back and apologize.  This creates a scornful mood about Othello and makes him seem like he doesn't really care about Desdemona anymore.

Andrew S said...

I also find it strange that he doesn't even think about asking her about it first instead of just going and killing her.

Othello #2

The 16th century in Venice marked the beginning of the Decline of the Republic of Venice.  Neighboring countries to Venice who wanted to take some of its land joined the League of Cambrai under the leadership of Pope Julius II.  In 1509, Venice suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of Agnadello.  In 1539, the Turkish army destroyed Limassol, and, fearing the growing Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire), Venice fortified its cities of Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia.  In 1570, the Turks attacked again, but in a full on attack rather than just a raid. They took down Nicosia and on September 9, 1570, 20,000 Nicosians and Venetians were put to death, and every building, churches, public buildings and palaces, were looted.  They later easily took Kyrenia, and moved on to Famagusta.  They, however, resisted the seige for a year until 1571.  Eventually, the naval forces of the Holy League, composed of Venetian, Spanish, and Papal ships, conquered the Turkish fleet.  By 1575 the population of Venice was about 175,000 people but declined to 124,000 people by 1581.

Othello #1

Tonights read was pretty good, except I forgot how hard Shakespeare is to read since the last time i read Romeo and Juliet.  I went on No fear shakespear and re-read the whole scene and i found out alot more than what I had by just reading it from the book.  Its starting out pretty fast paced and it just started getting interesting right from the first page.

Piano Lesson Analytical Paragraph

In the Piano Lesson, Wilson uses Doaker as a symbol for some kind of enforcer of peace, like a judge or police officer.  As Berniece and Boy Wille are fighting, Doaker intervenes saying, "I got to stay around here and keep you all from killing one another,"  (90).  This displays that Doaker wants to keep each other from getting in a fight and hurting one another, or just to keep everyone at ease.  Whenever there is a part where two characters are starting to raise their tempers, and Doaker is present, he steps in and trys to get them to calm themselves.  One of the purposes of Doaker in the book is that  he acts as a foil to the other characters in order to contrast the different personalities of the other parts in the play.