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.

Piano Lesson #7

In this scene Bernice seems like she is maybe falling for Lymon instead of Avery.  The writer makes you think about who Bernice will choose and just kind of leaves it at that.  It makes me wonder why authors do that because some people really don't like to have to make up what they think will happen in that particular event, maybe because they are just lazy and want the author to do it for them, or maybe because they just believe that thats the writers job to tie up all the loose ends.  I don't know if it is too early to start talking  about this because maybe it will become clear later on, but its just a thought.

Andrew S said...

I agree with your comment, it is strange how the writer makes you pick sides because some people really dont like to choose what the outcome of an event is.

Piano Lesson 6

This section of The Piano Lesson was pretty interesting because it shows that Berniece is a lot like Boy Willie in that she doesn't really care about what Avery is telling her and that she is selfish.  He keeps telling her that she needs to let go of the past and Crawley and the piano but she just doesn't listen.  The theme that  "The Past is Present" is true in that history repeats itself but it can also be misleading because if you dwell on to the things of the past for too long, sometimes they will cause you to get distracted by other things that are more important in the present.


Andrew S said...

i think that avery will end up marrying berniece because he said that he was going to bless the house and then that will probably get berniece to stop worrying so much about the past and then just marry him.

Piano Lesson 5

When Mrs. Wecker warned us that there would be some inappropriate language in The Piano Lesson, I didn't really think much of it and I kind of thought that it would just be little petty words but it turns out that the way they talk can be pretty crude at times.  The use of the word "nigger" is used throughout the book and euphemisms, such as when Wining Boy is instructing Lymon how to pick up women.  It makes the book kind of awkward to read in class but I like it better that Cry because I can keep up with it better.

Andrew S said to Michelle Vollmuller...

Yeah the first time I heard them talk about the ghost, I thought it would just be some unimportant thing that just happened... I didn't think that the ghosts would come up again and keep getting talked about.

Piano Lesson 4

When we were reading the piano lesson I was thinking about why there were so many ghosts and other things being talked about. There are the the ghost of the yellow dog and then there is sutter's ghost. I think that maybe the two are connected somehow, whether sutter is one of the yellow dogs or something else, I don't know. Something may happen later on in the book explaining more about them.

It seems like there is alot of talk about ghosts in the book, maybe they have something to do with what will happen later

Piano Lesson 3

When they started singing I wasn't surprised because I knew that music would somehow come into the book one way or another and this is the first major part when they do anything musical.  They all seem to get together pretty well when they are singing and they stop arguing for the first time in, well, ever.  I am starting to wonder when the piano lesson is going to happen and between who.  Also since the book is only called The Piano Lesson, is there only going to be one or more?  I'm also thinking that Wining Boy is somehow going to be involved with the piano lesson.

Andrew S said to Alec...

The music does seem like it is a connector to all the characters because they all join in and they all know the song.

The Piano Lesson 2

The Piano Lesson is turning out to seem pretty fast paced and more fun to read because you can kind of tell what kind of voice to use when saying your part because of the dialogue they use.  One thing about it that is kind of frustrating is that they seem to stay on the same topic for like four or five pages, just talking about watermelons and the piano or some other thing.  One of the things I tabbed was that Boy Willie didn't really care about Avery's dream even though he was the one who asked about it.  The reason I think that he didn't really care was that he immediately changed the subject after she was done telling about the dream.  He seems just really selfish and narcissistic and he also mentioned that he wanted to be a preacher so people would call him "Reverend Boy Willie".

Andrew S said to Olivia C...

Yeah I also noticed that he was really selfish. After Avery's long story about her dream, Boy Willie changes the subject and immediately goes back to talking about selling watermelons or the piano or something (can't remember which).

Piano Lesson 1

When we were reading in class, I thought, "wow, all of these people sound like complete rednecks in the way that they talk," and I turned out to be right as we read on.  The language that they all use make them sound like they are from the south.  The writer uses slang and crude wording to portray the setting and each persons character.

Andrew S said...

Yeah, it does seem like an earlier time period because of the language they use and I also thought that it would start out just being about music and such but i was wrong..... horribly wrong.

Cry journal 9

The first thing i tabbed was when he said "the lawyer told him,in gentle and compassionate words, that there would be no mercy" because it is just another one of those parts where Kumalo's hopes get crushed by bad news.


"When he had finished he went out to look at the clouds, for it was exciting to see them after weeks of pitiless sun" (275).  I tabbed this because I remember analyzing a sentence from somewhere in the book that called it a "pitiless sun".   Paton is repeating the phrase because it gives a good image of what the conditions are for Kumalo.

Ashoka Fellows

Abdelfattah Abusrour is helping Palestinian children find different ways to express themselves other than violence.  His goal is to make kids able to express their dreams and hopes in a more calm manner that does not involve violence.
Ola Abú Al Ghaib is helping women with disabilities and their integration into society.  she wants do give disabled women more ability to assert themselves as able citizens that can help society.
Jaqueline Sfeir is making the eduaction system something that provides more interaction, critical thinking, and community interaction.  She wants to create an education system for children that accommodates the nature of kids.  She is also making the a more just educational system.

Oppression in North Korea
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/internationalhumanrights/p/northkorea101.htm

Oppression in China
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rt_china.htm

Cry Journal 3

A phrase that repeats is that "All roads lead to Johannesburg".  This meant literally because all roads do lead to Johannesburg.  It is meant in other ways because whenever people lose their jobs or are out of work when they live elsewhere, they come to Johannesburg for work.  An image he uses is prostitutes, I think he does this just to reinforce the idea that a lot of people are to poor and too desperate for a job so they just go into prostitution to earn money.  A concept that repeated was in chapter 9 when the book keeps saying things about white women dying or getting hurt and abused by the black people.  This is another example of the sexism and prejudice in Johannesburg.

Cry Journal 2

In Cry, the Beloved Country, women are treaded much differently than men.  They are not respected as much than men but they are recognized for their good-heartedness.  They are not introduced when there is a guest in the house unless they are the person meeting the guest.  Men are more recognized and it reminds me of the renaissance because back then women didn't have rights to land or anything else.

Cry Journal 1

The first thing I tabbed was when the first dialect was on page 36.  I noticed that there was no quotation marks when people speak, and instead he usually uses a dash to indicate when someone is speaking.  Sometimes it is woven in with the writing and is just identified by the use of "he said", "she said", etc.  This may become confusing to make out when people are talking and when not later on.  The other thing i tabbed was in the third chapter when he is describing people on the train as "some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women.  Men travelled no longer in primitive dress." (43).  This shows how different societies are from each other.  In the same time period in the United States people probably wouldn't be allowed to be in public with such revealing clothing but I guess it was okay in South Africa at the time.