What is 聪明？

> 中學時候常常聽到的一句話“xx學生不是不聰明，就是不好好學”。
> 後來我就有想到，什麽是聰明？什麽是不聰明？不知道時間的寶貴、
> 學生時代學習機會的難得而只是貪玩，這是最大的不聰明

The Chinese sentence is playing with the multiple meanings of the word "聪明". In “xx學生不是不聰明，就是不好好學” (It's not that the student XX is not 聪明, only that he didn't take time to study.), "聪明" means having high IQ (intelligence quotient), as that could be determined by the rigorous psychological test. In the sentence "不知道時間的寶貴、學生時代學習機會的難得而只是貪玩，這是最大的不聰明" (It's the biggest non-聪明 to not know the value of time and the opportunity of study as a student, and to play all the time.), "聪明" means wise or 明智. In both cases, you could use the English word "smart" just like "聪明" in Chinese. But if you think about it, the exact meaning of the word in either English or Chinese is different.

Playing tricks with words sometimes can impress people and give others thought-provoking ideas that sound clever, smart or 聪明. But those words should be taken as nothing more than clever talk.

Off-topic: Quote of a message about atheism

Very interesting remark by a guy named Russianbear at
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17338&PN=2&TPN=4

Atheism is not the same as religious intolerance. I am an atheist, and I think religions are stupid, but I am quite tolerant of people's stupidity and ignorance in general, and of religion-related stupidity and ignorance in particular.

Most atheists don't prejudge. (Some, like me) judge. And that happens AFTER the fact, so PREjudice is not the right word.
...
In my experience, atheists are relatively quiet; it is religious people who tend to try to ram their beliefs down other people's throats. It is also a fact that atheists tend to be better educated than religious people. And atheists tend to be more tolerant. I am yet to see atheists fly planes into skyscrapers or blow themselves (and many other people) up for their atheist beliefs. Those things are done by folks who believe in god(s).

And of course, "fundamentalism" kinda implies religiousness :)

Grammatical error: "Even if ... but"

> even if today is sunday,but we have to work.

That's a common mistake Chinese make in learning English. If you have "even if", you don't need "but". Drop one of the two. The same is true for "although".

As always, capitalize the first letter of the sentence. It makes people feel you're not writing English too casual.

Attitude thing

Educative comments from an online forum. Not just for Japanese.

Are Japanese natives generally exclusive?

"but I've met the people (some from Japan, some from China, although I'm sure it's global) that strike up a conversation with you in English but totally lose interest when you transition to their native language. That attitute would be language rape."

Off-topic: Message to My Neighbors

We're going to have a neighborhood night-out gathering and emails are sent to everybody. Neighbor's dogs used to bother me at night. So I took this opportunity to post the following message to the email list:

"I want to borrow this thread to send a friendly reminder to this wonderful neighborhood, that dog owners need to keep their best friends quiet late at night. While I need to train myself to tune out, the dogs need to be trained to only bark outdoors perhaps before 10pm or after 7am, or indoors to their happy owners' hearts' content at any time. This is a friendly neighborhood so I hope this message is taken with a friendly smile!"

As a result of this, I haven't heard any dog barking at night since then. One neighbor's email to me said "we don't have a dog...your lovely message would have been taken with all due respect and kindness. It's almost as if you were writing poetry!"

How could some old time Chinese scholars learn foreign languages?

> 一开始就学中等或高级学习者的教材或看适合他们的难度的
> 文章，这样欲速则不达。(If from the beginning you
> study the textbooks suitable for an intermediate
> or advanced student or read articles whose difficulty
> matches their level, it's Haste makes waste.)

I agree. But one thing that has always bugged me is that some well known scholars in the 民国 times (about 100 years ago) learned foreign languages by directly reading classic literary works. For example,

http://baike.baidu.com/view/57482.htm
金克木
他曾仅靠一部词典，一本凯撒的《高卢战纪》，就学会了非常复杂的拉丁文。(He (Jin Kemu) learned the complicated Latin language solely with a dictionary and a copy of Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War.)

http://baike.baidu.com/view/1998.htm
辜鸿铭
到了英国，在布朗的指导下,辜鸿铭从西方最经典的文学名著入手，以最朴拙的死记硬背办法很快掌握了英文、德文、法文、拉丁文、希腊文 (Upon arrival in England, Ku Hung-ming, under the guidance of Brown (Forbes Scott Brown?), started from the classic literary works in the western world, and quickly mastered English, German, French, Latin, Greek by the most simplistic rote learning.)

Off-topic: 罗家伦"新人生观"

Luo Jialun's "A New Point of View of Human Life" is full of interesting little stories and quotes of historical figures. Other than that, his own words are sometimes thought-provoking, such as the following, when he talked about the role of Belgium in World War One and the recognition of its contribution:

"所以一旦战争结束，在巴黎和会上，比利时不但获得和列强分庭抗礼的光荣，并且各大国都很尊重他‘赞助他，就是因为它已尽了他国家的责任，所以能得战后应得的权利。当时中国也是参战国，但为什么得不到这种权利？就是因为中国在名义上虽曾参战，其实是参而不战，并未尽参战的责任，哪有资格去享受权利？"

pp.116-7, "从完成责任到实现权利"，"新人生观"

That's new to me because nobody, either from the mainland side or from Taiwan, talked about lack of participation or involvement of the then Chinese government or army when talking about the humiliation of China at the Paris Peace Conference.

Other points in the book are also worth reading. He said Japan became so aggressive and atrocious because China spoiled Japan, not limiting their mischief at the early stage.

Off-topic: 读章太炎“国学概论“有感

近读章太炎“国学概论“，感字字珠玑，隽语良多。然章谓“历观中国古代，在太平安宁之时,治哲学的极少,等到乱世,才有人研究。”颇出人意料。盖哲学思辨之学，本当衣暖食饱然后静坐而治之，何以至乱世才有人研究？或许中国哲学皆入世之学，或以入世为最终目的，非泰西哲学之纯思辨。

想练习英语口语总是感到没有话说怎么办？

Others have excellent suggestions. Let me add that for now, you can imagine you're giving a presentation in your native language, Chinese, and on the fly, translating that into English. Many language teachers oppose this way of learning (you do translation in your brain). But I disagree. Once you're fluent in English, the explicit translation in your brain silently yields to "natively" thinking in English.

Off-topic: Language education to solve Chinese ethnic conflict

The ethnic conflict, or riot, in Xinjiang of northwestern China, caused more than 150 deaths. To be politically correct, the central government will probably not reveal the ratio of Uyghur to Han ethnic death tolls, and I won't comment on that, even though pretty much every Chinese having lived there or having friends or relatives living there have a very well educated guess. But even mention of that guess causes sadness. A more interesting and constructive discussion, though, should be about the way the Chinese government improves its strategy to ease the ethnic tension. We all agree that so far the preferential treatment of, or affirmative action toward, the ethnic minority in China causes grief to the Han ethnicity yet at the same time does not adequately meet the request of the minority. This lose-lose situation will not go anywhere in the future. While the government provides financial and other support, the love is largely unrequited. The Uyghur think their culture is violated, even though the government encourages them and spends money for them to promote their own language.

Human language is the key to human gathering. Why is there natural, spontaneous separation between Han and Uyghur, or between any two ethnic groups for that matter? Because they have difficulty communicating. No doubt the Uyghur people are forced to learn the Chinese language, not by law, not at all, but by the economic opportunities. But there's not much assimilation in the other direction, i.e., the Han learning Uyghur. If the Han have no basic skills in the language of the previously dominating residents in this region, they don't feel their culture is respected (enough). The government should have a mandate that all the Han Chinese living in that area, perhaps younger than say 50 years old, learn the Uyghur language for 3 months, and review once every 3 years for 10 or so years. Once this done, the Han and Uyghur will mingle much more easily, in the neighborhood as neighbors, in the work place as coworkers, and in public areas as citizens. Separation is rooted in lack of communication, which starts from nowhere else than everyday life.

Interesting References:

I. Wang Lixiong, My West Region, Your Eastern Land
王力雄, 《我的西域，你的东土》, p.187, "一九五六年新疆的汉族有十五万... 他们在这里学会了维语。毛泽东让他们首先要学维语，要学当地的语言... 一九五三年他从上海到新疆来的时候，库尔勒有汉族学校，可是讲维语，让那些汉族孩子必须学维语，民族学校却不要求学汉语。那时毛泽东说没有大汉族主义就不会有民族分裂主义，所以有很多尊重少数民族生活习惯的政策。那个年代的干部和汉族人比较尊重少数民族。" [In 1956, there were 150,000 Han ethnic people in Xinjiang... they learned the Uyghur language here. Mao Zedong required them to first learn the Uyghur language, learn the local language... In 1953 when he came to Xinjiang from Shanghai, there were Han ethnic schools in Korla but Uyghur was spoken in the school; the Han school children were required to learn the Uyghur language, while in the minority ethnic schools the Chinese language was not required. Back then Mao Zedong said that there will not be ethnic separatism if there is no Han-chauvinism, and so there were many policies that respect the customs of the minority ethnic people. The cadres and the Han people in those years well respected the minority ethnic people.]

II. Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word
Garcilaso certainly held the view, still widely held today though not among knowledgeable linguists, that a shared language makes for common understanding and good mutual relations: 'because the likeness and conformity of words almost always tend to reconcile people and bring them to true union and friendship'.[Father Blas Valera's words, quoted by Inca Garcilaso, Commontarios Reales, part I, vii.3: 'porqué la semejanza y conformidad de las palabras casi siempre suelen reconciliar y traer a verdadera unión y amistad a los hombres.']