An insightful and thought-provoking analysis of daily life in China, China Wakes is an exemplary work of reportage. 16 pages of photos.

    This clearly written history explains how a country embedded in the traditions of Shinto, Shoguns and Samurai has achieved stupendous economic growth and dominance in this century.

    Through the years, the Chinese written language encountered presumed alphabetic universalism in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, and other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. This book is about those encounters -- in particular thousands of Chinese characters versus the typewriter and its QWERTY keyboard. Thomas Mullaney describes a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long quest for a workable Chinese typewriter.The earliest Chinese typewriters, Mullaney tells us, were figments of popular imagination, sensational accounts of twelve-foot keyboards with 5,000 keys. One of the first Chinese typewriters actually constructed was invented by a Christian missionary, who organized characters by common usage (but promoted the less-common characters for "Jesus" to the common usage level). Later came typewriters manufactured for use in Chinese offices, and typewriting schools that turned out trained "typewriter girls" and "typewriter boys." Still later was the "Double Pigeon" typewriter produced by the Shanghai Calculator and Typewriter Factory, the typewriter of choice under Mao. Clerks and secretaries in this era experimented with alternative ways of organizing characters on their tray beds, inventing an input method that was the first instance of "predictive text."Today, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. The Chinese Typewriter, not just an "object history" but grappling with broad questions of technological change and global communication, shows how this happened.

    

    The concocted variety tends to be insipid, flat, stiff, standardized, completely lacking in exciting and imaginative use of language. Read Real Japanese Essays, and its companion volume Read Real Japanese Fiction, allows readers to experience the work of several of todays foremost writers as if they were lifelong Japanese speakers. The pieces in Read Real Japanese Essays are informed by the personalities of the writers: Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Mitsuyo Kakuta, Junko Sakai, Yoko Ogawa, Kou Machida, Keiichiro Hirano and Hideo Levy. By turns humorous, serious, beautiful and biting, they have been selected on the basis of their appeal. All are stimulating works that will motivate readers to want more. Just like real Japanese books, the text in this collection runs from top bottom and from right to left. For those needing backup, the essays have been supplemented with facing-page translations of the phrases used therein, often with notes on nuance, usage, grammar or culture. In the back of the book, moreover, is a built-in Japanese-English learner's dictionary and a notes section covering issues of nuance, usage, grammar and culture that come up in each essay. Best of all, the book comes with a free audio CD containing narrations of the essays, performed by a professional voice actress. This will help users to become familiar with the sounds and rhythms of Japanese, as well as the speed at which the language is normally spoken.

    or just learn about how languages work from an unusual, light-hearted perspective. The Language Construction Kit on zompist.com has helped a generation of conlangers to understand and create languages. It's expanded here with coverage of semantics and pragmatics, language families, writing systems, and sample wordlists, as well as an annotated sample grammar.

    From present tense of regular verbs to direct object pronouns, this comprehensive guide and workbook covers all aspects of French grammar that you need to master. Focusing on the practical aspects of French as it's really spoken, each unit of Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar features clear explanations, numerous realistic examples, and dozens of engaging exercises. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar makes mastering grammar easy with: Clear, down-to-earth, easy-to-follow explanations that make even the most complex principles easy to understand Example sentences that illustrate and clarify each grammatical point Dozens of exercises in formats suited to every learning style Practical and high-frequency vocabulary used throughout A detailed answer key for quick, easy progress checks With help from this book, you can effortlessly use: * Verbs ending in -oir * Infinitives * Relative pronouns * Gerunds * Pronominal verbs * Passé Composé * Expressions of time * Passive voice

    HEre, collected for the first itme, are some of the most fascinatin, funniest, and strangest pieces that first debuted in its pages.With reputable contributors such as Richard Lederer, Jesse Sheidlower, Joew Queenana, Frederic Cassidy, and Bryuan Garner, as well as language "experts" of dubious distinction, VERBATIM is a smart and sassy collection for anyone seeking the highly scholarly or the completely frivolous. From the roots of medieval words to teh componenets of a British soccer chant, VERBATIM will offere seomething for every language lover and word nerd to enjoy.

    The best part is that it doesn’t have to be difficult or take years to master. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes, and we get you speaking right from the first day. Pimsleur courses use a scientifically-proven method that puts you in control of your learning. If you’ve tried other language learning methods but found they simply didn’t stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try.Why Pimsleur? - Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. - Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. - Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. - Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. - Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. - Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. - Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. - Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? - 30, 30-minute audio lessons - 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you with an introduction to reading French designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent - in total, 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers - a Reading Booklet and a User’s GuideWhat You’ll Learn In the first 10 lessons, you’ll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You’ll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills. In the next 10 lessons, you’ll build on what you’ve learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You’ll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. In the final 10 lessons, you’ll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You’ll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. Reading Lessons begin in Lesson 9 to provide you with an introduction to reading French. In addition, the combined Reading Lessons are included after Lesson 30. These Reading Lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. The Pimsleur Method We make no secret of what makes this powerful method work so well. Paul Pimsleur spent his career researching and perfecting the precise elements anyone can use to learn a language quickly and easily. Here are a few of his “secrets”:The Principle of Anticipation In the nanosecond between a cue and your response, your brain has to work to come up with the right word. Having to do this boosts retention, and cements the word in your mind.Core Vocabulary Words, phrases, and sentences are selected for their usefulness in everyday conversation. We don’t overwhelm you with too much, but steadily increase your ability with every lesson.Graduated Interval Recall Reminders of new words and structures come up at the exact interval for maximum retention and storage into your long-term memory.Organic Learning You work on multiple aspects of the language simultaneously. We integrate grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, melody, and intonation into every lesson, which allows you to experience the language as a living, expressive form of human culture.Learning in Context Research has shown that learning new words in context dramatically accelerates your ability to remember. Every scene in every Pimsleur lesson is set inside a conversation between two people. There are no drills, and no memorization necessary for success.Active Participation The Pimsleur Method + active learner participation = success. This method works with every language and every learner who follows it. You gain the power to recall and use what you know, and to add new words easily, exactly as you do in English.The French Language French is spoken by 55 million speakers in France, 3 million in Belgium, 1.5 million in Switzerland, 6.5 million in Canada, and 5 million in former French and Belgian colonies. It is an official language in 44 countries and an official language of the United Nations. An estimated 50 million people around the world speak French as a second language.Tech Talk - CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player.

    This handy paperback dictionary is designed to meet the needs of the growing number of people now learning tospeak Hindi. It provides translations for over 36,000 headwords, using illustrative material to show words in use. Students of Hindi and South Asian studies of all kinds will find extensive coverage of historical Hindi, together with the most up-to-date colloquial and literary vocabulary. In addition, the Urdu vocabulary of Hindi is well represented. Providing contemporary, idiomatic Hindi and English, TheOxford Hindi-English Dictionary is the perfect reference guide for students, businesspeople, and travelers alike.

    Here's the "ultimate," painless way for intermediate and advanced learners to brush up on the rules. Each grammatical concept is explained and then illustrated with lively sentence examples; extensive exercises offer practice at applying this knowledge in everyday conversation. Also included are "culture notes," authentic documents, vocabulary boxes, and verb charts, as well as a full answer key and index.

    Certainly we do not think it is the basis of the mind. We think of stories and parables from Aesop's Fables or The Thousand and One Nights, forexample, as exotic tales set in strange lands, with spectacular images, talking animals, and fantastic plots--wonderful entertainments, often insightful, but well removed from logic and science, and entirely foreign to the world of everyday thought. But Mark Turner argues that this common wisdom iswrong. The literary mind--the mind of stories and parables--is not peripheral but basic to thought. Story is the central principle of our experience and knowledge. Parable--the projection of story to give meaning to new encounters--is the indispensable tool of everyday reason. Literary thoughtmakes everyday thought possible. This book makes the revolutionary claim that the basic issue for cognitive science is the nature of literary thinking.In The Literary Mind, Turner ranges from the tools of modern linguistics, to the recent work of neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio and Gerald Edelman, to literary masterpieces by Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Proust, as he explains how story and projection--and their powerful combination inparable--are fundamental to everyday thought. In simple and traditional English, he reveals how we use parable to understand space and time, to grasp what it means to be located in space and time, and to conceive of ourselves, other selves, other lives, and other viewpoints. He explains the roleof parable in reasoning, in categorizing, and in solving problems. He develops a powerful model of conceptual construction and, in a far-reaching final chapter, extends it to a new conception of the origin of language that contradicts proposals by such thinkers as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker.Turner argues that story, projection, and parable precede grammar, that language follows from these mental capacities as a consequence. Language, he concludes, is the child of the literary mind.Offering major revisions to our understanding of thought, conceptual activity, and the origin and nature of language, The Literary Mind presents a unified theory of central problems in cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. It gives new and unexpected answers toclassic questions about knowledge, creativity, understanding, reason, and invention.

    It includes some discussion of word usage, citing examples and characteristic phrases. Generally speaking, only words used by late writers and scientific terms have been omitted fromthe full lexicon. From Homer downwards, to the close of Attic Greek, care has been taken to include all words, as well as those used by Aristotle, Plutarch in his Lives, Polybius, Strabo, Lucian, and the writers of the New Testament.

    It contains descriptions of numerous vocabulary learning strategies which are justified and supported by reference to experimental research, case studies, and teaching experience. It also describes what vocabulary learners need to know to be effective language users. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language shows that by taking a systematic approach to vocabulary learning, teachers can make the best use of class time and help learners get the best return for their learning effort. It will quickly establish itself as the point of reference for future vocabulary work.

    From the author of the hilarious bestseller Born to Kvetch comes an indispensable guide to the Yiddish language.