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Chou
Frederica, I was reading âThe Mother Tongueâ by Bill Bryson this weekend. Unfortunately, the book seems to be riddled with factual errors.
From a review on Amazon:
âThe errors of the book astound from the start any reader with the slighest knowledge of language. Bryson speaks of the Eskimos having a multitude of words for snow, though this urban myth causes linguists to shudder and has been soundly debunked in THE GREAT ESKIMO VOCABULARY HOAX. Bryson goes on to say that Russian has no words for âefficiencyâ, âengagement ringâ, or âhave funâ, a preposterous statement that can be proved wrong by any Russian speaker.â
Anyway, itâs a pretty quick and light read. What did you think of it, Frederica?
Wow Fee. I didnât know Frederica could read, that is anything else except labels on bottles. 
By the way, frederica are you going to this oriented thing at Sofa on Thursday? Just checking. We decided on the way to lunch today that it had been a long time since we saw you um in an um bar.
Sorry to hear that Fee. Brysonâs books are so much fun to read. I always believed the eskimo/snow thing (and will have to check your source for myself to disprove it). In fact Iâve thought of that eskimo/snow thing locally when someone asks whatâs the name for shao lung bao or shway jien bao or tang bao (I use my own pinyin) in English, and I can only reply that theyâre all dumplings to us â we lack so many words to describe them. Oh well, one doesnât read Brysonâs books for facts anyway but for the humor.
Yes, Mother Theresa, I have liked other Bryson books Iâve read in the past (though the âNotes from a Small Islandâ and âNotes from a Big Countryâ combined volume did begin to grate on me.)
Some of my friends whoâve studied Linguistics had talked about the whole eskimo/snow thing a while back. I had also accepted it as true, but kind of in that urban myth kind of way.
Here is a link to site that looks at this in a bit more detail:
straightdope.com/columns/010202.html
I like Brysonâs writing, too, but he can come off as a blowhard, know-it-all uncle.
Or Cliff Claven, the postal worker from the show âCheers.â Some of the lines in this book by Bryson (stated as facts) could have come straight out of Clavenâs mouth. âThe Eskimos have more than twenty words for snow!â âThere are more students of English in China than speakers of English in the United States!â
OK, Cliff, Iâll buy you a beer if the facts are right and weâre just sitting and b-sing in a bar. But maybe Bryson should double-check some of these facts before he puts out them in a book.
Anyway, I hope that this doesnât mess up your eskimo/snow example. And maybe Iâm wrong. Perhaps a search of the Internet will produce plenty of sources backing this statement up.
Can you tell me some more about your dumpling example?
Just that there must be at least a dozen kinds of dumplings in Taiwan, with a separate name for each, but I could only describe them in English as small steamed dumplings with soup inside, or medium-sized steamed dumplings without soup inside, or fried dumplings, or big meat-filled dumplings cooked stuck on the inside of a brick kiln, etc. In Chinese theyâve got specific names for each kind of dumpling because theyâre integral to their culture (just as snow is to eskimos). Similarly, the Italians must have dozens of names for noodles but Americans can only think of a few of those names and Taiwanese can only say âitaly mien.â Maybe in Iraq they have a dozen words for sand.
Got it. Thanks, Mother Theresa.
And I must admit, the dumplings in Taiwan, are excellent. Ahh, xiao long bao, tang bao, guo tie, sheng qian baoâitâs all good (isnât that what the kids are saying these days?!)
In answer to the Eskimo words for snow question I found this website: Eskimo words for Snow. It doesnât give a clear answer, but if you read the whole page you will find some interesting ideas.
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I am currently reading The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester. It is the story of William Smith, the Englishman who single handedly compiled a geological map of England and founded the science of Geology. It is very interesting especially if you have an interest in geology, the history of science or life in England at the beginning of the 19th century.
Seems like thereâs lots of Bill Bryson fans here. Am i the only one who cannot stand his books?
Actually. I am fairly well read (or so I thought) but I have not the faintest idea who bill bryson is. I thought that he used to be a DJ for ICRT but then I am assuming this might be a different person.
Whatâs so funny about him?
I also do not get the fascination with Paul Theroux. I read his travel books. All he does is spend five seconds in a spot, bitch about it and catch the next train out. I am thinking of patagonian express and iron rooster. He did love Argentina though so I guess that counts for something (doesnât it?) Then there are bizarre I want to stay away from this man âThe Mosquito Coastâ and some such other stuff.
And if anyone can help me out there. I would like to know the name of the French book where the Bangladeshis are going to land in great numbers on the Riviera of all places and the panic ensues. Was that the book somebody mentioned earlier? The Deluge or whatever or �
New Bill Bryson book:
A Short History of Nearly Everything
[quote]Which fact would you rather know: That Madam Curieâs notebooks are so saturated with radiation that they can not be examined without wearing a lead suit?
That the energy found in the cells of the human body is equivalent to the force of 30 hydrogen bombs?
Fortunately, you donât have to choose because Bill Bryson gives you science thatâs both serious and fun in this detailed and enjoyable book.
Bryson had an epiphany of sorts when he realized he knew almost nothing about the only planet he was ever going to live on.
âI had no idea, for example, why the oceans were salty but the Great Lakes werenât,â he writes. This realization launched a five-year quest in which he read a plethora of science books (some centuries old) and interviewed many prominent scientists to provide a historical perspective on why things are the way they are.
But to Brysonâs fans, donât worry, there is still his trademark wit and his eye for the quirky. Consider his take on the end of Ernest Hubble, the man who discovered that the universe is expanding:
âFor reasons cloaked in mystery, Hubbleâs wife declined to have a funeral and never revealed what she did with his body. Half a century later, the whereabouts of the centuryâs greatest astronomer remain unknown. For a memorial, you must look to the sky and the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990 and named in his honor.â[/quote]
I like Bill Bryson. Heâs funny, witty, admittedly a bit âsameyâ after a while, but he definitely has a very good eye for the quirky and absurd. I really enjoyed A Walk in the Woods, and Notes from a Small Island did what I think is a great job of poking gentle fun at us Brits.
Resounding prose? No. Great literaure? Get real! Funny? Informed? Entertaining? Absofuckinglutely.
I was really enjoying A Walk in the Woods then he stopped walking and went homeâŚit really pissed me off! I also read the one about Britain and also found meself getting iritated by the book after a reasonable start. Much more enjoyed Therouxâs (a truly annoying writer) book about travelling around the entire coast of the UK which started off annoying but was a wonderful trip. Think it was called A Kingdom by the Sea.
I loved that one, especially the bit about the skinheads on the train and how silly they looked with their little peanut heads.
MOD NOTE: A must for all Theroux fans.
Swallowed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in a 2.5-day sized bite. I think I might pick up one of the few John Irving books that I donât own so that I have some reading material for my plane ride. Of course if someone happens to have all of the books of the Hitchhikerâs Guide to the Galaxy handy, I would love to re-read it again.
Decided it was America time in order to speak the same language as the New World Order. It was also NT$70 per book at Eslite.
Based on my readings of these books, I understand where the violent preternatural impulse so evident in American politics today comes from. It is like the giant white whale only now it is a house and the crazed captain of the ship⌠but I am sure that you can fill in the rest.
It is interesting though to have a read of America before it really was America and the Indians (AND THE FRENCH of course) were stirring up trouble on the frontier. Yet once you get past a bit of difficulty adjusting to somewhat archaic language, they are both fascinating reads.
Finished the Chinese-language book âRobinsonâs Crusoeâ by director Lin Cheng-sheng yesterday. In the first part, he goes on a bit about the divorce from his wife, but the second part is basically the story of his movie, now on at the Majestic and the âSpotâ Taipei Film House.
Itâs a story about a man in his midlife crisis, dreaming to get away from everything by buying an uninhabited island on a website. Thereâs a thought I can identify with, though I would prefer some company on my island!
This evening, I started reading âThe Perfect Storeâ by Adam Cohen, the story of eBay. Exciting beginning, though the fact that the writer got an office at the company during his work makes me wonder if he wonât let out the bad stuff. He says he also talked to radical critics of eBay.
Cuba and International Relations: A Historical Study in American Diplomacy. James Morton Callahan - author. The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1899.
This is available on the www.questia.com research website.
There are many fascinating parallels between the situation of Cuba after the Spanish American War and the situation of Taiwan after WWII . . . . . but of course you have to make lists of these by yourself . . . . .
Just started in on Samuel Huntingtonâs Clash of Civilizations. Anyone read this?
Also East and West by Christopher Patten.
Finally a criticique of Derridaâs philosophy. A good laugh. He is very popular with the deconstructionists but this particular author is scathing as he points out weaknesses and fallacies in his arguments by taking them to their (il)logical conclusions.
Just finished Nine Parts of Desire - The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
Fascinating and worthy read. It opened my mind to the plight of these courageous and misunderstood women, and answered a lot of questions my ill-informed mind had regarding their lifestyle and belief system.
Just started The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver