#Translingual Practices

[tjeromebaker]

Translingual Practices: Playfulness and Precariousness (Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact)

Source: Cambridge University Press Edited by Sender Dovchin, Curtin University, Perth, Rhonda Oliver, Curtin University, Perth, Li Wei, Institute of Education, University of London Bringing together work from a team of international scholars, this groundbreaking book explores how language users employ translingualism playfully, while, at the same time, negotiating precarious situations, such as…

[anarchistqueer]

Tips for Translingual beings under the cut!

- Watch shows in your translingual language, with your native language as subtitles so you can still understand what’s going on. This gives me a ton of euphoria and also helps with learning!

- In the same vein as that, simple games without much important dialogue are great to switch the language to your preferred language.

- You can also change your device settings into your preferred language, but if you aren’t very experienced in it this may be difficult to navigate!

- Indulge in sides of the internet where people speak your preferred language and spend time in places IRL where people speak your preferred language too, if possible!

- Watch videos and shows that’s original language is in your preferred language!

- I can’t say this one enough, use accurate translators to speak your preferred language online. There are much better translators than Google Translate, but it does depend on the language. Do a little digging!

- And of course, if you’re able to & have the recourses, learn and practice your language!

Ily fellow translinguals!!!

[linguistlist-blog]

Review: General Linguistics, Sociolinguistics; Translingual Practices: Ben-Said (2024)

SUMMARY Translingual Practices: Playfulness and Precariousness is a rich exploration of translingualism, demonstrating how individuals and groups employ multiple languages creatively and critically in precarious situations. The book, edited by Sender Dovchin, Rhonda Oliver, and Li Wei, is divided into four thematic sections, and each chapter offers a unique ethnographic study that illustrates how translingual practices are shaped by both playfulness and precarity. The editors emphasize the need http://dlvr.it/TGYCTx

[choudhryrafay]

Writing is an essential form of communication, and it has been a crucial part of education for as long as we can remember. From the moment we learn how to read and write, we are taught to follow specific rules and guidelines, adhering to strict grammatical and structural conventions. While these guidelines are necessary, they often overshadow the most crucial aspect of writing: expressing oneself and conveying emotions.

In today's education system, writing is often approached as a means to an end, where students are taught how to write to meet specific requirements and rubrics rather than to express themselves fully. In doing so, students are taught to conform to a standard English approach, which can ultimately hinder their personal growth and creativity.

In his piece, "Should Writers Use Their Own English?" Vershawn Ashanti Young questions the practice of code-switching, where individuals separate dialects and only use them when necessary, effectively pushing a standard English approach. He argues that this practice is harmful as it discourages individuals from using their own dialect and language, ultimately stifling their creativity and ability to express themselves fully. Code-switching is a common practice in many communities, where individuals switch between languages or dialects depending on the context. For example, a person may speak one language or dialect at home and switch to a different one in academic or professional settings. This practice is often necessary to navigate different cultural and linguistic contexts, but it can also lead to individuals feeling like they have to leave a part of themselves behind. Furthermore, code-switching can perpetuate the notion that there is a "correct" way to speak and write, leading individuals to believe that their own language and dialect are not valid. This can lead to feelings of shame and embarrassment, ultimately hindering an individual's ability to express themselves fully and creatively.

Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" highlights the importance of being able to write bilingually and switch codes without always having to translate. Anzaldua, who identifies as Chicana, writes about her struggles with language and the pressure to conform to a standard English approach. She argues that writing in her own dialect is essential to her identity and self-expression, stating that "I am my language." This sentiment is echoed in Royster's "When the First Voice You Hear is Not Your Own," where she emphasizes the significance of valuing diverse linguistic experiences in academic spaces. Royster, an African American woman, writes about her experiences in predominantly white academic spaces and the pressure to conform to a standard English approach. She argues that by valuing diverse linguistic experiences, educators can create an environment where students feel comfortable sharing their inner selves through writing.

Horner et al.'s "Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach" similarly argues that linguistic differences should not be seen as problems to be remedied but rather as resources for learning. The authors advocate for a translingual approach, where educators and students value and utilize linguistic diversity to foster communication and understanding.

To address this issue, educators must move away from the narrow understanding of "correct" writing and instead embrace the richness and diversity of language and writing styles. Students should be encouraged to use their own dialects and languages, allowing them to express themselves fully and develop their writing skills. Teachers play a critical role in creating an environment where students feel comfortable sharing their inner selves through writing.

One way to create such an environment is through the use of writing workshops. Writing workshops provide a safe space for students to share their writing and receive feedback from their peers and teachers. In these workshops, students can share their unique writing styles and dialects, allowing them to develop their writing skills while also expressing themselves fully. In addition to embracing linguistic diversity, it's also crucial for educators to recognize and respect the cultural backgrounds of their students. Writing can be an excellent opportunity for students to explore and share their cultural identities, but this can only happen if they feel seen and valued in the classroom. One way to promote cultural understanding in writing is by incorporating multicultural literature into the curriculum. By reading and analyzing works from diverse authors, students can gain a greater appreciation for different cultures and perspectives.   Additionally, allowing students to write about their own cultural experiences can be empowering and validating. However, it's essential to ensure that students' cultural identities are not essentialized or stereotyped. Educators must be mindful of their own biases and work to create a safe and inclusive space for all students to express themselves authentically. Another challenge in writing education is the emphasis on standardization and conformity. While it's essential to teach students the fundamentals of grammar and structure, there can be a tendency to prioritize form over content. This can lead to students producing formulaic and uninspired writing that lacks depth and nuance.

One solution to this problem is to encourage students to experiment with different writing styles and techniques. This could involve incorporating poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction into the curriculum, allowing students to explore different modes of expression. It's also crucial for educators to provide constructive feedback that focuses on content and encourages students to take risks and think creatively.

Additionally, it's important to recognize that writing is not a solitary activity but rather a collaborative one. By engaging in peer review and group discussions, students can receive feedback from their peers and learn to give constructive criticism themselves. This can be especially effective in promoting critical thinking and encouraging students to consider different perspectives and ideas. Furthermore, technology has transformed the way we approach writing education. Online platforms and tools can provide students with new opportunities to collaborate, receive feedback, and engage with diverse audiences. However, it's essential to ensure that students are taught how to use these tools effectively and ethically.

Finally, it's crucial to recognize that writing is not just an academic exercise but also a valuable life skill. Effective communication is essential in almost all aspects of life, and writing is no exception. By teaching students to write effectively, we can equip them with the tools they need to succeed in the workforce, build meaningful relationships, and engage with the world around them. In conclusion, writing education plays a critical role in helping students develop their creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills. However, to do this effectively, we must move away from the narrow understanding of "correct" writing and instead embrace linguistic diversity, cultural understanding, and creative expression. By doing so, we can create a more inclusive and empowering learning environment that fosters personal growth and prepares students for success in all aspects of life.

[russenoire]

a masterpost: this is how i study japanese・これが私の日本語の勉強法です。

as part of a dialogue with @chokopan, this is how i study japanese.

…i don’t know that anyone else would find my current process helpful or even realistic, though i will detail it in another post.

@russenoire​

…Yes please, do share! I think all of us in the langblr community could find something useful to learn from you. The more we all talk about how we learn, the more ideas we’re exposed to - which can help us come up with new study methods we wouldn’t have thought of trying before. Like I said before, everyone learns differently; but sometimes, mixing it up with a new technique or note-taking method, for example, could help push us out of studying ruts or times of low motivation. To that end, I’d like to know what resources you use when you’re breaking down kanji and etymology. It seems like you’re learning kanji in a sort of… non-traditional way.

this is my response. it is a Very Long Post, but i hope others find it helpful. for the method i use to learn kanji specifically, go here.

table of contents under the cut.

table of contents

tools / apps.

online resources.

dictionaries.

grammar / cultural context / word nuance & usage notes.

japan-based japanese language schools.

youtube channels.

sundry goodness.

textbooks.

immersion content.

actual study.

daily.

weekly.

helpful tips.

for the morbidly curious only: what got me to start in the first place?

tools

a word processing program, for taking notes.

takoboto.jp (online and on android) - it’s a dictionary of words and kanji, with stroke order diagrams, kanji meanings, some notes on word usage, and a slew of additional info (like JLPT levels and school grades for individual characters). includes grammar search with renshuu.org.

anki (on mac/linux/windows) - the mack daddy of SRS apps. massive learning curve, but have you the time to surmount it, the serious flexibility it offers is yours; you can even add javascript to anki cards. i’ve used it for years for learning programming languages – it’s indispensable to me.

hinative (an app) - ask native speakers to correct your writing, pronunciation and word usage. do the same for other learners too. pretty eye-opening, especially for my native language.

a 原稿用紙 (genkouyoushi), for writing practice.

cool pens.

online resources

dictionaries

jisho - a dictionary with a search function that lets you input passages of text and look up each word separately. amazing for the vast majority of words, not always great at catching grammar patterns.

takoboto - much like jisho.org, with grammar patterns. the mobile app or a full subscription to the website unlocks easy grammar search through renshuu.org.

japanese language @ en.wiktionary.org - an embarrassment of riches. hella useful for etymology, verb conjugations from a japanese standpoint, historical word use and translingual information on individual kanji.

goo - a monolingual japanese dictionary. i’ve slowly started using its definitions for some of my cards — they’re also an additional vocabulary source.

grammar / cultural context / word nuance & usage notes

japanese with anime - another person learning japanese with manga and anime, but who has spent far more time poring over linguistics articles in peer-reviewed academic journals than i have. excellent for making sense of manga/anime visual storytelling conventions, tropes, slang!!! and grammar.

renshuu - kanji/word dictionary and grammar resource, with quizzes and games. lots of natural language sentence examples as well.

takoboto - like renshuu, but not gamified. i use this site more often, as it’s a little more user-friendly and i already use the mobile app.

japanese @ stackexchange - this is one of many offshoots of the venerable programming advice forum stack overflow. full of questions and answers from native speakers, academics and learners about japanese use in the wild. highly recommended.

self-taught japanese - a blog by a professional translator and long-time student of japanese culture.

imabi.net - an exhaustive grammar resource from an academic perspective. i like to point people here instead of tae kim, as imabi is less reductive, but people who need to ramp up complexity in their learning materials may find it overwhelming.

maggie sensei - i wish this site were easier to read and navigate, but the content is amazing. plenty of natural japanese examples for grammar points, some coverage of colloquial japanese and helpful explanations from a native speaker.

sci.lang.japan FAQ - Q&A from the usenet newsgroup. useful for cultural questions, some grammar.

japanese language @ en.wiktionary.org - see above.

the tv tropes wiki - given japan’s immense worldwide cultural influence relative to its population, this site has tons of useful info on japanese culture, from honorifics to the actual language.

japan-based japanese language schools

wasabi - indispensable. concise, exhaustive breakdown of grammar and an entire self-learners’ course for free. they also offer the instantaneous composition method, a technique for training up speech in japanese using common sentence patterns. i intend to try it this month.

genki academy - where i found validation for using literal translation to study. lots of articles on grammar and strategies for effective study.

youtube channels

onomappu - an adorable medical student explains his native language in very simple japanese. includes dual eng-jp subtitles.

cure dolly - the creator died last year, sadly, but she left behind some of the most illuminating explanations i’ve ever seen of japanese structure and grammar. polarizing presentation, but highly recommended.

cyberbunny (if only for the 30 min katakana song!)

sundry goodness

kanjialive - stroke order diagrams using real japanese handwriting, not typefaces.

youglish for japanese - just started using this and it’s fantastic. it crawls through youtube subtitles to help you find native pronunciations of japanese words in context.

massif - natural japanese sentence aggregator, meant to solve the problem of outdated and often inaccurate sentences in projects like the tanaka corpus and tatoeba.

dōgen on patreon and youtube - a linguist who pretty much made japanese phonetics his life’s work. his course is great if you are serious about near-native pronunciation. (i paid for it, but am not making it a focus until i have acquired more japanese myself. i also don’t feel this is strictly necessary for proficient command of the language – the author agrees.)

OJAD - university of tokyo’s online japanese accent dictionary. pitch accent contours for thousands of words and conjugations, with audio.

字幕プレーヤー (jimaku player) - a user script that allows you to add your own subtitles to crunchyroll or VNV videos. each line is sent to jisho.org as a text search. free / donation-ware.

kitsunekko - japanese subtitle files for hundreds of J-doramas, anime series, and movies.

awesomeTTS and japanese support, for anki users. fairly natural-sounding text-to-speech audio for flashcards.

textbooks

a dictionary of basic/intermediate/advanced japanese grammar, seiichi makino & michio tsutsui. possibly the beilstein of japanese grammar. exhaustive, organized in roumaji alphabetic order.

japanese: a comprehensive grammar, 2ed., by stefan kaiser, yasuko ichikawa, noriko kobayashi and hilofumi yamamoto. another excellent resource, focusing on modern and most frequent patterns.

essential japanese vocabulary, by akira miura. helpful for notes on nuance and words that learners confuse easily. it also helped me clarify the meanings of a number of words like 相手 (あいて, aìte == ‘someone one performs an activity with or against’).

the kodansha kanji learner’s course, by andrew conning and jack halpern. the ‘all japanese all the time’ and ‘matt vs japan’ learning communities – my introduction to study methods for japanese – love love LOVE heisig’s remembering the kanji 1.

i wasn’t sold:

it focuses on recognition and writing jouyou kanji as pictures only. readings and actual meanings are meant to be learned once part 1 is complete.

conning’s method was much more intuitive for me: it teaches you kanji with their original meanings and the most common readings, in increasing stroke complexity and by similar components. he provides some historical context as well. highly underrated. i use this as a reference and a backup, not a primary kanji learning strategy; i’m not in any hurry.

making sense of japanese, by acclaimed haruki murakami translator and yale professor jay rubin. if you can overlook his borderline racist dismissal of kanji (i couldn’t); the rest of the book wittily illuminates grammar points that trip up learners – like how the ‘passive’ actually works in japanese – in a cultural context.

immersion content

mob psycho 100, manga / anime.

MP100 is a character-driven, supernatural realist slice-of-life coming-of-age story, larded with hardcore action and darkly funny satire. it’s great. i love a well-executed slice-of-life story and they’re often perfect for language learning, but they’re typically not that popular among anime fans because ‘nothing happens’ in them. á chacun son gout.

it seems i got lucky when i chose this particular series for reading immersion:

the replay value is quite high. i notice something new almost each time i revisit.

it’s almost entirely free of weirdly specialized vocabulary that would be useless in the real world (though i did learn two entirely separate words for ‘exorcism’. LOL).

it contains a healthy mix of different registers of speech.

i got to tangle with slang (which is really only painful to work with because of the lack of resources for english speakers) and fairly polite japanese right away. the protagonist speaks very politely with most people he encounters in the anime, with some exceptions, and he code-switches as appropriate to the situation. he’s…less polite in the manga, but his character is otherwise unchanged.

the lack of furigana made me work a little harder for understanding. this and the mangaka’s not infrequent use of kanji for words typically written in kana are almost certainly meant as a satirical comment on 中二病 (chuunibyou), or 'second-year middle schooler syndrome’.

chuunibyou can include pretending to have magical abilities, behaving in real life as if you’re a character from a superhero manga, or wearing eyepatches for no good reason. apparently kanji overuse is one of its least embarrassing symptoms. self-satisfied teenagers often have a pathological need to show off the mess of kanji they’ve just learned in junior high…

a number of adult characters in MP100 clearly suffer from it.

a few other carefully curated anime series.

mostly watched without subtitles. this changes on a whim, and it can be difficult to find a story with a good mix of spoken japanese registers that is also watchable without subs. making a story so compelling that it can be understood and enjoyed purely on a visual level is a unique skill, it seems.

the ones listed below are ones i keep returning to:

uchuu kyoudai a story about two brothers who make a promise to each other to become astronauts as kids. it meets this and then some; i was pleasantly surprised. the animation is not great, but the realistic character designs, the story’s emotional depth and the careful details in the setting more than compensates for it.

shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu a real slow burner in the best of all possible ways. different characters’ personal attachments to rakugo – a form of traditional storytelling best described as ‘a one-man sitcom performed for a live audience’ – and to each other across different time periods make for some affecting viewing. mixed speech registers, but leans more towards the colloquial side.

other listening content

interviews with voice actors i like, with JP subs if they are available.

songs in japanese. self-appointed reddit gatekeepers look down heavily on using songs as immersion, but like, fuck those people. i’ve already written about how lovely they are. they can be a great source of vocabulary too, particularly if you love literary or poetic language and don’t care whether every word you learn shows up in a frequency list.

actual study

i do not have kids. i have never needed much sleep. i work from home, and i actually asked my friends last year for space in order for me to 日本語を身を委ねる (nihóngo o mi o yudanèru, abandon myself to the japanese language)…they were all understanding. i’m grateful for this.

i’m also very aware that my circumstances won’t resemble anyone else’s, because my brain is…odd.

like, when i began, my kana and kanji knowledge was minimal at best. i could identify maybe a handful of kanji on sight, like the one gaara scarred his forehead with as a child in naruto (愛), or the one for wind (風). i dove head-first into immersion anyway with a manga series written for teenagers and adults precisely because i know myself and knew i hadn’t the patience to sit with literal children’s books.

the line by line, particle-by-particle, pattern-by-pattern interpretation i do is indeed slow, but there wouldn’t be enough stimulation to keep me engaged otherwise. the friend who introduced me to MP100 asked me for advice on learning strategies, as we’re both acquiring this language. he recoiled in horror when i showed him what i was doing.

i’ve always been like this. physics made no sense to me in high school until i studied single-variable calculus; musical acoustics in university might as well have been greek until i learned the underlying math. i taught myself to sew by making a sofa.

if this comes across as humble-bragging, i apologize; it’s a liability for me almost as often as it is an asset, and it really doesn’t make my life easier.

daily studies

1h, minimum, of anki flashcard study.

i set my timer for a block of 30 minutes and answer as quickly as i can, twice a day. if i’m not pressed for time, that’s maximum 90m in 30m blocks. in practice, this is the only thing i do daily at this point: everything else is as i have time.

anki power-users generally recommend making your own decks, and i second, third and fourth this. rolling your own does take far longer, however. i spent a fair amount of time bending anki to my will to design beautiful, useful cards, but the effort i invested in tailoring them to my way of thinking and learning made their content easier to retain. YMMV.

a little while ago i downloaded a deck made up of lines of audio dialogue timed to subtitles, ripped directly from MP100’s first season, for listening practice. it’s also been great for vocabulary acquisition.

a typical anki session presents me with a mix of everything: listening exercises, word recall, translation. many of my cards are audio cards i made where i listen to a line and type in what i heard, or work backwards from a translation to typing in a japanese equivalent.

i do this for the sake of exposure as well, as i don’t read quickly enough yet to regularly encounter most of the words i have learned.

1-3h translation.

from a random tankōbon of MP100, i pick 1-4 pages and translate however much i can make time for.

i keep a word document and record each line, my translation, words to look up, and any questions (why this word? why say this like that? etc.) as i comb through the text. jisho.org and takoboto both have a search-by-radical function for identifying unfamiliar kanji.

original word order is preserved unless it’s confusing, in order to get me accustomed to typical japanese sentence layout, particle function and phrasing. it helps some, but i’m starting to need this less as i progress. i have encountered quite a few lines that i can understand without the need for this sort of parsing, which feels good.

when a line of text has got me stumped, i translate what i can around it and move on. i then return, consulting the grammar resources listed above to clear things up.

words to look up go straight into anki. anki management itself can be time-greedy, depending on how many words or sentences i need to enter or how many cards need retooling.

weekly studies

once a week, untimed, learning the lyrics to a song or mining a song i can already sing for vocabulary, using lyric sheets. i would like to be more systematic and consistent about everything this year.

1-5h of non-anki-related listening.

keeping track of words i can pick out and don’t know for entering into anki on the spot.

anime with and without japanese subtitles.

simple japanese listening.

japanese rock songs.

1-3h of focused grammar study.

cure dolly’s grammar videos can be really good at clearing up grammar misunderstandings. though i don’t love her pronunciation, her explanations are usually solid.

the aforementioned resources for grammar that i consult in translating.

helpful tips

a note on transliteration.

ボキャブラリー

look for ways to generalize whenever possible.

i stole my approach to learning words with multiple meanings directly from cure dolly. words with multiple meanings usually have a single core meaning that applies to most of the different senses in which you’ll find them.

here’s an example, using 適う (かなう):

the core meaning here is ‘fit’; it neatly encompasses most of the definitions on this card. i have also included the kanji meanings applicable to this particular word.

relate new words to existing knowledge; use the kanji’s meaning/shape for further support.

here’s an example with 籠る (こもる).

the main kanji making up this word, 籠, can mean ‘basket’ or ‘cage’. it resembles one too.

what can you do with a basket or cage? how are its contents affected? the answers to both questions encapsulate 籠る’s meanings.

it’s also related to 引き篭もる (ひきこもる, h’k’komòru), the root behind the word for the unfortunate japanese cultural phenomenon where kids give up on entering society and seclude themselves in their rooms for years…

keeping things like this in mind helps meanings stick for me.

with that in mind:

i don’t learn vocabulary out of context.

there are so many pre-made anki decks just for vocabulary: Core6000, Core10000, and so on. people seem to find them helpful, and i’m glad. i don’t, at least not for their intended purpose (i have a 6K deck with a ton of professionally recorded sentences spoken by voice actors! i use it for listening practice). i have no scaffolding to hang these words on.

i pick words up directly from immersion: from anime, from the manga i’m using, from songs, from podcasts i’m listening to. anything in japanese that i’m interested in understanding further can serve as a source for vocabulary, including recipes. the more existing information – emotional, visual, auditory – you feed your brain along with a single bit of new knowledge, the better for overall retention.

there’s a scene in MP100 where the protagonist’s mother is yelling at him to wake up so he can walk to school on time; i find it notable mostly for the overly-concerned soccer-mom sound of her voice. whenever i hear the word 遅刻・する (ちこく, ch'koku == lateness) now, it echoes in my head:

｢ (しげ)！　起きなさい！　遅刻するわよ〜！｣ shige! okinasai! ch'kok’ surú wa yo~! shige! wake up, please! you’re gonna be LAAATE!

even 'i heard that word in a scene where two characters were arguing about cheese’ is context.

i learn verbs in ergative pairs when i can.

not because knowing what ergativity is is particularly important, but because it’s a great chunking strategy: i can learn to associate multiple related words with a single kanji.

each kanji representing an action is often associated with at least two separate single-kanji verbs representing opposing aspects thereof:

自動詞 (じどうし, jidoushi == self-move-word). this concept roughly corresponds to intransitive verbs in english, which don’t take direct objects.

他動詞 (たどうし, tadoushi == other-move-word). transitive verbs, which need to act on something (a direct object) to make sense.

例えば (たとえば, tatoeba == for example):

落とす (おとす, otòsu): to allow to fall, to drop (something). other-move.

落ちる (おちる, ochìru): to fall or drop (on its own). self-move.

sometimes there are more. if introducing the additional verbs associated with a single kanji doesn’t sow confusion, i learn them all at the same time:

見る (みる) mìru to see, look, view… (みる has more definitions, but different kanji are used to indicate them. a kind native speaker on hinative pointed this out to me.)

見える mièru to seem, be visible

見せる misèru to show, display

two birds, one stone. 一石二鳥。 いっせきにちょう。 isseki nìchou.

漢字

my approach to kanji, however, is entirely my own.

i was exposed to ateji early with the word 真面目・な (まじめ・な, majíme na == grave, earnest, serious, not fucking around). the characters in this word were chosen entirely for sound and not meaning, which probably explains why it gets abbreviated to マジ so often. that i couldn’t trust kanji in nouns to consistently convey meaning was a harsh lesson to learn. :D

when i turned my eyes to verbs and adjectives instead, i found this:

the pronunciation of every verb or adjective comprised of a single kanji with an okurigana trail represents a single 訓読み (くんよみ, kun’yomi) or native japanese reading. that leaves me with just word, meaning and pronunciation to remember.

relating directly to ergative pairs, in each half of a pair the kanji occasionally has a different 訓読み.

例えば:

教わる (おそわる, osówaru): to receive teaching, to take lessons in, to learn.

教える (おしえる, oshíeru): to teach, preach or inform.

using 教 as an example again, i learned 教育 (きょういく, kyóuiku == education, training, schooling) a little later. きょう is the 音読み (��んよみ, on’yomi) or chinese reading for 教。

that gave me all possible readings for this kanji and a good sense of its meaning in other words — like 宗教 (しゅうきょう, shùukyou == religion, faith, creed) — without needing to drill the kanji independently. readings for other kanji can be acquired in similar fashion.

a rule of thumb: you can usually expect kanji in verbs and 形容詞 (けいようし, keiyoushi == so-called i-adjectives) to be read with 訓読み.

when i notice that i keep confusing one particular kanji for another, or i can’t get a reading to stick in my mind because i have nothing to anchor the character to…i add the troublesome character alone to my anki deck. it gets a list of compounds of itself with other kanji i already know, to help me better associate ideograph with meaning. i trust that in time it will stick too, with enough accumulated context.

so why this manga?

short answer: this story means a lot to me.

here’s a longer answer.

that was in april last year.

this same friend first recommended this series to me back in september 2020. i slept on it until the following may… then promptly asked him for forgiveness. i’d mainlined both seasons in japanese and english over a single weekend.

i had to have more.

the last time something like this happened…

i was a student at university, in my last year. my then-boyfriend — who’d escaped from chernobyl as a child on his father’s back with his mother’s grip tight on his arm, fallout flakes still clinging to his jacket — handed me a fanlation of the viktor pelevin short story ‘hermit and sixfingers’.

this one, actually. i’d recommend it heartily, especially if you’re into dystopias and bleak, absurd humor – i was at the time. though once i slowly awakened to life in the genuine article, fictional dystopias and their attendant laugh-to-keep-from-weeping ethos…lost their appeal some. (i still have a soft spot for nikolai gogol, though)

some time later, i read a professionally-translated version and compared them: what the rougher of the two lacked in polish, it made up for in quite a bit of culturally-specific nuance and awkward charm. i felt cheated enough to want to learn russian. like, this blog is called what it is for a reason. i’m still a fan of russian literature. my given name, анастасия, is russian.

sadly, it didn’t stick, probably for a number of (mental health-related) reasons outside the scope of this post.

a scarred veteran of the sub versus dub wars, old enough to remember a sailor moon scrubbed clean of lesbian 'subtext’, i’ve loved anime for a long time. i’ve been touched by so many sweet and deeply affecting stories over the years, but all the hard work put in by amateur translators to give every joke and obscure cultural reference its due…never motivated me to learn the language. not even as i became increasingly fascinated by japan’s culture and history.

what did it, finally? mob psycho 100. (a global pandemic and a sense of time evaporating didn’t hurt.)

MP100’s realistic depictions of reactions to trauma and the slow healing process…

skillfully-drawn main characters…

wry commentary on storytelling tropes and clichés shounen battle anime fans take for granted…

everything it has to say about the complexity of relationships that shape us as people, forgiveness, kindness, gratitude…

and the protagonist, a neurodivergent person finding self-acceptance as well as a place in the world…

settled into my bones and wouldn’t leave.

i won’t gush overmuch about it here; my deep adoration for ONE’s stupidly-overpowered, almost-certainly-autistic love child probably seeps out of this blog enough and i’ve already uncapped that geyser elsewhere.

after i’d inhaled all 16 volumes of the attendant scanlated manga, i tracked down the first two volumes of its official english translation to read. the translator made some puzzling changes.

one of the main characters, a phony psychic and habitual liar with a kind heart that he won’t even admit he possesses, honestly didn’t need extra help to come across as slimy. what the anime (and the slightly awkward scanlation i read) handled with some subtlety hit like a tornado of anvils in his work: the translator just dunked him in nickelodeon slime. this wasn’t the only character whose personality he changed.

he also pointedly avoided using the word psychic in his own take on the story (i think it appears once in the first volume). i was at a loss as to why:

the original text is full of two words (霊能力者 and 超能力者) that both refer to people with psychic powers.

霊能力者 (reinouryok'sha, 'person with spiritual powers’) is rendered as 'spirit medium’, which at least isn’t terribly far off. but 超能力者 (chounouryok'sha, 'person with supernatural powers/ESP’) becomes 'person with superpowers’.

superpowers don’t usually have paranormal connotations in the US.

every 超能力者 in mob psycho 100 has one or more abilities associated with ESP: astral projection; being able to see, commune with and exorcise the dead; laying curses on objects; or telekinesis.

superpowers would be a fairly literal translation of 超能力 (超 == super, 能力 == abilities, faculties), but it misses the spirit of the original word: 超能力 refers directly to ESP.

the protagonist is a psychic.

the story itself, as you can guess from above, trucks heavily in the supernatural.

i… wasn’t okay with that.

my frustration was just the impetus i needed to find this story in the original japanese – and use it to finally start learning this language. if the gap between an official translation and an amateur one was this wide, i had to know what was actually being said on the page.

these arrived from japan in august last year, well in advance of my birthday – a gift to myself. i started this adventure in late august and this gift is still giving…

[perennialessays]

A: Michaelmas Term. The Colonial, the Postcolonial, the World: Literature, Contexts and Approaches (A/Core Course)

The A course comprises 8 1.5 hour seminars and is intended to provide a range of perspectives on some of the core debates, themes and issues shaping the study of world and postcolonial literatures in English. In each case the seminar will be led by a member of the Faculty of English with relevant expertise, in dialogue with one or more short presentations from students on aspects of the week’s topic. There is no assessed A course work, but students are asked to give at least one presentation on the course, and to attend all the seminars. You should read as much in the bibliography over the summer – certainly the primary literary texts listed in the seminar reading for each week. The allocation of presenters will be made at the meeting in week 0.

Week 1

Theories of World Literature I: What Is World Literature?...What Isn’t World Literature? (Graham Riach)

This seminar will consider what we mean when we say ‘world literature’, looking at models proposed by critics as Emily Apter, David Damrosch, the WReC collective, and others. The category of ‘world literature’ has been in constant evolution since Johan Wolfgang von Goethe popularised the term in the early 19th Century, and in this session we will explore some of the key debates in the field.

Primary:

+ David Damrosch, What is World Literature? 2003

+ ------ What Isn't World Literature, lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfOuOJ6b-qY

+ WReC (Warwick Research Collective), Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World Literature

+ Extracts from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl Marx and Friechrich Engels, Franco Moretti, Pascale Cassanova, Emily Apter and others.

Secondary:

+ David Damrosch, World Literature in a Postcanonical, Hypercanonical Age in Haun Saussay ed, Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization 2006 pp.43-53

+ Franco Moretti, Conjectures on World Literature, New Left Review 1 2000 54-68

+ Mariano Siskind, ‘The Globalization of the Novel and The Novelization of the Global: A Critique of World Literature’, Comparative Literature 62 (2010) 4: 336-60

Week 2

English in the world/Language beyond relativity (Peter McDonald)

Primary:

+ The Oxford English Dictionary (especially 1989 print edition and online, 2000-)

+ You should also read Sarah Ogilvie, Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary (2012)

+ Florian Coulmas, Guardians of the Language (2016)

+ Perry Link’s short essay ‘The Mind: Less Puzzling in Chinese? (New York Review of Books, 30 June 2016), which is available via: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/06/30/the-mind-less-puzzling-in-chinese/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Krugman%20on%20King%20Als%20on%20Martin%20Cole%20on%20police&utm_content=NYR%20Krugman%20on%20King%20Als%20on%20Martin%20Cole%20on%20police+CID_9def725d3263b14fe6dce4894ed64907&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=The%20Mind%20in%20Chinese

Secondary:

+ Jacques Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other, or The Prosthesis of Origin, trans. Patrick Mensah, 1998 (French edition, 1996)

+ Charles Taylor, The Language Animal (2016)

Preparation

A (2 students: position papers, maximum 1000 words, on ONE of the following. Please ensure both topics are covered. Also bring along a handout with your key quotations—copies for the entire group) 1. Explain the significance of the epigraphs from Glissant and Khatibi for Derrida’s argument and analysis in Monolingualism. 2. Explain Taylor’s distinction between ‘designative-instrumental’ and ‘expressive-constitutive’ theories of language.

B (all remaining students: single-sided A4 handout—copies for the entire group) Browse the OED, especially using the online feature that allows you to group words by origin and/or region, and select ONE loanword from a non-European language. On one side of an A-4 sheet give an account of the word, explaining why you think it has particular significance in the long history of lexical borrowing that constitutes the English language and the shorter history of the linguistic relativity thesis

Week 3

The (Un)translatability of World Literature (Adriana X. Jacobs)

This seminar will examine the role of translation in the development of the category of world literature with a particular focus on the term “translatability.” We will consider how translation into “global” English has shaped contemporary understandings of translatability and how to reconcile these with the more recent turn to “untranslatability” in literary scholarship. To what extent are the parameters of world literature contingent on a translation economy that privileges certain languages, authors and texts over authors? What room is there in current configurations of world literature for works that “do not measure up to certain metrics of translational circulation” (Zaritt)?

Primary:

+ Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability (New York: Verso, 2013)

+ “To Translate,” in Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon, Barbara Cassin, ed., ed. and trans. Emily Apter, Jacques Lezra, and Michael Wood (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014): 1139- 1155. (read introduction online: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10097.html)

Secondary:

+ Antoine Berman, “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign,” trans. Lawrence Venuti, in The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd edition (New York/Abingdon: Routledge, 2012): 240-253.

+ Johannes Göransson, “‘Transgressive Circulation’: Translation and the Threat of Foreign Influence,” Cordite Poetry Review (November 1, 2016): www.cordite.org.au/essays/transgressive-circulation.

+ Ignacio Infante, “On The (Un)Translatability of Literary Form: Framing Contemporary Translational Literature,” Translation Review 95.1 (2016): 1-7

+ Lydia Liu, “The Problem of Language in Cross-Cultural Studies,” in Translingual Practice:Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity—China, 1900-1937 (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995): 1-42

+ Ronit Ricci, “On the untranslatability of ‘translation’: Considerations from Java, Indonesia,” Translation Studies 3.3 (2010): 287-301.

+ Saul Zaritt, “‘The World Awaits Your Yiddish Word’: Jacob Glatstein and the Problem of World Literature,” Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-) 34.2 (2015): 175-203.

Week 4

Literature and Performance of the Black Americas (Annie Castro)

In this seminar, we will engage with a variety of writings by Black authors across the Americas that emphasize issues of race, nationality, cultural heritage, and performance. This course will serve as an introduction into critical debates regarding the complex interchange of Afro-diasporic persons, ideas, and discourse across the Western Hemisphere. Please come prepared to share a short (approximately 200 words), informal written review of the assigned readings. This review, which is intended to aid group discussion, should place the assigned texts in conversation with one another, particularly in regards to their conceptualizations of race and culture in artistic expression.

Primary:

+ Erna Brodber, Louisiana (1997)

Secondary:

+ DeFrantz, Thomas and Anita Gonzalez, “Introduction.” In Black Performance Theory (2014)

+ Edwards, Brent Hayes. “Prologue,” “Variations on a Preface.” In The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (2003)

+ Harris, Wilson. “History, Fable, and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas” (1970). In Caribbean Quarterly: The 60th Anniversary Edition (2008)

Week 5

Theories of World Literature II: Is World Literature Beautiful? (Graham Riach)

Traditional definitions of world literature are heavily based on the idea of universal cultural value. This seminar will consider some of the main issues in universalist conceptions of world literary value, particularly in relation to aesthetics, and the role of interpretive communities in dealing with distances in time, culture and language.

Primary:

+ Simon Gikandi, Slavery and the Culture of Taste (Princeton University Press, 2014)

+ Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012)

Secondary:

+ Isobel Armstrong, The Radical Aesthetic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)

+ Bill Ashcroft, ‘Towards a Postcolonial Aesthetics’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 51, 4 (2015), pp. 410-421

+ Elleke Boehmer, ‘A Postcolonial Aesthetic: Repeating Upon the Present’, in Janet Cristina Şandru Wilson and Sarah Lawson Welsh eds., Rerouting the Postcolonial: New Directions for the New Millennium (2010), pp. 170-181

+ Peter de Bolla, Art Matters (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001)

+ Simon Gikandi, ‘Race and the Idea of the Aesthetic’, Michigan Quarterly Review, 40,2 (2001), pp.318–50.

+ Peter J. Kalliney, Commonwealth of Letters: British Literary Culture and the Emergence of Postcolonial Aesthetics (Oxford: OUP, 2013)

+ Catherine Noske, ‘A Postcolonial Aesthetic? An Interview with Robert Young’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50, 5, 609-621 (2014)

+ Rethinking Beauty, special issue of diacritics (32.1, Spring 2002)

Week 6

Cultural Memory and Reconciliation (Catherine Gilbert)

In this seminar, we will explore representations of conflict and its enduring impact in narratives from South Africa and Rwanda. In particular, we will consider questions surrounding the relationship between testimony and literature, how writers work to convey the complex nuances of trauma and memory, and the role of literature in remembrance and reconciliation.

Primary:

+ Achmat Dangor, Bitter Fruit (London: Atlantic Books, 2004 [2001]).

+ Jean Hatzfeld (ed), Into the Quick of Life. The Rwandan Genocide: The Survivors Speak (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2008).

+ Please also listen to: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘The Danger of the Single Story’ (TED talk, 2009): https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

Secondary:

+ Jean Hatzfeld (ed), Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, translated by Linda Coverdale (New York: Picador, 2005). Esp. the chapters ‘In the shade of an acacia’, ‘Remorse and regrets’, ‘Bargaining for forgiveness’, and ‘Pardons’.

+ Madelaine Hron, ‘Gukora and Itsembatsemba: The "Ordinary Killers" in Jean Hatzfeld's Machete Season’, Research in African Literatures, 42.2 (2011), pp. 125-146.

+ Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull (London: Vintage, 1999 [1998]). Esp. Chapter 3, ‘Bereaved and Dumb, the High Southern Air Succumbs’, pp. 38-74.

+ Achille Mbembe, ‘African Modes of Self-Writing’, Public Culture, 14.1 (2002), pp. 239-273.

+ Ana Miller, ‘The Past in the Present: Personal and Collective Trauma in Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit’, Studies in the Novel, 40.1-2 (2008), pp. 146-160.

+ Zoe Norridge, Perceiving Pain in African Literature (London: Palgrave, 2012)

+ Richard Crownshaw, Jane Kilby and Antony Rowland (eds), The Future of Memory (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010). Esp. the introductions to each of the three sections on memory, testimony and trauma.

Week 7

Comics and Conflict: Witness, Testimony and World Literature? (Dominic Davies)

In this seminar we will explore the seemingly prevalent tendency of the use of comics –that is, sequential art that combines juxtaposed drawn and other images with the (hand)written word – to depict conflict zones in geo-historical areas as diverse as Palestine, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Why have comics, a highly mediated form that draws attention to the contingency of its own perspective, been used to document witness testimonies from war zones across the world? How do comics, constructed from a sophisticated architecture of borders and gutters, communicate these testimonies across national borders, perhaps even forging alternative kinds of ‘world literature’?

Primary:

+ Joe Sacco, Safe Area Goražde (2000), Palestine (2001)

+ Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frederic Lemercier, The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders (2009)

Secondary:

+ Ayaka, Carolene, and Hague, Ian eds., Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels (2015)

+ Chute, Hillary, ‘Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative’, PMLA 123.2, 45-65 (2008)

+ ——, Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form (2016)

+ Denson, Shane, Meyer, Christina, and Stein, Daniel eds., Transnational Perspectives on Graphic Narratives: Comics at the Crossroads (2014)

+ Hatfield, Charles, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (2005)

+ Mehta, Benita, and Mukherjee, Pia eds. Postcolonial Comics: Texts, Events, Identities (2015)

+ Mickwitz, Nina, Documentary Comics: Graphic Truth-telling in a Skeptical Age (2015)

+ Worden, Daniel ed. The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World (2015)

Week 8

World Poetry: A Case Study from India (Rosinka Chaudhuri)

Here, we will look episodically at the development of modern poetry in India in relation to the world; that is, we shall see how the world entered Indian poetry at the same time as it transformed poetry in the ‘West’. The very word for poet - ‘kavi’ - began to be redefined as the Sanskrit word came in contact with modernity in the nineteenth century, at the end of which we have the phenomenal figure of Tagore, who was perhaps the first ‘World Poet’ recognised as such from East to West. The decades of the 1960s-’80s - when Pablo Neruda was common currency and Arun Kolatkar sat at the Wayside Inn in Bombay - to present-day studies of multilinguality and the role of translation shall be explored to devise a notion of poetry in the world over time as it happened in India.

Primary:

+ Buddhadeva Bose, ‘Comparative Literature in India’, in Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature, Vol. 45; see http://jjcl.jdvu.ac.in/jjcl/upload/JJCL 45.pdf

+ Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes,’ in Partial Reccall: Essays on Literature and Literary History (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2012)

+ Amit Chaudhuri, ‘Arun Kolatkar and the Tradition of Loitering,’ in Clearing A Space: Reflections on India, Literature and Culture (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008).

Secondary:

+ Roland Barthes, ‘Is There Any Poetic Writing?’ in Annette Lavers and Colin Smith translated Writing Degree Zero (1953; New York: Hill and Wang, 1967).

+ Rosinka Chaudhuri, The Literary Thing: History, Poetry, and The Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014).

+ Bhavya Tiwari, ‘Rabindranath Tagore’s Comparative World Literature,’ in Theo D’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir ed. The Routledge Companion to World Literature (London: Routledge, 2012).

+ Deborah Baker, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (New York and Delhi: Penguin, 2008).

+ Laetitia Zechhini, Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India: Moving Lines (London: Bloomsbury, 2016)

+ Anjali Nerlekar, Bombay Modern: Arun Kolatkar and Bilingual Literary Culture (Northwestern University Press, 2016).

[ruinousaltruism-a]

i'm haley and i think languages are super cool and fascinating so pls tell me about translingualism!

{ say hi }

hi haley 💖 gonna open w a disclaimer that i'm talking about this from an american point of view because i'm taking classes in america about teaching in america with the educational and societal expectations of america. this may not be applicable in other countries.

so the issue with academia is it's very monolingual. everything we're taught, everything we're expected to produce, is in what's called "standard academic english". however, there's a boatload of studies done that show how we teach grammar, how we teach writing, is doing massive damage, especially to marginalized people who were not raised with immediate, easy access to sae. there's a movement to shift away from grammar-heavy teaching to compositional teaching, and one of those aspects is translingual studies.

translingualism is the practice of using a student's full language repertoire for composition. so instead of making esl kids afraid of writing bc they struggle with grammatical structures (and let's be real who doesn't english is a bastard language but that's a rant for another time) translingual composition encourages students to write in the languages they know. so what if they write in english but with latinate grammar? what matters is the strength of their rhetoric, not the adherence to sae. we still have a long way to go, but this practice is becoming more common in college and postgrad level composition classes!

[woman-loving]

He-Yin Zhen and the analytic category “nannü”

(Selection from The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory, ed. Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, and Dorothy Ko, 2013)

In 1903, Jin Tianhe (aka Jin Yi; male), a liberal educator and political activist, published in Shanghai what historians have commonly called a feminist manifesto entitled The Women’s Bell (Nüjie zhong). In the preface, Jin contrasts his own pathetic existence with that of an imaginary counterpart in Euro-America[…] This extraordinary confession of racial melancholy by a young man is an odd opening to what is touted as the first Chinese feminist manifesto. The desire to emulate an upper-class white European man in his marital bliss reflects the painful situation of Chinese men and their psychic struggles in relation to white European men. But what does this have to do with Chinese women and, more important, with feminism? Must racial melancholy mask itself in the image of subjugated gender and civilization? Were women readers of The Women’s Bell in China troubled by such mental projections?

He-Yin Zhen (1884—ca.1920), a preeminent feminist theorist and founding editor of an anarcho-feminist journal Natural Justice, was among the first women readers of Jin Tianhe’s manifesto. In 1907–1908, she published a perceptive critique of Jin and other contemporary male feminists in an essay called “On the Question of Women’s Liberation.” She writes:

“Chinese men worship power and authority. They believe that Europeans, Americans, and the Japanese are civilized nations of the modern world who all grant their women some degree of freedom. By transplanting this system into the lives of their wives and daughters, by prohibiting their practices of footbinding, and by enrolling them in modern schools to receive basic education, these men think that they will be applauded by the whole world for having joined the ranks of civilized nations… . I am inclined to think that these men act purely out of a selfish desire to claim women as private property. Were it not so, why would a woman’s reputation, good or bad, have anything whatsoever to do with them? The men’s original intention is not to liberate women but to treat them as private property. In the past when traditional rituals prevailed, men tried to distinguish themselves by confining women in the boudoir; when the tides turn in favor of Europeanization, they attempt to acquire distinction by promoting women’s liberation. This is what I call men’s pursuit of self distinction in the name of women’s liberation.”[2]

He-Yin Zhen’s attack on the progressive male intellectuals of her time–men who championed women’s education, suffrage, and gender equality and who would have been her allies—opens up a vast space for a new interpretation of the rise of feminism in China and in the world. […]

A long-suppressed intellectual figure in modern Chinese history, He-Yin Zhen is an original thinker and powerful social theorist often identified as an anarcho-feminist. Her writings, some of which were selected for inclusion in this volume, suggest an impressively broad awareness of women’s suffrage movements in Europe and in North America. They address not only the oppression of women in China, past and present, but also the conditions of women’s livelihood in industrializing Japan as well as the anarchist and socialist struggles around the world. Her objective was to develop a systematic global critique of the political, economic, moral, and ideological bases of patriarchal society in critical response to the social agendas of progressive Chinese men who also promoted women’s rights. The strength and richness of her critique, in particular her discovery of the analytic category of nannü 男女 (literally, “man and woman” or “male/female”), and its relevance to our own feminist theory making will be elaborated in later discussions in the present introduction. […]

Our goal in translating the texts of early Chinese feminist theorists, and in highlighting He-Yin Zhen, is threefold: First, we aim to bring to light—for the first time in English or Chinese—the vital contributions of early Chinese feminists to global feminist thought and theory. Tien Yee (Tianyi bao) or Natural Justice, in which all He-Yin Zhen’s extant writings first appeared, was an anarchist-leaning Chinese feminist journal published by the Society for the Restoration of Women’s Rights in Tokyo in 1907–1908.[5] Although short-lived, this journal, which He-Yin Zhen edited with the support of her husband, Liu Shipei (1884–1919), has a vital contribution to make to our understanding of the revolutionary and internationalist fermentations of the time in its rejection of the facile opposition of tradition and modernity.[6] The journal offers some rare early feminist critical analyses in Chinese of political economy, capitalism, the modern state, and patriarchal systems; indeed, we cannot go without pointing out that the earliest Chinese translation of The Communist Manifesto, the first chapter, was published in Natural Justice in 1908. The significance of this detail has heretofore been overlooked: it was Chinese feminism that first translated communist thought, among other radical ideas, and introduced it to China (by way of Japan), not the converse.[7] [...]

Translating Nannü as Analytical Category

Nannü is the most crucial term in Chinese feminist discourses in the twentieth century. The key slogan for the feminist movement throughout the century has been nannü pingdeng, the standard translation of which is “gender equality” (in legal status, access to education, right to vote, social benefits, and so on). In this context, the equation of nannü with “gender” as a shorthand for male-female is most appropriate. But He-Yin Zhen’s use of the term is different and singular. From early on in the translation process, the editors were struck by how He-Yin’s notion of nannü exceeds and resists facile rendition into “man and woman,” “gender,” “male/female,” or other familiar English concepts. A brief explanation of our theory and practice of translation is in order here before we go on to explore the potential theoretical contributions of He-Yin Zhen’s categories to Anglophone feminist theories in the twenty-first century.

Interpreting nannü as a kind of “gender” has the advantage of assimilating He-Yin Zhen’s work into the discourse of late-twentieth-century feminism familiar to Anglophone readers. By the same token, it could ensnare us in conceptual traps. Translating nannü literally word for word—nan for “man” and nü for “woman”—into two or several English words, “man and woman” or “male/female,” is just as unsatisfactory because the literal translation could contradict He-Yin Zhen’s theoretical project, which takes nannü as a single conceptual mechanism, used as both noun and adjective, that lies at the foundation of all patriarchal abstractions and markings of distinction. These abstractions and markings apply to both men and women but are by no means limited to socially defined men and women. In the end, we decided to leave nannü untranslated in some situations, whereas in others we allowed it a full range of semantic mobility when contextually appropriate—“gender,” “man and woman,” and “male/female.” This decision was based on our understanding that the issue here was not so much about the existence or nonexistence of verbal equivalents as it was about the translingual precariousness of analytical categories as they pass or fail to pass through different languages and their conceptual grids. [...]

For this reason, we believe that the historical valences of “gender” as an analytical category in contemporary feminist theory should itself be reevaluated in this comparative light. Joan W. Scott has observed in her classic essay “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” that “gender” was not part of the social theories in Europe in the eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. The earlier social theories had drawn on the male and female opposition to build their logic or to discuss the “woman question” or sexual identities, but “gender as a way of talking about systems of social or sexual relations did not appear.”13 When it did appear in the late twentieth century, feminists found the category tremendously useful—albeit fraught with ambiguities and contradictions—for analyzing “social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes” and examining gender as “a primary way of signifying relationships of power” (Scott 1067).

Gender historians, in particular, have allowed the category of “gender” to range across cultural and linguistic divides and across historical time. “Gender” is extended to the study of a historical past in which the category itself is missing while the epistemological distance between the subject and object of analysis is guaranteed. This cannot but pose a series of intellectual as well as political challenges to feminist theorists. Should a category that purports to analyze history remain itself ahistorical? Does its historicity from the time of Latin grammar belong only to our world and not theirs, i.e., the world of the past and that of the foreign? Why are we anxious about maintaining the distance between the subject and the object of knowledge, a distance that feminists have long identified as a patriarchal prerogative that defines the modern subject? He-Yin Zhen’s concept of nannü is helpful in suggesting ways out of these binds.

Nannü: Beyond the Sex-Gender Problematic

In “On the Question of Women’s Liberation” (1907), He-Yin posits that men have created “political and moral institutions, the first priority of which was to separate man from woman (nannü). For they considered the differentiation between man and woman (nannü youbie) to be one of the major principles in heaven and on earth.”14 This use of nannü performs a kind of analysis that the category of gender also does, but it does more. For nannü is simultaneously an object of analysis and an analytical category, which confounds the need for “distinguishing between our analytic vocabulary and the material we want to analyze.”15 Like all other terms of the vocabulary we inherit from the past, the concept of nannü is a historical elaboration and a normative distinction internal to patriarchal discourse itself. He-Yin Zhen identifies this concept as central to and ubiquitous in Chinese patriarchal discourse over the past millennia and treats it as a highly developed philosophical and moral category that has legitimated men’s oppression of women.

What, then, can we learn from He-Yin Zhen’s approach to the category of nannü? Inasmuch as nannü is a well-established concept in Chinese philosophical discourse, He-Yin Zhen’s method is to turn it inside out and against itself, making the term bear the burden and evidence of its own patriarchal work. Her critique demonstrates that the normative function of nannü is not only to create “gendered” identities (which it also does) but also to introduce primary distinctions through socioeconomic abstraction articulated to metaphysical abstractions, such as the external and the internal, or to such cosmic abstractions as yang and yin. He-Yin Zhen sees nannü as a mechanism of distinction or marking that has evolved over time, capable of spawning new differences and new social hierarchies across the boundaries of class, age, ethnicity, race, and so on. This is in part why, at the end of her “Feminist Manifesto” (1907), He-Yin argues that “by ‘men’ (nanxing) and ‘women’ (nüxing), we are not speaking of ‘nature,’ but the outcome of differing social customs and education. If sons and daughters are treated equally, raised and educated in the same manner, then the responsibilities assumed by men and women will surely become equal. When that happens, the nouns nanxing and nüxing would no longer be necessary.”16 Here, she clearly calls for the end of philosophical dualism and its naming practice, for that practice, she observes, is neither neutral nor innocent but, rather, creates and spawns insidious social hierarchies that make a claim to social truth and historical reality.[...]

Now, what does it mean for her, as well as for us today, to push the nannü distinction, rather than “gender” or “sexual difference,” as a fundamental analytic rubric for feminist theory? He-Yin Zhen insists that feminists must take nan and nü together as a single conceptual dividing mechanism rather than focusing on ���nü-woman” or on “difference” per se. The notion of nü cannot possibly be captured outside of the originary structural distinctions introduced by the binary opposition of nannü, which produces both nan and nü as meaningful concepts and social categories. From a structural viewpoint, woman is the problem of man. The articulation of nannü, therefore, is not so much about biological or social differences, which can never be settled, as it is about reiterating a distinction that produces historically a political demand for social hierarchy. On this view, we can see that when Jin Tianhe issued his manifesto for women’s rights and spoke about women’s equality, he did not question the nannü category and he failed to see the nan side of the nannü distinction as operational and central to the philosophical and ideological production and reproduction of social domination. By contrast, He-Yin Zhen’s questioning of this category enabled her to identify the sources of that domination and trace the conditions of women’s oppression to the category of distinction itself. In this sense, the solution to nannü is not for “woman” to become “man,” nor for “man” to be the standard against which “woman” and social justice are measured; rather, the solution is the elimination of this category of distinction as a metaphysical-political principle.

In Undoing Gender, Judith Butler does something very interesting to the idea of “sexual difference,” which parallels what He-Yin Zhen did nearly a hundred years before to the operational power of nannü. Butler writes: “Understood as a border concept, sexual difference has psychic, somatic, and social dimensions that are never quite collapsible into one another but are not for that reason ultimately distinct… . Is it, therefore, not a thing, not a fact, not a presupposition, but rather a demand for rearticulation that never quite vanishes—but also never quite appears?… What does this way of thinking sexual difference do to our understanding of gender?” (Emphasis added.)28 We must press Butler’s questions further by asking, What can the thinking of nannü do to our understanding of “sexual difference” as well as “gender”? Does it have something to do with “a demand for rearticulation that never quite vanishes—but also never quite appears?”

The answer lies in He-Yin Zhen’s understanding of nannü, which, as we have seen, is not about the positive or negative marking of gendered identities but about something more totalizing and foundational. To summarize her main argument: First, the nannü category—as elaborated and reinvented by philosophers and scholars in the millennia-long discursive traditions of China—was the foundational material and metaphysical mechanism of power in the organization of social and political life in China. The prestige of that category was reinforced by the Confucian philological exegesis of classical scholarship and by the imperial patriarchal system supported by its ideology. This argument is made in the most concentrated fashion in her long essay “On the Revenge of Women,” whose incantatory style will surely strike readers, as it struck us, with its comprehensive erudition and scholarly reach.

Second, as an operational category of distinction, nannü is first and foremost political because its function is not only to generate social identities but also to create forms of power and domination based on that distinction. Such domination is reiterated through lived social life by maintaining the divisions of the inner (domestic) and outer (public) in terms of how labor, affect, and the value of human life should be organized. As He-Yin Zhen argues repeatedly, the Chinese written character for “slave” (nu 奴) is inflected by the stem-radical nü 女, suggesting that the body is nannü’ed and thus “enslaved” in a political-material discursive prison even before it is “sexed.” This argument is clearly made in her essay “On the Question of Women’s Liberation.”

Finally, armed with that insight, she moves on to discern new forms of distinction, discrimination, and domination that have emerged in the capitalist reorganization of life and labor. Her essays “On the Question of Women’s Labor” and “Economic Revolution and Women’s Revolution” rehearse this argument in full. There, she observes a rearticulation and reiteration of the nannü distinction in the modernizing societies of Europe, America, and Japan, which becomes the basis for her vigorous rejection of the liberal argument on behalf of women’s suffrage. He-Yin Zhen is thus a feminist theorist in the most fundamental sense of the word.

[displaydistribute]

Shanzhai Lyric: “FREEDON (and on and on)” presented on the “Poetic Materiality Today” panel at the American Comparative Literature Conference [Georgetown, Washington DC, 2019] as part of our ongoing insertion of shanzhai lyrics into different modes of discourse, also known as “The Endless Garment” (ongoing).

Poetic Materiality Today:

In 2014, a poem titled “Crossing Over Half of China to Sleep with You” by Yu Xiuhua went viral online in China. Written by a rural woman with cerebral palsy and initially published on her blog, the poem represents a recent generation of poetic work that has developed around transformations in what a poem is physically and how readers encounter it. These poems are not always demonstrably globalized or translingual, but similar changes seem to be happening in poetry scenes, both popular and avant-garde, in many different places.

This seminar seeks to understand recent developments in the materiality of poetry: How have new media technologies changed the institutions of literature? What are the political economies of these changes? How have notions of authorship and reading practices shifted? What does it mean to read a poem? The seminar begins with an examination of the media in which poems are produced: topics might include the effects of the digital turn, transformations in poetic performance, new and shifting roles for the sinograph, poetry in films or as the subject of films, poetry on services like Wechat, Gendaishi Forum, and Twitter, historicizations of poetic mediality, or the reassertion of traditional poetic objects like the pamphlet, collection, broadside or calligraphic text. Read more

[incipientinfotech]

Best Java Development Tools to Streamline Your Workflow

Java provides a platform for developing and distributing application software on a wide range of computing platforms, including embedded devices, smartphones, and supercomputers.

A DevOps technology used to manage source code, Git is essential for Java developers. Git is a free version control system that allows multiple engineers to collaborate on nonlinear development projects. It is an open-source version control system for managing large and complex projects. Features:

– Retains a record – Free and available source – Supports non-linear development – Performs backups – Scalable – Facilitates cooperation – Branching is simple – Distributed construction

Jenkins

Often used in projects to achieve continuous integration and continuous delivery, Jenkins is a Java-based, open-source automation server.

Features:

With Jenkins, you can deploy Java applications on Windows, Mac OS, and Unix-like operating systems, regardless of the platform.

A web interface that includes error checking and integrated help makes Jenkins easy to install and set up. – Available Plugins: There are hundreds of plugins in the Update Center that integrate with every CI and CD tool. – Extensible: Through its plugin architecture, Jenkins can be extended to provide virtually limitless functionality. – Simple Distribution: Jenkins can share tasks among many computers and as a result, things will be more quickly accomplished. – Jenkins is an open-source tool supported by a large community.

Apache Maven

Maven is a software tool for managing and building projects. It handles project development, reporting, and documentation through a centralized database. An important feature of Maven is dependency management, which is based on the concept of the Project Object Model (POM).

Since many of our Java applications rely extensively on third-party libraries, manually downloading the JAR file for each one can be time-consuming and hard. This is where Maven can help because it automatically downloads them all. Features:

– A simple and fast configuration that adheres to industry best practices to launch a new project or module in seconds – Java plugins are easy to create using this tool – Easy setup with immediate access to new features – Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven – A publication on the management and distribution of releases – It encourages the use of a common repository for JARs and other dependencies – Maven versioning– Maven offers conventions – Extensibility, reusability – Better quality in delivery – Less time

IntelliJ Idea

It provides comprehensive support for building online, mobile, and hybrid applications.

Features:

– Compares source code across all project files and programming languages – It lists the most relevant symbols for the present situation. – It enables translingual refactoring – Automatically detects duplicate code parts – Inspections and immediate repairs – Editor-centric environment – It facilitates the usage of static methods or constants

JIRA

In Agile development, Jira is used for tracking bugs, tracking issues, and managing projects.

In Agile software development methodologies like Scrum, for example, teams are able to create ‘Sprints’ in a much more efficient manner, meaning teams can take measured, controlled and (theoretically) shorter breaks from each other.

Features:

– It offers tools to map big-picture needs, document your plans, and tie the roadmap’s goals to the team’s everyday tasks.

– Excellent for agile: As a result, one tool provides a unified view of all user stories and can create reports for multiple sprints, like burndown charts, sprint velocity, etc. Users are also able to manage and monitor tickets across sprints and releases. Work effort and job allocation in a team.

– The problem and project tracking software integrates well with several well-known third-party programs, such as Hipchat and Slack, simplifying the communication of concerns and response to alerts. In total, more than three thousand applications are available on the Atlassian Marketplace to enhance the functionality of the software.

– Extremely adaptable: A variety of items can be created and modified in Jira, including tables, forms, timelines, reports, and fields. Each firm can also have its processes customized to meet its needs.

– The program can be used by developers, project managers, engineers, managers, and other non-technical business people.

JUnit

JUnit is an open-source software tool for performing tests on the Java programming language. This vital instrument for test-driven development and deployment has quickly become a part of many developers’ standard repertoire.

Features:

– Preparation of data input and creation of fictitious items

– Input of known data into databases

– Annotations allow fixtures to be executed before or after each test.

– Tests can be developed and executed with JUnit

– It has got some annotations for test method identification

– Helps make statements about what’s being tested

– Using JUnit tests makes coding faster, which results in better code.

Gradle

Java-based Gradle is a project automation tool that extends Apache Ant and Apache Maven. The tool is also used to develop Android apps by default.

Instead of using XML to declare project configuration, Gradle uses Groovy as its domain-specific language (DSL), making it easier to configure project dependencies and customize them to meet your needs.

Combining elements from various construction tools, it has the flexibility and control of Ant, the dependency management of Ivy, the preference for convention over configuration, the plugins of Maven, and the Groovy DSL on top of Ant. One of the top Java development tools, this tool is in the top 10.

Features:

– Better modeling of dependencies with the aid of the Java Library plugin decreases the size of the build classpath.

– It has a remote build cache with practical administration tools

– Gradle Wrapper enables the execution of Gradle builds on uninstalled computers

– It enables both partial and multi-project builds

– It readily conforms to any structure

– Its intelligent classpath prevents wasteful compilation when a library’s binary interface has not changed.

End

There are such countless producers and open-source supporters in the Java environment that it is difficult to gather a rundown of Java programming devices and innovations without barring numerous huge firms and undertakings. By and large, this rundown of Java programming instruments ought to give an adequate comprehension and assist you with turning into an equipped software engineer. Additionally, if you need to Web & Mobile App Developer, Contact Us

Source: Best Java Development Tools to Streamline Your Workflow

[mainsgifts]

Easy writer third edition

A Student’s Companion to Lunsford Handbooks is designed specifically to help underprepared students improve their reading and writing performance-with material on time management and etiquette, substantial coverage of reading strategies, graphic organizers for visual learners, and more than sixty exercises on writing, research, and grammar. A new workbook for developing writers in support or corequisite composition sections provides a wide range of activities to help students practice the skills and habits they need to be successful academic writers. New resource for corequisite composition. With up-to-date guidelines for writing in MLA (2021) and APA (2020) style, the handbook’s thorough advice and plenty of models help students work within multiple disciplines. Updated MLA and APA formatting and citation guidelines. New student-written analysis, argument, and research essays provide useful models and annotations that teach. Three new graphic organizers for argument writing help visual learners plan and execute writing. New visual help for writers and new student models. Attention to gender-neutral pronoun use raises awareness about writing to include rather than to exclude. A revised chapter on language varieties fosters a new openness to translingual composition-with excerpts from student writing. A new chapter, “Language and Identity” helps students think more openly and carefully about the language we claim as our own and about language used to label us and others. Grounded in an understanding of “standardized” English as the traditional language of power and access in the United States, EasyWriter coaches students in following, experimenting with, and even resisting conventions-and in respecting English in all of its forms and dialects. New advice also encourages students to seek out sources they might have otherwise overlooked.īroader presentation of language use. New advice for lateral reading and evaluating sources and revised tips for fact-checking help students respond to the information and misinformation in news sources and in social media-and help them balance open-mindedness and skepticism as they evaluate sources. Many students enter college with little experience approaching sources with skepticism. New strategies for lateral reading, critical thinking, and fact checking. This new approach invites students to expect and engage difference and provides strategies for communicating respectfully with others across differences. A new opening chapter, “A Writer’s Opportunities,” provides a framework for developing the habits of open-minded readers, writers, listeners, and speakers. Fully editable pre-built assignments support the book’s approach, and an e-book version of EasyWriter is included for convenience.Įmphasis on being an open-minded learner. Developed to increase student engagement and to support best practices in commenting on drafts, Achieve is a flexible, integrated suite of tools for designing and facilitating writing assignments, paired with actionable insights that make students’ progress towards outcomes clear and measurable-all in a powerful, easy-to-use platform that works for in-person, remote, and hybrid learning scenarios. Achieve with EasyWriter puts student writing and revision at the core of your course, with a dedicated composition space that guides and engages students through drafting, peer review, source check, reflection, and revision and with diagnostics that generate personalized study plans for students. A focus on critical thinking and argument helps students read a variety of texts and compose effective arguments.Īchieve. With today’s challenges to finding credible, trustworthy information, EasyWriter provides reliable guidance for evaluating and citing sources. Advice for speakers of all Englishes is integrated throughout the handbook.Īttention to research and a focus on critical thinking. Advice about choosing and using language respectfully and rhetorically helps students communicate across differences. Building on the rhetorical grounding, the handbook supports students in effectively communicating in any discipline or genre and features a variety of student writing examples in many genres. EasyWriter empowers students to make effective choices for their writing based on their rhetorical situation, highlighting that there is no single standard for correctness in writing.Īdvice for writing in different contexts, disciplines, and genres. Andrea Lunsford meets students where they are with friendly, approachable advice, and the handbook’s easy-to-use design ensures her expert advice-including her signature Top Twenty editing guide- is always at students’ fingertips.

[mainser]

Easy writer ucf pdf

Three new graphic organizers for argument writing help visual learners plan and execute writing. New visual help for writers and new student models. Attention to gender-neutral pronoun use raises awareness about writing to include rather than to exclude. A revised chapter on language varieties fosters a new openness to translingual composition-with excerpts from student writing. A new chapter, “Language and Identity” helps students think more openly and carefully about the language we claim as our own and about language used to label us and others. Grounded in an understanding of “standardized” English as the traditional language of power and access in the United States, EasyWriter coaches students in following, experimenting with, and even resisting conventions-and in respecting English in all of its forms and dialects. New advice also encourages students to seek out sources they might have otherwise overlooked.īroader presentation of language use. New advice for lateral reading and evaluating sources and revised tips for fact-checking help students respond to the information and misinformation in news sources and in social media-and help them balance open-mindedness and skepticism as they evaluate sources. Many students enter college with little experience approaching sources with skepticism. New strategies for lateral reading, critical thinking, and fact checking. This new approach invites students to expect and engage difference and provides strategies for communicating respectfully with others across differences. A new opening chapter, “A Writer’s Opportunities,” provides a framework for developing the habits of open-minded readers, writers, listeners, and speakers. Fully editable pre-built assignments support the book’s approach, and an e-book version of EasyWriter is included for convenience.Įmphasis on being an open-minded learner. Developed to increase student engagement and to support best practices in commenting on drafts, Achieve is a flexible, integrated suite of tools for designing and facilitating writing assignments, paired with actionable insights that make students’ progress towards outcomes clear and measurable-all in a powerful, easy-to-use platform that works for in-person, remote, and hybrid learning scenarios. Achieve with EasyWriter puts student writing and revision at the core of your course, with a dedicated composition space that guides and engages students through drafting, peer review, source check, reflection, and revision and with diagnostics that generate personalized study plans for students. A focus on critical thinking and argument helps students read a variety of texts and compose effective arguments.Īchieve. With today’s challenges to finding credible, trustworthy information, EasyWriter provides reliable guidance for evaluating and citing sources. Advice for speakers of all Englishes is integrated throughout the handbook.Īttention to research and a focus on critical thinking. Advice about choosing and using language respectfully and rhetorically helps students communicate across differences. Building on the rhetorical grounding, the handbook supports students in effectively communicating in any discipline or genre and features a variety of student writing examples in many genres. EasyWriter empowers students to make effective choices for their writing based on their rhetorical situation, highlighting that there is no single standard for correctness in writing.Īdvice for writing in different contexts, disciplines, and genres. Andrea Lunsford meets students where they are with friendly, approachable advice, and the handbook’s easy-to-use design ensures her expert advice-including her signature Top Twenty editing guide- is always at students’ fingertips.

[onlania]

Manyfesto or how to dirtystruct the lexicon, 2022

Manyfesto or how to dirtystruct the lexicon is the first collective work by {Onlania tentacle} which was on display in the exhibition Weaving Worlds. An exhibition curated by Daphne Dragona at Deree - The American College of Greece, Athens - as part of the Arts Festival 2022. Supported by the Art History, Graphic Design, and Visual Arts Programs. Manyfesto or how to dirtystruct the lexicon proposes a rhizomatic paralexicon-in progress as a way to dirtystruct (dirty + con/destruct/disrupt) the notion of a universal, formal and normative lexicon, which usually establishes linguistic norms and the ideal of a standard language.

The prefix, para- in paralexicon is used as a reference to the paralinguistic elements of language, rhythm/tempo/affects/e-motions/sounds/breathing/noise/gestures, that are often ignored by the dominant and hegemonic, rationally-centered discourse. At the same time, it echoes the greek word parόn (παρόν= present, now), that reflects the many asynchronous παρόνταααααα, during which our practices and interactions emerge.

Our starting point is a work contract between an art institution and an artist (who is a member of the group) from which we extract a number of entries/words. Through a series of (co)methodologies including collaborative online readings, affective & remote performative recordings and other methods of embodied linguistic dismantling, we dirtystruct the meaning of these entries. In doing so, we transverse and disrupt the established, hegemonic and often violent meaning/impact of words.

We do not seek a semantic universality, a correct etymology or a supposed truth of origin of the words. We rather unfold the entries kaleidoscopically, shedding light on the words from different angles, rendering the political, relational and intermedia re/de/para-signification of words visible. In this practice, the context is of great importance; it is always immersive, embodied and symbiotic.

The legal language of the contract employs the so-called standard modern greek language, a minor, local and at the same time dominant, patriarchal and hegemonic national language which due to its relation with ancient greek serves as the bedrock of the western colonial languages paradigm. With the means of our dirtystructing methodologies we examine and distort the (post)colonial structures of language seeking for new meanings.

Through a variety of intra-active, polyphonic, hybrid and lingualembodied practices, we move towards the diverge areas of ελλonlaϊnic tongues.  Manyfesto or how to dirtystruct the lexicon manifests that language as a translational practice primarily takes place within translingual bodies and not between border-languages.  We propose an exposure of language in its materiality that gets rid of binary dichotomies, such as human vs. animal, organic vs. non-organic, object vs. subject.

We believe that words don't stand/speak alone. They are attached to a nexus of meanings, social norms and laws. At the same time, words are resilient archives which preserve (and modulate) our bodies, senses and affects. Our dirtystructing practice draws from this wordy and fleshy embodied archive bringing to life new more-than-only-human sounds and words of unheard plural languages to come.

Our paralexicon is presented in three parts:

- One video projection that demonstrates the  rhizomatic collective process of intermediated performative and transformative disruptions of entries/words that leads to the rhizomatic, embodied and intersingular paralexicon.

- One video on monitor displaying the work contract in written and audio form. We listen to a performative typing and reading of the contract.

-One digital print that presents the Manyfesto and the secrets of dirtystruction.

With the support of NEUSTART Stiftung Kunstfonds, Germany.

[linguistlist-blog]

FYI: Call for contributions to special issue: Bordering in translingual space, languaging in bordered space: re-framing ‘languages’ in the post-Yugoslav space

Calling for interested contributors for a special issue on: Bordering in translingual space, languaging in bordered space: re-framing ‘languages’ in the post-Yugoslav space Edited by: Kristof Savski (Prince of Songkla University), Ana Tankosić, Eldin Milak (Curtin University) In this special issue, we propose to collect examples of scholarship on the post-Yugoslav space, a geographic area in which the study of translingual practice (Canagarajah, 2012) demands an approach sensitive to events in http://dlvr.it/T6wVGy

[zaobitouguang]

活著 (To Live) Vocabulary: Pages 10-20

私塾 (sīshú): (dated) private school

- This book begins in the 1940s in rural China, so I've been learning lots of words that are relevant to that time and place. Students at a traditional 私塾 would have learned writing and the Confucian classics, though by the time the protagonist was attending school the imperial exams had not existed for a few decades, so the curriculum may have been more modern. The modern word for "private school" is 私立學校 sīlìxuéxiào.

糞 (fèn): excrement

- The beginning of Fugui's narration describes the way that his father would go to the 糞缸 (fèngāng) to relieve himself every evening. I tried to find a definition for this word online but had a hard time. My English copy of To Live translates it as "manure vat".

雇工 (gùgōng): hired laborer

- In this section of the book, 雇工 specifically refers to household servants of the wealthy Xu family.

樹梢 (shùshaō): treetop

- When the young Fugui is being carried on the back of one of the abovementioned hired laborers, he describes himself as jostling "like a sparrow on a treetop" (像是一在樹梢上的麻雀)

鬼混 (guǐhùn): to fool around and lead an aimless life

- The character 混 literally means "to mix" or "muddled", but is used in a lot of words with negative meanings such as 混帳 hùnzhàng "scoundrel, bastard"

半晌 (bànshǎng): half the day, a long time

- This word is used in essentially the same was as 半天. Pleco lists it as a "dialect" word but irritatingly does not say which dialect.

孽子 (nièzi): unfilial, unworthy, or illegitimate son

- Another meaning for this word is "son of a concubine". Concubines in China were expected to bear children for their husbands, but those children had a lower status and were not considered legitimate.

轎子 (jiàozi): sedan chair

- You ride in a sedan chair the same way you ride in a car, with the verb 坐. To carry a sedan chair is 抬轎子, which is also an idiom meaning "to flatter".

青樓 (qīnglóu): brothel (literary)

- This word originally referred to a palace, with the 青 referencing the luxuriously painted walls which may have been blue or green. The meaning then expanded to mean any sort of lavishly decorated building, which is likely how it eventually gained its current meaning.

丈人 (zhàngren): father-in-law, wife's father

- This word can also be an archaic term meaning "gentleman" or "old man". In this case it references Fugui's real father-in-law, who calls him all of the unpleasant terms listed above.

哄笑 (hōngxiào): to roar with laughter

- One way to create words in Chinese that describe different types of laughter is to combine the character 笑 with different onomatopoeia. 哄 refers to the roar of a crowd, and this word is commonly used to describe a laughing crowd.

笑盈盈 (xiàoyíngyíng): to be all smiles

- There aren't many three-syllable words in Chinese compared to two- and four-syllable words. Many three-syllable words are adjectives like this one where the second syllable is repeated. Another common source of three-syllable words are words that were borrowed from Japanese in the late Qing and Republican eras for things such as academic fields. Lydia Liu's "Translingual Practice" is a really excellent book about those loanwords.

賒帳 (shēzhàng): to have outstanding credit

- We've gotten to the point of the book where Fugui gambles all of his family's money away. The next vocab post will have several more words related to gambling.

[lbordenarts245-03]

Ch.5 Reading, R&D Synthesis, Moodboard & Project 5 Final Spreads

10-21-21

Going through the R&D sheet we found the history behind the Atlanta Brave team. A piece of their history that stood out to me was Atlanta’s symbol which is a phoenix, it represents the city literally rising from the ashes which it did after General Sherman burned it down during the Civil War. Only 400 building survived, but as time went on the city rebuilt and has progressed tremendously. Our marketing objective is inclusivity, welcoming to all baseball fans, drive traffic with positive feedback from steering the braves towards inclusivity and to a narrative of new hope and ‘rising from the ashes’ I would say that success would be receiving positive feedback and reactions to the new logo/design of the team when created. Personally, I am choosing for environmental products banners, for gear products athletic gear for fan purchase and for good measure I would want to put the logo I design on stickers (who doesn’t love stickers?) I would prefer that the brand tone be welcoming to the fans, encouraging (‘rising from the ashes’) and positive since this is a MLB team and fans push a lot of positivity to their favorite team to encourage them to win and do their best. Finally, the MSCW; the must haves would be a new logo, new mascot, new name, archetype and address the history and controversy surrounding the Braves old mascot in order to respect our audience and those affected by it. We will have no derogatory names or language and will not recycle any old font or imagery. I would also like to somehow incorporate the heavy use of street art in Atlanta. For a team name I was thinking along the lines of “The rising falcons” I am not 100% on that but I think it is a step in the right direction since it is positive and incorporates the history. 

(I hope I did this correctly and I apologize if I didn’t)

While reading Chapter 5 ‘Making Logos and Marks’ I was very interested in Mark Fox’s interview… I learned that a logo must appeal to the client on cognitive and emotional levels, which also ties to what he said about whether logos should be more text or more image. He said that images have the advantage of being translingual, which is true. If I were to design something that the majority was text than how can I guarantee that my logo will appeal to other people who cannot read the same language as me? That is why I also agree that it is better to have more image than text in a logo, and by looking at some of Mark’s logos he does use some text but not much and if he does it seems to be mostly just a few letters, but the whole logo is tied together with a nice engaging and eye-catching design which still gets the point across. This also makes me think more of how I will design my logo for project 6, I plan on using mostly an image I will design and maybe one word, but I want my design to appeal to more of an audience.  

I am also going to add my 3 final spreads from project 5 into the since it falls under this week’s blog post… I am content with my final spreads, but I wish I would’ve done more for it, I feel like I need to really work on branching out and getting out of my comfort zone and work with more things that I am not very skilled at, I just feel scared to try even though I know practice makes perfect.

I also added a photo of my mood board, I added inspiration from the street art in various places in Atlanta relating to ’rising from the ashes’ with the phoenix in some of them…