Climbing!

Nothing can be more fun than sports. Sports always bring me the greatest joy, no matter it was skiing with Linzhi, or climbing with our group today.

We found this place quite occidentally, as we were supposed to go to the place at people square, but they didnt have any places left unluckily, so we had to move to Hongkou Stadium, which is quite far from where I live. But they are much more spacious and with more coaches who can actually help us during the climbing. Although the climbing with rope place is outside and a bit too chilly with only around 10 degrees, Maud and Jan were the pioneers to begin with climbing on the 5 meters wall and then we all begin to give it a try, we soon got exhausted with 2 or 3 tries, but the feeling of roping down is really exciting and cool!

捆

这里并不是一让我泄怒的虚拟角落，而是一张少有的任我倾诉的白纸，并不平滑，波折的情绪将它皱褶，人称混乱的思想只会在这里散落一派胡言，尽管我并不苟同，但只是我的语言从来没有掌握到思维敏捷的节奏，在人看来笨拙到有些可笑，所以只能用最慢的文字去揣摩自己的表达。有时会想，只有一瞬间说出的话才是自己所想，经过思考的语句只是虚伪的化装，但是可惜我天生禀缺口才的天赋，一出口也都只是吝啬的只言片语，好不容易出了声，也好似冗长的又平淡的cliche，耐心的听我两句，不耐烦的便不屑与我交流。而我又似懦弱的软心肠，从不与人抗争，但其实心里并不服，只是懒得为自己战斗。

给自己的借口是习惯性的“用知识武装自己”，但26年的经验看来似乎并没有为自己赢得任何战利品，大概能清醒认识到自己的能力也只有自己。反省中，似乎看到一直回避战斗的态度只会将自己捆绑，缩小自己的空间。而且，甚至自己竟毫不羞耻地自称为“懦夫”，挡箭牌只是自己是个女孩，连“夫”都称不上；但同时，却耻笑许多拜金主义中“活得像个英雄不如金钱更实际”的态度。不知道这两者是否有可比性，至少足以警醒自己根本不比拜金主义崇高，而且中国人的谦虚往往可怕到谦卑的程度……可怕，可怕！

捆绑着的，都是思想封上的枷锁。钥匙，在我自己手上，勇敢解开它，至少可以让生命更有意义一些吧，虽然我知道自己只是一个不能再平凡的女孩，但是在平安年代，也是需要战士的勇气，去战斗，变成更好的自己。

我们熟悉而陌生的语言

——《世界的主要语言》读后浅析语言的定义

婴儿刚出生后，呀呀学语就成了他们喝饱睡足后的主要节目；全球化的革命剧变，学习一门或以上外语已从先驱行为发展成为每一个年轻人的基础课程；而世界非物质文化名录，更是将加利弗那语言和瓦雅皮语等小众非文字口语列为口头传述的人类珍贵文化遗产。语言在我们身边无处不在，而如今的我们越来越有机会听到全球各地的外语，惊异于各种不同语言的表现魅力，且往往会被其奇异的发音组合又流利地叙述所形成的神秘感而捕获。

纵观历史，古代语言是如何形成并沿用发展成现代通俗语言的？横跨地理，全球的语言分布与地理位置如何紧密联系在一起？我们中国人对自己熟知的汉语不在话下，对英语的胜任也越来越轻车熟路，可要统观全人类的语言却似盲人摸象。而这个有趣的议题通过语言学家Bernard Comrie对世界上50种主要语言的集中剖析，以宏观学术的角度和一己之力难以达到的高度在《世界的主要语言》 (Comrie, 2009)中让我们了解到“语言”一词其实涵盖了深刻而复杂的意义。作为人们沟通一种工具，并不止于此。

大致上来说，全球共约有6000种不同的语言，平均每个国家或地区就说22种！而这个“大致”并不是语言学家们研究不够严谨，学问不够深入，而是因为我们对语言的定义到如今还没有一个统一明确的说法。事实上，这个看似浅显的定义面临着许多困难。首先，语言和方言的区别一直处于模棱两可的边缘，很多时候，两种相近的语言往往很难区别这是两种语言还是一种语言的两个方言分支。有人也许会说，这很简单呀——普通话全中国人都说，是一种语言，而吴语、广东话、客家话这些都只是区域性语言，所以只能称之为方言。其实，正是受到政治和社会因素的影响，使得语言的定义不能完全按照语言学的逻辑来评判而失去一定的“公正性”。现代普通话与各种方言之间的关系具有很大的交叉性，可普通话却不具有完整包容性。就拿我们熟悉的吴语来说，“孛相”(bexian)是指玩的意思，发音与“玩”(wan)没有一点相通性，完全是两个独立的词，而这样的现象在普通话与吴语之间不胜枚举，从这样看，将吴语完全归类为普通话的一种方言就显得有点勉强了。政治因素对语言定义的强烈影响还体现在德国与荷兰交界处的德国西北地区，当地的德国人能够用方言和操荷兰语的荷兰人进行自然交流，从语言意义上，这种方言和荷兰语应当定义为一种语言的两个分支，然而，两者地位显然不能相提并论。相反的，丹麦语、挪威语和瑞典语虽被定义为三种不同的语言，这三个国家的人几乎能够用各自的语言相互交流，几乎是同一种语言的三个方言。从以上三个例子中我们发现，语言学判定一种话是否成为语言，要与其相似的另一种话相比较，若两者直接通过各自的话进行交流相互可以理解，那么这两者的关系属于共享同一种语言的方言；当两者没有相互理解的关系，那么这便成了两种独立的语言。

然而，这样的判定方式存在着明显的缺陷：当语言A与语言B具有相互理解性，语言B和语言C也具有相互理解性，那么A、B、C这三种语言都应当属于同一种语言的三个方言分支。而事实上，A与C常常会发生不可相互理解的现象，按照判定规则，这又成了两种不同的语言。因此，这就造成了两种规则之间的冲突，

我想，语言长久以来难以定义的另一个原因在于它是有生命的载体。它随着的人们沟通的需要而诞生，随着生活模式的变革而丰富发展。只要两种语言在世界的两个地方被运用，它们一定会因为两种文化的交叉而相互影响，尤其是在全球化愈演愈烈的今天，语言的交叉性变得越来越明显：年轻人至少学习一门以上语言，加上自己的母语变自然两然成为两种语言或以上的传播者；每一种语言的泊来词汇比例都在不断上升，特别是采纳英语或是将英语音译转化成当地语言。由于不同语言之间的相互影响，而这种影响是不断变化发展的，就使得互通的比例也随着历史演绎而变化不定。在书中，作者就提到许多官方语言和当地语言之间密不可分的关系：许多曾经遭遇殖民的国家原本的方言原本很难理解，但在受到殖民语言的影响，许多词汇甚至大部分主体词汇都采纳了殖民语言，原本的方言发展成与殖民语言十分相似；相反的，英语和德语本来同属于印欧语系中的日耳曼语族，直至今日，我们还能够找到许多基本词汇的相似性，比如，“男人”在英语中是Man，而在德语中是Mann ; 并且前后缀也相同：“男人的”在英文是man’s，而在德语中可以是manns；然而一个说英语的人和一个说德语的人，若未经过学习，不可能相互理解，经过几千年的演变，两种语言的主体已经大相径庭。这种活变的语言属性使得即便今天的语言得到定义，在未来仍需要不断地重新判断和推敲。

现代语言学的研究建立于18世纪，而语言变革的活跃度也愈加明显，2007年，我国有171条汉语新词被纳入词典 (中国新闻网, 2007)，仅仅5年过后的2012年，新增词汇达到3000个 (北京日报, 2012)。这给语言的定义更加带来了挑战，语言的脱胎换骨已经不再需要千年的等待。而我们需要的，不仅仅是找到语言的定义，更是需要在2000多种濒危语言中，找到人类文明的结晶，并完整地保存下去。

参考书目：

Comrie, B. (2009). The World's Major Languages.

北京日报. (2012年7月16日). 现代汉语词典收录新词反映社会变迁. 检索日期: 2014年11月18日，来源: 新浪网: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-07-16/013924779742.shtml

中国新闻网. (2007年8月16日). 教育部公布171条汉语新词 晒客学术超男等入选. 检索日期: 2014年11月18日，来源: 新浪网: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-08-16/133913677927.shtml

注：本文系原创文章，未经同意勿随意引用，务必注明出处，否则将追究责任。

Adwords Fundamental Passed

This test was actually fairly easy, especially when you can have already 95% of questions in advance. Let's not say it's a kind of cheating, as with a test guide of 500 pages without a single practicing exercise before the test, you would get so lost in the middle of 90-question test. Especially for those who just take over a perfectly well set adwords account like me. I would have no idea about the specific features of account setting or what MCC is (almost already forgotten what this abbreviation stands for).

So this test will be effective for 2 years, while the advanced test will expire in 1 year and I'll have to do it very soon.

A simple sign here to remind that I just passd Fundamental test yesterday. Back to review "Search Advanced" Now.

Troublesome Mobile

My mobile phone is broken AGAIN!

Now I'm guessing if I should stop using any smart phone.With my first smart phone falling down to the "bon vieux" subway rails of Paris, second stolen earlier this year in Shanghai, and now the third is broken itself.

Last night, before I went to bed and turned if off it was ALL right! Besides the screen of my PC was shining in a strange way and the hard rain outside, nothing was particular. I went to sleep at like 2.30 and when I woke up this morning,  I felt it strange that my phone was not ringing, this waking up is a bit too much easier than expected, all right, sleep again. The second time I woke up, the alarm of the phone was still quite...I began to feel not at ease and got up and found out that the phone doesnt work at all! Quickly started the pc and then realized that it was 9.11...looked like a unlucky number, and it was - already too late for work...

The rest of the day I tried to charge my phone or start it with all kinds of tricky ways, but no way
could I make it on. All right, troublesome mobile, I go back to my loyal hilarious Nokia 1110...

Stop treating me like a baby mum!

So tonight my dad is not home. He went to Suzhou to have his annual physical examination. I come back to my parents' apartment to spend the weekend. After watching TV together while chatting with my mum, she suddenly asked me to sleep over with her... I felt embrassed and jumped off the bed.

"Nah, I gonna back to my own bedroom."

"You haven't slept with me since a long time."

"..."

"You are my baby, right?"

 Come on mum, I'm still a baby in your eyes, except for the fact of 25 years older!

Company's BBQ Annual Party

It's definitely not a commercial party, otherwise our department would be as busy as bees. A good occasion to reinforce team spirit and get to know people you always meet everyday but never know what they do exactly. Finally, there are still so many people that I dont know about their names and I'm also surprised to see some new faces, whether they are truely new or not...

The weather is not the best for the barbecure apparently, everyone was sweating hard. Staying at a place of over 30 degrees without AC for more than 10 minutes is like a penalty: you wanna a burger? Stay in front of the BBQ oven and get grilled first; you wanna an ice cream? Ah no, it's already melt.

Finally it was the occasion to award those "old" employees who has stayed in the company for over 2 years. They got some free trips and some extra holidays, making others envy. I guess that's exactly what bosses want :D, just kidding, but it's true that it's always good to encourage people with those attractive awards. Two persons who has worked here for over 5 years got free trips for 2 to where ever they want, plus extra 5 days' holidays. Hot sweet potatos!

The last but not the least, the dress for the party is the World Cup Jersey :p