The Mouse Loves The Rice
HW801 - Language Puzzle: The Study of Human Language rocks! It’s probably the only module I ever took which gives me a very good first impression. The lecturer was really good, the girl sitting next to me was pretty, and the subject contents are entertaining. We’ll be studying things like how language develops, how language is learnt, how a person studies different languages, and a lot of other things to do with language.
Language riddles are aplenty. Hokkien speakers may want to decipher this sentence: “gong gong gong, gong gong gong gong, gong gong gong gong”.
It actually means: “can hits grandpa, grandpa says, grandpa dizzy”.
How about language and gender? Is it true that good girls don’t swear? Is it true that there are 2000 abuse terms for women, and only 3 for men?
There are videos being shown too. One of the videos shown today told a story of Genie, a child who was locked up for 10 years. She was found when she was 13, and was subject to research on whether she would be able to learn to communicate with a language as well as those who are exposed to language since they are younger. Sadly, she never managed to learn the language.
How about culture in language? Can a song be translated to another language while at the same time maintaining its original meaning? As an example, we used the translated version of the popular Chinese song ?????.
When that day I hear your voice
I have some special feeling
Let me always think I don’t wanna forget you
I remember at the day
You are always on my mind
Even though I just can think about you
If the day in the future
This love will becoming true
I’ve never change my mind that I will love you forever
I don’t care how fool it is
I will let my dream come true
I will tell you something I wanna let you know, I let you knowI love you, loving you, as the mouse love the rice
Even every day has storm, I will always by your side
I miss you, missing you
I don’t care how hard it is
I just want you be happy
Everything, I do it for you
Barring the many grammar mistakes, I almost fell off my chair when hearing the line “I love you, loving you, as the mouse love the rice”. The Gal later told me that it’s actually literally translated from Chinese, which sounds good in the Chinese lyrics.
Well, in case you’re in NTU and is interested in taking up the module, it’s not too late! Quick, go to OAS website, and check if there are any vacancies available. If there are, grab it now! Hurry, Add/Drop Period ends 18 January, 10 p.m.!
The Guy,
bcc
PS: For more information on the module, check out the course outline.