Here we see Thomas P. Jameson III doing a Laoshu on Japanese.
Original YT playout date: 14 August 2010
Duration: 21:11
In the style of the late great Moses McCormick, the Texan cowboy reviews a stack of Japanese learning
The Wikipedia image of Laoshu (Moses McCormick) in his prime, with signature baseball cap.
materials.
Moses died while still young but he was a beloved member of the expat community who helped many of us out. He helped me personally on multiple occasions. Laoshu also supported my channel giving me mentions from time to time in his own videos. Moses will be greatly missed. Of course, he was still going strong at the time I made the above.
Original YT playout date: 25 March 2010
Duration: 28:05
By popular demand, Longlat and Merlin to be precise, the Huliganov Rants are back. I’m leaving too controversial topics alone this time, but the question of whether to watch a film before or after reading the book, if so be there be one, is a popular evergreen for ranting.
Thanks go also to Fat Steve of http://www.thebigcigarette.com (unfortunately Steve died some years ago and this site has been taken over by some weird Japanese stuff) fame for bringing to my notice the Italian version of “”Is Vic There?”” by Department S. Please go ahead and buy this from the Department Store so that I can be perceived as part of the music industry’s value chain and then maybe they’ll leave my creativity in peace. Continue reading “Huliganov’s New Rants – #1 Book or Film”→
Original YT playout date: 3 February 2009
Duration: 30:40
History is like a train, with one carriage inexorably drawing the next one on, the track already laid ahead of time, the only matter for discussion being how much delay there will be and how well you can keep occupied on the journey.
Here we have, in nice HD coding, a walk around in Prague, showing some of the flavour of the experience of being in the Czech Republic – including this very strange thing that happened to me last Spring.
Here, in the city of Kafka, I was seriously summoned to court without being informed why. Just like Joseph K in ‘Der Prozess‘ or ‘The Trial’ by Kafka. You really couldn’t make it up.
I don’t want to talk about the facts of what the case turned out to be, (especially as one party of it graces some films of mine on YT, which will also be shown here) but to my relief I only actually needed to be a witness. I have no wrongdoing as such on my conscience, but I have been known to sack people, and they get given more rights than I do when it comes to court, even if there’s no earthly justice in it. But this wasn’t even someone I had sacked. Because I didn’t know that, I had to go to the expense of a decent lawyer who naturally deserved to be paid for his appearance despite not in the end having a decisive role. But in the end I didn’t get annoyed about it, as it was something truly Kafkaesque in the city of Kafka which I’ll be able to remember and joke about for the rest of my life.
I also talk a little bit about learning Japanese and the kitsch for sale to tourists in Prague.
I thought I’d spice things up with a poll! Remember this is not the number of cases you’ve seen – you may have been more than once. Count is as number of days you’ve ever had to turn up. Don’t count it if you went along just for entertainment.
The following review can still be read for Derek Offord’s “Using Russian – A Guide to Contemporary Usage” on Amazon.co.uk (not the American Amazon and I really don’t understand why they don’t carry these reviews over, when I want to write for only the UK or only the US I shall forget about the internet altogether!) As it was way back in 2001 I seem to have lost the accreditation for the review along the way. At first it was under my name, but at some stage they must have had a technical blip and the older reviews became “A Customer”. but it’s mine, well enough. I don’t know if my style has changed much in ten years.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is essential reading for those doing a Russian degree.
28 Sep 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Using Russian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage (Paperback)
I bought Using Russian when I was browsing in a bookshop for another language, as I already speak Russian, but when I looked at a few pages it immediately appealed as an excellent update to the way the language has developed since I did my degree. Sections in the book refer to different problems that face the English speaker in particular, such as faux amis. There are also sections on homonyms and other confusing aspects and they act rather like a checklist of what you need to have got right in your head in order not to make too many ‘howlers’ in translations or in conversation.
One particular plus in this book and as I found out in the whole series of ‘Using’ books that this is part of is the focus on register. If there is one thing that separates the wheat from the chaff among language students. it is the understanding and application of the idea of register, and this applies to Russian perhaps more than most European languages, as this is a language in which not only the vocabulary, but also the syntax, grammar and phonetics are all subject to complex nuances. This book was not available when I needed it. Now that it is I urge you to make use of it. It is the book about Russian that I would have liked to have written myself. If I thought there was demand for it, I’d offer to do a sister volume for Polish.
In any event it made me go out and by the sister volumes already in existence for French, German and Spanish. They are of a similar quality to this volume, the weakest is probably the German one, the Spanish one I would put as second favorite. It can be read cover to cover, or simply dipped into as a work of reference.
It is not material for learning the language from scratch, but would be a very useful second step after completing any of the standard self-instruction books such as the Colloquial series, the Teach yourself series or the Linguaphone course.
Either A-level or degree level students of the Language will profit from it and find it enjoyable because of its good presentation and readable style.
