Show 265 Tuesday 23 January

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

Today I’m going to talk about Chinese language. The number 1 language in the world, in native speakers - if it’s considered a single language (more about that later).

You probably know that like many languages - there are different kinds of Chinese.
The two that I had heard of are what we call in English: Mandarin and Cantonese.
But there are more than that.

Wikipedia says: There are between six and twelve main regional groups of Chinese (depending on the classification scheme).

Some of the different types of Chinese are very different.

In fact: many variants of spoken Chinese are different enough to be mutually incomprehensible.

Which means if two people are speaking to each other in a different dialect – they can’t understand each other.

And now time for some controversy ... oh, exciting.

The identification of the varieties of Chinese as "languages" or "dialects" is a controversial issue.

Some people call Chinese a language and its subdivisions dialects, while others call Chinese a language family and its subdivisions languages.

OK so I guess we’ll just leave the linguists to debate that issue and we’ll get on with studying it.

This YouTuber (thmk0828) – her name is Kelly – has made some videos teaching Chinese.
She’s from Taiwan ... so she’s teaching Mandarin.

She’s made 18 videos, I think, so far. Unfortunately some of them – especially the ones at the beginning - have some technical problems – like her voice is out of sync or the piece of paper she’s holding is out of the screen. But I think she’s a good teacher ... so hopefully she can sort out the technical problems and continue making more videos.

STICK NEWS

Kia ora, this is Stick News. YouTube drama hit records lows this week with thousands of harsh words appearing in videos and comments on the site. It all started with one broken computer.

The story starts with an American girl called Kimberleigh.
Kimberleigh is a self-confessed "dork that makes videos".
She posts her videos on YouTube. But recently, her computer broke. Some people missed her videos – so they decided to help her buy a new one. They invited people to donate $3 and called the campaign “bobs4kim”. For $3 people could talk to so-called “YouTube celebs” on Stickham.
A YouTuber called Lazydork thought this was a ridiculous idea – and made a video saying so.
Many people agreed with lazydork. They said bobs4kim was:
about cliques and elitism
the apex of arrogance,
an exercise in egomania
Pretty lame
pure garbage
stupid as hell
complete INSANITY
Supporters of bobs4kim hit back. Including Australian YouTuber Blunty3000 who showered Lazydork with colourful insults including:
worthless uncharitable wannabe
a cynical and pathetic little cry baby
Blunty also made a video which included no less than 15 variations of the f word.
One YouTube commenter concluded that the site had recently become a real dorkfest.
Tdejmcd said: i can't decide which is more douchey...renetto caring about youtube people using a different website or youtube people caring what other youtube people do to raise money so some youtube dork without a computer can get one.
JovianSunset also had trouble making a decision after watching lazydork’s video.
He said: Holy hell! I don't know what was more entertaining, this video or the cavalcade of youtube "celebrities" that turned out to comment on it. Truly amazing.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 23rd of January.
Kia Ora.

the snow report

The other day when I went out in Hirafu, I saw a strange man standing in the snow waving.

conversations with sarah
#160 Have you ever been to China?

Step 1: Repeat Joe’s lines.
Step 2: Read Joe’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Joe Have you ever been to China?

Sarah Kind of ...

Joe What do mean “kind of”?

Sarah Well I’ve been to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Joe How long did you stay in Taiwan?

Sarah Only one night. It was just a stop over.

Joe What did you do?

Sarah I found my hotel ... that’s all. It was really late at night and it was pouring with rain – so I took a taxi and the taxi driver couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Chinese ... so, it was quite exciting.

Joe How did you communicate?

Sarah Well, I had the address written down – but I don’t think he could read it or he didn’t know where it was ... but luckily I also had the phone number written down so he called them.