I've been saying for weeks that the announcers say Beijing like it's French. Been bothering the heck outta me. This is the perfect article:

NBC’s pronunciation conundrum in Beijing
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
Aug 15, 5:21 pm EDT
 
      Buzz Up Print
NEW YORK (AP)—In the shadow of Olympic venues, Brian Williams has anchored NBC’s “Nightly News” this week in a city he calls Bay-jing.

Yet Bob Costas, Meredith Vieira and many of NBC’s sports announcers seem to be working in a different, more exotic place: Bay-zhing.

So which is it?

Williams is right, if you talk to experts in the Chinese language. He’s even recorded something about the pronunciation puzzle for NBC’s Web site, although it doesn’t seem to be required viewing for everyone at the network.

“It’s been annoying me for quite awhile, honestly,” said S. Robert Ramsey, a college professor and author of “The Language of China.”
 
He’s not alone, and it isn’t just NBC at fault. “For you mousse-coiffed, Mr. Gravitas TV anchor types and you sotto voce public radio types, please oh please stop saying “Bay-zheeng,” wrote Kaiser Kuo, who works for a China-based ad agency and wrote an online guide for journalists covering the Olympics. “The pronunciation of the city’s name couldn’t be easier.”

Carsey Yee and John Weinstein, experts in the language who occasionally do theater work as Two Chinese Characters, recorded a YouTube video clip making the same point.

Does it really matter? Think how Tony Soprano would feel if you said he lived in New Zhersey (Joisey is another issue entirely). You’d get strange looks if you order zha-va at your local coffee shop.

And who’s going to sing “Zhingle Bells” when they go caroling this winter?

“If we can’t even pronounce Beijing correctly and consistently, how can we ever hope to address deeper cross-cultural misunderstandings and conflicts?” Yee told The Associated Press.

Beijing used to be known as Peking to English speakers. It officially changed in 1949, when the new Communist government adopted the pinyin transliteration method for proper names, according to Logoi.com, which sells software for learning languages. The change came into popular usage in the West when the Chinese began using Beijing on all official documents in the 1980s.

Ramsey said he believed Bay-zhing came into usage because it sounded more foreign, more mysterious. Some in the West may subconciously believe the harder-sounding “jing” sounds like a slur against the Chinese, he said.

What strikes him odd is that the “zh” sound isn’t used in the English language.

“You have to work to get it wrong,” he said.

Williams told the AP he asked around when he got to China—NBC News’ Chinese-born Beijing staff, cab drivers, local broadcasters, interns. Everyone he spoke to used “jing.” He said he’s tried to honor that, while admitting to a few slips.

“It’s all about being a good guest,” he said.

The Toronto-based Yee said his haranguing of Canadian broadcasters about the issue seems to have made some headway. He’s been less successful in the United States, he said.

“Television networks should be setting a higher standard of pronunciation and fulfilling their role of informing and educating the viewing public,” he said. “Mispronunciations are misinformation. The casual attitude of the networks towards this matter is, at best, negligent and, at worst, bordering on disrespect for China and the Chinese.”

Happy Birthday, Taylor! Yay... confetti confetti confetti!

And... I was kinda stupid yesterday. I didn't realize that I could just go to turnitin and get my story from there. Yeah. :O My gosh it really sucks compared to Anita's... I'm not looking for pity here. :P

I spent a lot of time this weekend looking at Super Junior. I like them a lot. (It's a revival) But it's not quite as great as DBSK or Fahrenheit... Remember that?

     “I’ll miss you, père.”

     “I’ll return soon, ma Émilie. Look after your mother.” I grinned back at my only daughter, waving the final au revoirs before jauntily striding away, my head held high and proud. I was to join the war effort. Émilie and her friends jumped up and down, cheering. My young, beautiful wife, Charlotte laughed and waved and kissed me goodbye. Her hands left her swollen belly to clasp mine one last time. Turning the corner, I looked back, almost seeing my daughter’s heart swell with pride. Yes, I would miss my family, but in several short months I would be back, a hero.

     I woke in the night to screaming. Sweet, rare dreams still clung to me like gossamer threads, but I rushed to my position to save my own life. Too many times had I seen men in the front trenches die from gas because they were too slow, but not before days, even weeks of indescribable anguish, wounds slowly eating away at their flesh and minds. I fumbled for my mask, and my gun, one hand resting against the great wall of dirt. All around me were men scrambling to their positions, men screaming from agony. I knew the feeling. Temporary blindness; oozing, yellowish, filth encrusted blisters were constant plagues of the mustard gas. And perhaps worst of all, not knowing how much gas you inhaled, how much longer you had to live – if you could live to see your family once more. The thought of my family brought me to my knees, sending the vile, acrid water laced with decay rippling. How I longed to hear my daughter’s tinkling laugh.

     A fatal move. I could see my own death looming like a hated ship behind thick fog. I was too slow to don my mask, and I was helpless to save myself. As if in slow motion, I watched the heavy yellow gas roll down the walls of trench. Hot tears of pain streaming down my face, I was blinded. I felt my lungs congeal, my chest heaving. It was an effort just to breathe. Coughing and scratching blindly at the air in panic, I fought to live. I heard screaming all around me. A man had been shot, and was weeping for his life. Another was on his knees, praying for salvation from this place, so deep in the earth and so close to hell…

     It was not until I felt my own wife’s sweet, cool hands on my scarred face, smoothing back my hair, slick with sweat that I realized the truth. I had been dreaming again, reliving the days of horror in the trenches. Even in daylight I could not escape the nightmares. Even after the war, my days and nights were filled with blood and suffering.

     I was a shadow of the man I was before the war. Charlotte’s imploring eyes searched mine, her bottomless seas of green once again flooding with tears.

     “Mon amour, my beautiful Bernard,” Charlotte had whispered the day of my return, “now scarred, maimed by this bloodthirsty war.” But, seeing the empty chasm in my eyes, she understood. She understood that I was maimed internally, and that I would never again be the same. I was completely devoid of any emotion. I was detached, unable to be moved from my personal torment, even when Charlotte’s newborn was already the second child to be born not breathing. My experiences in war, like a fatal disease forever plagued me, never releasing me from its black, shadowy recesses.

     Charlotte forced her own hand over her mouth, silencing the racking sobs that overtook her body, sobs caused by my coldness, leading to her heartbreak. And then the nightmares returned. Their unrelenting fingers tugged on my mind, making me lose my grasp on reality and being. My mind finally relented. I would never be free of this war. 
 


*edit*
I... put spaces between the paragraphs because I came back and couldn't bring myself to read that whole block of text. *ADD*

Guess what. In the week that I was missing, 99 kisses updated with a preorder... And then I missed that preorder entirely. Too bad. I've liked this for like about a year though...:

Isn't it pretty? AND IT'S ON SALE!!! Must buy it. Once I get the courage to use Paypal and do this thing.
Which reminds me. Since... Like it's my mom's money and all. I have a really great one. A mom, I mean. She thinks about me a lot, even though she doesn't let it show. Like at her office, she'll bring me back things... And she'll always call my grandma and be like how's heather. And first thing after walking in the door at home, she'll be like HEATHER!!! And then she tries to make me happy... It really is her first priority. I just teared up wow. Because... yesterday night I threw a mini fit of pent up frustration and told her I wasn't really happy and cried, and then she got really worried, and she was so nice... and talked to me  for like an hour and a half... And she asked me why I was unhappy, if it was because of the divorce, because we moved, because of William... She feels so bad about the divorce, still. Normally you don't see it, but yesterday... you can tell she feels so guilty and she was talking about how it was for the better, how now I have two families that love me so much. And this happened like eight years ago. I've gotten over it for a while, because it really was just for the best. I love how things are now. It really isn't her fault. Wow a billion just fell out. I think I really just want her to be happy... She tries so hard... And I'm so... like... short with her sometimes. And she knows that I don't mean half the things I say...  This idea of unconditional love is so amazing. My mom is so amazing. Lumpy throat...

Okay I'm done with that. but I have so many feelings about that, you know?

Referring to my title (by the way, stop by my page, I changed my layout again. Because these are only available until 4/30 which gives me a sense of urgency like YOU HAVE TO USE THIS BEFORE IT'S GONE type of thing), I used to alw ays think that it was play that funky music WHITE boy. Lol. White. 

I've had a really recent thing about SNSD, Girls Generation, SHAO NIAN SHI DAI! (I'm so proud of myself, figured that out myself!)... Sooyoung (swimming?!)'s definitely my favorite. She's uniquely pretty... And she's dark. And she has a really clear voice. But she isn't really central... Like she's just a supporting? What is that? Oh and Yuri definitely looks like Selina. That's... all I can recognize right now. Oh! And Hyoyeon. But... I have nothing to say about her. And Donghae is so cute. He and Kyuhyun have moved up. Yeah. I remember in Dragon Tales, the girl (what was her name? Emmy? And did you know there's another little boy there?! there are 3 of them now!) used to say definitely all the time. I'm turning into her. She always looked asian to me, did you know that? She's really Hispanic.

And also, I recently found this learn chinese cartoon on nickelodeon. I don't know what it's called, but I was just so proud. Like... proud! Oh I just looked it up. It's ni hao kai lan :). She has a grandpa that can speak it really well. And she has all these animal friends... Haha I was so happy when I found that show.

Oh and now things to say about my week! I got a 96 on my research paper, 20%, all good. Isn't that just worth a test, though? I should check powerschool. My bio quiz though... I guessed on a few of them. I'm slipping in that class. And also! In math, I got an 88 on a test (haha, lucky for the Chinese, right?), and I was devastated, but turns out everyone failed it or something so the teacher had to give extra credit! Yeah! It was so easy though, so my grade was boosted by 6 points. Six! Aah, Mrs. Sopala, you're not that bad.  I hear Grace knocking down my front door in rage. 

I should make a dialogue, shouldn't I? Yeesh, I have nothing really to say though. Oh, you know how Fei Hong once talked to me on Facebook, and then I think on aim? Yeah I feel really bad because I only talk to him online and then ignore him in real life. I'll say hi to him eventually... Before it becomes too long and it'll get awkward. I'm not pointing fingers. Besides saying actually a lot, what other habits do I have?

I think I picked up actually from Christina. I picked up a lot of things from her, and then dropped a lot of them and picked up a lot of things from Hazel and Anita a little. Like how I saw good looking. I say it like Hazel. And no. And so. (I have to watch myself to make it normal) And all that korean music -- don't feel bad because you're not the only one. Sometimes I'm really scared that people think I want to be Korean... I don't! Nothing wrong with it (teach me if you wish) but I embrace my heritage. Kevin, did you block me on aim? You're not there anymore...

I think I'll end on that note... I have so much homework - have to revise my WC essay! Haha, did you know WC in europe is bathroom? I laugh secretly to myself whenever I write it in my agenda. And I make a note of it to say it to Anita in bio, but I never really remember. 

Fine, so maybe I won't end on that note. Because I have something good to say. In WC (ahahahahaha) I've been raising my hand a lot and contributing a lot. And then on Friday in Bio I said a lot of random things in the beginning of class. Anita wasn't there though! :O 
Ms. Cavallo: Everyone's looking at their notes like there's a quiz. 
-five minutes later-
Ms. Cavallo: Why are you guys frantically flipping through your notes?
Me: [really loudly too] I'm studying so I can say things aloud in bio today.
Class: ... 
Ms. Cavallo: [amusedly] Oh.
Lauren and Danielle: HEATHER! HEATHER! YEAH! *applause* 
I was SO proud of myself. It was because the day before she called me a model of girl behavior. You know. Quiet. It's better to not be so predictable. But I didn't say anything for the rest of the period because I didn't study enough at the beginning of the period. Oh. And then next period I lost the review game... Stupid board. 

<edit>
I just went to view my journal and I love that song. By danny noriega. I love him. Someone find me a danny moodtheme. 

Oh and today I went to buy Taylor's present... It's pitifully small... And I also went somewhere else, and bought 2 really ugly and barely functional pentel pencils, plus 2 pens. It's because of my obvious thing for writing instruments, and the 4 of them were only a dollar. I was amazed. But the blue pen doesn't work. That's what you get. 

Oh and if you haven't figured it out, I'm in Metuchen!! YAY! Ish... I'll post up my story when I get back to Closter. Actually, I'll check my firstclass, although I doubt I sent it to myself...
</edit>

... And I have no idea why.

SO today was a fun day. Art, I did nothing as usual... should learn to be more efficient with time. Bio! Wow bio was so much fun. We watched GATTACA! JUDE LAW HAO (chao) SHUAI! He seriously is... I think I've fallen in love with a middle aged bai ren :O. Ah... hahaha x_x... But anyway I started TEARING at the end and Danielle and Lauren made a big deal and Caj was all HEATHER'S CRYING, EVERYBODY! And I was like T_T... It was so funny... But anyway I LOVED Gattaca, although I couldn't see the screen half the time because the screen or projector was really sucky. It was about genetic engineering, and how you can pick all the features you'd like for a baby. And it kind of became the norm... among the privileged people. Anyone who wasn't genetically engineered (a Godchild?) was shunned and disparaged, and called an 'invalid'. And this guy whose parents decided to leave it to God to decide... And he was born with all these percentages of problems, like 99% heart failure and life expectance 30.5 years. So he couldn't get any jobs! But he really wanted to be an astronaut. So he decided to take a valid's identity because that valid couldn't do anything anymore and decided to pay someone to take his place... And then he'd give him blood samples to put on his finger, and urine samples, and such... So anyway the valid was Jude Law... I love his accent. I love his voice... Love him. Anyway. The invalid came out better-looking than his somewhat lifeguard-looking valid brother. Eh.

I wasn't crying, by the way. I was tearing. Meaning welling up. I do it a lot, but you give it like 10 seconds and it goes away. I do it at anything... Like sometimes I look at my mom, or my grandma's being really nice... There must be something wrong there. Does like, no one know who Jude Law is? Either that or they don't like him. It's so sad :(.

And we did NOTHING in english but finish the Romeo and Juliet movie because Ms. Cho wasn't there. But that movie is like so boring so all I really did was read 1984 by George Orwell. I found it lying on the ledge next to me. No, it's not a window ledge, it's like this shelf... thing. That's the same height as the desks, and is on the right side of the room... in every room in the new wing. I find that really odd actually. Every single room looks the same o_O. In the new wing, I mean. And then we commenced watching the new one! It was SO weird. Benvolio was SO oafish (because he was pretty pretty in that old fashioned kind of way in the original and I was SO surprised) looking, and Mercutio was downright scary, and Tybalt too. It was like... in a ghetto. So scary. I paid attention to that one, though. Hehe.

And then NEXT period we were invited by Sakayama sensei to go watch the... thing. What was it called, I forgot ;_;. OH! Shamisen. Right? I think. It was this guy, playing this erhu thing except it wasn't and it just lookedl ike it and you strum it like a guitar. It was so funny... Like, he was just a really funny guy. And he played all these songs, and sang a little, and he spoke really thickly accented english that grace didn't even know that he was speaking english... And he also said annyeonghasaeyo (Did I do it Hazel? Korean romanization is so hard... don't laugh at me) and ni hao. He said ni hao really well. With the tones and everything. HE WAS SO FUNNY.

Blockquote time, ohyeah. Block quotes are for when you quote something that's four lines or longer! Yeah! Anyway... He made a bunch of people get up and hold these plastic bell things and dance. And he made them do all these ridiculous things like squat, and and walk and go up and down squatting and have a mini parade around the auditorium. AAAH I HAD SO MUCH FUN. But when he asked for the Chinese again I didn't raise my hand. It would have been so nervewracking.

And then after school I went to art and worked on my project, and got nothing done. But it was fun nonetheless, talking to Anita and Sooyun, and Emma... and... Christine and Sayaka too. And Michelle and Even and even Phillip (ikright) but they left early. It was like a time for socializing! I did part of my monk's clothes... which is like nothing pretty much and I got home at like a quarter to 6. Aah, remind me to pay Anita a dollar tomorrow. JT (does he go by Jintae now or did I just make that up now?) was there and randomly said ni hao (he said it REALLY WELL with the tones and everything too). I told him his eyes were small in Chinese. He's not that mean, I guess. Hazel should have kneed his freaking iguana.

Hey! Guess who my icon is! Just for you, Hazel... He looks good in this one...

Okay. Five minute post. Because I was really supposed to be just printing out some sort of review thingy for World Civ but I got slightly sidetracked and decided to make Anita happy. 1/2 happy. 1/3 happy. I'll go comment on all your things... tomorrow... During lunch... Yeah. :PP

FIVE MINUTE POST! The weekend was so happy for me... I couldn't make Christina's party Friday! So we took her out to breakfast Saturday. IHOP. I really wanted to go to Da Shanghai (big... shanghai) but it didn't open until 11 or something so I was like whatever. I didn't really like the food in IHOP. OMG I had an urge to type it iHop. It's because of the i-everything trend that's getting old but still going around. I had like. I don't remember, but it was a lot of stuff. I had forgotten the amount of like... the portions! The portions are SO BIG! It was so hard to eat all of it. And then William made this big deal about IF YOU ORDER IT YOU EAT IT. Because I was like… blah blah blah and he was like okay and mom was like no you’re on a diet so then… Ugh I was so full. And I don’t even like the food that much… like I’ll tolerate a pancake and a sausage and a forkful of hashed browns (I say HASHED browns instead of HASHBROWNS for future reference)… but not like 2 pancakes and eggs and like 5 sausages and a mountain of shredded potato. My mom and William ended up helping anyway. Christina did nothing.

 And then in the afternoon we went to the mall! We spent like an hour in Sephora… She was oohing and aahing over the fake eyelashes and wanting to paste them onto like a mask or something for the Odyssey for Mr. Gallagher…? I have no idea. It wasn’t very interesting. I was running around the back rubbing eyeshadow on the back of my hand and trying on all the different whitening shiseido creams. They did nothing. I didn’t expect them to do anything… And all these stores and all I bought was a Frosty and then a drink that was raspberry and green tea. They were both good. Frosties are so good. I should get them more often…

 And then I came home and then my dad was all Heather. You’ve gotten a virus on the computer. It’s called ‘Chinese Navigation blah blah blah.’ Have you been on Chinese sites? Uh… Yiyipf? AHA! I KNEW IT! BECAUSE I DON’T GO ON CHINESE WEBSITES!!

 I feel really bad actually because like… my dad’s tax stuff is all on there and the pictures too… and apparently the virus isn’t letting him copy the four gigs of pictures we have stored on there… ;_; Oh by the way I was feeling extremely bad about never talking to my dad so I talked to him today on the phone. Remind me to call him tomorrow.

 Okay dude it’s been like 10 minutes. Ahaha… William just came in and glanced at my word document. Because I’m typing this in a word document. So it won’t seem like I was typing on my blog.

Okay quickly. Nothing really happened today. Except that I kinda want a Biffy… Diffy. Doofy… What are they called? Those things… Yeah. They remind me of Pygmy Puffs. I so wanted a Pygmy Puff before and I was like so sad because I knew I would never get one. It’s so much easier to want a bunny named Basil because… it’s pretty possible.

Okay. A page. I really need to take a shower otherwise my hair will never dry… And I need to like… study or whatever.

*edit* I forgot. Today after school Sooyun dragged me to Mrs. Lee. I left in a hurry after I asked her about our grade (sooyun made me ask... don't know why she just could have herself). I hope Sooyun didn't badmouth me or anything. I wouldn't put it past her. Not that I don't like her. I really do.

Uh... OH! Today after school also I went to get my retainer fitted because I lost my plastic one. The new one's gonna be those conventional wire plastic hard ones. I chose the one with dark pink light pink white stripes. Pretty. The actual appointment took like 20 minutes, but the driving took like 2 hours. My gosh. But I had some nice talks with my mom so it was all good.