Lichtrausch's Log: The Sinosphere and Indoeuropean

[lichtrausch]

I read the second part of 东方 called 火光 (Flames). Now that our characters are in Korea fighting Americans and the "puppet army" (伪军, what the PRC called the South Korean army), there are bits of Korean sprinkled around the text, presented in Chinese transliteration. For example, 东木 dōngmù for 동무 dongmu (comrade). Or 边机一索 biānjī yīsuǒ for 비행기 있어 bihaeng-gi isseo (there's an airplane). The book has six parts in total and is over a thousand pages long, so I'm going to be at it for a while.

I also finished ノルウェイの森 (Norwegian Wood), which was not as superb as I remembered from earlier readings. However, it's clear why I loved it back then: The main character, a young man entering adulthood and navigating university life, was extremely relatable to me when I was going through that stage of life myself. But now a good deal of the conversations and behaviors seem somewhat silly. Still a good book though. I also read A Thousand Brains by Jeff Hawkins, which lays out a compelling theory of intelligence. The author left an extremely lucrative tech career twenty years ago in order to figure out intelligence and then apply what he learns to machine intelligence.

I'm currently reading The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, which has nothing to do with the movie of the same name. Happy new year everyone!

[lichtrausch]

And now for something completely different.

I've been thinking about how advanced AI is going to change language learning and even change the balance of languages in certain territories. My assumptions are that by midcentury, advanced AI is going to allow everyone access to their own personal high-quality AI tutor, that 99% of jobs will be automated, and that human aging will be reversed. The consequences of all that are language learning will be somewhat easier, and people will have a lot more time to do it if they choose.

Whether a given language benefits from these new circumstances will depend a lot on demographics I think. In a country where the majority identify a certain language as their ethnic heritage, this language will flourish. For example, Irish should be able to regain its place as the dominant language in Ireland, and Welsh in Wales. It gets trickier when an ethnic group constitutes only a plurality of a country's population. Languages like Quechua, Nahuatl, or Mayan will be strengthened, but does Spanish face any challenge as the dominant language of Latin American countries? Might Spanish even disappear from most of the Americas, displaced by indigenous languages? I don't know.

It seems like English is more secure in the Americas because the relevant indigenous populations have been reduced to such a tiny fraction. The best opportunities seem to be locally in places like Alaska and Oklahoma with relatively strong indigenous demographics.

In short, I think indigenous languages all over the world will be strengthened, but demographics and politics will be constraints on just how much space they end up winning.

[DaveAgain]

Whether a given language benefits from these new circumstances will depend a lot on demographics I think. In a country where the majority identify a certain language as their ethnic heritage, this language will flourish. For example, Irish should be able to regain its place as the dominant language in Ireland, and Welsh in Wales.

I don't accept the assertion that Irish or Welsh people value the Irish and Welsh languages over English.

I think the language your neighbours speak is a bigger driver than the language your great-grandparents spoke.

[lichtrausch]

I don't accept the assertion that Irish or Welsh people value the Irish and Welsh languages over English.

I think the language your neighbours speak is a bigger driver than the language your great-grandparents spoke.

As I understand it, in periods of language transition there is often widespread bilingualism, such that at every point in the transition you will be able to communicate with most of your neighbors. But it's true, maybe the majority of Irish and Welsh people don't value their heritage language enough for Irish and Welsh to even reach parity with English, even given the advantageous circumstances I outlined above.

[lichtrausch]

I finally took the leap and signed up for the HSK next month in New York. An updated test with more levels was supposed to be introduced in 2021, but apparently that still hasn't happened so I'll be doing level 6. If I pass the test I'm going to allow myself to lower the intensity of my Mandarin studies so I can focus on some other projects.

I finished reading the The Last Samurai, which I highly recommend to any of you who don't mind literary fiction that pushes the boundaries of the form a little. Let's just say it has passages in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Old Norse, and Inuit. And I learned the basics of the Ancient Greek alphabet from the novel.

I also read Muße und Kult (Leisure: The Basis of Culture) by Josef Pieper, which makes a convincing argument for viewing leisure as something deeper and more valuable than simply "what we do when we're not working". I'm currently reading Accelerando by Charles Stross, a novel about the singularity.

I've also started getting back into movies recently. 竜とそばかすの姫 (Belle) was visually delightful and unusual in a good way. Inspired by The Last Samurai I also watched the classic 七人の侍 (Seven Samurai) by Kurosawa. It's a bit difficult to watch for a modern viewer (not least because it's over 3 hours long), but I found it rewarding.

[lichtrausch]

I've been preparing for the HSK. I signed up for five hours of lessons, which have been helpful for filling in gaps and getting familiar with the structure of the test. I've also taken a couple mock tests. The listening section is strenuous, and this is where most of my efforts are focused right now. The reading section is a breeze. The writing section is a bit challenging, but my writing is improving very quickly thanks to the foundation of my strong reading skills. I never had occasion to write anything longer than text messages, so that is now changing.

I finished reading Accelerando. Horrible, juvenile book with some interesting speculations about the future. I started reading Yuzuru Yamauchi's non-fiction work 瀬戸内の海賊 (The Pirate of the Seto Inland Sea) about the life of Takeyoshi Murakami and Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions by Philip Howard.

I've recently dabbled a little in Latvian. My lack of a preference between Lithuanian and Latvian had me in a Baltic stalemate until now. The Finnic influence on Latvian decided the matter for me, but this foray will not go beyond dabbling. There's absolutely no way I could justify spending serious amounts of time on this language.

[lichtrausch]

I took the HSK last weekend. No big surprises. The results will come out in a couple weeks.

Reading 瀬戸内の海賊 (The Pirate of the Seto Inland Sea), I spent a lot of time during the first chapter looking up the pronunciation of people and place names, which are notoriously convoluted in Japanese. The provinces during the 16th century were completely different from today's prefectures, so I've been learning province names like Bizen 備前, Bitchū 備中, Bingo 備後 (the near, middle, and far divisions of the even older Kibi Province, based on their distance from the Kyoto capital region). Now that I'm all caught up on names, the reading experience is going much smoother.

I also finished reading the excellent Not Accountable, which clarified my thinking on unions and does a wonderful job of explaining the conditions for well-functioning government.

While in NYC for the test I went to a Xi'an restaurant and had Diao-Diao noodles (调调面) for the first time. Delicious.

[lichtrausch]

I passed the HSK, 248/300 points. The passing score is 180. My strongest to weakest sections were reading, writing, then listening.

This marks the end of an era for me. I've accomplished what I wanted to in terms of reading and writing. There's no compelling reason for me to push further in those areas. From here on out, I will only be reading Mandarin texts out of interest, but I will continue working on my listening on the side. I will also continue speaking and writing the language when the opportunity arises, which is frequently.

The main beneficiary of my freed-up time will be a tech-related project, but I hope to also find more time for Korean, Russian, and Italian. Korean is not far behind my Mandarin, and would really benefit from another burst of intensive study. I've fallen in love with the Slavic languages, and Russian is the gateway because of its great resources and literature. Can't wait to dive into Polish and Ukrainian. Italian has peaked my interest recently. Aesthetically it has probably always been the most appealing Romance language to me, but I favored French and Spanish for practical reasons. However I've been spending some time in Boston's North End ("Little Italy"), trying new food there and even finding a bookstore that sells Italian books. And I've been watching a lot of Lucrezia's videos, especially her vlogs. I can't wait to start reading Italian literature, and couldn't resist buying Il deserto dei Tartari from that Italian bookstore.

[Le Baron]

I agree with regard to Italian. I spent so much time on Spanish, but I watch more Italian films, watch more Italian videos and generally prefer it. I should have done Italian, but the push is for Spanish as a 'world language', yet I spend most of my time in Europe, not Latin America.

Congratulations on the results.

[Xenops]

I passed the HSK, 248/300 points. The passing score is 180. My strongest to weakest sections were reading, writing, then listening.

Congrats! What level did you reach?

Italian has peaked my interest recently. Aesthetically it has probably always been the most appealing Romance language to me, but I favored French and Spanish for practical reasons. However I've been spending some time in Boston's North End ("Little Italy"), trying new food there and even finding a bookstore that sells Italian books. And I've been watching a lot of Lucrezia's videos, especially her vlogs. I can't wait to start reading Italian literature, and couldn't resist buying Il deserto dei Tartari from that Italian bookstore.

I often wonder, being in Boston, if I should not "take advantage of" a couple of languages that have a support base here--Italian or Irish. But my practical self has not yet given in.