Is the term anti-Semitism confusing? Probably. But that doesn't mean the word "should" be used in one way or another. Words are what they are. "Anti-Semitism" is an English word, and the meaning of that word is "prejudice against Jewish people". The etymology of a word in no way dictates its modern meaning. Languages, especially English, are filled with words that don't reflect their original meaning. Even in your comment, the second word is "refer". It originally meant "to carry again". Now it doesn't. That's language.>> ^vaire2ube:

semitic refers to language origins and should no longer be appropriated to mean "anti-jewish"
arab peoples are semitic as well.
good day.
"...first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Ge'ez, Maltese, Canaanite/Phoenician, Amorite, Eblaite, Ugaritic, Sutean, Chaldean, Mandaic, Ahlamu, Amharic, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.
As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.
...a few Semitic languages today are the base of the sacred literature of some of the world's great religions, including Islam (Arabic), Judaism (Hebrew and Aramaic), and Syriac and Ethiopian Christianity (Aramaic/Syriac and Ge'ez). " -wiki

semitic refers to language origins and should no longer be appropriated to mean "anti-jewish"

arab peoples are semitic as well.

good day.

"...first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Ge'ez, Maltese, Canaanite/Phoenician, Amorite, Eblaite, Ugaritic, Sutean, Chaldean, Mandaic, Ahlamu, Amharic, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.

As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.

...a few Semitic languages today are the base of the sacred literature of some of the world's great religions, including Islam (Arabic), Judaism (Hebrew and Aramaic), and Syriac and Ethiopian Christianity (Aramaic/Syriac and Ge'ez). " -wiki

To be honest, every sound except the らりるれろ is in the English language in some way or another, it's just that people generally aren't very good at forming new speech habits. I got pretty lucky in sort of inheriting a talent for language study (my great grandfather spoke five or six languages semi-fluently, plus his native English). It also helps that I've been to Japan twice and have been studying the language for five years, lol. I get annoyed at how quickly it deteriorated to merely "okay" Japanese both times after I returned from Japan...using it as your primary language day in and day out really gets it flowing smoothly. When I came back, I found myself using あいづち while my Dad and I talked on the way back from the airport, lol.

In reply to this comment by Bidouleroux:
In reply to this comment by JAPR:
考えられなかった is practically a tongue twister, and I'm really rusty, lol. Thanks for the compliment.

In reply to this comment by Bidouleroux:
What impresses me more is hearing a person of English mother tongue pronouncing Japanese almost correctly! マジ感心.

Yeah, those られる are a mouthful. But I was most stricken by how well you can hold off your English stress accentuation. Stress-timing also massacres the rhytym of Japanese mora-timed sentences. You regularly hear English-as-mother-tongue naturalized Japanese speak with a worse accent than a Chinese grandma, even after some ten to twenty years hearing and speaking nothing but Japanese. I have it easy though, as my mother tongue is French (no stress + all mora except ら り る れ ろ).

edit: this is either blocked or there's something wrong with the embed. works fine now, sorry. must be lag on the server today...
in any case, I think it's a dupe of http://www.videosift.com/video/Klingon-Language-Studies-at-Summer-School, can you check it out?

Nah, I was just over there for a summer language study program in Kanazawa, and seeing my favorite Japanese band while I was there was a chance I couldn't pass up. I'm going to see them in San Francisco with my girlfriend on Monday, since I'm on Spring Break now.

In reply to this comment by fissionchips:
In reply to this comment by JAPR:
By the way, you saw that the pillows are touring the US right now, right? You should hit up a show if you get the chance, they're GREAT live. I was fortunate enough to get to see them play a two and a half hour show in Kyoto this past summer, and it was the best concert I've ever been to.

Best concert? That's saying a lot! I'm up in Canada though, no shows here . Do you live in Tokyo, or were you just visiting?

Great sift, and thread as well. Ah, where's Westy when you need him?

Whenever I hear people say between you and I, irregardless, or it's instead of its, I am constantly resisting the urge to correct them. Of course, we can all be a language Nazi, but words and their usage will always evolve, as Ferdinand de Saussure first noted; he classified language study into two groups—the static (a snapshot of a language at a given moment in time, which we call a dictionary) and the dynamic (the fluid usage of words, which changes so quickly that it's impossible to put into a dictionary). Unless you are working with an artificial language like Esperanto or mathematics, where its definitions are clearly explained from the outset, every word's etymology will be a Frankenstein to some degree. For instance, when should we use "that" instead of "which"? There is no One True Answer, only a messy history of usage which we must dig through to agree one usage is better than the others because... well, because we like the sound of it.

Still, it's frustrating. Why do we bother learning grammar and spelling rules if it's okay to suddenly not follow them? Here's a poem I wrote about exactly that:


Ode to Our Mislaid Apostrophes

O wonderful, mischievous, slippery mark:
I want to punctuate, but youre location is stark.
My meanings are loose, my intentions skewed—
my editors pens could leave me quite screwed!
They often complain that theyre English is good
while my typewritten words barely understood
If only Id divine when its was not it's
they just might be able to keep all there wits
Or not mistake they're when it really is there,
or swap out a your when you're is somewhere...
I find it so silly. Cant you understand my thought?
Is my english so bad that new laws must be wrought?
I suppose who and whom can go fly with the dodo
for who really cares, but Gandalf and Frodo
In fact, I will drop all punctuation at once
and no one around will suspect me a dunce
for they too will know what I mean with my word
so why need I try its so pointless absurd
lets assassinate all grammer and speling as well
im sure every school kid would love to us tell
how much they hate engish and other dim arts
no need to learn standards when its old pompous farts
insisting they bend to the will of those rules
like all human beings are grammatical mules
o wunderful mischevious slipery mark
i would use you if only i knew where you park
but no one cares now if youre lost to the wind
since apostrofe rules they wish to recind
its a simple mater of its usage you kno
wheter your is correct in your sentance flow
ah who cares no one maybe only a fyew
i do wish theyd speek up oh how I doo


P.S. And "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" is actually "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". Normally, I wouldn't say anything, but in this case, the author's comma placement is explicitly intentional. Tee hee.

P.P.S. I also agree with oxdottir that neither the internet nor this forum is a formal medium; we are not paid editors and nobody is expected to write as if they are paid journalists (least of all those for whom English is a second language). So, sorry in advance to anyone if I reach out and tag you. Westy, of course, is exempt.

I spent this past summer in Japan, specifically two months in Kanazawa (Ishikawa prefecture). It was for a language study program at my school; we spent three hours each day in class and then the rest of the day doing whatever we wanted. They had cultural activities set up for us to go do various interesting traditional things if we wanted to, and the program was a home-stay, so we got two months of home-cooked Japanese food. :3 It was totally awesome. I got to see two bands live while I was there, THE BACK HORN and the pillows. I didn't do too much traveling within Japan due to money constraints, but it was a great time.

Yeah, he needs more than a little help with his language studies.

Here is the ad with Klingon's learning English:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Klingon-Language-Studies-at-Summer-School


*promote