Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others. — Oliver Stone, Wall Street, 1987
My little brother just started Chinese Class this week! Will be great one day to be able to speak with him in Mandarin! Here’s a copy of a pinyin sheet — basically every sound in chinese. Note that there are dialects all over china and most people’s pronunciation of the national standard language is quite a long ways off. For example, most southern countryside folks can’t distinguish zhi:zi shi:si or chi:ci. Meanwhile, Shanghainese folks can’t distinguish in:ing (yin ≠ ying, xin ≠ xing, etc). There are even some spots where ji, qi, and xi are all pronounced the same… So, be careful
Of course, like in most places in the world, proper pronunciation and a good education/upbringing usually go hand in hand. If the pronunciation is way off the national standard, particularly for young people, there were almost certainly raised in a relatively rural area.
I can certainly do better than this, but if you take a look at the form, you’ll also see that reading pinyin without it’s proper phonetic indicator is somewhat awkward (ie, reading wāng wáng wǎng or wàng or even 王 往 or 旺 is much easier than reading “wang”). Anyway – this is a quick read over the list
Sometimes a picture truly is worth a thousand words. There’s a Reuter’s article stating that “Threatened by a “financial tsunami,” the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Wednesday“.
Here’s the chinese version of the “Financial Tsunami” (金融海啸） story. Toward the end of the story there’s an interesting picture.
Don’t worry, the picture is just chinese clipart from a regular Joe (or Zhang) — his pants say “房贷”, referring to the mortgage he’s paying and it’s an almost unbearable burden…
But if you read into it more – could be interesting
This was a great article. My list would be a little bit different, but I mostly agree… I would add some speeches from Boiler Room, Training Day and most certainly Fight Club to the list, and probably remove some of the older films as I haven’t seen them — maybe afterward I’ll have a change of mind
2. Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men (1992): You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know – that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
4. Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction (1994): The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.
5. Michael Douglas, Wall Street (1987): The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed – for lack of a better word – is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Greed – you mark my words – will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
10. Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995): You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die, run and you’ll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!
