Happy New Year to everyone and I wish you all a happy and fulfilling 2010. 
Breaking into a new year always gives many people hope that the coming year will be better than the last, and that their lives will change for the better. This is why many people make new year’s resolutions–a chance to change things that are unwanted; to do things differently; to start afresh. Many resolutions are things that we know we should have been doing all along but never quite got around to starting, and new year seems such an obvious starting point.
The only problem is there is usually a reason why we didn’t do it earlier, and so many resolutions are doomed to failure–often barely days into the new year.
I’ve done all the usual resolutions in the past–losing weight, quitting smoking (I actually ended up doing it last May), cutting down on the booze, getting fit etc. and none of them has ever lasted beyond January. This year my resolution was simply to be more diligent with this blog and ensure I post at least once per week. Of course, as this is the 9th already I guess you could say I fell before I left the gate, but considering the new year’s holiday and everything that accompanies it, I think I am allowed some slack. So let’s hope from here on in I can keep to the resolution (please don’t write to me if I mess it up).
If you don’t have a resolution already (maybe you are a healthy person who doesn’t smoke or drink and already exercises like a whippet (or a fat alcoholic who doesn’t give a shit)) then maybe you could start your new year off with the resolve to learn a language. While the smell of change is in the air and the promise of new beginnings, there is possibly no better time to begin the journey of learning a new language. It is a sure fire way of changing your life, and may even send it in an entirely new direction (for example you may end up writing a language blog in 30 ° C heat instead of 6 feet of snow 
). You certainly have nothing to lose learning a language other than possibly about half an hour of your time per day, but have an enormous amount to gain.
Of course there is the inevitable chance that you will lose interest after about 2 weeks and forget all about it, but that is a chance you take whenever you start something new. The good thing about new year is that you have the excited exuberance of someone who sees a brand new start and a brand new you, and also of course you are certain to remember the day you started, and this if anything might guiltily persuade you to last beyond a week.
If you are looking for good reasons why you might want to learn a language then please visit my website at lingualogue.com/second-language-benefits
So what are you waiting for? Just grab that proverbial bull by its sharp ends, pick a language and learn it. It really is as simple as that.
An interesting thing that I have noticed living in Asia is the difference in the way emotions are perceived with that of the west. This is most obviously apparent in the use of internet emoticons.
If you have used online forums before you will know that they can be a mine of information–a whole community with expertise, experience and interest in the same topics as you. Having someone available who can answer your questions or offer advice is an invaluable resource.
A brief update on my previous post about the announcement by ICANN to introduce website addresses with non-Latin characters. To begin with I thought it was great idea and could see no down side. It seems however that I didn’t think about it long enough because there is a possible downside that never occurred to me–and this downside is phishing. No, not the tedious task of luring piscine creatures onto a hook, but the more sinister act of luring unsuspecting internet users to undesirable sites. Often with the goal of spreading viruses or stealing data.
The internet is set for the biggest single change in its 40 year history: ICANN, the non-profit organisation that governs domain names, is considering the move to allow website domain names (the actual name of the site) to be available in non-Latin script. This will open up the internet to a huge global market that was hitherto untapped and allow the emergence of new websites whose monikers could use non-Latin letters such as Japanese, Arabic, Korean, or Thai.
I apologise for being a little lax with the blogs this month, but I have been on holiday and have found it difficult to keep on top of things. Hopefully I will get things back on track shortly, but for today I will simply post a small observation. Granted, this observation has nothing to do with languages as such, but is based on a different culture, which I guess falls very slightly within the hazy lines of this blog. Well it does now anyway.
I was reading a blog the other day that seemed to have some confusion about the definition of the word homonym. I did some checking and was surprised to see that this confusion is much more widespread than I had previously thought. We are not just talking about confusion among the general public here, we are talking confusion between the big players–the education websites, the information portals, and even the heavyweight dictionary boys. Nobody can seem to give a definitive answer on the specific definitions of homonyms, heteronyms, homographs, and homophones.
Here is my list of 10 extremely feeble excuses for people choosing not to learn a language. It is amazing how people will use at least one (sometimes several) of these to convince themselves that they cannot or do not wish to learn a language.
or not is to check their handwriting. Forget the old polygraph, or the infamously ineffective sodium pentathol shot, now all you need is to look at their handwriting. The basic idea is that by the time we are adults our handwriting is fixed– hardwired if you will into an automatic action. When people lie, however, the extra cognitive effort that goes into pulling out an enormous whopper of a porky means the writer tends to unintentionally hesitate and press harder on each pen stroke. This is imperceptible to the naked eye but is detectable to specially programmed computers.
