Chinese Create Slang for New Technology

Cantonese-speakers sidelined by new generation of immigrants

(NEWSER) - Goodbye "Leih Hou Ma," hello "Ni Hao Ma." The language most often heard in New York's Chinatown and in Chinese communities across America is quickly changing from Cantonese to Mandarin as new immigrants from mainland China outnumber those from Hong Kong. Even Cantonese-speaking parents are pushing their children to speak Mandarin as China's influence on the world soars, the New York Times notes. More»

Spanish, however, would benefit them

(NEWSER) - Nick Kristof and his family speak Chinese, and “let’s be frank,” he writes in the New York Times , “if your child hasn’t started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything.” Oh, actually … “just kidding,” continues Kristof, who disagrees with the current parental obsession with Chinese classes for Junior. With the Hispanic population in America surging and Latin America becoming increasingly important economically, Spanish is the language that is truly “essential” to learn. More»

'It's on like Donkey Kong' has become liability

(NEWSER) - Nintendo’s trying to trademark “It’s on like Donkey Kong”—so we need a new video-game based catchphrase. Contenders from Unplggd :

• I Got Mario Karted: Someone’s beaten you at the last minute, which often happens in Mario Kart. Example: “I almost got with this girl/guy, but then my friend Mario Karted me by buying her/him a drink!”

Yes, it's an annoying verbal tic—but it can also be useful

(NEWSER) - “Like” is, like, the biggest filler word since, um, “you know,” and it, basically, gets on Christopher Hitchens’ nerves. But though “it’s true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary as candy expels vegetables,” it wasn’t always so—and, believe it or not, in a modified form it can actually be useful, he writes in Vanity Fair . More»

US ignores race for clean energy at its own peril: Friedman

(NEWSER) - For those who think the past year will be defined by global recession, Tom Friedman says think again. Rather, for the New York Times columnist it is Red China's decision "to become Green China" that will spur a 21st-century technological race for clean energy—in the same way that Russia's launch of Sputnik belatedly prodded the US into the space race. More»