The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

Surprising China would bother with official languages

[Monoriu]

Surprising China would bother with official languages

Why?  China has always been big, covering lots of people who speak many different languages and dialects.  The need for one or more common, official language has been an issue since ancient times. 

[The Brain]

I heard rumors that there's some weirdo in the UK called Cathy Newman. What's up with that?

[mongers]

I heard rumors that there's some weirdo in the UK called Cathy Newman. What's up with that?

Just a somewhat strident tv news journalist on Channel 4 news, has she done anything newsworthy?

edit:
I checked, apparently there are some nutters on the web targeting here because of an interview she conducted with weirdo psychologist.  I actually saw the interview and thought it quite fun, the two of them seemed to enjoy it, guess you have to expect keyboard Jihadi-males to go bonkers over everything.

[derspiess]

Never heard of her, but apparently this is a culture war thing.  Yay.

[Josquius]

Surprising China would bother with official languages

Why?  China has always been big, covering lots of people who speak many different languages and dialects.  The need for one or more common, official language has been an issue since ancient times. 

Written Chinese was that language no?

[Valmy]

Never heard of her

I would bet the number of local news reporters in the UK known to us would be pretty low.

[Josquius]

Mark E Smith has died

[garbon]

Never heard of her

I would bet the number of local news reporters in the UK known to us would be pretty low.

Dan Walker might be the only UK 'news' reporter that I know by name.

[Camerus]

I heard today that the Qing dynasty had 5 official languages. That included Mandarin and Manchurian of course,  but also Mongolian, Tibetan and Uighur. Qianlong was fluent in all 5.

Never heard of Uighur being an official Qing language.  But I am not surprised about Tibetan and Mongolian.  The Qing nobility and dynasty supported Tibetan Buddhism, so they learned it for religious reasons.  The Manchus and Mongolians had a long history of inter-marriage, so a lot of Qing princes had Mongolian mothers.

I suppose the question also is what the bar was to constitute an official language back then and in whose eyes.

[garbon]

I heard rumors that there's some weirdo in the UK called Cathy Newman. What's up with that?

Just a somewhat strident tv news journalist on Channel 4 news, has she done anything newsworthy?

edit:
I checked, apparently there are some nutters on the web targeting here because of an interview she conducted with weirdo psychologist.  I actually saw the interview and thought it quite fun, the two of them seemed to enjoy it, guess you have to expect keyboard Jihadi-males to go bonkers over everything.

I think the Times and Telegraph also ran hit pieces on her related to the interview. Started reading the one in the Times which started going on about biological reasons men and women will always be at odds and that an issue with the new position of the loneliness minister is that it'll turn men off if the focus is on talking it out - a most feminine solution to problems...so naturally I stopped wasting my time on that article.

[mongers]

I heard rumors that there's some weirdo in the UK called Cathy Newman. What's up with that?

Just a somewhat strident tv news journalist on Channel 4 news, has she done anything newsworthy?

edit:
I checked, apparently there are some nutters on the web targeting here because of an interview she conducted with weirdo psychologist.  I actually saw the interview and thought it quite fun, the two of them seemed to enjoy it, guess you have to expect keyboard Jihadi-males to go bonkers over everything.

I think the Times and Telegraph also ran hit pieces on her related to the interview. Started reading the one in the Times which started going on about biological reasons men and women will always be at odds
......

Odd you'd think they'd stand up for the right of their fellow journalists to hold differing view, instead of whipping up and throwing them to the baying crowds.   

[Valmy]

I think the Times and Telegraph also ran hit pieces on her related to the interview. Started reading the one in the Times which started going on about biological reasons men and women will always be at odds

So there is hope all men can get along with each other?

[derspiess]

I think the Times and Telegraph also ran hit pieces on her related to the interview. Started reading the one in the Times which started going on about biological reasons men and women will always be at odds

So there is hope all men can get along with each other?

Men get along.  Might have a fistfight one day, but be best buds again the next.  Women, however...

[Maladict]

So there is hope all men can get along with each other?

Men get along.  Might have a fistfight one day, but be best buds again the next. 

Yeah, that doesn't sound dysfunctional at all.