1 . Sometimes people add to what they say even when they don’t talk. Gestures are the “silent language” of every culture. We point a finger or move another part of the body to show what we want to say. It is important to know the body language of every country or we may be misunderstood.

In the United States, people greet each other with a handshake in a formal introduction. The handshake must be firm. If the handshake is weak, it is a sign of weakness or un-friendliness. Friends may place a hand on the others’ arm or shoulder. Some people, usually women, greet a friend with a hug.

Space is important to Americans. When two people talk to each other, they usually stand about two and a half feet away and at an angle, so they are not facing each other directly. Americans get uncomfortable when a person stands too close. They will move back to have their space. If Americans touch another person by accident, they say, “Pardon me.” Or “Excuse me.” Americans like to look at the other person in the eyes when they are talking. If you don’t do so, it means you are bored, hiding something, or are not interested. But when you stare at someone, it is not polite.

For Americans, thumbs-up means yes, very good, or well done, thumbs-down means the opposite. To call a waiter, raise one hand to head level or above. To show you want the check, make a movement with your hands as if you are signing a piece of paper. It is all right to point at things but not at people with the hand and index finger (食指). Americans shake their index finger at children when they scold them and pat them on the head when they admire them.

Learning a culture’s body language is sometimes confusing. If you don’t know what to do, perhaps the safest thing to do is to smile.

6 . There are close to 7,000 languages spoken on Earth. However, it’s estimated that by the end of this century, up to 50% of them may be lost.

It’s commonly thought that majority languages tend to be valued for being useful and for promoting progress, while minority languages are seen as barriers to progress, and the value placed on them is seen mainly as sentimental. But is sentimentality really the only motivation for preserving language diversity?

Speakers of endangered languages often live in remote areas with unique landform. It is quite common for these languages to distinguish between hundreds more types of plants and animals than those known to modern science. For example, in Southeast Asia, some tribes have discovered the medicinal properties of over sixty-five hundred plant species. This has led to many of landmark achievements in medicine.

It was once believed that the limits of one’s language defined the limits of one’s thought. This theory, called the Sapir-Wharf hypothesis (假说), has been largely rejected in favor of the improved version, which assumes that the language we speak does not set the limits of our thoughts, but it does direct our focus in certain ways. For example, English is a tense-based language. It’s nearly impossible: to talk about doing something without specifying the time — i. e. I went to the party(past), I’m going to the party(present), or I’ll go to the party(future). This differs from Chinese, where it’s perfectly reasonable to say, “I go to the party” without defining the “when”. Thus, part of the richness of language is that it allows us to organize the world in ‘so many unique ways.

Some languages categorize the world in ways so different from our own that they are difficult to conceptualize (概念化). The United States employed native Navajo speakers to create a system of message coding during the Second World War. The Japanese were never able to break it, and the “code talkers” are often cited today as having helped decide the outcome of the war.

As we’ve already seen, minority languages are valuable for many practical reasons. In conclusion, I’d say the short answer is yes — dying languages are certainly worth saving!

7 . Wouldn’t it be wonderful to travel to a foreign country without having to worry about the headache of communicating in a different language?

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, technology policy expert Alec Ross argued that, within ten years or so, we would be able to communicate with one another through small earpieces with built-in microphones. That’s because technological progress is extremely fast. It’s only a matter of time. Such is the belief among certain parents that the technology is imminent and they’re wondering if their kids should learn a second language.

It’s true that an increase in the quantity and accuracy of the data loaded into computers will make them cleverer at translating “Noes Bueno dormer mucho” into “It’s not good to sleep too much”. Replacing a word with its equivalent (对等词) in the target language is actually the easy part of a translator’s job. But even this seems to be a difficult job for computers.

It’s so hard for computers because translation doesn’t — or shouldn’t — involve simply translating words, sentences or paragraphs. Rather, it’s about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific expression, people need to understand a lot of information all at once. Think about all the related clues that help us understand what someone is trying to say: volume, gesture, situations, and even your culture. All are likely to convey as much meaning as the words you use.

Therefore, we should doubt a machine that can’t understand our world like we do. If people from different cultures can upset each other without realizing it, how can we expect a machine to do better? Unless engineers actually find a way to breathe a soul into a computer, undoubtedly when it comes to conveying and interpreting meaning using a natural language, a machine will never fully take our place.

8 . Some people say global English is no longer just controlled by British or American English, but is running free and developing uniquely local forms. Can you figure out the following terms?

“I like your smile, but unlike you put your shoes on my face.” This is a way of saying “Keep off the grass.” Or “people mountain, people sea”, which means “very crowded”.

These examples are what we call Chinglish. When it comes to Chinglish, if all you know is “good good study, day day up”, you will be considered “out man”.

Nowadays, more Chinglish words have been created, for example, a Chinese idiom is translated as “smilence”, a combination by the English word “smile” and “silence”.

Chinglish usually offers a humorous look at misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. They are favored by some English-speaking tourists and visitors. Dominic Swire has been living in Beijing for a couple of years. “I think many Chinese people complain about the Chinglish and badly translated English. But you know, sometimes for us foreigners, it’s actually quite charming to see them. I think if the translations of English in China were all perfect, then something would be lost from Chinese culture.”

However, Chinglish will probably become a “cultural relic” in the near future. Beijing has made a comprehensive plan to improve foreign language services and correct Chinglish within five years. “It is very ridiculous to see Chinglish on the signs in some scenic spots. And they are a kind of barrier for communication between Chinese and people from other countries,” a Beijinger said.

Some Chinese university experts side with Chinglish. They argue that English has absorbed elements from other languages such as French and Spanish in its growth, and now it’s Chinese’s turn.

9 . When you write a text message or an email, you might put a smiling face or other pictures at the end to make the message more fun. These pictures are emojis. The first emojis were on Japanese mobile phones in the 1990s. Later, they were used on Apple’s iPhone and Android phones.     1    

Emoticon or emoji?

Before emojis, there were emoticons. The word is a blend (合 成 词) of emotion and icon. Emoticons are made of the signs you can find on your keyboard, for example :-) for a smiley or @);-- for a rose. The first documented use of :-) dates back to 1982 and it was called “joke marker”.

Emoji is a Japanese word which means pictograph: e (“picture”)+ moji(“character”).     2     According to Emojipedia, there are 1,851 emojis that can be used on mobile phones and other devices. There are all kinds of emojis, from faces and weather to things in the kitchen and animals.

What are emojis for?

In English, we have a saying: A picture paints a thousand words. For many people, an emoji is like a punctuation mark or smiling at someone across the room.     3     It’s like the tone of voice when we speak on the phone, or hand movements (gestures) used in conversation.

Emojis are also changing the way we write. The more we use emojis, the less we use slang, such as LOL, IMHO or OMG.

    4    

When someone speaks and looks serious, we try to look serious, too, and when someone smiles, we smile as well. This is how we show empathy and make friends (and enemies!).

But when we’re online, we can’t see the person’s face and there’s no emotion. The invention of emojis changed that! Scientists in Australia have discovered that when we look at a smiley face online, the same parts of the brain start working as when we look at a real smiley face. Our mood changes, and we try to change our face to match the emoji. This is something which we are not born with, it’s something we learn as we get older. Our brains have developed this ability over the last two or three years.     5    

A．How do they affect us?

B．Now they are everywhere!

C．But where did they come from?

D．Emojis are real pictures, for example, Or.

E．The “face with tears of joy” is the most popular emoji of all.

F．This means that emojis have created a new brain pattern in us!

G．A written message is black and white, but an emoji adds emotions to our messages.