July 19 2019, 17:57

Reading about the problem of segmenting Chinese sentences (topic – search). Like, in Russian and English you can split by spaces, but in Chinese – no such luck.

Interesting example:

我␣喜欢␣新西兰␣花 – I like fresh broccoli

我␣喜欢␣新␣西兰花 – I like New Zealand flowers

or another one

才能 – two characters, translation – talent

才 能 two words, one character each, translation “only then capable”

or here –

学会 two characters, translation – society

学 会 two words, one character each, translation “learn how”

and also shown in the picture, how three words combine into one, and it cannot be split)

July 19 2019, 04:06

Here in Cambridge, there is a very interesting bus route, a guided bus route (incidentally, the longest of its type in the world). It’s fascinating because the bus essentially mounts rails and then travels at a speed of about a hundred kilometers per hour, virtually without the driver’s involvement (he doesn’t even need to touch the steering wheel). Effectively, it’s like a tram or subway, only much simpler in design – it uses nearly regular buses (though they do have a small steering wheel on the side). Plus, unlike trams, they can always operate as a regular bus (which happens outside of this 25km segment).

July 12 2019, 03:43

Funny – I’m getting a coffee at the corporate coffee shop right now. A conversation with the lady who makes everything there:

– Please, one cappuccino, please make the milk hot

– Of course. How are you today?

– Fine, thank you. And you?

– Not bad, thank you

So, it seems like nothing much, but actually the conversation was quite funny. The lady immediately caught the American accent (with a Russian twist), and greeted in an American way. Seems like she’s also from there, moonlighting 🙂

July 06 2019, 03:22

Well, now I’m a bit of a correspondent for the local newspaper 😉 had my baptism by fire.

Actually, I just helped Nadya too much with an article that, unlike the others, was far from her interests, and the material needed a glossary, so in the end Nadya put my surname on it. Get in touch if you need something written about McLean and urban planning 😉

This is all volunteering, a better way to learn the language and understand what’s happening in the district “from the inside”. Previous outings were on topics of solar energy and redesigning an intersection.

Here’s the whole newspaper: http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2019/070319/McLean.pdf