Some Tips for Learning Languages

At the beginning of a new semester, some students will be struggling with learning a new language. Here are some tips:

If you are learning Hebrew, remember:
She is he, he is who, and who is me.

If you are learning Mandarin Chinese, remember:
Woe is me.

Humorous Irony

Irony can sometimes be humorous. I ran across this example of an ironic sentence that struck me as amusing:

这句话的意思不清楚

 Here is a translation:

Die Bedeutung dieses Satz ist unklar.

以为

Occasionally, I run across something that strikes me as amusing in an unexpected place. This is one such entry in a Chinese dictionary:

yĭwéi 以为 VERB = think (usually mistakenly)

The additional note is precisely the kind of note that is helpful for learning a language. Unfortunately, it is not in any of my other dictionaries.