Learning Languages (language.shtml) | Updated: 09-Oct-2008 - 13:36
A satin Bower bird
(male) above
TOTALLY random stuff I've collected on the web and doesn't have a place in the jazz guitar, ukulele or main publishing pages on the site.
I remember seeing a this bird on TV years ago. And, it stuck with me. Some of the strangest things get into ones's long term memory. Good for Trivial Pursuit but not much more.
Just like the Bower bird that collects a variety of objects like shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items. A bower's U-shaped nest, a structure of sticks and leaves can include hundreds of these objects. The bird will spend hours carefully sorting and arranging his collection, with each thing in a specific place.
All of this to attract the female Bower bird. The things we do!!!
About one-fifth of the world's population, or over 1 billion people, speak some form of Chinese as their native language.
Mandarin is the most widely spoken of all Chinese languages/dialects and is used by upwards of 720 million people in China, or 70 percent of the population of China (Grimes 1992)
There is also an official romanization called Pinyin
天外有天, 人外有人
Literal Translation : There is a sky beyond the sky and there is a person beyond another person.
Meaning : There will always be a higher level to achieve and there will always be someone who is better (at something).
21 nations use Spanish as their primary language. Spanish is also one of six official languages of the United Nations.
Encarta also says 322 to 358 million[3], 400 million native, 100 million second language = 500 million
380 million native, 720 million second language = 1100 million total