Advice to multitaskers from Sri Lanka Police
I was reading an article on the brain and modern distractions, on my phone, but half way through I was thinking I should tweet it. I was in the midst of watching Infernal Affairs on surfthechannel.com and had not yet had breakfast. I only now finished the article, and that after numerous interruptions. I’m not sure I’ve retained much. On bit is that “Behavioral studies have shown that performance suffers when people multitask.” Multitasking all the time, I have to concur.
In many spheres I find that we’re being driven towards a world of quantity rather than quality. For me many simply means media, in news and film and conversation I’m having more but not necessarily better. Indeed, it gets harder to push for better when it seems like the demand – in music, film and arts – is for the fast, cheap and easily reproduced.
Personally, I find that I’m checking my phone when waiting for anything, even for 15 seconds. That’s probably unnecessary. I’m trying to cut back, trying to stay off Facebook, even letting emails go unanswered. The article details some scientists who just ventured out of cell phone reception for a few days as if that was a post-modern form of exploration. And in a way it is. In this age of infinite choices the best one is perhaps to choose something simple and stick to it for more than five seconds.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1
I thought all road signs were in 3 languages in SL
Hmm… They usually are
http://adventurevacationtrip.com/photos/200912/017%20Sri%20Lanka%20Signs.jpg
http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/data/508/medium/P1000733Roadsign.jpg
Guess what? They’re gonna add a new language to signboards in Canada now!
this type of think are making all problem. aging same problem doing sri lanka.
i thing they will write chines very soon.
Well…
we have been forced to write english for about two centuries. Being forced to write chinese isn’t that different
indi! i read this article today, too (yes, you, me and 2 million other people). How is it going? you look good. glad to know people are just as distracted on the other side of the world, too. XO sha
Were we? I thought we learnt English because of the benefits it offered.
Granted, tri-lingual signboards are the least we could do to promote inter-racial harmony, but we would be more encouraged if the Tamil community reciprocated in small ways too. I didn’t hear anyone refuting the claim by the Canadian boat people that there was mass murder going on in Sri Lanka, or did I miss anything?
Benefits of writing english came primarily because of the british hegemony which got replaced by the Americans. It’s not like english is particularly nice language. It barely has enough letters. We will have learn to write chinese, if chinese become the dominant global power or if we become exceedingly dependent on the chinese. Already you see many americans students studying chinese as their second major primarily because of benefits it offers.
The boat people are a bunch of desperate illegal immigrants. Naturally they will say what ever it takes get them refugee status. Honestly, if they want leave here and make a life for themselves in Canada, all the power to them.
Exactly. There were benefits. So we chose to learn it. If learning Chinese had benefits, we’d learn it too. (I’m not sure that I would though. I’m too old, Chinese has like 5000 characters and I don’t mind being left behind by progress.)
I beg to differ about the beauty of the English language, especially when it’s set to music. I haven’t heard any other languge that has more versatality and sounds as good, in song.
I don’t begrudge the boat people a better life in Canada, if that’s what they want. It’s certainly not all roses over here. But I do wish that at least one Tamil leader who professes to love this country would tell the Canadian press that it was not as bad as mass murder. It dissapoints me.
Oh Dodo, it just struck me that Spanish was probably your favourite language, considering this little thing you seem to have about the gypsies!
Hmm….
Interesting point about music. I think Hindi sounds very nice when sung. It’s just too bad that the Indian music industry spits out third rate junk which do nothing more than ape the cheesiest western pop songs.
And spanish is nice for pop music, probably the most pleasant of the romance languages. Italian is also good, powerful yet melodic. German is only good for scaring people. Russian music is also nice, the old soviet national anthem has to be one of best pieces of music ever. Another nice bit about russian is how alot of their words have very soft sounds in the middle or the end
Yes, the folk song was very sweet, and evocative. The Volga boatman’s song is the only Russian I know!
Spanish pop music? Only know “Baccarat”. But flamenco tunes with intricate guitar and clicking castanets are nice. I’ve also heard this group Il Divo do soulful Latin things to old Tony Braxton numbers.
You got me thinking, I should widen my range, when I do listen.
Oh, I guess stuff from Mark Anthony, Ricky Martin, Shakira and the like is Spanish pop, but we mostly hear the English language versions, which work nicely. Versatile English!
I think most of us in South Asia would struggle if we had to learn Chinese. The Chinese script is hard, even for the Chinese. Victor Mair, a linguist recently pointed out that, for example, most literate Chinese struggle to write the Chinese word for ‘sneeze’, and many simply use their mobile phones to figure out how to write a particular word.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2473
Let’s just hope English isn’t displaced in a hurry.
well chinese is a category 4 language.
Say people, what’s all this attention on Chinese langauge? Are you guys really sucking upto those bastards?
Well not just us JC, pretty soon half the world. We’re just jumping on the bandwagon a little earlier. Now if only mother india could offer anything more than two bit knock off movies. And amithab bachan making a fool of himself
Better than sucking up to the Indian retards I say. All India had to give SL was arming, training and funding the LTTE which wrecked havoc for 20+ years (while whining and bitching about Pakistan over “cross border terrorism”)… whilst with China its $$$$ and infrastructure development.