Isn't this one of the most relaxing voices you've ever heard?

[greg]

No. It's not even close to András Schiff on his lectures and man, he is relaxating. To the point that I usually fall asleep when listening to his discussions on the Beethoven sonatas.

huh, can you find sound files on the internet and post an mp3?
i can only hear his voice in my mind's ear, i wanna see if it can match up 

[greg]

But then the same poster who makes these stupid remarks about Japan finds it cool to display a triumphant picture of Mao, a man who was involved in killing more Chinese people, tens of millions more, than the Japanese ever did, and a man whose political organization tried to delete traditional Chinese culture for good. That doesn't make sense.

i think he's just being silly, it'd sort of be like me with a picture of Stalin. 

Japanese is the most disgraceful language in all of human civilization and history. Let's copy some Chinese, add some weird circles, and call it our own language!

lol!

単に不名誉 。とても日本の人々および彼らの恐ろしい文化的な盗人 。

oh, come on now... that's like saying us people who write with the "Roman alphabet" are stealing from the Romans lol

[Mark]

Mark: you really don't like the sound of Japanese?

That's right. Can't stand hearing any Oriental/South East Asian languages spoken. Not keen on spoken German, either (though I like that sung). Doesn't make me prejudiced against people who do speak such languages; just means I know which I prefer to hear - French, Russian and Erse (the correct name for Irish Gaelic), among these. Not that I understand a word in any language other than English, but that's because I'm too lazy to learn any.

[M forever]

i think he's just being silly, it'd sort of be like me with a picture of Stalin. 

Is the death of tens of millions of people a subject for silly jokes? I wonder what would happen if you used a picture of Stalin. I know what would happen if you used a picture of Hitler. Why is Mao OK? because Chinese victims don't matter?

oh, come on now... that's like saying us people who write with the "Roman alphabet" are stealing from the Romans lol

Well, they stole it from the Greeks who adapted (in other words, stole) it from the Phoenicians who may have adapted it from Egyptian and other forms of writing, we don't really know. So in the end, this is a victimless crime. Still, all very disgraceful! Let's just delete the last 3000 years of history and start over, this time everybody make up their own writing systems, please.

[greg]

Is the death of tens of millions of people a subject for silly jokes? I wonder what would happen if you used a picture of Stalin. I know what would happen if you used a picture of Hitler. Why is Mao OK? because Chinese victims don't matter?

i don't think he looks (looked) at it that way. It's just weird to have a dictator as an avatar, though i wouldn't do it.
Hitler is a different stories because it implies racism. There's still crazy people out there, and both of us especially couldn't get away with it, since you are German and i'm of German descent, that's even more suspicious 

Let's just delete the last 3000 years of history and start over, this time everybody make up their own writing systems, please.

hey, you know, good idea!
and i was working on a form of communication that only involves tongue clicks, except it annoys my little brother. It would be an easy writing system, probably no more than 10 "letters".

[Bonehelm]

And let's not forget that in the last century, China was basically a hopelessly backwards country which could easily have been erased off the map by Japan, a country many times smaller with a population only a fraction of that of China, if they hadn't been kept down by other powers, most notably the US...

And aren't we all happy they were stopped? As much as there is to admire about Japanese culture, they were on a really bad trip then.

But then the same poster who makes these stupid remarks about Japan finds it cool to display a triumphant picture of Mao, a man who was involved in killing more Chinese people, tens of millions more, than the Japanese ever did, and a man whose political organization tried to delete traditional Chinese culture for good. That doesn't make sense.

And the big steps forward China has made in the last decades which have brought some prosperity at least to some parts of the population - while hundreds of millions still live under conditions even animals don't have to live under in Japan - were exclusively achieved by copying Western industrialization. If the adaptation of outside influences, e.g. elements of the Chinese language and writing system, by the Japanese is seen as "disgraceful", we have to assume he thinks the same things about that process and wishes China to discard the Western influence and sink back into poverty and chaos.

M, so you are saying if China discarded the western influence, it would fall apart? The civlization had a history of 5000+ years, do you really think we needed western influence in order to survive? And does western countries need eastern influence to keep itself from falling apart?

Funny how you refer to China as a country with poor living conditions and pollluted environment and blah blah blah...and who is it that asked me for the Chinese girl's dancing video again? Just 'cause I used Mao as an avatar, does that mean I worship him and his idealogies? Does that mean I hate Japanese people? I probably do, but how are you seeing that from my choice of display picture? It's the posts that I make in which I display my views toward the Japanese. I seriosuly don't get why you think I buy that whole communism thing and bad mouth at other cultures.

It works the same way for you. Just cause you think Mao is a bad leader doesn't mean you are racist or hostile towards the Chinese, and just 'cause you don't like Mao doesn't mean you won't watch a video with beautiful Chinese girls dancing in it.

They're two, separate things...

[Bonehelm]

Is the death of tens of millions of people a subject for silly jokes? I wonder what would happen if you used a picture of Stalin. I know what would happen if you used a picture of Hitler. Why is Mao OK? because Chinese victims don't matter?

Well, they stole it from the Greeks who adapted (in other words, stole) it from the Phoenicians who may have adapted it from Egyptian and other forms of writing, we don't really know. So in the end, this is a victimless crime. Still, all very disgraceful! Let's just delete the last 3000 years of history and start over, this time everybody make up their own writing systems, please.

Absolute Bullshit.

Since when does the choice of an avatar picture reflect the political views and perspectives of an online forum member? M, you take everything too seriously, chill out. From what I've seen (how you can make deep comments and long essays on any topic being brought up), you really are taking everything too seriously. That's not to say you are unknowledgeable because we all know you made a lot of informative and insightful posts. But sometimes you just need to relax and start reading stuff online as jokes. Being serious all the time must be so tiring.

[dtwilbanks]

Speaking of relaxing voices...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wyu841Z6s

[The Mad Hatter]

That's right. Can't stand hearing any Oriental/South East Asian languages spoken. Not keen on spoken German, either (though I like that sung). Doesn't make me prejudiced against people who do speak such languages; just means I know which I prefer to hear - French, Russian and Erse (the correct name for Irish Gaelic), among these. Not that I understand a word in any language other than English, but that's because I'm too lazy to learn any.

Er, I'm Irish, and have no idea how to pronounce that. In Irish, we call it gaeilge (pron. guael-guh); in English, we call it Irish. Some stuck-up people call it gaelic, but I think that just sounds stupid.

Maybe Erse is an older form of the language or something?

[greg]

Speaking of relaxing voices...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wyu841Z6s

ah, that put me to sleep  0:)

Absolute Bullshit.

Since when does the choice of an avatar picture reflect the political views and perspectives of an online forum member? M, you take everything too seriously, chill out. From what I've seen (how you can make deep comments and long essays on any topic being brought up), you really are taking everything too seriously. That's not to say you are unknowledgeable because we all know you made a lot of informative and insightful posts. But sometimes you just need to relax and start reading stuff online as jokes. Being serious all the time must be so tiring.

i agree 100%
we don't mean no disrespect, yo 

[oyasumi]

The concept of "stealing" a language is ridiculous.

[greg]

The concept of "stealing" a language is ridiculous.

Bonehelm is just being his silly self 

[Mark]

Er, I'm Irish, and have no idea how to pronounce that. In Irish, we call it gaeilge (pron. guael-guh); in English, we call it Irish. Some stuck-up people call it gaelic, but I think that just sounds stupid.

Maybe Erse is an older form of the language or something?

That's odd. I read several books on Ireland a few years ago (well, 15 years ago, actually ), and many of these referred to Erse. I even Googled just to be sure - seems it shares a history with Scottish Gaelic, too.

[The Mad Hatter]

That's odd. I read several books on Ireland a few years ago (well, 15 years ago, actually ), and many of these referred to Erse. I even Googled just to be sure - seems it shares a history with Scottish Gaelic, too.

I Googled it too. I may be mistaken, but I think that it's actually one of the languages from which both Irish and Scots' Gaelic evolved.

I've got some friends with much stronger Irish than me, and better knowledge of it - maybe they'll be able to clear it up.

[M forever]

Linguistics - complicated, but highly interesting stuff. Especially the history of Indo-European languages is headachingly complex. I think this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goidelic_languages does a pretty good job at disentangling this question a little bit. It also explains the term "Erse" quite well, I think.

BTW, the root element "er" or "ir" or "eir" or "ar" is a proto-Indo-European root element which means it was very likely already present in the original IE language all the others apparently stem from. It has a basic meaning of "beautiful, good, noble" and is found in many words and names across the entire IE spectrum, such as "Eire" (Ireland), "Ehre" (German for "honor"), Greek "aristos" ("the best", as in "aristocratia"="aristocracy"), "Iran", or "Aryan". By which we don't mean the racism stuff, but the original use of the word by which the Proto-Indo-Iranians, one of the oldest documented IE subgroups, referred to themselves (and which is why racist theories developed in the 19th century chose this word as equating "Indo-Europeans").

[M forever]

Since when does the choice of an avatar picture reflect the political views and perspectives of an online forum member? M, you take everything too seriously, chill out. From what I've seen (how you can make deep comments and long essays on any topic being brought up), you really are taking everything too seriously. That's not to say you are unknowledgeable because we all know you made a lot of informative and insightful posts. But sometimes you just need to relax and start reading stuff online as jokes. Being serious all the time must be so tiring.

How would you know? You are just a young respectless punk. You think everything is a joke. That's pretty typical for your age, so it's no big deal. But some people show much more substance at your age. Some things are funny, some aren't. Not everything is serious. But if you want to be taken seriously, you have to be serious at least sometimes. You also have to stand by what you say and display. Otherwise, it means that nothing you say can be taken seriously.

Funny how you refer to China as a country with poor living conditions and pollluted environment and blah blah blah...and who is it that asked me for the Chinese girl's dancing video again?

Interesting that you see that as a contradiction. Maybe not everything in the world is as black and white as you think it is? For you, is it, either everything from or about a certain country is good, or everything is bad?

M, so you are saying if China discarded the western influence, it would fall apart? The civlization had a history of 5000+ years, do you really think we needed western influence in order to survive? And does western countries need eastern influence to keep itself from falling apart?

All cultures cross-influence each other, and all these influences and relationships are important. I already answered the other questions with what I said. It is pretty idiotic to make these comments about how the Japanese "stole" their language, especially speaking from a contemporary Chinese perspective, because China without all the imported Western elements they have going on now wouldn't be much of anything.
That's not a "problem" for me at all. I think that's just the nature of cultural development and exchange.

But for you, the "disgraceful" "stealing" of cultural elements by the Japanese is apparently a very big deal. "The most disgraceful in history", in your own words.

Does that mean I hate Japanese people? I probably do, but how are you seeing that from my choice of display picture? It's the posts that I make in which I display my views toward the Japanese. I seriosuly don't get why you think I buy that whole communism thing and bad mouth at other cultures.

Like you said yourself, it's the posts in which you display your views in very clear words. Which you are entitled to, of course. I just find it pretty sad that people at your age already have such racist views. We get that quite a bit here, especially when it comes to Japan, especially from posters with a Chinese background. I hope that doesn't "mean" too much...

[Bonehelm]

How would you know? You are just a young respectless punk. You think everything is a joke. That's pretty typical for your age, so it's no big deal. But some people show much more substance at your age. Some things are funny, some aren't. Not everything is serious. But if you want to be taken seriously, you have to be serious at least sometimes. You also have to stand by what you say and display. Otherwise, it means that nothing you say can be taken seriously.

Interesting that you see that as a contradiction. Maybe not everything in the world is as black and white as you think it is? For you, is it, either everything from or about a certain country is good, or everything is bad?

All cultures cross-influence each other, and all these influences and relationships are important. I already answered the other questions with what I said. It is pretty idiotic to make these comments about how the Japanese "stole" their language, especially speaking from a contemporary Chinese perspective, because China without all the imported Western elements they have going on now wouldn't be much of anything.
That's not a "problem" for me at all. I think that's just the nature of cultural development and exchange.

But for you, the "disgraceful" "stealing" of cultural elements by the Japanese is apparently a very big deal. "The most disgraceful in history", in your own words.

Like you said yourself, it's the posts in which you display your views in very clear words. Which you are entitled to, of course. I just find it pretty sad that people at your age already have such racist views. We get that quite a bit here, especially when it comes to Japan, especially from posters with a Chinese background. I hope that doesn't "mean" too much...

First things first: You said you get racist comments a lot from posters with a Chinese background. We get japanese posters who make racist comments towards China and Germany/Nazis here. No ethnic group is more "racist" than others, I supposed, but I can tell you, the Japanese people hate the Chinese so much when they are the ones who raped Nanking and mass murdered 300 thousand innocent Chinese back in the 30's.

You know what's even sadder than me, a respectless punk? I know I sometimes make immature and silly statements, but give me a break, I'm only 16 and got lots to learn and so much stuff is still ahead of me. I still have many years to grow, both in the ways I think and the ways I act. So calling me a "racist" now would be quite stupid. Does your mother call you a crying whore when you cried as a 3 year old? It's part of the growing process, and it's natural. Things change in people's lives.

But you, are even worse. You're supposed to be a middle-aged grown up adult, and look how much time you have wasted online ESPECIALLY on "respectless punks" like me. If you find some posters online being immature, retarded, or even f**ked up, why don't you just ignore them? Do you think replying to my posts will actually HELP me growing up faster? Who are you to teach me ANYTHING, anyways. Why won't you just leave me alone, so you can save yourself time and trouble reading through the "nonesense junk" I post, and I won't have to see how a German guy thinks I'm racist?


Why can't you be like greg, an optimistic, fun loving person and just laugh at stupid things? I told you you take everything so seriously. But sometimes you just can't help somebody through posting on an online forum. 71dB was an excellent example. Many members have complained that you are unecessarily rude and likes to be harsh on everyone. You're just making people hate you more and more. Who's the victim in the end? It's yourself.

Do you ever learn, mr. know it all? For the good of GMG and yourself, chill down, would you?

[Bonehelm]

Bonehelm is just being his silly self 

See, M? Can't you be like this, just laugh at what you think is "stupid", and forget about it?

[Bonehelm]

ah, that put me to sleep  0:)
i agree 100%
we don't mean no disrespect, yo 

We're cool, greg. Thanks for clearing things up for those who obviously can't chill.

[M forever]

First things first: You said you get racist comments a lot from posters with a Chinese background. We get japanese posters who make racist comments towards China and Germany/Nazis here. No ethnic group is more "racist" than others, I supposed, but I can tell you, the Japanese people hate the Chinese so much when they are the ones who raped Nanking and mass murdered 300 thousand innocent Chinese back in the 30's.

I don't recall any Japanese posters here making racist comments, like you enjoy indulging in time and time again. Can you provide us with links to such posts? Thanks.

So, you have a problem with "the Japanese" killing 300,000 Chinese, but you think it's cool celebrating Mao, who killed ***one hundred times*** more Chinese people, if that number is even enough?

I agree with you, though, no one ethnic group is generally more racist than any other. But you are a racist. Of the very worst sort. You would probaly have gladly taken part in mass exterminations and found it all "just a joke". A few hundred thousand people more or less dead? Haha. Who cares? "Just chill."

but give me a break, I'm only 16 and got lots to learn and so much stuff is still ahead of me. I still have many years to grow, both in the ways I think and the ways I act. So calling me a "racist" now would be quite stupid. Does your mother call you a crying whore when you cried as a 3 year old? It's part of the growing process, and it's natural. Things change in people's lives.

Interesting point. So you consider yourself to be on the emotional maturity level of a 3 year old? I think I can actually agree with that. I don't remember what my mother said when I cried as a 3 year old. That's too long ago. I don't remember what she might have said when I was 16 years old either - by that time, I was already working pretty much full time in addition to going to school and practicing my music - no time for crying.
Are your parents still changing your diapers, like for an infant? Are they crying their hearts out because their son turned out to be a spoiled, untalented, unintelligent, respectless piece of crap like you obviously are? They have my sympathies. They probably worked hard all their lives - many, many people do - but for what? For you? For the little racist piece of dirt you are? That's very sad...

Do you think replying to my posts will actually HELP me growing up faster?

No. At that age, it's basically too late. At that age, it already shows who has talent and character, and who hasn't. You have none of either.

Why won't you just leave me alone, so you can save yourself time and trouble reading through the "nonesense junk" I post, and I won't have to see how a German guy thinks I'm racist?

For that exact reason. Because as a German who has grown up being intensely informed and educated about the history of his own country, I know what the kind of casual racism you subscribe to happily leads. Plus we are talking about German music here 85% of the time anyway. About which subject you know even less than about Japanese culture. So I am in the right place, but why don't you go and spam some other forum with your teenage crap?