POLITENESS There is a very complex system in the Japanese language when dealing with the issue of politeness, and at least four different levels of how to address a person. How to address someone is based on a variety of factors such as age, job, and experience, and there is even a different form of politeness when asking someone for a favor. There are differences between the polite language, teineigo; the respectful language, sonkeigo; and the humble language, kenjōgo; as well as differences between honorific and humble forms. DIALECTS Due to the mountainous terrain and a history of internal and external isolation, there are many dialects of Japanese. These differ in vocabulary, pitch accent, morphology of certain types of words, and sometimes pronunciation. The dialects fall into two main categories: Eastern and Western. Eastern dialects emphasize the sounds of consonants, and the Western dialects emphasize vowels. USEFUL JAPANESE PHRASES Here are some helpful phrases to use when traveling in Japan. Note, these are spelled out phonetically. Hello./Good morning. Konnichiwa. How are you? O genki desu ka? Pleased to meet you. Hajimemashite. Good morning. Ohayō gozaimasu. Good evening. Konbanwa. Excuse me. Sumimasen. How much is this? Ikura desu ka? Thank you. Dōmo. Where’s the toilet? Benjo wa doko desu ka? Goodbye. Sayōnara.
MANDARIN THE ORIGINS There are many variations in the Chinese language. Mandarin is spoken in southwestern and northern China and is a SinoTibetan language. It began as the language of the courts starting in the Ming Dynasty, with the dialect of Beijing being very influential. By the seventeenth century, schools were set up to teach the Beijing style, and this dialect was established as the national language in 1909. The Beijing style continued to be the national language when the Republic of China came to power and there was a greater need for a common language. OLD MANDARIN From 960 to 1127 B.C., Emperor Taizu of the Northern Song Dynasty conquered the lands that we now know as China. When the Northern Song Dynasty came to an end, what is referred to as Old Mandarin, a new common speech, developed. Literature and art flourished during this time and were written in this vernacular form. Much of the grammatical elements, rules, and syntax are retained in the Mandarin spoken today. THE LANGUAGE BECOMES STANDARDIZED Even when the Qing Dynasty fell and the Republic of China came to power, Mandarin remained the official language. When the People’s Republic of China came to power in 1949, the effort to make Mandarin the national language continued, and the Beijing dialect became the official language, now known as Standard Chinese. Mandarin is the official language used in the media and in education. Though Taiwan and some of mainland China (such as Hong Kong) still speak Cantonese, Mandarin is spoken fluently as well. Officially, there are two types of Mandarin: one
that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) government refers to, and one that the ROC (Republic of China, or Taiwan) government refers to. DIFFERENCES IN PHONOLOGY Mandarin is known as a stress-timed language. What this means is that syllables, as in English, can last for different lengths of time, but there is still a constant amount of time between the stressed syllables. Mandarin differs from other Chinese languages such as Cantonese and Min Nan for this very reason. Cantonese and Min Nan are known as syllable-timed languages, where each syllable takes the same amount of time. DIALECTS Mandarin is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and due to China’s size and population, there are many Mandarin dialects spoken. The dialects include the Northeastern dialect, the Southwestern dialect, the Beijing dialect (which Standard Chinese is based on), the Zhongyuan dialect, and the JiLu dialect. Almost all of the cities in China have their own variation on Mandarin. USEFUL MANDARIN PHRASES Here are some helpful phrases to use when traveling to China. Note that these are written in Pinyin, which is a phonetic spelling that uses the Latin alphabet (with the inclusion of zh, ch, sh, and no v). Hello. Nĭ hăo. Good morning. Zăoān. Good afternoon. Wŭān. Good evening. Wănān. I don’t understand. Wŏ tīngbùdŏng. Excuse me. Duìbùqĭ. Where’s the toilet? Cèsuŏ zài năli? How much is this? Zhège duōshăo qián? Goodbye. Zàijiàn.
SIGN LANGUAGE THE ORIGINS The origins of sign language can be traced back to ancient Greece, where Socrates believed it only made sense for the deaf to communicate with their hands and other body parts. In 1520, Pedro Ponce de Léon created a system based on gestures to educate the deaf, mostly working with a family in Spain. From 1715 to 1780, Léon’s system spread across Europe, incorporating handshakes to represent sounds. In the late eighteenth century, the National Institution for Deaf-Mutes was established in France, with the intention of instructing the deaf. In 1817, Thomas Gallaudet, an American who studied with Laurent Clerc in France, brought the sign language to America with Clerc, establishing the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons. Laurent Clerc is responsible for much of the work that would lead to American Sign Language (ASL). ABOUT DEAFNESS When there is a complete loss of the ability to hear out of either one or both ears, it is known as deafness. Deafness can be caused by a number of factors. It can be inherited, or caused by diseases (such as meningitis), complications at birth, the presence of ototoxic drugs, and exposure to extreme noise. Deafness can appear at birth (known as congenital deafness), or come on either gradually or suddenly. There are two main types of deafness: conductive (when transmission of sound waves is interfered with) and sensorineural (when nerve impulses cannot reach the brain). In the fourth century B.C. it was believed that deaf people were also unable to speak and were thus unteachable, and this stigma lasted with the deaf community for centuries.
RELATIONSHIP WITH ORAL LANGUAGES Sign languages do not depend on oral languages, and they have their own grammatical structures. Sign language does have something known as fingerspelling, where letters of the alphabet are represented with hand signs; however, this is only one part of sign language. In general, sign languages are completely separate from oral languages and have different paths of development. Even though British and American hearing people speak the same language and can understand each other, the American Sign Language and the British Sign Language are completely different, so deaf people using sign language from the US and the UK cannot understand one another. DIFFERENT TYPES OF SIGN LANGUAGE There are many different forms of sign language. Although these languages emerged separately and unrelated to the spoken languages of countries and are different grammatically, they do feature manually coded languages; that is, they have incorporated the languages of their countries. Several sign languages are mutually intelligible as well. For example, Danish Sign Language, Icelandic Sign Language, and Norwegian Sign Language (which are descendants of Danish Sign Language) are, for the most part, understandable by those who speak Swedish Sign Language. An International Sign Language (IS) has been created as well and is used at international events. WRITTEN FORM The written form of sign language also differs from the oral forms of languages. This is known as SignWriting. SignWriting was created in 1974 by Valerie Sutton, and is actually based on the graphic notation used for writing ballet steps. The system uses visual symbols to express the handshapes, facial expressions, and movements found in sign language. In other words, the alphabet shows how the hands look. SignWriting is currently the written form for twentyseven Sign Languages.
SIGN LANGUAGE WITH PRIMATES Language is not only a form of communication, but a uniquely human experience. Studying whether primates have the ability to develop language could lead to some great discoveries about the earliest humans. Washoe, a chimpanzee who lived from 1965 to 2007, was the first nonhuman to ever learn sign language and communicate with humans. Since the 1960s, chimpanzees and gorillas have been learning to use sign language for communication. Koko, a gorilla who lived from to 1971 to 2018, was introduced to sign language in the 1970s. In 2004, Koko was featured in news reports when she signed to her caretakers that she had a toothache and needed to go to a dentist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR PAUL KLEINMAN is a TV writer and producer and the author of five books, including Psych 101 and Philosophy 101. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his family and learning even more sh*t. MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT SimonandSchuster.com www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Paul-Kleinman
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INDEX A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function. “Accordion War,” 76 Actuarial science, 197 Adams, Douglas, 108 Adams, Henry, 123 Addition, 148–50, 163, 168 Aesop’s Fables, 114–15 Afghanistan War, 82–83 Akkadians, 13 Albanian language, 288–90 Alchemy, 28 Algebra, 163–65, 176 Algorithms, 196–97, 201 Alliteration, 98 Alphabets, 89–90 American Revolution, 38–39 Ancient Egypt, 16–18 Ancient Greece, 30–31 Ancient Rome, 31 Andersen, Hans Christian, 115 Angles, 171–72 Animal cells, 245–46 Anti-war movement, 74 Apollo program, 68–70 Applied mathematics, 196–98 Archaeological findings, 15–16 Aristotle, 99, 183, 205 Arithmetic, 146–47. See also Math Articles of Confederation, 40–41 Asimov, Isaac, 114 Astronomy, 226–28, 230–31 Atmosphere, 214 Austen, Jane, 136–37 Babylonia, 14
Bauby, Jean-Dominique, 120 Berendt, John, 123 Berlin Wall, 67 Big bang theory, 228–29 Bill of Rights, 41 Bin Laden, Osama, 82–84 Biographies, 119–21 Biomes, 216–18 Black body radiation, 237 Black Death, 27, 28, 30 Black Tuesday, 59–60 Bloomsbury Group, 134–35 Bohr Model, 238 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 120 Bradbury, Ray, 114 Brothers Grimm, 115–16 Brown v. Board of Education, 77 Brownian motion, 240 Bubonic plague, 28 Bugliosi, Vincent, 122 Bulgarian language, 286–88 Bush, George H.W., 80–81 Bush, George W., 83–85 Butterfly effect, 194 Calculus, 179–81 Cantor, Georg, 205 Capote, Truman, 122 Carbon cycle, 244–45 Carolus, Johann, 117 Category theory, 202–4 Cells, animals, 245–46 Cells, plants, 243–46 Cells, stem, 260–62 Chaos theory, 194–95 Chemical formulas, 233–34 Children’s literature, 126 China Cultural Revolution, 70–72 Christie, Agatha, 109, 110 Circulatory system, 251–53 Civil Rights, 77–79 Civil War, 47–49, 117–18 Clarke, Arthur C., 114 Clean Air Act, 221 Cleveland, Grover, 49 Climate change, 219–22 Cold War, 65–67
Collodi, Carlo, 116 Color spectrum, 236 Columbus, Christopher, 34–36 Composition, 92–94 Computer science, 196–97 Concentration camps, 64 Constitution, 39–41 Constitutional Convention, 40 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 231 Creation, 228–29 Croatian language, 298–300 Crusades, 28–30 Cuban Missile Crisis, 66 Curves, 172–74 Czech language, 301–2 Darwin, Charles, 127, 209–10 De Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot, 116 Decimals, 150–52, 159 Declaration of Independence, 39–40 Derangements, 200 Derivatives, 179–80 Desegregation, 77–78 Detective fiction, 109–10 Dialects, 96–97 Dickens, Charles, 132–34 Differentiation, 180 Digestive system, 248–50 Dimensions, 242–43 Diophantine equations, 200–202 Division, 149, 151–52, 164, 168 DNA, 257–58, 262–64 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 125 Doyle, Arthur Conan, 109 Duality, 204 Dust Bowl, 60 Dutch language, 290–92 E = mc 2 , 239–40 Earth, layers of, 212–14 Eclipse, 240 Einstein, Albert, 121, 229, 238–41 Eisenhower, Dwight, 77 Elements, 231–33 Emancipation Proclamation, 48 Engineering notation, 159 English novels, 125–26, 132–34, 136–37
Euclid’s theorem, 147 Evolution, 209–10 Existentialism, 123–25, 138 Fairy tales, 114–16 Fantasy genre, 111–12 Ferdinand, Archduke Franz, 57 Fibonacci sequence, 165–67 “Final Solution,” 64, 65 Finitism, 206 Finnish language, 294–96 First civilizations, 13–14 Flight attempts, 50–52 Foreign languages, 267–313 Fractals, 194–95 French language, 272–74 French Revolution, 43–45 Functors, 203–4 Galilei, Galileo, 205, 230–31 Garfield, James, 176 Gas laws, 222–24 Gas properties, 222–26 Genetics, 210, 256–58 Geneva Peace Accords, 72–73 Genres, 99, 105–16 Geologic periods, 214–16 Geometry, 169–70 German language, 277–78 Gettysburg Address, 48 Ghettos, 64 Graphs/charts, 154–56 Gravity, 235–36, 242 Great Depression, 59–60 Great Famine, 27 Great Leap Forward, 70–71 Greek language, 284–86 Greenhouse gases, 219–20 Gulf War, 79–81 Haley, Alex, 121 Hartford Convention, 46 Hearst, William Randolph, 118 Heinlein, Robert, 113 Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, 237 History, 11–86 Hitler, Adolf, 61–64, 120
Hittites, 14 Holmes, Sherlock, 109 Holocaust, 62–65, 84 Hoover, Herbert, 60 Hoovervilles, 60 Horror genre, 105–6 Humans, early, 210–12 Humor genre, 107–8 Hundred Years’ War, 27 Hungarian language, 303–4 Huns, 18–19 Hussein, Saddam, 79–83 Hyperboles, 98 Icelandic language, 296–98 Inchon Invasion, 75–76 Industrial Revolution, 41–43, 220 Infinity, 204–6 Inventions, 14, 28, 32 Ions, 225–26, 234 Iraq War, 83 Iron Curtain, 65–66 Isotopes, 234 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 84–86 Italian language, 274–76 Japanese language, 307–8 Johnson, Lyndon B., 74 Journalism, 49, 117–19 Kafka, Franz, 137–38 Kennedy, John F., 67, 73–74, 78–79 Kierkegaard, Søren, 124, 125 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 78–79 King, Stephen, 106 Knot theory, 192–93 Korean language, 305–6 Korean War, 75–76 Krakauer, Jon, 119–20 Lacks, Henrietta, 119 Language arts, 87–139 Language, human, 94–95 Latin, 269–70 Lewis, C.S., 111 Lincoln, Abraham, 48 Linguistics, 94–95
Literary elements, 100–102 Literary terms, 99–100 Logarithms, 160–63 Logic, 183–86 Lovecraft, H. P., 106 Lusitania, 58 MacArthur, Douglas, 75–76 Magna Carta, 21–23 Magnetization, 226 Malcolm X, 121 Mandarin language, 309–10 Manson, Charles, 122 Mao Zedong, 70–71 March on Washington, 78–79 Marshall Plan, 66 Martin, George R.R., 112 Mass, 152–53 Math, 141–206 Math operations, 148–52, 163–65 Mathematical functions, 172, 177 McCandless, Chris, 119–20 McKinley, William, 49–50 Mean, 189 Measurement, 153–54 Median, 189 Medici family, 30–31 Mesopotamia, 13–14 Metaphors, 98 Metaxas, Eric, 120 Metric system, 153 Middle Ages, 27–28 Ming Dynasty, 32–34 Mitosis, 258–60 Mode, 189 Moon, 230 Moon landing, 68–70 Motion, law of, 236 Muckrakers, 118–19 Multiplication, 149, 151, 164, 167, 169 Mystery genre, 108–10 Nasar, Sylvia, 121 Nash, John, 120–21 Natural selection, 209–10 Nervous system, 247–48 New Deal, 60–61
New World, 34–36 Newspapers, 117–18 Newton, Isaac, 235–37 Nixon, Richard, 74 Nonfiction, 121–23 Normandy battle (D-Day), 63 Number e, 198–99 Numbers, 143–48 Nuremberg Trials, 65 Obama, Barack, 84 Operations research, 197 Order of magnitude, 159 Ottoman Empire, 19–21 Oxymoron, 98 Pakistan fighting, 83 Palestinian-Israeli conflict, 84–86 Panama Canal, 53–55 Paolini, Christopher, 112 Paradox, 205 Paragraph development, 102–3 Parks, Rosa, 77–78 Pearl Harbor attack, 62 Penny, Louise, 110 Percent, finding, 152 Periodic table, 231–33 Permutations, 179, 200 Perrault, Charles, 115, 116 Phonetics, 95 Photoelectric effect, 238 Photosynthesis, 243–45 Pi, 156–58, 170 Planets, 226–28, 230–31 Plant cells, 243–46 Plasma, 224–25 Poe, Edgar Allan, 108–9, 130–32 Poetry, 103–5, 126–28, 130–31 Pogroms, 64–65 Polish language, 280–82 Political system, 15 Polymers, 233–34 Polynomials, 177, 193 Portuguese language, 278–80 Pragmatics, 95 Pratchett, Terry, 108 Precalculus, 176–77. See also Calculus
Prime numbers, 146–48 Probability, 186–89 “Project C,” 78 Propaganda, 63–64 Punctuation, 91–92 Pythagorean theorem, 174–76 Quantum gravity, 241–42 Quantum mechanics, 237–38 Quantum physics, 241–42 Quantum theory, 237–38 Ratios, 165–66, 181 Real analysis, 206 Reformation, 23–24 Relativity, theory of, 239 Renaissance, 30–32 Reproduction, 254–56 Respiratory system, 250–51 RNA, 264–66 Roman Empire, 18–20, 26–27, 269–70 Roman numerals, 144 Rome, 25–26 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 60–62 Roosevelt, Theodore, 50, 54, 119 Rowling, J.K., 111 Russian language, 282–84 Russian Revolution, 55–57 Salem Witch Trials, 36–38 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 125 Sayers, Dorothy L., 109, 110 Schlosser, Eric, 122–23 Schrödinger’s cat, 238 Science, 207–66 Science fiction genre, 113–14 Scientific advancements, 14, 28, 32 Scientific computing, 196–97 Scientific notation, 158–60 Secession from Union, 47 Sedaris, David, 108 Segregation, 77–78 Semantics, 95 Sentences, 93–94, 102–3 Set theory, 205 Shakespeare, William, 105, 127–29 Shang Dynasty, 15–16
Shelley, Mary, 106 Sign language, 311–13 Similes, 97–98 Skloot, Rebecca, 119 Solar system, 226–28 Sonnets, 105, 128–29 Space Race, 66–67 Spanish-American War, 49–50 Spanish language, 270–72 Speech, figures of, 97–99 Speech, parts of, 92–94 Square roots, 149, 167–69 Stanley, Henry, 118 Statistics, 189–91, 197 Stem cells, 260–62 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 105 Stock market collapse, 59–60 Stoker, Bram, 106 String theory, 241–43 Subtraction, 149–50, 163, 168 Sumerians, 13 Sun, 224–28 Swedish language, 292–94 Syntax, 95 Technology, 14, 28, 32 Telescope, 230 Temperature, 154, 225 Terrorism, war on, 82–86 Tissues, 253–54 Tolkien, J.R.R., 112 Toole, John Kennedy, 107 Treaty of Ghent, 46 Treaty of Paris, 50 Treaty of Versailles, 59 Trigonometry, 172, 177, 181–83, 199 Truman, Harry S., 76 Trump, Donald, 221 Twain, Mark, 107 Universal gravitation, law of, 235 USS Maine, 49 USSR dissolution, 67–68 Verne, Jules, 113 Victorian literature, 125–27, 132–34 Vietnam War, 72–74
Volume, 153, 170 Walpole, Horace, 105 War of 1812, 45–46 Warsaw Pact, 65–66 Water cycle, 218 Weather, 218–19 Wells, H. G., 113 Wilson, Woodrow, 59 Wodehouse, P. G., 107 Woolf, Virginia, 134–35 World War I, 21, 55–60 World War II, 61–63, 66, 135 Wright Brothers, 50–52 Xia Dynasty, 14–16 Yuan Dynasty, 32 Zero, 144–46 Zhou Dynasty, 15–16 Ziggurats, 13 Zinn, Howard, 121
Adams Media An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 57 Littlefield Street Avon, Massachusetts 02322 www.SimonandSchuster.com Copyright © 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Adams Media Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. First Adams Media trade paperback edition December 2019 ADAMS MEDIA and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248- 3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Interior design by Colleen Cunningham Interior images by Ivan Ryabokon; © 123RF/abscent Cover design by Sylvia McArdle Cover image © 123RF/abscent Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kleinman, Paul, author. Title: All the sh*t you should have learned / Paul Kleinman. Description: Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2019. Identifiers: LCCN 2019037995 | ISBN 9781507212400 (pb) | ISBN 9781507212417 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Curiosities and wonders. | History--Miscellanea. | Literature--Miscellanea. | Mathematics--Miscellanea. | Science--Miscellanea. Classification: LCC AG244 .K54 2019 | DDC 031.02--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037995 ISBN 978-1-5072-1240-0 ISBN 978-1-5072-1241-7 (ebook) Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Simon & Schuster, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.
Contains material adapted from the following title published by Adams Media, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.: A Ton of Crap by Paul Kleinman, copyright © 2011, ISBN 978-1-4405- 2935-1.