The Hindu Business Line : Ear for Asian names

Why do English speakers often struggle to pronounce Asian names? Because the letters used in Asian names may not be pronounced or combined in the same way as in English, says Fiona Swee-Lin Price in Success with Asian names (www.landmarkonthenet.com). "For example, the q in `Qing' is pronounced ch in Mainland Chinese Mandarin names. Asian names may also contain combinations of sounds and letter which do not exist in English. For example, the letters uy are commonly found together in Vietnamese names."

Pronounce the names to the best of your ability, advises the author to those who struggle with Asian names. "If you have a good enough ear to pick and pronounce the tones in an Asian name when you hear it, so much the better. If you can't, don't worry about it too much — almost all of the Asian people you deal with will be bilingual (or trilingual, or more), and are, therefore, likely to understand the difficulty of pronouncing worlds in a foreign language." Reassuring guidance.

A willow tour

Eleven village cricketers take on the world in Harry Thompson's Penguins Stopped Play. The book opens in Antarctica, with an oar as a bat and a rucksack as the wicket. All of a sudden, penguins storm in, `crowding across the outfield, mingling with the slips, poking around at silly mid-off, blocking the bowlers' run-up, and invading the wicket itself... ' The author takes you across the globe, to Buenos Aires, Australia, Singapore, Cape Town, Heathrow and so forth. In Barbados, he finds a surprise. The wicket was `far from the vicious, rock-hard launch pad' he had expected to see in the Caribbean. "This was a straw-coloured spinner's wicket, pure and simple, like something from rural Pakistan. Not only could Geoff Boycott have stuck his car key into the cracks, he could probably have inserted his whole car... " Cricketers are the rock stars of India, finds Thompson in a chapter titled `Delhi'. Here, you can also read about `the four stages' that cricketers' girlfriends go through! Entertaining read.

Mystery of life

For thousands of years, there were many superstitions about reproduction — `snakes and mice were thought to appear from dirt and it was widely assumed that women could give birth to cats or rabbits'. Then, in the seventeenth century, many of these myths were challenged by the findings of a few scientists who studied the mystery of life using `the newly discovered microscope'.

They proved the power of experimentation and provided the basic answers to the question that had preoccupied humanity since the dawn of time, writes Matthew Cobb in The Egg & Sperm Race. Science told like a story.

Tailpiece

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed on and digested, said Francis Bacon!"

"And all e-books are to be clicked and scrolled through!"

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali