Callistonian.net

Disclaimer of sorts: Don’t take the following post on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese too seriously. It’s not meant to be offensive. It’s sort of a joke. It’s just a quick dirty not-quite-foolproof 30 second lesson on how to differentiate between the three languages. ♥

Admittedly, being able to tell the three apart is not an important life skill. But! it does give one the ability to say, “Look at that pretty Chinese website (sign, artwork, writing, &c.)” with confidence. If a girl can tell languages apart, she won’t have to fear nasty reprimands of this nature: “OMG! You idiot, that’s Korean!” (Have you ever been reprimanded in this way? XD )

So, here we go.

Chinese and Japanese do not have stand-alone circles! If you see a circle, it’s Korean. The image above is Korean. The circles are gray.

With this one, it’s a bit harder. Generally, Japanese is less complicated than Chinese. If you see simplistic looking roundish or stick-like characters, it’s Japanese. In the image above, the roundish characters are purple.

Chinese just looks complicated. ♥

A quick review: Remember, Korean = circles; it’s the least complicated. Japanese = no circles and medium complications; it features simplistic roundish/stick-like characters. Chinese = no circles; it looks very complicated.

Now that you’re fluent in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese you can tell them apart, figure out which line in the following image belows to which language. After you’ve figured it out, look at the solution.

That’s it. You can thank me for making you slightly more clever? Anyway, comment if you know of any clever ways to tell any languages apart (these included). Also, e-cookies and much love to anyone who recognizes any of the material quoted in any of the images above.

Poetic forms like imabic trimeter are barely comprehensible to me. In school, whenever I was interrogated about a poem’s meter, my thoughts were, “Uh? I don’t really know; I hate this.” Luckily, some mathematical things, like the cubed roots of certain numbers, are much easier to figure out. Trust me!

Let’s say you have a number like 157464. It’s cubed root is 54 (157464 is 54 x 54 x 54, which is also know as 54^3). How long does it take to figure out that 157464’s cubed root is 54? Less time than it takes to figure out if a line of poetry is in imabic trimeter or pentameter or what have you. How much cleverer does a girl who can take the cubed root of 157464 in 5 seconds look than the girl who can tell you about a poem’s meter in 5 seconds? Way cleverer, you know.

Honestly, if the number being cubed is two-digits, it can be easily discovered without a calculator. But first you must know a few things.

1. The numbers 1-9 cubed (knowing this is sort of necessary)
   • 1 cubed is 1
   • 2 cubed is 8
   • 3 cubed is 27
   • 4 cubed is 64
   • 5 cubed is 125
   • 6 cubed is 216
   • 7 cubed is 343
   • 8 cubed is 512
   • 9 cubed is 729
2. The last digit of the cube of those numbers (the bold numbers)¹

That’s it. Now, this is how it works—Let’s say you have a number like, oh, 300763. First, ignore its last three digits. Mentally, 300763 should become 300. 300 is greater than 216 (6 cubed) but less than 343 (7 cubed), so the cubed root of 300763 is going to be 60-something. Second, think of 300763’s last number. It’s 3, which is the same number as the last digit of 7 cubed (343), so the cubed root of 300763 is 67.

Another one—21952.

1. 21952 (drop the last 3 digits)
2. 21 is greater than 2 cubed (8) but less than 3 cubed (27), so its cubed root must be 20-something.
3. 21952 ends in a 2. 8 cubed also ends in a 2. Thus, 21952’s cubed root must be 28.

That’s all there is to it. Now it’s time to shock your friends, parents, older siblings, lovers, and enemies. Tell them to grab a calculator and start cubing 2-digit numbers. Watch their mouths hang open in utter amazement as you tell them the numbers they’ve cubed. :D lulz.

Back story: One of the teachers was doing this at work today… I half-learned the trick from him.

¹ The last digits of 1-9 cubed are easiest to remember if they (1-9) are pictured on a line. The numbers on the end 1 & 9 are themselves. The next few numbers (2, 3, 8, 7) are 10 minus themselves, while the ones in the middle (4, 5, 6) are also themselves.
² There’s more on the subject here.