.

• You’ve already read the English version. Now, check out: 为什么中文这么TM难？ [Thanks, pinyin.info]
• Bilding, cubbard, and more. A call for looser attitudes towards English spelling from famous phoneticist John Wells. What does this have to do with Chinese? I’ve long thought the primary obstacle to any script reform in English and in Chinese is primarily one of attitude: whether entrenched powers are willing to allow some diversity of form. Diversity of form, in the long-term, is what obviates the need for abrupt and wrenching change. I’m glad to see a linguist of Wells’ stature taking up the issue for English.
• Mandarin learners: estimate how many words you know, from zhtoolkit
• The meaning of 味儿大, “big taste”, from Shanghai’s big* language blogger, John Pasden
• 装修, or “renovation with Chinese characteristics” — and other post-Chinese-New-Year traditions
• An interesting historical perspective from The China Beat for any who have pondered the underdeveloped state of Chinese civil society (公民社会)

*Seriously, I measure in right at six feet, but next to John I feel like I lost my lifts.