Vocabulary: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious IS NOT Meaningless

Image from RTHK

Came across a page on RTHK called 楊官教英文 ----- 楊官信箱 and I was randomly reading the mailbox questions and answer. At first I thought it was pretty interesting until I saw one reply, and I thought I have to write something about it. I have captured the question and answer in the image below:

Image from RTHK

Is it a word that really carries "no meaning"?

First, let's familiarise ourselves with this song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins.

and the lyrics go,

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

It's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I

Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lad
Me father gave me nose a tweak
And told me I was bad
But then one day I learned a word
That saved me aching nose
The biggest word you ever heard
And this is how it goes

Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I

He traveled all around the world and everywhere he went
He'd use his word and all would say there goes a clever gent
When dukes and Maharajahs pass the time of day with me
I say my special word and then they ask me out to tea

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I

So when the cat has got your tongue
There's no need for dismay
Just summon up this word
And then you've got a lot to say
But better use it carefully
Or it can change your life

For example
Yes?
One night I said it to me girl and now me girls my wife
Oh! And a lovely thing she is too. he he he

She's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

by Richard Sherman / Robert Sherman

From the song, we can tell that this exceptionally lengthy word definitely carries a meaning, and it is definitely a pattern-reforming creativity (Carter, 2004) of neologism which comes from a combination of multiple words (Law, in press).

Image from OED

While the Oxford Online Dictionary has the answer, meaning extraordinarily good; wonderful, and mentioning that the word first appeared in the 1940s, that is 24 years prior to the release of the song and film, it still does not say what the neologism is comprised of.

Turns out, Wikipedia has the answer. The page cited Lederer (1998)'s analysis of the word,

An analysis of the individual word elements produces another definition. Richard Lederer, in his book Crazy English, defines the word roots as follows: super- "above", cali- "beauty", fragilistic- "delicate", expiali- "to atone", and -docious "educable", which, he writes, produces an overall meaning of "atoning for extreme and delicate beauty [while being] highly educable"

And there we have it! Clear as day! "Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty [while being] highly educable". Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious IS NOT Meaningless!

References:

楊官教英文 ----- 楊官信箱

http://rthk9.rthk.hk/elearning/yangtl/mailbox_p04.htm

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (from Mary Poppins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rihNRTTcztQ

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious | Definition of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in English by Oxford Dictionaries

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Carter, R. (2004). Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. London: Routledge.

Law, L. (in press). Creativity & Multimodality: an Analytical Framework for Creativity in Multimodal Texts (AFCMT). Linguistics and Human Sciences. Equinox.

Lederer, Richard (1998). Crazy English : the ultimate joy ride through our language. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0671023232.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/as-clear-as-day

Vocabulary: What is 'Innovation'? A Linguistic Perspective

Word play through word formation, is often very inspiring.

Innovation, is spelled 'in + novation'. Prefix 'in-' means 'not', used to negate the word that follows, 

'novation', a situation that requires everyone to agree in order to make changes.

Innovation is, therefore, a situation that does not require everyone to agree in order to make changes.

If someone claims to be into innovation, but is always bounded by the need to have everyone's agreement, then that is not innovation, that is only in novation.

Innovation is not to be in novation. You can quote me.


Reference:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/innovation
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/in?q=in-
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/novation

Message: Troubles When Writing (Posting An Old Blog Entry Draft)

Dealing with writer's block
Image from 8dio.com

Do you ever look back how what happened in your past and see how you write? I was looking at my drafts of this blog and found this entry which I wrote dated 18th Jan 2012 before I was admitted to Master's Degree programme. It is funny now looking back at a time which made me feel uncertain about the future, I still feel that uncertainty now, just not about admission. Recently I have completed one 2000-word assignment in less than 5 days, and I was managed to do this because I know what I have to write and I am familiar with the topic. Here on this blog though, I am starting to have the writer's block I mentioned below. Academically, I am reading more, but  reading less about the world does make me less creative.

Anyway, I don't want to waste the following post so I insist on sharing it. Although it might not be relevant any more, it still serves as a nice timestamp.

If you have been keeping an eye on the time that I have been updating my blog, I haven't been keeping up with the schedules lately. This is due to the fact that I am actually writing something else. When I write my blog, I can go on forever without stopping, and words come easily and quickly, straight from my head and my logic flows smooth like the flowing river, because I know very well that I am doing this not for myself, but for you guys. Like my student Godwin said in his email for me, I love what I do, I love to share. I know very well that I will write well. If you send me essays for corrections, I will know exactly how to make it sound better. The story is completely different when I have to do something for myself, which I hate, I get writer's block. I can't seem to think of anything! The more I care about it, the least I can write. I guess many of you have had the same experience as well. Apart from getting writer's block, another challenge is to think out of my own definition of "perfect". Last year, I spent almost a year writing my personal statement. I spent month after month preparing, self-reflecting, researching, writing, cooling, rethinking, rewriting, modifying... making them look perfect for submission. When I pulled them out from the folder two weeks ago and read them again, they looked like trash! This year, I only spent like a week to rewrite everything, which I think is a miracle, and I also think they look great (not perfect this time), but who knows, maybe after a year, they might too look like garbage? It is really difficult to break out from one's frame of thinking. Then shouldn't I have spent more time on cooling them down, think them over and make more changes to them before submitting? I can't, because I am afraid that the seats for the courses may be filled before I even submit my forms. You see, they begin interviewing in December and they may even finish the interview before the submission deadline. I had to hurry. But excuses or not, I think that "chop-chop, submit quick" in my head got me to overlook my errors in the application form -- now I have 2 full-time job instead of one because I forgot to put an end date on my ex-full-time. Nice going, Locky! I double- and even triple-checked my form of course, but sometimes, even making 100-tuple checks is simply not enough to spot the error, ask the computer programmers and they will agree. What's worse, the admission board might even regard me as not giving a damn about the application and filter me out at once. I started getting these dreams about me sitting on a chair in front of 3 interviewers with no face, who were asking me how I could possibly not take a blind bit of notice, and I had to explain why I made such stupid mistakes. So silly, right? I might not even get an interview. But guess I have to plan early, for either full-time or part-time mode will greatly affect my monthly income and I need to know how to arrange my life then. Master's degree classes are usually held in the evenings, which means I will need to relocate my working time to other days in order to keep my contract. If not, I will have to switch to part-time. And I suppose all of you will be comparing my salary with those Star Tutors on newspapers, well, the truth is, it will take about a hundred years for me to catch up with their annual salary. Life is only going to get tougher no matter what, but I will boldly face it. PS: Just one final complaint, why is it that the Trinity CertTESOL teaching certificate which is widely recognised around world not being seriously considered in Hong Kong?

Vocabulary:

to keep an eye on sth/sb -- to watch or look after something or someone

logic flows smooth like running river -- (simile) meaning quick and smooth

writer's block -- (n)[U] a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown

chop-chop --exclamation informal used to tell someone to hurry

overlook-- (vb)[T] to fail to notice or consider something

nice going -- (if sincere, means "good job"); (if sarcastic, means "bad job"), hereby the latter.

100-tuple -- (n) from n-tuple, means 100 times.

not give a damn about -- offensive used as a way of saying you do not care about something, especially the annoying things that someone else is doing or saying

not take a blind bit of notice -- UK informal  not to pay any attention

Resources:

Writer's Block @Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writers_block

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/keep-your-an-eye-on-sth-sb?q=keep+an+eye
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/chop-chop
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/overlook_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/not-give-a-shit
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/not-take-a-blind-bit-of-notice

Living & Science: Magical Home Science of Range Hood Cleaning

What can Baking soda, dishwashing detergent and hot water do?
Image from Locky's English Playground

Feeling upset by the greasy range hood in the kitchen but too scared by the foreseeable elbow grease you have to put into the cleaning job? I have a magic to share with you today! I have been wanting to try this out for awhile, and I finally mustered enough courage (hm... actually, I was  just lazy) to try it. 

This is nothing new and have been widely shared on the internet, but the first time to be reported to you from my personal experience. 

Sink terms 1
Image from techques.com

Sink terms 2
Image from Visual Dictionary.com

Range hood terms
Image from rona.ca

You will need

1. Baking soda / Bicarbonate of soda / sodium bicarbonate. I bought this from ParkNShop for about $18. I am sure this is a rip-off but it is the only way I can get hold of it.
2. A good dishwashing detergent (DWD). I use AXE.
3. Boiling water, freshly boiled!
4. Gloves, make sure it can protect you from the hot boiling water
5. A sponge 
6. A piece of kitchen cloth
7. The terms involving a sink and range hood (see images above).

Effervescence once baking soda meets hot water and detergent
Image from Locky's English Playground

(I should have taken a photo of the greasy, dusty, black and crazy hood filters, but I was over-excited that I have completely forgotten about it. I will probably take the missing photos again in the future to perfect this article, but as for now, these are all I have.)

Step 1:
Make sure you have the stopper firmly pressed down.

Step 2:
Add a generous amount of DWD and 1/4 cup of baking soda into the sink.

Step 3:
Add boiling water. You will see an exciting display of effervescence once the hot water comes into contact with the baking soda.

Step 4:
Stir the mixture gently to mix the solution well, then let it sit there for 10 minutes, although from my observation, the filters were actually immediately cleaned within 10 seconds, but you don't have to rush, right?

Step 5:
While your filters are being auto-cleaned, put on your gloves and wet the kitchen cloth with the hot hot hot solution and clean everything else in the kitchen, such as...

Don't waste the solvent, clean everything else! Good as new!
Image from Locky's English Playground

 ... the faucet, the handle, the escutcheon, the water filter,...

Look at this range hood!
Image from Locky's English Playground

 ... the motors...

Range hood never looked better!
Image from Locky's English Playground

... the fans, the hood body, the kitchen walls, etc.

Cleaned! Very clean!
Image from Locky's English Playground

By the time you have completed the other stuff, your filters should be grease and dirt-free!!! Exactly how effective is this method?

Shiny without dirt or dust!
Image from Locky's English Playground

 You can easily see it from my photos, can't you?

Wanna bet this is more effective than scrubbing hard with elbow grease?
Image from Locky's English Playground

 Simply put it, they are as good as new!

There's more! A very clean sink!
Image from Locky's English Playground

And you have a beautifully polished-like metallic sink once more!

Huge success!!!! Have a go yourself!

Difference between baking soda and baking powder

According to About Education, baking soda is the pure sodium bicarbonate / sodium hydrogen carbonate form  NaHCO₃, while baking powder contains an acidifying agent and so you are not getting 100% of the sodium bicarbonate you pay for. For cooking it is fine, but for cleaning, it is the pure form you want.

Baking soda is an amphoteric compound -- reacts with both acid and base, and this allows it to remove different kind of stains, dirt, proteins and grease. Since there are too many to be listed here, maybe you can check out this A-Z Stain Removal Guide, HowStuffWorks and Wikipedia for more details.

Vocabulary:

greasy -- (adj) covered with or full of fat or oil

foreseeable -- (adj) A foreseeable event or situation is one that can be known about or guessed before it happens.

elbow grease -- (n) informal a lot of physical effort

Resources:

How To Clean a Greasy Range Hood Filter — Cleaning Lessons from The Kitchn @The Kitchn

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-clean-a-greasy-range-hood-filter-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-203844

The Chemistry of Cleaning Clothes +HowStuffWorks 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/the-chemistry-of-cleaning-clothes-info.htm

What Is the Difference Between Baking Soda & Baking Powder? +About.com

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm

Sodium bicarbonate @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate

A-Z Stain Removal Guide: Instructions For Over 100 Types Of Stains 

http://www.stain-removal-101.com/stain-removal-guide.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/greasy

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/foreseeable?q=foreseeable+

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/elbow-grease

Proverbs & Idioms: Proverbidioms -- From Cantonese to English

Great Proverbs of Hong Kong Cantonese
Painting by 阿塗
Image from Passiontimes.hk

This post traces back months ago, when the painter 阿塗 (coined the Father of Hong Kong Golden Forum by local netizens) published a piece of work capturing 80 Hong Kong's very own greatest Cantonese proverbs amidst the time of uneasiness between the Hong Kongers and the mainland Chinese. Inspired by Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), 阿塗's
Great Proverbs of Hong Kong Cantonese aims to promote Lingnan culture and educate the public about the importance of Cantonese, hence defending it from dialectic eradication through brutal political gestures.

Pieter Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559
Captured 112 Dutch proverbs and idioms
Image from Wikipedia

Zhimaludoushi's 高登神獸之父阿塗創廣東俗語漫畫集 listed some translations from Cantonese to English which we all can use as reference, but I would like to add a few comments to it.


Vocabulary:

1. "Freudian slip is a verbal or memory mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind", thus it has nothing to do with vision or sight and is an incorrect translation of 鬼揞眼.
2. 有錢使得鬼推磨 can be translated to an English proverb "money makes the mare go".
3. 鬼拍後尾枕 has a meaning of saying something you regret because you shouldn't have said it, which could be a secret or something mindless, so a relatively well-fitted idiom is "to put one's foot in one's mouth". 
4. 呃鬼食豆腐 is basically to tell lies, in English there are many such idioms, one of which is "lead sb up/down the garden path".
5. The one word for 鬼畫符 would be "indecipherable". 
6. 放飛機 has a perfect translation to the English phrasal verb "to stand sb up".
7. 兩頭蛇 can be translated into "a two-face", but a more intriguing one, among Transformers' fans, is the Doubledealer, hence a "double-dealer" fits.
8. "To cry wine and sell vinegar" fits 掛羊頭賣狗肉, though this English version is not well-known among native speakers.
9. 甩繩馬騮 are kids "on the loose"..
10. 食拖鞋飯 is "to sponge". A sponge means a person who takes advantage of the generosity of others.
11. 樹大有枯枝 can be translated to the proverb "there is a black sheep in every flock".
12. 牛唔飲水唔撳得牛頭低 is "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
13. 捉黃腳雞 is catching sb committing adultery.

阿塗's Great Proverbs of Hong Kong Cantonese is not the only painting inspired by Netherlandish Proverbs. American artist T. E. Breitenbach's Proverbidioms (1975) is arguably the first and the most famous artwork on English proverbs and idioms, capturing over 300 instances on a single 45 by 67 inch wooden panel.

T. E. Breitenbach's Proverbidioms, 1975
Captured over 300 common proverbs and clichés
Image from Wikipedia

If you want to learn more proverbs and idioms in an interactive way, you can download the free game PROVERBidioms from Apple Store and play as you learn, learn as you play. This game is good for children and excellent for adults English learners!

Screen capture of the game
Image from PROVERBidioms app

Do you know what the above proverbs/idioms mean? If you want to know, let's start playing!

Image from greenstonegames

Resources:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder

Netherlandish Proverbs @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs

Saving the Cantonese Language in China @China Decoded
http://www.chinadecoded.com/2010/08/04/saving-the-cantonese-language-in-china/

in case you didnt notice - big change coming? @Guangzhou Stuff
http://www.gzstuff.com/forum/topics/in-case-you-didnt-notice-big-change-coming?commentId=1345793%3AComment%3A7498093&xg_source=activity

高登神獸之父阿塗創廣東俗語漫畫集 @ zhimaludoushi
http://goo.gl/aynfLC

T. E. Breitenbach @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._Breitenbach

Proverbidioms @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverbidioms

Is Cantonese in danger? Hongkongers take steps to protect their heritage @ SCMP
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1450856/hongkongers-take-steps-preserve-their-language-and

Proverbidioms App @ greenstonegames
http://greenstonegames.com/proverbidioms/#.U8CPhtIW33Q

http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/f/freudian-slip.htm
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/58/messages/1159.html
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+foot+in+mouth
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/lead+up+the+garden+path
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/indecipherable
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stand-sb-up
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Doubledealer
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/double-dealer
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+the+loose
http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/11388/beauty-salons-cry-wine-and-sell-vinegar
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+the+loose
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sponge
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/black-sheep
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/you-can-lead-a-horse-to-water-but-you-can-t-make-him-drink

Vocabulary: Word Of The Day By Locky's English Playground

Musking
Image from allmystery.de

Some weeks ago, I started this "Word of the Day" on my blog's Facebook page. I think this is pretty cool to have a mini-wordlog of the words I have come across that day that is worth remembering. No guarantee that I will post one every day but definitely whenever necessary.

Two cars musking beside the Model S
Image from amaraklov

Today, a member from the Tesla Motors Club suggested making a flyer to promote good consideration, specially to educate owners of non-electric vehicles on not occupying the charging spaces of the electric vehicles. The word we are looking at here is musking and we think this is going to become a serious problem in Hong Kong. I hope I am wrong though.

Stickle Bricks
Image from Wikipedia

Yesterday, I came across stickle bricks, a word I can almost guarantee that few adults know in Hong Kong, or more precisely, few parents know. Well, but now you know, and do you miss your childhood?

Backpfeifengesicht????
Image from zcache

Finally, backpfeifengesicht, the best word since a very very long time. If you want to know why, please see Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing.

This is just a promotional post, so I will not be writing about Word of the Day every week, so if you want to learn some cool words, subscribe to my Facebook and Google+!


Vocabulary:
musking -- (n) blocking an ICE car in, when parked at an electric charging station
stickle brick -- (n)[C] 
backpfeifengesicht -- (n) see Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing


Resources:
Musking @ Tesla Motors
http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/musking

Stickle Bricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickle_Bricks

Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/05/vocabulary-words-worth-noticing.html

Website & Vocabulary: Awesome Updates To The Cambridge Dictionary Online!!!

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Image from Locky's English Playground

Remember back in the post IPA: Is It Possible to Have Primary-Stressed Vowels In An English Word? I told you how my ex-boss is a fervent supporter of the Oxford Dictionary and that I told you I only take all dictionaries as references? If you do, and you buy my philosophy, you are going to see the world of English a whole lot wider.

That being said, I still prefer to use Cambridge Dictionaries Online, initially for its simplicity in meanings and examples, to more distinctive fonts and colours for easy reading, to now...a hub for almost everything you can ask for!

Take for example, if you take a look at the image above, on the right sidebar you see SMART Thesaurus, click on the link and you will get a word cloud list as shown in the image below.

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Image from Locky's English Playground

While the SMART Thesaurus has been around for quite a while, the next update is more recent.

English-Chinese Dictionary
Image from Locky's English Playground

Selecting English-Chinese before you search for a word, and you will have meanings and examples translated into Chinese for you! Of course, there are also French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Korea, etc.

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Image from Locky's English Playground

In the most recent update, if we return to the first image, you will now see Grammar bubbles right below the meanings and examples. Thus, when you are searching for a word, you can also learn the correct grammar when using it!

Say if I want to know when is "such" used as a determiner or what it means by a determiner, I can click on the respective bubble and ...

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Image from Locky's English Playground

...you get all the key points worthy of your study time!!!

I really love Cambridge Dictionaries Online now! Even the mobile app has a bookmark function for you to store the words you want for quick revisits.


Resources:
IPA: Is It Possible to Have Primary-Stressed Vowels In An English Word? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2014/07/ipa-is-it-possible-to-have-primary.html

Learning Method: How to improve your English skills? (Writing) @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2009/08/learning-method-how-to-improve-your.html

Cambridge ADVANCED Learner's
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobisystems.msdict.embedded.wireless.cambridge.cald&hl=en

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/such_1?q=such

Vocabulary: Very Big English Words You Should Learn!!!

Image from BuzzFeed

Just to keep things going, I have three videos from BuzzFeed which talk about some cool words in the English language.

Morton's toe is something very commonly mentioned amongst the Hongkongers, as there is a saying "Poor until your death if you have Morton's toe."

Glabella and philtrum are mainly face reading related in the feng shui category.

Glabella (印 堂 in Chinese) being the space between your eyebrows, represents the luck at age 28 as well as the ease of success throughout one's life.
Philtrum (人 中 in Chinese) being the groove between the nose and the middle of the lips, represents the luck at age 51 as well as longevity, number of child and the sex of the first child.

Semantic actually refers to the meaning of a word, while satiation means having too much of something.

Dysphemism is a representation of linguistic "coolness" and creativity! Can't stop loving it! I particularly like lacuna because there are so many useful ones out there like bakku-shan and backpfeifengesicht mentioned in the post Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing.

And from the same article, now we know that Scotch tape, Tipp-Ex, Band-Aid, Panadol, Viagra are called proprietary eponyms.

Denominalization is linguistically much more than just using a word that is not a verb as a verb, but hey, the point is not to get too complicated here so I won't explain more.
I don't quite like the meaning given for contrastive focus reduplication because the video didn't mention the kind of emphasis intended. In fact, the emphasis serves as a mean of clarification as a previously mentioned term might have caused confusion. In the video, the man who happens to be talking to a clone of himself, said "I mean the film is interesting, but not interesting interesting." This means the first "interesting" is not as high level as the third "interesting" and thus requires the second "interesting" to clarify.

Lethologica is the "it's on the tip-of-my-tongue" phenomena.

Finally, a sesquipedalian is simply, a person who uses long words.

Amazing stuff this video!

Which phobia interests me? The word gamophobia (fear of marriage) is fun, because this word has inspired a number of Hollywood movies, such as Runaway Bride (1999), as well as many many real YouTube videos. Lachanophobia (fear of vegetables) is interesting, maybe this is why many kids hate vegetables. Definitely phasmophobia, the fear of ghost.

I have also written about trypophobia (fear of ) and aerophobia (fear of  flying), if you can't remember, go to my post World: Fun Facts We All Should Know -- Part 2 (Viewer Discretion Is Advised). At that time, trypophobia was not yet scientifically proven, but now, there is a study showing that this anxiety is real!!

Enjoy a list of phobias at Wikipedia! It's really fun to read!


Vocabulary:
Morton's toe -- (n)[C] the second toe that is longer than the big toe.
Glabella (印 堂 in Chinese)  -- (n) the space between your eyebrows
Philtrum (人 中 in Chinese) -- (n) the groove between the nose and the middle of the lips
semantic -- (adj) connected with the meanings of words
satiate -- (vb)  [T often passive]  formal to completely satisfy yourself or a need, especially with food or pleasure, so that you could not have any more
dysphemism -- use of a negative term for something positive
sonder -- (n)[U] the sudden realization that everyone around you is living a life as vivid and complex as your own
lacuna -- (n)[C] a non-English word that describes something for which there is no English word.
proprietary eponym -- (n)[C] a trademark or brand name that has become a generic name for a product or service.
Contrastive focus reduplication -- (n)[C] (also lexical cloning, the double construction) is a type of syntactic reduplication found in some languages that indicates the prototypical meaning of the repeated word or phrase, a form of retronymy.
Lethologica  -- (n)[U] the "it's on the tip-of-my-tongue" phenomena.
sesquipedalian -- (n)[C] a person who uses long words
trypophobia -- (n)[U] hear of holes
gamophobia -- (n)[U] fear of marriage
lachanophobia -- (n)[U] fear of vegetables
phasmophobia -- (n)[U] fear of ghost.


Resources:
Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/05/vocabulary-words-worth-noticing.html

World: Fun Facts We All Should Know -- Part 2 (Viewer Discretion Is Advised) @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/08/world-fun-facts-we-all-should-know-part_29.html

11 Weird Body Part Words @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/k9bvzqVxEWE

Words And Phrases To Make You Sound Smarter @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/qTsOWDfM1fE

20 Phobias You Might Have  @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/Pxh9T-vGyIY

論 額 @ MASTERSO.COM 蘇民峰命理風水網站
http://www.masterso.com/classroom/classroom6_2_05.php

「 中 央 十 四 位 置 」@ MASTERSO.COM 蘇民峰命理風水網站
http://www.masterso.com/classroom/classroom6_2_01.php

proprietary eponym @ Wiktionary
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proprietary_eponym

Contrastive focus reduplication @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrastive_focus_reduplication

Lethologica @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethologica

Trypophobia: Why Holes Are SO Scary @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/lFoQ4s6CFYM

List of phobias @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/semantic?q=semantic
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/satiate?q=satiate
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sesquipedalian#Noun

Culture & Food: What Foreigners Think About Foreign Food?

What is this?
Image from BuzzFeed

Last time round we looked at what Americans think about Japanese snacks, this time round, we have American, British and Australian goodies!

How do you think they would react?

bland -- (adj)  usually disapproving not having a strong taste or character or not showing any interest or energy
pop the cherry -- to lose one's virginity, used as a metaphor in the above video to mean, "trying certain food for the first time".
fuss -- (n) [S or U] a show of anger, worry, lack of satisfaction or excitement, usually one which is greater than the situation deserves

rancid -- (adj) (of butter, oil, etc.) tasting or smelling unpleasant because not fresh

cinnamony -- (adj) taste like cinnamon

ranch -- (n)[U] refers to ranch dressing -- A condiment made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, minced green onion, garlic powder, and other seasonings mixed into a sauce.

Never thought their preferences can be so different right? Wanna have some of those now?


Resources:

Culture: What Do You Know About Japanese Culture? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/05/culture-what-do-you-know-about-japanese.html

Americans Try McDonald's For The First Time @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/kbjxBNx1_Hg

Americans Try Coke For The First Time @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/Mfav2BCYwHs

British People Taste Test American Snacks @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/s4UEifGF8DU

Americans Taste Test Australian Food @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/ru6wri23Ljk

Vintage Foods You Won't Believe Actually Exist - Taste Test @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/p8hnLuiOi_Y

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/bland?q=bland
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=popping%20the%20cherry
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/rancid?q=rancid
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/fuss_1?q=fuss
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cinnamony
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ranch_dressing