Here are two very different Chinese language-related links we stumbled upon this week, one serious, one not so serious.

First up is a long, absorbing essay by an American China resident named Ben Ross. Entitled Journey Across the Great Hump of China, it’s not about the writer’s sexual exploits in the PRC, but a thoughtful reflection on the relative difficulties of learning English and Chinese as second languages.

Ross argues that Chinese is different from most other languages in that the most difficult stages come at the very beginning of the learning process, with the mastering of tones and the first few hundred written characters. After that, Ross claims, Chinese actually becomes easier than most European languages due to the lack of conjugations and the relatively simple grammar.

At the other end of the seriousness scale, our favorite online China-related scandal sheet ChinaSMACK takes a look at the ten most annoying Chinese phrases.