Many have sought mastery of the lingua franca, English. However, the language’s irregular phonology-orthography has posed a considerable impediment to learners’ competence, which is largely determined by their productive and perceptive speech skills. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), whose primary utility lies chiefly in linguistic research rather than pedagogical purposes…

Introduction During its introduction to China in the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), Buddhism encountered radical opposition from the dominant indigenous school of philosophy, Confucianism, focal one of which pertains to the notion of filial piety — xiao 孝, whose first emergence dates back to Western Zhou (1045–771 BCE) (Chan…

The recorder is one of the longstanding instruments in music history. Evidenced by ancient paintings and with proof of excavated recorders, the earliest of which is named the Dordrecht recorder that dates back to the 14th century, the recorder is oftentimes deemed a prevalent instrument throughout the Medieval period. Centuries…

A distant, idyllic star. An enormously complex, esoteric contraption received some faint electrical signal. A message soon reached every alien’s ears (if they had a pair) on the planet. “THE EARTH IS IN DANGER! RIGHT TIMING…” All creatures became distraught (at least as it seemed) and got things together immediately…