Cryptanalysis

CCTV are the state-run television channels here in China.  Because of the Mandarin/Cantonese split I’ve discussed, they are always subtitled in Simplified Chinese.  I watch quite a bit of CCTV9 because it’s the documentary network.

I’ve watched documentaries on…

• The Indian Ocean Tsunami
• MGM Studios
• The Silk Road
• Bruce Lee
• Madagascar
• The Hollywood Silent Era
• Black Holes

Documentaries are great because I usually have enough of a grasp of the subject matter to pick things out of the subtitles.  For example, I quickly figured out that 黑洞 was “black hole” and 重力 was “gravity” just by context and word frequency.

In a lot of ways, it’s like I’m trying to learn Chinese by cryptanalysis.  (And, no, I haven’t seen The Imitation Game yet.  It isn’t being released here as World War II and homosexuality aren’t a couple of China’s favorite things.)