Dennis

Hi, is it ok to drive with the light set to OFF? On the Honda Civic 2008 there are only 3 settings: OFF, Parking and interior lights, headlights on. There is daytime running lights on even if the light setting is set to OFF. What about tail light? Thanks

In Chinese, the same character usually have 1 sound (in different tones), but no more than 2 or 3 different sounds (ex:

校 as xiào or jiào)

Why in Japanese are there so many on-yomis, so many kun-yomis for the same kanji?

For example: In Chinese 日 is pronounced "rì" and that's it.

In Japanese 日can be pronounced hi, nichi, ka...

They are so different in spelling and grammar structure. I understand there were invasions and infusion of foreign languages, but how can a language change so dramatically? How did they become Shakespeare's and today's English? I mean, can any native English speaker decipher what this passage mean without googling?

Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in geār-dagum, þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Can anyone still speak Old or Middle English today?

I know syndicate, douche... any other?

The French term for head waiter is "le maître d'hôtel". I understand why the accents are dropped when the term is used in English, but why is hôtel dropped as well?

"Maitre d' " doesn't make any sense in French at all!

Whereas in real life, we usually call people by their given names, or we put a Mr./Mrs./Miss prefix when calling by last name...

For ex:

Instead of Dirk of Dirk Struan (Tai Pan saga), people call him and each of his descendants Struan.

Instead of Jill (in Jill Pole of Narnia), Eustace in (Eustace Clarence Scrubb), they call each other Pole and Scrubb?

Why not the other way around?