i found this on the internet and maybe you find it as interesting as i do,
http://www.johanntanzer.at/ftp_data/shi.png

do you think if i told a chinese person this story ( in chinese ), would he understand it?

edit: and sorry for the typo ^^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den

"The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken in Modern Standard Chinese or when written in romanization."

James

I bet you guys didn't know about this though!

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

And, in a similar vein: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/badgers/

If I remember rightly, there's something about the lion/stone/poet story in John DeFrancis's book on Chinese.

While we're at it, here's one in English.

Smith where Jones had had had had had had had had had had had the examiners' approval.

Or, punctuated,

Smith, where Jones had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the examiners' approval.

You guys are too clever.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

This forum is so informative, wow, and ouch.
However, that video really put off my study, especially when I ended up at the latest video:
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Bumception/

rather OT