Opinions, art, debate
The idea of multiculturalism and replacement of whites is the motivating force of today’s Russia. Here’s one of many Russian propaganda videos expressing this idea:
I remind you that the word “Russian” has been banned from official use in documents in Russia for 15 years because it’s offensive to minorities.
JD Vance, on the other hand, is a charmless, gormless idjit:
He is new to conservatism and hasn’t managed to find out that conservatives love nature. We are conservationists. We love the natural world. We hate windmills and solar farms because they are ugly and destroy nature.
I don’t like this dude. Let’s not run him. We have a deep bench of serious people who can easily beat Kamala.
People, did you hear Trump’s speech on the occasion of King Charles’ visit? I only now had time to listen, and it’s a beautiful, uplifting speech. Here’s an excerpt:
For nearly two centuries before the Revolution, this land was settled and forged by men and women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and the great Britain’s distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride. And that’s what it is, glory, destiny, and pride.
The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.
I’m not remotely English, as we all know, but I stand in awe of the magnitude of the English achievement in every sphere.
A beautiful speech. I recommend listening to the whole thing.
I did something so cool today, folks, I’m really happy. I’ve been teaching Spanish drama this semester. And two of my colleagues in Ukraine are also teaching Spanish drama. So we agreed to teach the same plays. And today, we had a joint class session with my students and my friends’ students in Ukraine. Imagine what a powerful experience it is to connect with your peers across the ocean who, in the time of war, are also reading a Spanish play from 1806.
The activity really worked because these students don’t have a language in common that isn’t Spanish, so they had to make an effort to understand each other.
The entire course has been outstanding. It turns out that students love reading plays. We had really profound discussions throughout the semester. And the culminating experience of the course was this transatlantic debate.
I have only ever used the paid version of Duolingo that my husband got for me. I have no idea if the basic version works, so keep that in mind.
There are three things in Duolingo that really advance language learning. They are the chatbot, the Legendary level, and Match Madness.
Chatbot
You need to have at least one conversation with the chatbot every day. Ideally, you’ll have two. Here’s what’s important: don’t let the chatbot control the conversation because if you do, you’ll end up having the exact same conversation every day. To make it useful, you have to initiate. When the chatbot says, “hi, how are you?” Don’t respond with, “I’m fine, how are you?” You already know how to say it, so what’s the use of doing it again? Instead, start your own conversation on the basis of what you learned in the day’s lesson. For instance, if you learned about birthdays, say “It was my birthday last week. To celebrate, I went to my favorite restaurant with my family. We ate my favorite dish which is fish with vegetables.” It doesn’t matter if it’s true. Your goal is not to provide correct information to the chatbot but to practice.
Legendary level
After you complete each batch of exercises, you can press on it again and have the option to do a sort of a test on them. That option is called Legendary. It’s great because often it asks you to translate sentences into the target language. You get up to 20 sentences that you have to translate on the spot. Specialists in foreign language teaching tell us that translation exercises are bad for beginner and intermediate level students. That is stupid, however. Translation exercises are great. I wish Duolingo had more of them and didn’t limit them to the Legendary level only.
Match Madness
This is a contest-type activity where you have to match words in the target language with their translations. To keep advancing through the levels, you have to find translations at an increasing speed. This is excellent for improving your vocabulary.
The chatbot, the Legendary level, and Match Madness are the hardest activities on the app, and many people avoid them. But these are precisely the activities that move your knowledge of a language from a passive to an active mode. Both modes are crucial for language learning but if you are stuck in passive, you’ll never speak.
As planned, I took my department’s proficiency test in German at the end of this semester. I placed into C1 which is “an Advanced (or “Proficient User”) language level, as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)”.
This is on the strength of 20 minutes of Duolingo a day and nothing else because I don’t have the time. Recently, I started reading in German but only did 4 reading sessions so far because it’s a busy time in the semester.
Of course, this is my sixth language, and it does get easier with every new one. However, this is an answer to everybody who claims that Duolingo doesn’t work and that you can’t become fluent in a new language in middle age.
My goal is to become completely fluent in German in the next two years. All it takes is consistent effort. If I got to C1 in 20 months, it’s definitely doable.
After I become completely fluent in German, I’m thinking of doing something completely out there, like Japanese.
Yes, I have. And I have concluded that not giving money to Russia, the last remaining big ally of Iran, would be more helpful to the defense of Israel than saving a few bucks on stolen grain.
I understand that the question was asked ironically but the unironic truth is that it’s very much on point.
I’m following the dispute over the stolen grain between Ukraine and Israel, and once again, I’m stunned by the tone-deafness of the defenders of Israel’s actions.
“We don’t need anybody, we don’t need anybody’s support or goodwill” is their position. I’ve never seen a country piss away so much goodwill and sympathy so fast and for absolutely no gain.
This is obviously not about the grain. It’s about the superciliousness that hinges on a fantasy that Trump will be president forever. Which is nuts as an animating general principle. Where’s the intelligence? Where is the long game? Forget Ukraine. I don’t vote in Ukraine. I vote in America. What happens when Americans start voting for explicitly anti-Israel candidates?
More excellent news, folks. UAE left OPEC. We truly live in exciting times.
In Spain, by the way, the number of young people who say they are practicing Catholics has risen from 31,6% to 45% compared with 2021.
The real improvement will start when Spaniards reject the constant buzzing in their ears about the Civil War and move the ef on already. Few nations have been as robbed and degraded under the banner of a very old conflict as Spain.
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