Is it true that children around here are first taught to write words the way they are pronounced and then are taught all over again what the correct spellings are?

This sounds very strange.

So I decided to learn more about the Green Party, and here is an explanation given by one of its supporters as to why people should vote Green in this election:

Trump is right about one thing that the electorate has grasped: illegal immigration is a labor issue. If you’re against immigration for undermining labor conditions, pundits insist you’re a racist. I fully support everyone’s right not to live in a shit hole, but it is possible to improve the quality of life in foreign countries to a standard they find in America and to do so without invading them. Making the adoption of Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations and an Environmental Protection Act international law with strict enforcement a requirement for free trade agreements might do quite a lot to raise quality of life globally.

This is truly priceless, people. I can just imagine this earnest Greenie traveling to Syria, Mexico, Palestine, or Ukraine, and telling people there, “Sheesh, this is such a shit hole. I will now totally improve your life by making you adopt Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations and an Environmental Protection Act. This will so make your shit hole just like the perfect country I come from!”

The only thing I don’t get is why the voters who want to support self-involved, condescending, American-centrist prickdom don’t all go straight to Trump. 

If there ever was a one-issue voter, it’s my former classmate Jay. He’s obsessed with Putin, and his hatred of the Russian president borders on pathological. And yes, it’s me saying this, so you can imagine how bad it is. When Jay is on his dying bed, it will be enough to say to him, “Look, there’s Putin!”, and Jay will jump up and rush along to spit on the object of his virulent hatred.

So you can imagine how stunned I was to hear that Jay is a Trump supporter.

“But how is this possible, Jay?” I ask. “Trump is the only candidate who keeps singing Putin’s praise. And you know how much Putin loves Trump.”

“Oh, but Trump doesn’t really mean it,” Jay waves me off. “It’s a ploy to trick Putin into complacency and then deliver a fatal blow.”

Kay, a colleague of mine, is not as much of a one-issue person as Jay but she’s pretty heavily into pro-Israel activism. We all know not to mention Israel or Palestine in her presence if we are to spare ourselves an endless rant about the importance of doing all we can to protect Israel.

You can imagine, of course, how taken aback I was when Kay said she was going to vote for Trump.

“But, Kay, didn’t Trump say he was indifferent towards Israel and not interested in moderating the relationship between Israel and Palestine?”

“Yes, but he didn’t really mean it,” Kay shrugs.

“Didn’t you notice that he is supported by the KKK, though?” I persist. “You are Jewish; doesn’t it bother you to be on the same side with these folks?”

“But they don’t really. . .”

“Mean it, yes, got it,” I grumble.

Fay, a former colleague from back at Cornell has been trying to get in touch. She used to volunteer for a non-profit that was offering legal and financial assistance to undocumented immigrants. I’m wary of reconnecting with Fay, though, because I fear hearing yet another “But he doesn’t really mean it!” If even Fay comes at me with this statement, I might lose all faith in humanity. Issues aside, I will never understand why people would want to vote for somebody who, in their opinion, doesn’t mean any of what he says.

There is no such thing as being good at learning foreign languages. A language has to correspond to one’s inner reality in order to be mastered. As a result, one person can find it extremely easy to learn, say, German but be completely stumped by French.

A language is not simply a collection of signs and sounds. It’s a universe of its own, and you will only learn a language if you are comfortable in its universe.

It’s cheesy, I know. But that’s how I feel.