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Cassandra's Legacy: The Second Babel Tower: Symphonic Music and the Collapse of the European Cultural Unity
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-second-babel-tower-symphonic-music.html, posted 2019 by peter in eu history language music war
When Europe lost Latin as a shared communication tool, it was a new Babel Tower: Europeans couldn't understand each other any longer except within the boundaries of their national states. Not surprisingly, people who don't understand each other tend to resort to war to sort out conflicts. But Europeans also tried to replace Latin with some non-verbal tools: one was music. It is a long story that needs to be told from the beginning.
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Niigata school superintendent resigns over improper use of Japanese word for 'you' - Japan Today
https://japantoday.com/category/national/niigata-school-superintendent-resigns-over-improper-use-of-japanese-word-for-you?, posted 2018 by peter in japan language
What should have been a heart-wrenching meeting with plans to make changes for the future instead ended up boiling down to one poor choice of words on behalf of the superintendent.
At some point during the conversation with the boy’s father, the superintendent asked: Omae mo hogoshakai ni kuru ka? (お前も保護者会に来るか).
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Language Log » "Begging the question": we have answers
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2290, posted 2018 by peter in history language reference
There are four related issues here. First, how did "begging the question" come to be a technical term for (a certain kind of) circular reasoning? Second, do people really need a way to talk about circular reasoning, anyway? Third, why did "begging the question" get re-purposed in common usage to mean "dodging the question" or "raising the question", rather than simply subsiding, along with the rest of the terminology of medieval logic, into the midden heap of obsolete idioms? And fourth, should you go with the flow and use "beg the question" to mean "raise the question", or should you fight for the traditional usage, or what? I'll take up these issues one at a time.
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Giving and Receiving — Learn Japanese
www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/giving_receiving, posted 2018 by peter in japan language reference
Giving and receiving whether it’s objects or favors is a bit more complicated in Japanese because you need to be aware of the social status between the giver and the receiver. Basically, there are two words for giving and one word for receiving listed below.
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Japanese Learning Resources
https://www.tofugu.com/series/japanese-learning-resources/, posted 2018 by peter in japan language list
We know how hard it can be to find well made, reliable resources to learn, study, and practice your Japanese. As more content appears, it becomes harder and harder to tell what's worth your time and what isn't. You don't want to waste the time you should spend studying on digging through piles of Japanese garbage.
So stop taking chances buying random books, apps, and subscriptions you may or may not actually use. Instead, take a look at our monthly series! Every month we make a list of all the new resources for learning and practicing Japanese and cut it down to the very best. There could be a ton or just a few. They could be beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Maybe they're free! Who knows?!
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Donald Trump’s strange speaking style, as explained by linguists - Vox
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12423688/donald-trump-speech-style-explained-by-linguists, posted 2018 by peter in cognition language politics usa
"Leadership is hard; it needs discipline, concentration, and an ability to ignore what's irrelevant or needless or personal or silly," Pullum says. "There is no sign of it from Trump. This man talks honestly enough that you can see what he's like: He's an undisciplined narcissist who craves power but doesn't have the intellectual capacity to exercise it wisely."
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Conditionals | Learn Japanese
www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/conditionals, posted 2017 by peter in japan language reference
This whole section is dedicated to learning how to say "if" in Japanese. Oh, if only it was as simple as English. In Japanese, there's four (count them, four) ways to say "if"! Thankfully, the conjugations are sparse and easy especially since you don't have to deal with tenses.
Satori Reader provides carefully curated, level-appropriate content with which to practice and grow. With thoughtfully annotated articles spanning a variety of interesting subject matter and a unique system that presents content in a manner appropriate to your knowledge, it bridges the gap between the controlled, textbook Japanese that most students start with and the wide-open world of real-life, native communication.
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The 1071 hieroglyphs from Unicode 5.2
https://mjn.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/egyptian/unicode/tablemain.html, posted 2016 by peter in history language list reference unicode
The descriptions of the signs mostly follow Gardiner's publications. However, an attempt was made to achieve a greater consistency.
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