Aujourd'hui ma chérie, tu es l'élue,
et demain, mes embrasseuses --
elles sont toutes pour toi

Since the beginning of this year, I have been taking foreign language classes at Intercontinental Foreign Language Program at Harvard Square with Lee Riethmiller.#

The Intercontinental Foreign Language Program is the foremost proponent of SIMULTANEOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING in the United States. In an Internet-linked & multicultural workplace, no one can afford to be monolingual and no one has the time for conventional - one at a time - serial language learning.

Our nationally-renowned techniques were developed by our President, Lee K. Riethmiller, first during his graduate study at Harvard and later as a Fulbright Scholar in Madrid, Spain.

It is very interesting. You learn multiple languages at the same time. Going through one session you will jump back and forth between the different languages... after a few minutes of reciting some Italian, Lee may say "en français" and then *bam* you're in French.

Currently I am taking a "TriLingual 3"™ of

• French
• Italian
• Spanish

But I am so addicted that I plan on learning as many of the one hundred and fifteen courses offered as I can.

I am particularly interested in doing this for a few reason:#

1. I wish to travel the majority of the world in my lifetime and would like to be able to speak with people as a travel.
2. I'd like to have access to the wisdom of all modern people across the world without the overhead and lag of waiting on a translation.
3. I'd like to experience the beauty of Dante's Commedia in its natural state, as well as other great poets and philosophers of the past. I want to get rid of the middle men.

As part of my practice, I'm writing a poem or short piece of writing in one of the languages every day. If you speak one of the languages I'm learning and notice a mistake, I would very happy to hear about it. (The relevant category on my blog.)#

Other bloggers have experienced Lee's style.#

From John Sequeira in his use Perl blog:

Lee has a very unique approach to foreign language instruction in several respects. He believes that you learn languages faster and with better recall if you study multiple languages concurrently. He never really said why, but my oversimplified explanation is that this is similar to the better recall/comprehension claims of speed reading. There are other reasons why this makes sense from a mnemonics perspective, and it has the added benefit of being very appealing from a student perspective (learn more in less time).

In addition to encouraging you to take multiple languages simultaneously (you can choose from about 20 that Lee teaches), he also eschews the standard grammar-based approach. Instead, he writes interactive question and answer type scripts that resemble beat poetry -- quite absurb. You don't do 'going to the movies' or 'in the kitchen' vocabulary fests. Instead, you converse with mushrooms, cheese-boys, italian bees and strawberry girls, and each verb tense you memorize is associated with a flavor of ice cream. Occasionally the scripts will overlap with some 60s pop song, and Lee will break into song.

And, Carl Blesius is who first pointed the program out to me.

Tyler Cowen writes about the potential benefits and harms of video games and trashy books.#

The best case scenario is that game designers are breeding aesthetic wonders in their highly commercial and competitive environment, and outsiders such as myself simply don't know it yet. The worst case scenario is that computer games unbundle "fun" and "the aesthetic," and sell us the former at the expense of the latter. Mozart gives us both beauty and entertainment, but in a world with very low fixed costs, perhaps these two qualities will be sold separately from now on. Perhaps computer games, and books such as The Da Vinci Code, can damage the arts by hindering entertainment from cross-subsidizing beauty.

Moxie is bother by liberal bullies.#

Tonight a man I know well asked me how I could support George Dubya -- silly question -- and if I DID had I read Michael "constant ding-dong masticator" Moore's books. Oh the gospel of lies and ignorance. I laughed.

Hard and long.

Tyler Cowen cites a list of ten books university presidents think undergraduates should read. Not all of them are part of The Western Canon, but some of them are.#

Chip Gibbons comments on Nate on civil disobediance, whom I linked yesterday.#

As I stated before, San Francisco is upholding one law but breaking another because the contradictions in the law make it impossible to uphold both. I don't think that Roy Moore's efforts to use public property to promote his own religious beliefs falls into the same category. Nonetheless, Nate's comment is worth noting; civil disobedience is largely in the eye of the beholder.

What I like about wedge issues like this is they get smaller, local government in to the minds of more people--and at that point government is weaker and less constrictive.

Amy quotes from Roy Rivenburg's interview with Paco Underhill.#

As he navigates the mall, Underhill reels off statistics, trivia and play-by-play commentary on the sights around him.

Most of his banter zeroes in on "ways that merchants shoot themselves in the foot," such as a maternity store with aisles too narrow for baby strollers or a clothing shop with barebones fitting rooms. "Why don't we do a better job of romancing the dressing room?" he asks, going on to recommend adjustable lighting that simulates outdoor and indoor environments. "The dressing room is often the least glamorous part of a store, and yet it's where so much of the decision-making happens."

Chip Gibbons writes about why Gavin Newsom, in San Francisco, was right.#

Those who condemn his actions believe that gay couples should be content to sit at the back of the bus until given permission to sit at the front. To accept that premise, however, is to accept that those in the front had some "right" to force others to the back in the first place. No such right exists; it exists only in the minds of those who seek to dominate and control the lives of others. To passively accept such blatant violations of individual liberty is to condone and legitimize them. Politicians like Bush, Schwarzenegger and even Diana Feinstein have proudly stated that the "rule of law" is more important. But when the law is full of contradictions, which law are we talking about?

No man is born in chains. No individual has the right to force another to wait for the freedom to choose the course of his own life. It is the right and responsibility of all individuals to live their lives as free men and for that no permission is required. That is the most basic, unqualified definition of liberty: NO PERMISSION REQUIRED.

Julie Leung writes about the date she waited four years to take.#

This story about a boat came to mind while taking the boat to the city. Trip to a New World. I feel I am entering a new world in many ways. The fact that we were able to go on this date was itself a marker of a new moment for our marriage. After years of breastfeeding and pregnancy when I carefully watched my diet, avoiding anything rare or raw, I now felt I could take the risk to eat sushi. No babies depending on my body. I also could travel to Seattle for an adult night. After waiting four years, at last we were able to go to the restaurant we'd been eyeing ever since moving to the area. The band we had tickets to see was one I'd been wanting to see for years but I hadn't figured out how to get over to Seattle for a show. Now my youngest walks and eats by herself. A new world for her too. Sweet and sad at the same time. So many new worlds converging in me now I feel. And the world outside reflecting this, the waves breaking around the boat, the traveling from the island to the city, from the pink sunset sky on the mountains to the evening lights of skyscrapers.

Ulro remembers the Great War.#

In 1917, three years of unprecedented bloodletting had left both sides nearly exhausted. Millions had been killed on both sides, and, in desperation, Germany launched submarine attacks on American ships supplying the Allies. This provoked a reluctant USA to enter the war.

The influx of fresh troops from overseas precipitated a crisis; it became obvious that Germany couldn't win the war. Starvation and war-weariness in Germany led to revolution. The Kaiser's government collapsed, and the war was over.

In America, this is remembered (when it is remembered) as a triumph of American arms. The USA saves everyone's ass one more time! Chalk it up on the scoreboard, you European pansies, and remember who's your Daddy.

In the Allied countries that fought from the beginning, the war is remembered differently. It was "the war to end all wars," the greatest military disaster in history, a colossal miscalculation, the screw-up that slaughtered a generation.

Read this whole thing, it's fantastic.

Jack M. Balkin writes about public universities are important for free speech, not impediments of it.#

David is interested in preserving individual rights of freedom of expression from government interference; I'm interested in promoting a democratic culture in which people are free to participate in culture and express themselves. For David, freedom of speech is the sum of individual rights of free expression against government interference. For me, freedom of speech involves important infrastructural elements in technology and institutions that undergird and enrich the system of free expression, produce an educated citizenry and give them the tools and the practical opportunity to participate in the growth and development of culture. These infrastructural elements include, among others free public education, public libraries, common carrier rules in telephony and government sponsored scientific research.

una mariposa aletea
ojos reculan
hierba acepilla