Mea culpas

1

'We assess that Miranda is knowingly carrying material the release of which would endanger people's lives,' the document continued. 'Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism . . .'*

Have you ever possessed a document or authored one which had as its purpose promoting a political or ideological cause? This is serious. Think back. Yes you have. No? How about checking the bookshelf. Got a book up there authored directly or indirectly, unfortunately unsigned, by an extraordinary person?

A document that could endanger people's lives? I know I wrote one or two. You too, I suspect, and that is all I need to do these days, suspect.

In the spirit of an early confession will earn some lenience, here are some recent examples--partial mea culpas--of the terrorism that I am, I suppose, guilty of. You don't have to search far. Quotes from this blog. They came from me and I confess I in that sense possess 'em.

I said what? "One thing that seems to work always is to beat anyone's sorry ass who doesn't agree with you or do what you say."

OK, I made an accusation: "Holding companies accountable has in the past seen decision makers in those companies and the regulatory agents they have worked with walk away from the messes they have had a direct hand in causing."

Oops, incriminating evidence: This year I proposed petition for "Obama and the administration to: provide foreign state officials in undeclared war zones real time locations of enemy combatants and warfare preparations."

Name calling, and so what? I called everyone I knew and didn't who were perpetrating the present craziness on this planet a "jihadist of any stripe".

I wonder if there will be an unexpected knock on my door soon. And just this wondering is a sign that an average person exposed to popular media these days and using just a bit of grey matter will legitimately know we have entered a new era of spookiness. Today we don't blame the Nazis but our "protectors of freedom".

2

I broke the resolution made some months ago and renewed just two months ago--not to read mainstream news. Moment of weakness. But now that I have done so and ranted on about something I found, I should take steps to remedy my own contribution to any misunderstandings in the above matters.

It is all about context. My sins and others you may find here on this blog demand that you read the words around them. I believe you will find my peccadilloes not even worthy of the word. Go ahead, read on. Prove me wrong.

Good call. A waste of time. Now the quote I started out with, do we need a context in this case? We do not. I have already addressed the matter of the content of what has been said--at the first level of comprehension. The second level is this.

Miranda. Miranda is a feminine given name of Latin origin, meaning "worthy of admiration" (per Wikipedia). And he is a partner in a same-sex relationship with someone who has been outspoken about matters in the public face such as Wikileaks yea or nay. Oh, the reverberations of associations and ironies. But that is not the best of it.

This guy, because he had in possession some words of a character that most everyone has read or said (see above), could disclose. And it is because he could disclose he was detained and labeled a terrorist.

We are all terrorists, and if anyone finds out what you are thinking or have on your bookshelf, hell has frozen over and we are doomed to a wasteland covered by the thickest ice in human society and relations that we have ever known, but often feared and glimpsed on the horizon.

Like the thought police and re-education camps and political correctness and all the rest of it, we are trying to live in homogeneous and simpler times. Funny thing is, they never were, in spite of Moses and his or his mentor's prohibitions against coveting, er immoral thoughts. Some are singing the same theme song these days we have already heard, but not all of us like that music and won't dance.

And now I do think someone is at the door. . . . Gotta stop reading the news.
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* See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/david-miranda-terrorism-glenn-greenwald-british_n_4199838.html

Weapons grade*

If anyone other than the named recipient reads these words, they are all fictitious and for entertainment only, not meant as threat to or subversive re anyone or any government, especially my own snoopy one.

Revelations about NSA covert operations against U.S. citizens prompted this disclaimer at the bottom of my email messages, a blanket to cover whatever I wrote and sent from wherever from now on, usually from here outside the borders of the U.S. I thought then, why other than my location would anyone be interested in what I wrote to anyone by email. What keywords would they use to bring my name and content up on their screens?

In the Daily Mail in May of 2012, we get a list of keywords "used by government analysts to scour the Internet for evidence of threats to the U.S." The list in part looks like this, with examples from some of my email messages, typos and malaprops included. I thought by putting this out I could save Homeland Security a bit of trouble.

By the by. What are we doing publishing a list of keywords? and these keywords? Do we think that those planning ill will actually use any of these? for real? Where is a Snowden when you really need one?

Afghanistan: There's this great new restaurant down the street run by some guys from Afghanistan. I didn't know it was allowed to serve goat here just steps away from the stock exchange in New York. They are in disguise there. They don't look Afghan. They don't wear a kameez or lungee.

Al Qaeda: The photo on my German driver's license, valid for life, looks like I am a member of Al Qaeda. Check out my beard! It was a late hippie phase I went through. You know, rebellious. I was in Munich when those fellows in arms killed the Israeli athletes. That's when I got it.

Iraq: The first year of teaching in the Soviet bloc as an academic exchange pro of sorts, I had this young talkative student from Iraq. We conspired to elude the guys tailing us and have coffee and a chat, both of us being foreigners.

Agro and Chemical: My wife works these days at an agriturismo, you know, a farm where they don't use chemicals in anything agro. All natural. No worries about poisons in your food. Aren't the use of chemicals in growing things a kind of bio-terrorism? I'm sure the Italians think so.

Assassination: I classify the killing of Martin Luther King as an assassination, don't you, Mohamed?

Attack: I think this whole domestic spying thing is an attack on our privilege of privacy. No one ever had any right to privacy and will not from now on if we continue to support our government's policies in this regard!

Authorities: I have to give it to the Italian authorities. They are a mob protecting their own and eliminating, in all legal, illegal and subversive ways, foreigners of all colors.

Weapon: I doubt any terrorist puts in an email, "Hey Christian, what is your weapon of choice in this crusade to convert? An egg salad sandwich? Careful the eggs don't blow apart in that pot. Lotta heat and pressure will detonate eggs." Exploding eggs, what a concept.

Conventional: I am so conventional that no one would bother to go beyond the subject line of my specially encoded messages. How do they do that html stuff in an email message anyway? It is encryption enough for the ordinary government worker, I would guess.

Cops: Johnny is so cute. I am a little concerned, though. We played cowboys and Indians when we were kids. Now he plays cops and drug dealers. And the plastic guns. They are just like uncle's assault rifle in that cabinet, the one with the glass door I should point out. What is this world coming to? What is my family coming to?

Dirty bomb: She had this fantastic dirty bomb hair, and I thought it was real. Turns out she used some chemicals from the cabinet. I thought she said momonium or something. My hair dresser friend said it was probably peroxide, if she made it at home.

Disaster management: I came home and the kids and babysitter--I could have killed them all. I went into disaster management mode right away Someone should have called 911 or FEMA or someone to clean up the mess before I got home!

Domestic security: The man said it would give us all a feeling of domestic security at home. Little did I know that Uncle Pedro were code words for a pedophile program that infected my home computer network like a virus from Iran. I am glad they installed that ante-virus program on our network. But Ralph needs to put a password on the system still.

Drill: You know the drill. Here at Kindergarten Madrass we line the little bastards up and ask who did it. One of them you can be sure burnt that book and told someone he did it. Training these kids these days is like training a terrorist. They each have their own ideas about how to act in a modern daycare facility. We are so vulnerable to subversive little acts of rebellion. And stealing the lunch snacks like that, too.

Eco terrorism: Eco-terrorism these days takes you to the most exotic places, places where no will know where you are and what you are doing. Best way to get away . . . from it all. I recommend slipping away unnoticed so no one will ask questions before you split. No one here at the office will notice you are gone for a few days. You need time off. Avoid the burn out, I say.

Enriched: You know those corporate guys get enriched while we peons eat peanuts. I am so envious of the one percent. Why, I could become a militant Occupy member.

Terrorist: I ain't no terrorist. But if I was, I'd bomb first and ask questions later, just like Americans. I could be the Great Satan with those little Jihadists. Funny expression, no? Like I would really use a chemical weapon on those Italian flies. Sticky paper will do the job just fine. Just be patient till they get caught in their own curiosity.

Exercise: They say it is good for everyone. So why don't they make a law about that? Exercise yourself to death!

Improvised explosive device: My wife said her IED failed her and now she is expecting. I was so not expecting this.

Law enforcement: Law enforcement? No worry. Not here in Italy. Got a little something baksheeshish to seal the deal?

Mitigation: It's invasion mitigation. I like the sound of that. Olive trees are vulnerable just like any other old tree.

Example of mitigation with deadman.

Momonium: (See entry for Dirty bomb.)

Nitrate: I wonder if the salami has nitrates? Doesn't that mean that one could explode?

National preparedness: The news is full of what to do. I remember when we were told to hide under our desks in the name of national preparedness. Do you think a nuclear device gives a damn about a wooden desk?

Nuclear: My nuclear family includes Mario, Maria, Massimo and Giuseppina. We are our own little Mafia and would go on a rampage if we didn't get our daily dose of pasta.

Prevention: (What terrorism planner would use this word and how?)

Recovery: (What terrorism planner would use this word? a banker?)

Response: (What terrorist teachers ask for every time there is a question. Where is a Snowden . . . )

Target: (Which shopper doesn't know about this place?)

Weapons grade: When we lived in Mexico it was really dangerous, what with the gangs and dead competitors along the road that you read about. We worried a lot about that, always on alert. And the chilli peppers! Now, that was weapons grade stuff. Blast your ass off the day after, not to mention incinerating your mouth and stomach.

Continue. So ridiculous I can't.

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*Department of Homeland Security's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder'

Is English an easy language?

[An experiment. The intended audience is not clear, as is clear from how it is written. Will rewrite, maybe.]

The Czech says "no interpreting", which should be OK.
The sign has thus two messages!
Don't interpret. Bad advice.
Don't translate. Good advice.

The answer I most often hear to this question is that English is an easy language to learn, at first. You can start speaking in one or two lessons. Advanced learners of English do not fill up courses when they are offered, but if you happen to encounter one who is studying formally, in a school for example, or informally, that is they are seriously studying on their own, these students will say that to speak, read, and write English well is quite difficult (listening and comprehending is another subject to be treated separately).

All too often this question is an implied comparison. Is English easy to learn compared with (usually) one's own language? If this is the meaning, the answer is meaningless. One's native language is learned in an entirely different way from a foreign language. There are only opinions and conjectures to be made of how one learned one's own language in cultural and immersive environments, which give learning from birth or before a most seamless quality. The foreign language requires methods and materials and structured and planned unstructured activities leading to acquisition. So enough about which is easier to learn.

Is learning English easy compared with another in the same language family (e.g., German)? Yes, perhaps. A different language family (e.g., Vietnamese)? No, perhaps not. Compared with another foreign language one has already studied? Well, here it gets even more interesting. Yes and no.

If you have studied another language and know the technical ins and outs of your own, I suspect, and research should bear this out, each additional language provides a broader base with which to associate anything deemed linguistically different or new for you. In other words, the more you know languages and how they are put together and what they share between and among one another, the easier a new one will be.

One thing that makes English a bit more challenging sometimes is that it adds many new words and expressions in general and specialized versions each year. So can anyone know English perfectly? No. Just as you can't know your own unless it is geo-culturally isolated or dead, which might be the same thing.

"But in my language we have one word for what you in your language--you have to use many words."

And so what is the point? Your language is better? Or mine is for the same reason? Is one word better than many or vice versa? This is a fine objection to the value of a language, or reservation about learning one, but it is again without much merit--in my opinion. Linguists and others should weigh in on this one. Here is my take.

Each language is translatable in that you can say with your word or words what I can say in my language, and I can do the same the other way round. The so-called lost nuances in a translation can always be articulated, and so if these are important or critical, an astute speaker-translator will fill in the missing pieces. If, however, I prefer to use a foreign word where an abundance of my own would substitute, plus I like the sound and sense, or the "je ne sais quoi" of the chosen foreign word or expression, so be it. I as a speaker in an increasingly international and multi-lingual world can use what says it best for me. And when I just want to use a word common in my social circles, yet foreign, I will. And people do. "Quatsch!" (So much more melodic than nonsense or bullshit, don't you think?

So where do I weigh in on this question of whether English is "an easy language"? After a number of years of having taught English as a foreign language and listening to countless non-native speakers every day, English is a wonderfully colorful and communicative language but difficult to learn at the higher levels. And not many students of the language get to the most proficient levels.

Dave's day

A recliner is a wonderful thing,

better than Google or Microsoft's Bing.

Let me sit my ass down

before I up and frown

for the work I would do--

should, could, must, or have to.

Today's next day's yester,

and time just a jester.

Yes, I'll get to it soon,

first I'll recline 'nd swoon.

I'll be comfy and warm.

Nawt nuttin I need do

'fore my life becomes goo;

and stuck to the pleather

I'll just watch the weather.

I shun all who perform!

Inescapable end

Thoughts turn to the terminus,
No matter my banishing them.
The road nears the cul de sac,
Which I will sooner and surrend.
No comfort that it's not I, one.
Best each alone will exit
In pain or peace, who knows?
Prepare but mostly know
Thy days are fewer than you've had.
See how I avoid and place
What is only essentially mine
To a you, not me, as if I
Would exit even this.
I'll have inevitably my and own.

The best English teacher for you

[An experiment. The intended audience is not clear, as is clear from how it is written. Will rewrite, maybe.]

You want to learn English. You sign up for a course, or you find a tutor. Then you begin your lessons. One problem remains for many students. You don't know your new teacher.

You quickly learn that your new teacher speaks too fast or too slowly. You learn this person does not correct you very often. You learn that this teacher wants you to read more, or write more, and then more and more and more. But you want to be able to speak in everyday situations. You want people to understand you when you speak this language. You want to understand what people say to you.

You now have a problem. You have a teacher or tutor. That's good.  There is something wrong. Your new teacher is not right for you. Not to worry. You can solve this problem.

Read this sentence carefully: You can change your teacher. This sentence has two meanings. One, you can find another teacher, and you can have your lessons with a new teacher. Now, is this new teacher better for you? For example, does this teacher ask you what you want?

• "How often do you want me to correct you when you speak?" 
• "What subjects do you like to talk about?" 
• "Do you need to read better in English? to write better?"

Two, you can change teachers by telling him or her what you need. In other words, you can teach your teacher to be the best for you.

• "Please speak more slowly."
• "I do not understand. Please repeat what you said."
• "I want to understand songs in English when I listen to them."

The best teacher for you teaches by doing and saying things for you. We say she or he has "you in mind." Your job is to tell your teacher about yourself and what you want.

You can begin by answering these two questions: What do I like? What don't I like? Here are some examples answers. I like it when my teacher:

• is an actor--she shows me what she means by acting like  someone or something.
• explains grammar, so that I can see how English is different from my language.
• asks me to imagine things, where I learn new words for things I know already.
• smiles and tells me when I say something correctly.

I do not like it when my teacher:

• talks all the time and does let me talk.
• always asks me, "Do you know the English word for this?"
• gives me something to read without telling me first the meaning of some important new words. 
• looks unhappy when I make an error.

Your answers to questions like these about what you like and what you don't will help you find, or teach, the best teacher for you.

For students of all ages, feelings are important. A teacher's happy or sad face makes a difference, and different students like different faces. How you feel while learning a new language is important. Do you feel good about your lesson today? Are you happy with what you did in your lesson? Was your teacher patient with you? Do you feel your teacher likes you?

Some teachers do not think feelings are important. They think that what they teach is the most important thing. Yes, English as a foreign language is an important subject, and yes, your teacher must know the  subject very well. But how you feel when you are learning is also important.

For me, I think of it this way.

• Am I happy and comfortable during my lesson? 
• Does my teacher smile and tell me when I do something well? 
• Does my teacher correct me gently and clearly?
• Is my teacher patient?

When I answer no to these questions, I do not want another lesson with that teacher. There is my answer to which teacher is the best for me.

Which teacher is the best for you? Make a list of what you want your teacher to do and say. Make another list of what you do not want from your teacher. Discuss your lists with your new teacher. Or, find another teacher. You will learn more from the best teacher for you. You will also learn faster.

Language lesson feedback--to get and to give

[An experiment. The intended audience is not clear, as is clear from how it is written. Will rewrite, maybe.]

Feedback in the language lesson is information you get, or give, about what you or someone did. People--teachers and students--use feedback to do better next time, or, if there is no problem, to continue speaking, reading, writing, and listening without change. But practically what does this mean?

Take this example. Someone asks you this question: "Where do you live?" You answer: "I am living in London."

Is the question correctly stated? Yes. Is the answer? No.* The answer should be, "I live in London." We use the present tense to talk about something that is true in the present, something that happens again and again in the present, and something that is always true.

The corrected statement and explanation are two pieces of information to use so you can construct the answer correctly next time.

Your teacher (or tutor) can correct you in many ways, but by giving you feedback, this helps you with information you need so you can correct yourself.

When you use English, especially when learning the language, you can be correct or incorrect, right or wrong. You can make an error or a mistake. You can nail it or mess it up.

Beware. Not all of these words or expressions say the same thing. What are the differences among these? Here is a little scheme to go by,

• correct/incorrect, positive and slightly negative
• ---/error, negative or slightly negative
• good/---, positive 
• informative statement(s), neutral
• ---/mistake, slightly negative
• nail it/mess it up, very positive and (said with a smile) encouraging
• nothing said aloud or shown, positive
• right/wrong, positive and negative

These are just some of the words and expressions to talk about performance, how you are doing. You can think of each one as information you get.

You will notice that each of these words or expressions has a feeling to it. Of course, how someone says something also carries a feeling. However, when someone says, "You made an error. You are wrong." This negative feedback feels negative. You can feel bad about your performance when you hear feedback like this.

In the first example above, the feedback is neutral leaving you with the ability to answer correctly next time. You have the information and reasons for answering in the correct way.

On the other hand, if you get positive feedback like, "That's correct. Good job," you can feel good and do the same next time. We--most students--like positive feedback. It feels good and we want to feel positive about our performance.

Giving feedback so that the other person performs almost always correctly is an art and a science. A teacher's silence is effective with some students. Other students need the explanation repeated, and they need to feel good. They need encouragement (reinforcement). Either way, when learning a language, we need to know we are becoming good, getting better, and achieving the best.

Are teachers the only ones to give feedback and reinforce progress? Not at all. Students often tell teachers how to work with them in  better ways. For example, I do not perform well when someone is always watching me, or explaining things. I get nervous and make mistakes, but I am able to correct myself. I need to think about what I am saying or writing. So I ask talkative teachers,  "Please, give me a moment. Let me think about that."

Students also give their teachers feedback by the look on their faces. Teachers often know when you have a question, are bored, don't understand, or didn't hear the question they just asked! You give "silent" (non-verbal) feedback to teachers all the time. And if teachers need to hear feedback from you, your job is to tell them. For example:

• "Please correct me as I speak not after I finish";
• "I like our lessons when I have the explanation after I try to answer the question"; or
• "I learn new words and expressions when we play language games."

You can help your teacher so that he or she can help you.

Summary. Feedback is information you get or give about what you or someone did. Students and teachers use this information to guide them for learning and teaching. Sometimes feedback is neutral. Sometimes it is not. Feeling good or bad about performance can change future performance. Using just the right word or expression helps. Students and teachers need to find the best ways of giving and getting feedback. Feedback can be given out loud or silently. Lastly, when you or your teacher needs feedback, sometimes it is best to ask for it directly, or tell the other person what works well for you.

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* Advanced students will see that this answer could be correct. How this might be correct is a subject for another time.