Random Thoughts 3: A Little Bit of This, and a Little Bit of That...

[Synobun]

Meanwhile in the LIBERAL HIVE of Texas, you're getting punished if you don't self-flagellate enough to the Pledge.

 

[Ryika]

Meanwhile in the LIBERAL HIVE of Texas, you're getting punished if you don't self-flagellate enough to the Pledge.

And rightfully so. Some Chinese children probably DIED because the factory collapsed on top of them while they were working on that piece of cloth, and you would disrespect that? What kind of a horrible person would dance on the graves of children?

 

[Farm Boy]

I no rite? Like with whips and errrything. Where that copy of Da Vinci go? Got a hankering for some Hanks.

 

[Ryika]

More serious post:

I'm currently thinking about learning Arabic, but apparently, it's a very difficult language to learn for people who's mother's tongue is German. Got me thinking though - Arabic-speaking refugees are taught enough German to communicate in less than a year even with no prior knowledge, so how hard can the reverse process really be?

 

[EgonSpengler]

More serious post:

I'm currently thinking about learning Arabic, but apparently, it's a very difficult language to learn for people who's mother's tongue is German. Got me thinking though - Arabic-speaking refugees are taught enough German to communicate in less than a year even with no prior knowledge, so how hard can the reverse process really be?

I can't provide any insight into German and Arabic, but I've found there's a huge difference between learning a language by immersion (e.g. being in that country) and learning a language from afar, in a classroom. I spent 4 years trying to learn French in college, in a classroom, from American instructors with American accents, and when I arrived in France I may as well have been deaf. I could say a handful of things (albeit with my American accent), but when a French person said anything to me - even things that I knew I'd studied and practiced - I really struggled to understand them.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

More serious post:

I'm currently thinking about learning Arabic, but apparently, it's a very difficult language to learn for people who's mother's tongue is German. Got me thinking though - Arabic-speaking refugees are taught enough German to communicate in less than a year even with no prior knowledge, so how hard can the reverse process really be?

Maybe they could learn German so quickly because it's a much easier language to learn than Arabic ?
If we're talking specifically about Syrians, I think they learn French and English in school which already gives them some familiarity with European languages.
Arabic has a few guttural sounds that are hard to pronounce for on-native speakers and a different writing system. If you're serious about it you should definitely take a proper class. Learning a language by yourself just doesn't work. In the very best case scenario you'll end up with a very silly accent.

 

[Ryika]

I'm around people who speak Arabic all the time, so that shouldn't really be a problem... that's actually part of the reason I'm thinking about learning it. Might be very useful for professional and private opportunities, aside from the kinkiness of being able to understand what people talk on the bus when they think I don't understand them. I'm pretty sure I could even get a few people to teach me, but I tend to learn better on my own.

 

[Takhisis]

kinkiness of being able to understand what people talk on the bus when they think I don't understand them.

This is closely related to trolling so I approve.

You should take some sort of group class, perhaps.

 

[Ryika]

I find it interesting when people want to monopolize the meaning of words.

The word "trap" has a very clear definition in the anime scene; it stands for characters in anime or manga that are a biological man or woman, but appear as the other sex, either intentionally or unintentionally. They are not trans characters, but usually cross-dressers or just characters that have tomboyish/<whatever the male version is> body types. As far as I'm aware, the two uses of the word don't even share an origin, they just developed side by side because it's such an obvious word to use in both situations.

Yet, there are activists who say that using the word in the context of what it stands for in anime is transphobic, because other people use it as a slur against trans individuals. That's just... ridiculous. This sort of context-blindness is one of the most unnecessary ways to create conflict I can think of. There are two groups that need not be in conflict at all, and yet conflict is fabricated anyway, as if there were no actual issues that need attention.

 

[Traitorfish]

I find it interesting when people want to monopolize the meaning of words.

The word "trap" has a very clear definition in the anime scene; it stands for characters in anime or manga that are a biological man or woman, but appear as the other sex, either intentionally or unintentionally. They are not trans characters, but usually cross-dressers or just characters that have tomboyish/<whatever the male version is> body types. As far as I'm aware, the two uses of the word don't even share an origin, they just developed side by side because it's such an obvious word to use in both situations.

Yet, there are activists who say that using the word in the context of what it stands for in anime is transphobic, because other people use it as a slur against trans individuals. That's just... ridiculous. This sort of context-blindness is one of the most unnecessary ways to create conflict I can think of. There are two groups that need not be in conflict at all, and yet conflict is fabricated anyway, as if there were no actual issues that need attention.

I mean, your certainty as to what a word means, does not make that usage any less repugnant. Was that ever the issue at stake?

 

[cardgame]

I think the issue is clearly defined cultural appropriation. Trap as applied to cross-dressing is fine and valid and indeed what it is for. Trap as applied to transgender people isn't any of that, it's been appropriated by people who do not really understand it or who use it maliciously.

 

[Traitorfish]

I think the issue is clearly defined cultural appropriation. Trap as applied to cross-dressing is fine and valid and indeed what it is for. Trap as applied to transgender people isn't any of that, it's been appropriated by people who do not really understand it or who use it maliciously.

Are we really worried about culturally appropriating the anime scene?

If Stalin had decided to Holodomor-ise weebs instead of Ukrainians, I would personally drive the grain-requisition tractor.

 

[Takhisis]

That would be funny if I a) didn't know people who've survived the Soviet Union and b) hadn't just stopped posting on fiftychat to go on an anime spree earlier this evening.

 

[Traitorfish]

survived the Soviet Union

What?

 

[Synobun]

What?

Hitler was his neighbour, I think.

 

[Takhisis]

As Synsensa points out, I live in Argentina, which is a place that has seen waves of exiles and refugees from all over, especially Nazi Germany and Soviet ‘re-education’. You can even find concentration camp survivors with numbers tattooed on their skins, and various people who have been accused of ideological crimes. Talking to those people is quite an education.

 

[Traitorfish]

As Synsensa points out, I live in Argentina, which is a place that has seen waves of exiles and refugees from all over, especially Nazi Germany and Soviet ‘re-education’. You can even find concentration camp survivors with numbers tattooed on their skins, and various people who have been accused of ideological crimes. Talking to those people is quite an education.

It's not immediately clear what implications this has for my joke about requisitioning grain from anime fans.

 

[Takhisis]

That there are some things that are not funny to me. In this case, genocide.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm still blanking on this one. Are we working from the assumption that a joke which refers to something is necessarily making a joke of that thing? Because, that's a bad assumption.

 

[cardgame]

I have absolutely no idea how you drew the conclusions you did to make that comment. The topic was transphobia.