A Canticle for Leibowitz thoughts

“A Canticle For Leibowitz” by Walter M Miller Jr.(1959) is a post apocalyptic novel that originally started as 3 separate stories published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Due to this, the story follows 3 different plot timelines with different characters and technology timelines. In addition, Walter M. Miller Jr takes the approach of forming philosophical and moral arguments using the characters to discuss the problems that each face in each era. In part 1, the story focuses on a severely limited technological environment where this character, Francis encounters a strange man while prospecting and is led to a secret vault of which astounds Francis and his entire abbot. Without giving too much of the plot away, themes in this part focus on fear of the unknown, the nature of ego, or more specifically, pride, humility and how human action has driven humanity into self destruction and intellectual darkness. In part 2, the story follows characters who investigate the stored knowledge of previous generations and the characters develop some old technology through their curiosities. This part of discovery in development is contrasted by the intrigue and curse of human politics. The author is trying to present his ideas of a world that is sharply divided by those with practical views and those with higher ideals. Part 1 and 2 are relatively interesting and give the reader things to think about when considering themes as before mentioned. Unfortunately, Part 3 is where things turn more convoluted. For Part 3, the details of a world that has modern technology including space travel, nuclear testing, mass media, and even euthanasia. The main character of this part, Zerchi is experiencing the effects of war where he is tested for his believes when trying to help victims. The problem with this part of the story is that it lasts too long compared to parts 1 and 2, with many elements in this part that distracts from the main themes covered earlier in the book. Perhaps, the moral system of the author in how these characters interact more so than why they behave this way is what slows the narrative down. It is reasonable to make the assumption that in 1959, the arguments laid before the reader in this part is more convincing to the average western reader, but in contrast to modern sci fi novels, it feels somewhat limited. When reading, “A Canticle For Leibowitz”, the similarities between this work and the works of Philip K Dick stood out. For one thing, the role of simulations and hypothetical adaptations to science apparatus in Miller Jr.’s work brought the comparison of the Priests in the abbots and that of the blade runners in “Do androids Dream of Electric sheep?”, people using their limited resources in order to correct the mistakes of the leadership of humanity. The abbots using knowledge instead of firearms, to destroy false ideas while at the same time being exposed and changed by new ideas found. Another part is the hallucination of Philip K Dick’s characters in their respective plots being pivotal to their experience, well for the abbots in “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, so called religious experiences, starting with in part 1, Francis seeing the wanderer led to profound development. In conclusion, “A Canticle For Leibowitz”, is a solid post apocalyptic story that uses genre fiction motifs and infuses them with literary themes for an entertaining yarn. This story holds up for a work from 1959, and I would give it a 4.5/5. Would recommend.

"A Quiet Place" by Seicho Matsumoto Thoughts

written May, 2025.

A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumo, 1971, is an interesting story about a bureaucrat who attempts to maneuver his way up the ranks, in this quest, Tsueno Asai's relationship with his wife Eiko has become cold and transactional. Asai faces an event that upends his life when his wife Eiko suddenly dies in an unfamiliar neighborhood. The circumstances surrounding Eiko's death are unusual and Asai despite his cold attitude towards his wife, becomes more and more involved in finding out what has happened to her and eventually he investigates of whom had caused his wife's death. Due to the nature of the story, this summary will have to due for the reader, but this review is more concerned with themes and patterns that emerge in this story.

One of the major themes of this book would be quite familiar to those living in the west, the theme of the "rat race" or more specifically, great sacrifice within a capitalistic system in order to pursue both more and power. Tsueno Asai would be a relatable character in Japanese socity, while still not a salaryman office worker per say, his power was more in cleaning up others mess up more so than making his own individual decisions. As "A Quiet Place" progresses, Asai does begin to get more autonomy, yet this self direction ends up causing him great trouble. The author, Seicho Matsumoto had been known for his leftist proclivities, and the story's lack of meaning within a corporate environment is consistent for Marxist interpretations of the futility of the lower classes to participate in Capitalistic structures.

When the reader considers the publication time of this book in Japan and the student protests and even before the Anpo protests of 1960, once can see the inference from the social events and the reader can see what Matsumoto was thinking in the 1960s.

Matsumoto in the book makes a commentary about gender/sexuality relations. In some ways, the idea of women making their own decisions is accepted by Asai and when the main conflict emerges in the book, Asai does not blaim his wife, but rather the main antagonist instead.

An interesting part of "A Quiet Place" is a criticism of rigid society, or at least bureaucracy. Tsueno Asai could have avoided problems, but because of the lack of compentancy in society and in his job, it incredibly leads to Asai's downfall. Considering the expectations of work culture in Japan, and the decline of birth rate in modern Japan, it is not as surprise that social criticism from the opposition would resonate with readers who traditionally participate in a collectivistic society and for where bureaucracy is expected.

In conclusion, reading Matsumotos work for the first time, his work has a Japanese approach to the mystery genre while attempting to follow literary themes, looking at reviews of the work online, readers are mixed from western readers , yet for those readers who are used to reading a plot that develops over time like a Maigret work by George Simmenon or an Agatha Christie work, Matsumoto's work is interesting and worth checking out.

Language Acquisition: Then and Now. Part 3

written December, 2022.

The Education Industry has seen these emerging trends in the late 20th century and early 21st century and has worked to put out many courses of various levels to try to reach new audiences. In the 1990s and 2000s, many mixed media packages, that is a paper book or pamphlet and audio CD package was a common experience in bookstores and online marketplaces. With that being said, the quality of the material was notably different compared to the past. Printed material in the middle of the 20th century to the 1980s was oriented towards serious students and thus had grammatical exercises, large vocabulary lists and self contained work. The newer courses that followed however was for a more casual audience. Research and work done by individuals such as Stephen Krashen and Professor Alexander Arguelles has documented the lack of content in newer courses. It is unfortunate since the price hasn’t been lowered to reflect this lack of content, but has kept pace with inflation. The trend of removing content to focus on casual conversation has continued into the 2010s and early 2020s as now it is almost a requirement to purchase multiple courses to reach the same threshold as those of an earlier time. Despite the failure of these modern courses of the same brand to provide the experience of before, there is now more substantial website media and application language learning.

In the age of social media, new applications have come about to meet the increased demand of second language acquisition. Applications such as Babel, Duolingo, Lingq and others have provided a platform, usually “fremium”, that is some basic material is free to learn with, whereas the majority of the content must be paid for. Despite being marketed for a casual market, these site have had success, especially with the increase of demand for learning the English language by people overseas. Generally, what these applications have in common is that they try to “gamify” the routine of memorizing and exposure to the target language.5050 One of the way they accomplish this is with using icons and email notifications to remind their audience to come back and keep their day streak going on. In addition, these websites will usually provide more incentives for customers to seek out other products to explore and presumably pay money for. The benefit of this type of media, is that it allows you to explore different offerings while not committing much time or money towards a given task. This is much different than going to University or other private school offerings where large expenses are due up front. The negative aspect of this learning methodology is while it has been examined that some progress can be made on these different platforms, it is not enough for those individuals who are looking to get credentials in a language on the European framework or other like frameworks and it will not replace having a teaching in a classroom to guide those students on common mistakes and how to avoid them.51

Another development has emerged in the American market for second language acquisition. The rise of Spanish language publication. Traditionally, through the 20th century, much of the publication of books and other printed media occurred in Spain and to a lesser extent Mexico.52 This restriction of location for publishing in Spanish has made it that a lot of material is not widely available in the United States in the past; however, since the 2000s, there has been notice in the corporate publishing industry that there is a fast growing demographic of Spanish speaking people in the United States. The amount of Spanish speakers has accelerated since the 1980s; therefore, big publishers in the United States are currently heavily invested in producing bilingual education material and publishing new Spanish language publications of known, popular books.53 It is now common to see a major author in the US have a simulation or near simultaneous release of their novel or nonfiction book in bookstores to reach this demographic. The methods and execution of business to reach this market has led to technological developments in the classroom. Now it is common to see middle school and high school students using published software, that is interactive software to connect their language to English vocabulary.5454 This software approach has had mixed results in performance of students in US State administered testing, but it will likely evolve to improve on what results have been accomplished according to standard metrics of assessment.

In conclusion, the study of language acquisition and its implementation will continue to be progressed forward by a mixture of government, military and private industry for different outcomes. Challenges exist that need to be addressed for the overall education system in the United States including the problems of using standardized tests to measure results and the decline of reading ability among the American public; yet, with concerted effort in the means and techniques to tackle these problems, these problems can be solved with the passage of time.

Work Cited

1. Mclelland, Nicola, and Richard Smith, eds. The History of Language Learning and Teaching I: 16th-18th Century Europe. NED-New edition. Modern Humanities Research Association, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv16km0ns.

2. Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practices in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press, 1982.

3.Gummere, Francis B. “What Place Has Old English Philology in Our Elementary Schools?” Transactions of the Modern Language Association of America 1 (1884): 170–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/456007.

4. Ramos, Francisco, and Stephen Krashen. “Rapid Research Report: The Impact of One Trip to the Public Library: Making Books Available May Be the Best Incentive for Reading.” The Reading Teacher 51, no. 7 (1998): 614–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20201971.

5. Buck, Carl Darling. “Comparative Philology and the Classics.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 47 (1916): 65–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/282828.

6. Kaufmann, Steve. The Way of the Linguist: A Language Learning Odyssey. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2005.

7. Corson, Hiram, “The Aims of Literary Study” New York, NY: Macmillian and Company, 1895.

8. Korty, Margaret Barton. “Benjamin Franklin and Eighteenth-Century American Libraries.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 55, no. 9 (1965): 1–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/1006049.

9. Atiyah, Michael. “Benjamin Franklin and the Edinburgh Enlightenment.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 150, no. 4 (2006): 591–606. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4599027.

10. Groen, Mark (Spring–Summer 2008). "The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools, 1837–1854".American Educational History Journal.35 (1/2): 251–260.

11. Henkin, Alan B., and C. Dennis Ignasias. “Planning in Public Education: Lessons from Horace Mann and Henry Barnard.” The Clearing House 51, no. 9 (1978): 430–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30185059.

12. Suen, Hoi K., and Lan Yu. “Chronic Consequences of High‐Stakes Testing? Lessons from the Chinese Civil Service Exam.” Comparative Education Review 50, no. 1 (2006): 46–65. https://doi.org/10.1086/498328.

14. Finkelstein, Barbara. “Perfecting Childhood: Horace Mann and the Origins of Public Education in the United States.” Biography 13, no. 1 (1990): 6–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23539439.

15. Doering, Aaron, Richard Beach, and David O’Brien. “Infusing Multimodal Tools and Digital Literacies into an English Education Program.” English Education 40, no. 1 (2007): 41–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40173267.

16. Stavans, Ilan. “Bilingual Nation: Spanish-Language Books in the United States since the 1960s.” In A History of the Book in America: Volume 5: The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America, edited by David Paul Nord, Joan Shelley Rubin, and Michael Schudson, 389–406. University of North Carolina Press, 2009. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469625836_nord.31.

17. Freeman, Donald, and Karen E. Johnson. “Reconceptualizing the Knowledge-Base of Language Teacher Education.” TESOL Quarterly 32, no. 3 (1998): 397–417. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588114.

18. Abrams, Sandra Schamroth, and Sara Walsh. “Gamified Vocabulary: ONLINE RESOURCES AND ENRICHED LANGUAGE LEARNING.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 58, no. 1 (2014): 49–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24034541.

19. Erard, Michael. Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners. New York, NY: Free Press, 2012.

20. Levy, Mike. “Technologies in Use for Second Language Learning.” The Modern Language Journal 93 (2009): 769–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25612273.

21. Gimbel, John. “German Scientists, United States Denazification Policy, and the ‘Paperclip Conspiracy.’” The International History Review 12, no. 3 (1990): 441–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40106226.

22. Keene, Donald, and Akira Yamaguchi. Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2009.

23. Ichinokuchi, Tad and Daniel Aiso, eds. John Aiso and the M.I.S.: Japanese-American Soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service, World War II. Los Angeles: The Club, 1988.

24. Tedick, Diane J., and Constance L. Walker. “Second Language Teacher Education: The Problems That Plague Us.” The Modern Language Journal 78, no. 3 (1994): 300–312. https://doi.org/10.2307/330109.

25. Sabol, Steven. “Assimilation and Identity.” In “The Touch of Civilization”: Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization, 205–34. University Press of Colorado, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1mtz7g6.10.

26. Kashima, Tetsuden. “Executive Order 9066.” In Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, 47–92. University of Washington Press, 1997. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnm2s.8.

27. Bray, Patrick (27 July 2016). "75th Anniversary Special: The Nisei legacy". Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

28. Davis, Donald A. Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor. St. Martin’s Press, New York: 2005.

29. Hanushek, Eric A., and Steven G. Rivkin. “Understanding the Twentieth-Century Growth in U.S. School Spending.” The Journal of Human Resources 32, no. 1 (1997): 35–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/146240.

30. Azuma, Eiichiro. “Brokering Race, Culture, and Citizenship: Japanese Americans in Occupied Japan and Postwar National Inclusion.” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations 16, no. 3 (2009): 183–211. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23613054.

31. Malley, Shawn. “Layard Enterprise: Victorian Archaeology and Informal Imperialism in Mesopotamia.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 40, no. 4 (2008): 623–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40206011.

32.McCormick, John R. “History of Foreign Language Teaching at the United States Military Academy.” The Modern Language Journal 54, no. 5 (1970): 319–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/322171.

Language Acquisition: Then and Now. Part 2

written December, 2022.

Another vein that emerged in the late 1800s and continued to the 20th century was the idea of Great books. Great books, an established canon of works for one to pursue an understanding of and to engage in fruitful discussion did notably escape the control of religious dogma, since in its canon, many works actually criticized religion; yet, even in institutions that had a religious identity it was still valued to be a teaching way. Many of the books in the Western canon of Great books, that is those which are commonly ascribed to it are works of different languages than English. Due to this, the more advance Great book programs like University of Chicago and Colombia promote individuals learning languages that are relevant to reading primary sources. This tradition had been very strong in the United States and it lead to derivative trends we would see in the late 20th century.

In the middle of the 20th century, education became a national issue. The Soviets had just sent up Sputnik in 1959, and thus science and engineering became pressing nature for the White House administration. Due to this, education was flooded with money and other resources in order to catch up to the Soviet Union.22 The pursuit of knowledge in this period was greatly helped with the rise of the English language as the lingua franca, that is the common language of commerce. Despite, the decline of the British Empire after World War 2; the United States became the predominant power in the world and everyone knew it. With this development, the influence of French and German declined in scholarly activity; although in some fields such as Engineering and Science, German continued to have a prominent role.2323 This is due in part to the Marshal plan and its funding to rebuild key industry in Europe. The Germans from their destruction emerged as manufactures of lots of cars and other high quality goods. The French on the other hand recovered and focused on chemical and nuclear energy development. Since the Eisenhower administration had deregulated part of the nuclear industry for its civilian production, this helped out the industries of other nations expand as well.24

Something notable happened to language learning in the 1960s and that was the rise of applied linguistics and genitive grammar. Applied Linguistics, being the preferred term for is essentially the umbrella term that took over for Philology in the English speaking world, while Genitive grammar, pioneered by scholar Noam Chomsky, attempted to scientifically analyses grammar and other elements of language in a robust mater.25 This genitive grammar arrived at a time in which philosophy had also turned more analytical with those in the English speaking world preferring Analytical philosophy, a way of looking at philosophy with mathematics and unique symbolism versus the continental tradition of the European continent, which put less emphasis on mathematical structure. This continental tradition emerged largely in France and thus the French language became more sought after by those in the English speaking world. 26What is interesting is that although the demand of science was being met by American students at the time, the language acquisition largely did not keep up to speed.

For different reasons, English speaking nations then and now continue to have difficulty in establishing good performance in language education. In Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, students take years of language education in a foreign language and yet many do not get very far.27 Some place the blame on the dominance of English in parlance, some blame it on the failure of the overall system of education. Whatever the reason, this lack of success in the field has caused people in these nations to miss out on developments in other countries. This is especially profound for business people as many English speaking nations now have vast amounts of different people moving there and thus have to find a way to meet the new supply and demand element of this. Part of the problem is the lack of innovation shown in many programs. Secular education in these countries still insists on students memorizing words, puts little emphasis on natural reading and just doing grammar exercises.28 Not only does the memorizing of words not work efficiently in the pursuit of language learning, it also takes away from one of the key motivations of language learning, motivation.

Motivation has and will continue to be an important aspect of language learning. For prospective scholars of the past, languages allowed for interested parties to explore new areas of the world for the culture, archaeology, and even literature. For those in Europe who had tried to make a name for themselves in their own frontiers, this was a large motivation. The ideas of Europe diffused over into North America and became more pronounced in the time period after the US Civil War. This coincided with the rise of American ambition to join the European powers in economic and military expansion. The Navy in this way was the most pronounced in its influence for scholars because of their reach in different ports of the world. After the Spanish American war of 1898, the US had gained the territory of Puerto Rico, Guam and gave the Americans the ability to buy the Philippines from Spain for 20 million dollars. From this intervention, it grew the need for the US to have negotiators in Spanish in particular to reach the new populations that it had annexed.29

To train US soldiers and members of the Navy, the US employed special institutions to train for languages and corresponding military manuals. The role of language was notable for one of the premier institutions of the US Army, West Point. In 1803, West Point had the vast majority of its military guides and manuals in French, and thus many people who spoke French were recruited domestically and from abroad.3030 Before and After the US-Mexican War, officers had the pressing need for Spanish and thus that was added to the teaching curriculum in the 1850s on wards, and so; as the 20th century rolled around there was precedent for the teaching of languages. The First World War caused the US to increase its investment in its language capabilities, despite its late entrance into the War, it had seen the technical challenges that required advance knowledge of geography and technical vocabulary. Due to this, it was more common for US personnel in the 1920s – 1930s to send officers to learn languages at foreign embassies.3131 With the rise of Hitler and the Japanese imperialistic empire, it became clear that the US needed to increase its institutions for language learning. The Defense Language institute predecessors were established to meet the needs of the military. There rigorous training was given out to prepare soldiers in the field for the roles they needed to play in intelligence and reconnaissance. Not surprisingly, the institute was first centered in California, an area with many bilingual people. The Defense Language institute at this time was called “Military Intelligence Service Language School”, MISLS led the efforts in the training of field officers in languages important for the time.32 By 1941, Japanese and German had become security necessities for soldiers and thus the 4th Army was ordered to start a formal school for Japanese. There it was run by Lietuenant Colonel John Weckerling and Captain Kai Rasmussen, graduates of previous programs in Tokyo. They recruited many Japanese Americans to help and to learn for the United States.33

Unfortunately, the start of the World War in late 1941, caused many racial legislation to be passed. In accordance, Executive Order 9066 was passed by President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt that required Japanese Americans to be removed from the West coast of the United States3434 Due to this, the 4th Army was pressured significantly and lost many members of the classes from suspicion by military police and then in June 1942, MISLS was moved to Minnesota for the remainder of the war. In Minnesota, members of the graduate class with proficiency in Japanese were sent to the Pacific in short order.3535 Something significant happened just a year later in the midst of battle for the Pacific; in April 1943, a MIS linguist, Harold Fudenna intercepted a radio signal about the whereabouts of the infamous Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto. This was the man who was responsible for the attack and planning of Pearl Harbor and from this information, the US Navy found Admiral Yamamoto’s plane and shot it down.3636 The death of such a respected military man from Japan was a major blow to the morale of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Successes such as this and further major operations established MISLS in a positive regard and thus when World War 2 had ended, MISLS returned to California and was renamed the Defense Language Institute. The Institute continued to expand and to this day runs two major centers, one in Monterrey, California and an English language school here in San Antonio, Texas.

In the aftermath of World War 2, the demand for language learning and better ways for professionals, soldiers, etc. to obtain it just increased because of the onset of the Cold War. The Cold War started slowly when talking about budgets and demand, but by the 1950s, massive expansion of the military and other services pushed many fields of diplomacy and education forward.38 For one thing, many interpreters and members of the military left the service with valuable skill sets. For Japanese studies, eminent scholars such as Donald Keene and Donald Richie came to establish themselves in Literature and film studies respectively. They had initial support from the US government during the occupation of Japan, but afterwards, it was individual effort in a new market that established them in their fields.39 In addition, the flow of information from the United States was not one sided, from Europe and Asia came many individuals to assist in economic and diplomacy. From Germany, the now declassified “Operation Paperclip” was an operation that confirmed and supported many German scientists from the ruined Third Reich, whether these individuals were virtuous or not was not important to the United States Government, but rather whether or not they had expertise to help bolster the Nuclear, rocket and other scientific developments aspects of the economy were they included to leave Germany.4040 To support this transition, many interpreters from the Defense Language Institute and other contractors with high secretary clearances were brought in to provide language support. All of these operations and developments were reasons why the next age of language acquisition moved from a very institution based system, to more of one of individual needs and aspirations.

The rise of the notable polyglot, that is by definition someone who has fluency and advanced proficient in many languages began to increase in the middle to late 20th century. There had been people in the past who had achieved great success in a number of languages, individuals such as Emil Krebs, John Milton and Giuseppi Mezzofanti; but, beginning in the 20th century offered more technology like video, audio recordings on tape and easier transportation for people to exploit these technological advancements to meet many people in different countries.4242 On these new technological grounds, individuals within the different structures of diplomacy, education and business sent prospective persons to learn in other countries and yet, they did not rely on coursework. For example, Steve Kaufman, a Canadian polyglot spent time in Hong Kong learning Mandarin, despite, Hong Kong being in a near proximity of China, Mandarin wasn’t the people of Hong Kong’s primary language and so, Mr. Kaufman went out of his way to learn by tape, reading graded readers, and speaking to as many people as possible. From there, he was posted to Japan and had to restart the process. Afterwards, throughout the 1980s onward, he was able to use self study methods to pick up many other languages for personal interest and business.4343 Steve Kaufmann methods of reading lots of books and listening to audio is what scholars of language acquisition call “input based learning”. The idea being that the majority of the exposure one would get from this is going to be from a personal self lead experience by working through material. This idea of self driven work is supported by scholars such as Professor Stephen Krashen’s research into applied linguistics and bilingual studies, his input hypothesis has been that comprehensible input, that is stories and sentences that can mostly be understood by the reader while adding new vocabulary is a strong method and perhaps the best method to learning a foreign language.44 While Krashen’s ideas and methods are not without some scrutiny, many individuals still find value in his ways of learning language, even proponents of Output based learning.

Output based learning is that of speaking with different people and producing the language as being the main method of learning the language. Of course, some input is needed in this method, yet, most of the productive work is done by producing the language of choice according to its proponents. An example of the output method in action would be of the polyglot Moses McCormick. On the social media website, Youtube; he would create many videos of him walking around in many different venues like malls, grocery stores, retail stores and even public gatherings and ask people he met, using context clues to whether or not they were from another nation and then ask them a series of introductory information. Moses McCormick stated on his videos and posts that he adapted a standard set of sayings and expressions from self study books such as Colloquial series and the Teach Yourself series and used personal experience from his tutoring and the usage of connecting words to formulate a standard procedure of what to learn first and then expand from this common curriculum. Doing this, he was able to establish a baseline of understanding of different languages and would then go on to search for additional material. As mentioned before about the failure of many students to learn how to hold a basic conversation with people of other countries after years of study, this method was much more effective for those who have adopted it. It is not a surprise, since the output hypothesis has been researched by scholars into its utility. The success of these modern polyglots in scenarios and learning pedagogy that largely avoid the classroom has caused many to seek out new ways to find more efficient methods in the process of language learning.47 Both of these polyglots, Moses McCormick and Steve Kaufman show a dialectic that has emerged in modern second language acquisition, the argument of a pure input based education versus an output based method.

Language Acquisition: Then and Now. Part 1

written December, 2022.

The History of language education is one of parallel ideas and continuously changing movements. From the age of the Enlightenment to our present time period there has always been multiple ways of thoughts and methods on how to teach language. In the time leading up into the 1700s, Christianity and its various lineages had played a major role in shaping the way in which people had thought about education, including languages; however, by the end of the 1700s, the character of education had changed. This was because the Age of Enlightenment had fundamentally changed how scholars and the public had looked at religion and thus this directly impacted the way in which education was taught. Secular education took a more important role in the upbringing of many professionals and thus while Latin was the main language of science and with its supplements of Ancient Greek, by the end of the 1700s and as the 1800s progressed, vernacular languages of English, French and German had become dominant in the time of the Industrial revolutions.1 With this reality in mind, it becomes sensible to limit the examination of this history of language acquisition to the United States, in order to track the developments from the 1700s onward. This is appropriate since despite the colonial foundation that had settled the Americas, the United States was more free to pursue different lines of heritage for its education. In the Americas, individuals such as Benjamin Franklin and Horace Mann had called for reform of education.2 This included establishing “classless schools” and public libraries. Such luxuries were not available to the common person in other western nations; therefore, it gave Educators the ability to develop into separate and remarkable paths for all education and more specifically language learning.

In following the paths language education was to take, it is appropriate to consider the origins. Class played an important role in European and American systems. The Monastery and private institutions gave those with capital the ability to become knowledgeable in a strict education of the Bible and great works composed by those who had established themselves as remarkable in the discourses of philosophy. Latin, being the language of religion and many scientific works in its later Latin form was studied and grammatical cases and tables were studied vehemently.3

This sort of rote education is not unique to the Western education experience from that time period of the 1700s to 1800s, as education in other parts of the world, notably cultures in the Asian continent utilize a lot of the same education pedagogy for thousands of years4. As the 1800s progressed, the monastery lost a lot of power of authority with the diffusion of knowledge to the majority and thus, private religious schools and secular schools became the prime mover of education.5 Along with this, a robust tradition of literary excellence established in the old world and beginning in the new world gave more students the opportunity to expand their horizons for understanding text. This motivated many to learn German, Italian and French in their studies to understand the radical ideas of writers of the day.6 What the diffusion of knowledge also allowed was the substantiation of knowledge being taught to those of the working class. From the 1840s onward, class played less of a role onto what education one received. Horace Mann in his role as secretary of Education in the state of Massachusetts, he worked to create a standard system where teacher would learn about trends of teaching and pedagogy that had been accessed as meritorious.7 In addition, he believed in taxes from the locals to fund their school systems and more involvement from the community, a common core that embraces democracy and ideas of the US constitution, Education must not be religiously aligned to one sect versus another, and that teachers should be well prepared to teach.8 To support his idea, he traveled to Europe and reported changes that were to be made in benefit of the school system. For the aspect of language education, he focused on children learning whole words instead of the alphabet, this is similar to how phrases can be learned in the approaches to learning foreign languages. Although, Horace Mann’s idea was limited in scope, as time progressed, more people came to support the idea of learning phrases to learn language.9

One of the biggest challenges that had been persistent among Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s was the problem of illiteracy.10 The nature of the US economy of the time meant there was many factors that had played into limiting education for people. Many immigrant groups did not speak English when they arrived at the United States and due to crowded conditions in cities, some did not have the opportunity to good schooling. To add on, there was the existing minority population within these areas whom due to racism and other factors such as economics had to send their children into the work force early or did not have the institutions to give people a solid education.11

For the immigrant populations, the rise of nationalism; particularly around the World War 1 era directly impacted German immigrants that they were not taught their heritage language. Other groups, even if they weren’t considered enemies of the United States were told by societal powers and even amongst their own families to assimilate and leave their culture behind.1212 This mentality was very unfortunate since many children missed out on rich literature from their home languages and didn’t receive a strong education in English and thus limited their prospects for advancement in the economy. What is interesting about this is how despite not being a direct class system like in the United Kingdom, the wealthy and business classes were actually showing the opposite of this trend. Language learning had always been important to those in Europe in order to conduct business and diplomacy and the same was true in the United States. Education at Ivy league schools and other elite institutions prided themselves on their robust philology program13

Philology, coming from the Greek root of Philologia, or the “love of language” is the term for the study of language in written and oral sources. It had a rich heritage in Europe and that knowledge had permeated the United States education system along with its overall ideas of the Prussian education.1414 With such a strong connection to Germany and its academic community, some scholars rejected the ideas and manners of this study due to World War 1. Of course, this mindset had roots in blatant nationalism and not objective criticism in methodology of learning language, it did wane the term in the United States, but the ideas still existed just under different labels. In the North East United States, specialization and overall rates of literacy were increasing at a steady rate; however, in other parts of the country, particularly the Southern United States, efforts were not as widespread.15

Many in the Southern United States did not receive a strong education until long into the 20th century, as Jim crow laws and other barriers kept many from joining their northern peers in educational attainment.16 This mentality kept the South behind in development, but did not affect the north as much as although education had been more centralized by the end of the 1800s, by the middle of the 1900s; much of education had a common school system but with a very decentralized structure. States more than anything had instructed schools on how to run their curriculum.17

For some of the gaps in education that existed, there was the increasing role of libraries and private tutoring that emerged to fill gaps. Public library systems greatly expanded in the 20th century, particularly in the American South and West, where large populations were moving to in the 1930s and 1940s. Philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller had established foundations and trusts to give away vasts amount of money to establish universities and public library systems. For those systems that existed, buildings and material was added in vast amounts.18

One of the primary institutions to benefit from this philanthropy was the University of Chicago. University of Chicago along with University of Berkeley, UCLA and Colombia had established themselves as premier places to learn history, philosophy and in that pursuit, languages.19 Language learning in the 20th century became even more important as the archives of European libraries and Universities became more accessible. It was not enough to know the just the English speaking approach to a historical or philosophical topic, but rather all Western sources needed to be consulted to have robust scholarship. In this vein, scholars would learn the language of the area in which they were studying more in depth. This tradition had originated in the British Empire as they expanded their colonial borders. For example, many interpreters and scholars of Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian emerged in the ranks of the British East India company to reap the rewards of civil service in addition to basically having little real barriers to accessing ancient and contemporary works.20 From the transition from the company to the British Raj, their role only became more important. Imperialism was not the only factor in this, but the Industrial revolutions continued the need to exchange information on different technology.

Eastern Elegy 22'

Eastern Eulegy 22'

A day has passed that has rocked the archipelago,

An afterimage has emerged, perhaps of Anpo,

Foreign influence is resisted, but at what cost,

For the youth had their say back then too.

The grandson disappeared on this modern day,

Taken away without much of a say,

A crude attack, aimed at one’s back,

For that day, the 20th century had flashed,

Violence brought back in a time of troubles,

Watch out for the third column,

For the land of the rising sun,

Must not fall into darkness,

Helios Backstory Part 1

When the sunset on July 2nd, 80 FE, the bombings began. The next morning images of the destruction of Satsuma flashed across all residents of Japan's TV sets. A gathering of members of the high government had declared war on the nation of LanxingFang. In Yashiharou, residents were ordered to meet in the Yashiharou Square, an announcer began, “hello citizens; this is a declaration from the government; due to the number of current active soldiers in the imperial army; a draft will be called beginning at 1500 hours.” “During that time, those men between the ages of 16 to 26 will meet here at the central square, those whose surname begins with A to K; for those of you with special skills; a supplemental test shall be administered to determine proper placement; that will be all.” There was chatter among the audience; some were angry at the common enemy while others; primarily women and children worried over their male family members; among the crowd Helios Ata shook his head and looked over to his friend Joji. “Looks like our generation must fight the battles of the older generation, when will humanity learn from its past mistakes?” questioned Helios. “You can’t say that too loud, the wrong person may overhear you,” replied Joji, “I think you are right, come let's head to the mill.” The duo walked over to the mill; “you boys ready for your shift?” asked the foreman, Joji announced “we can only work until 2:30; we need to show up to the draft drawings.” The foreman approached Joji and stated “ah.yes you two are of age; well get to work and i'll speak with the boss”, and so Helios and Joji get started on their work; half way through the shift, Hiro Ushima approaches the duo, “you boys can take a break now, i’d like to have a word with you in my office, please follow me up there”, the boys complied and once they entered his office he shut the door behind them. Once all of them had sat down Hiro began, “I want you two to take the science aptitude tests for this here draft”, after some hesitation Helios spoke, “I don’t know sir, we may not be up to par to be specialists.'' Ushima replied “look here, I’ve spoken to some officials and due to our business dealing with manufacturing; I’m allowed one specialist to help us here to increase production and maintain military standards and I think you two have the best chance of taking that spot; those who are allowed to serve behind the front are more likely to survive this ordeal” told Ushima. “Mr. Ushima, are you suggesting that we should behave like cowards?” questioned Joji. “No!, listen I have been alive three times as long as you have and I’ve seen what war does to people, you can be just as useful to us here as overseas, I will show you the damage to my chest”, he proceeded to unbutton his shirt to show severe scars around his body; “these are bullet wounds and sword wounds; I’ve barely returned alive during my service and a lot of my friends didn’t make it back home; I’m an old man, I need the help and maybe; I can save one of your lives”, after a moment of silence, Hikari stood up from the chair, “alright, I’ll take the test, who knows maybe my habits and work ethic will lead to something”, Joji followed “might as well try it” and then the two thanked Mr Ushima and left his office. Mr. Ushima sat back down in his chair and thought with a smile on his face ‘perhaps the future can change’. At the Plaza, Joji and Hikari waited in line to take the examination. Both of them received an answer sheet and went to work on the examination. After the written portion was complete, there was an oral exam.

A few hours later, the results were sent. Mr. Ushima sent for Joji and Helios, “I will see you one at a time.” Joji went in first, after 15 minutes he left without saying anything. Helios next went into the office. “Please, sit down” told Ushima “I have good news for you, you scored high on the examination and will be continuing to work with us… congratulations,” announced Ushima. Helios’s face changed from a tense uptight disposition to a look of ease. Without saying anything Helios bowed, shook Mr Ushima’s hand and walked out of the office. The Time was 2:50 pm, Joji made his way to the central square when Helios caught up with him. Helios placed his hand on Joji’s shoulder and began speaking. “Joji… listen, I didn’t want things to turn out this way, damn these times of ours” stated Helios. Joji looked over at Helios once he had finished and replied “it’s a man’s duty to serve one’s country, never forget that” and then he walked off into the nearby crowd. Helios would not hear from his friend for the next 2 years.

Goals in due time.

In our modern age, It has become fashionable to follow a rigid pathway of increased performance and productivity in a workplace or to work towards a goal to the sacrifice of everything else. One can speculate that this promoted trend has to do with the COVID-19 Pandemic and its consequences on the job market, that being the increased competitive nature of a job market and finding a job in an international economy while it is under major stress. With that being said, this idea of continual hustle and grind is not a new concept and we can take a look at old concepts as a source for these new age ideas that have manifested themselves in self help videos and articles online.

Some years ago, I read a book called “The Time Paradox” by Philip Zimbardo; essentially, this book could be boiled down to the following central tenants. 1. There are three main time perspectives. These perspectives that exist are the past focus, the present focus and the future focus. The differences between these three perspectives are that a person focuses on either their past, present or future and depending on which course of action they take, it will heavily impact their life and corresponding success. This is because, the past focuser is reminiscing or complaining about what has happened before, and thus this holds them back from continual self improvement. In contrast, the present focuser is attempting to deal with life with the primary issue being what is directly in front of them. According to Zimbardo, these individuals may have some limited success, but because they are so caught up in the here and now, they are limited in which ways they can expand and grow and so, in the long term they will have limited success. The future thinker is thus put on a pedestal and showered with praise for that they don’t worry about the past and instead just keep grinding towards their goals and keep moving in a forward direction. While, grinding forward towards specific goals is all well and good; today, I would like to address how the unconventional individual, that is someone who wants to take a different path than the perpetual grinder, may be on a wise path.

In history, there were individuals who were highly skilled in many topics and made great names for themselves. Such individuals were noted in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and include individuals such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Goethe. The term for these people is called “Polymath”. For those unaware of the words origin, it comes from Greek language roots meaning someone who has high expertise in multiple fields of study.

Many people, assume that if they set a linear pathway of goals and objectives that they must hit these in order to progress; however, I would argue that this is not the only way forward and that divergent pathways can be very positive and even complimentary for pursuing long term goals. A pertinent example is that of NASA Space Program. Many inventions such as space water filtration, improved solar cells and imaging systems now used in cellphones have come about from the spending into the Federal Space programs for the purpose of examining the conditions of space and of landing people on the moon in the 20th century. Such investment has led to many new ideas and progressions on problems in the world despite not seeming applicable in the here and now.

The Corollary of having an open mind while working on different goals is a central point of the many notable books like that of Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstader and the Art of Programming by Donald Knuth. They emphasis that different approaches to problems is vital. Why is an open mind necessary, you may ask? I think it is essential for people to understand that a day of thinking about an issue and one hour of actual execution may very well be much better than doing 8 hours of continual work down the wrong path. For where would Classical Physics be if it wasn’t for Isaac Newton sitting under a tree?

In Conclusion, individuals will have to decide for themselves the best use of their time; however, I suspect that if individuals take the time to explore different pathways out there for their goals, then they will be happier in the endgame.

Archaeology in Real Life

Archaeology Policy in Southwest Asia

Within the nations of Northern Africa and southwest Asia, there have been many challenges posed by civilians towards Government policies and its outcomes. This essay will not dive into the specifics of each country’s challenges, yet it will focus on one specific element of the aftermath of civil disobedience in events like the Arab Springs. From these events, they maintain the element of developing specific social identity and cohesion. Specifically, the focus of this essay will be on the differences between how Egypt and Turkey have conducted social policies and the outcome of these actions.

Many foreign observers of Egypt may not realize that for Egypt’s visitor economy, it was under great strain due to the challenges of the new millennium and previous governmental policy. For example, there was a serious attack in 1997 near Luxor, Egypt that killed 62 people. This, along with the events of a post 9/11 world; caused a lot of worry about safety while traveling and created negative thinking about traveling to the Northern African, and the Southwest Asian region in general. This caused great strain to the profits of the tourism economy of Egypt and thus the budgets of the Egyptian government for further excavation and analysis of ancient sites was diminished. Accordingly, Ministries under the controversial Hosni Mubarak government took action to try to appease tourists and to promote the findings of Archaeologists of the existing sites and the new sites found in more modern times. This effort was mostly successful and despite the backlash from other issues that led to Mubarek being ousted from power in 2011, the policies of the government have largely been supportive of the tourism economy. With exceptional finds such as those of the recent Saqarra tomb and auxiliary structures, the presentation and preservation of antiquities from Egypt seem to be secure financially and in a civil manner in a post global pandemic world.

In the case of Turkey, the Turkish government has been continually consolidated under Recip Tayyip Erdogan; first under the position of prime minister and now while he holds the presidency. Due to this, his cabinet and government have exceptional authority on day to day policy from the top down; in order to make policy. The Turkish government survived largely unscathed from the events of the different Arab Spring movements and despite Erdogan facing challenges from dissidents for different policies such as increasing the role of religion in state, Erdogan’s top down approach has maintained a steady course in contrast to other governments in the region. This consistent course appears to be not beneficial for the average person and a lot of money is being spent on paying debt and policies with marginal returns; because of this, the Turkish Lira has been descending through hyperinflation and the government has had to choose what to invest their limited funds in. From its decision makers, the Turkish government does not find conducting Archaeology to be a significant item to do and thus many major sites of multiple cultures have not been thoroughly investigated into.

Some cultural sites that exist in Turkey include: Roman, Greek, Byzantine and of course Turkish sites. The Government has decided to not investigate further and in some cases even manipulated sites for their own gain. One notable site is the Hagia Sofia, a Christian Church has been converted into a Mosque in modern times and Gobekli Tepe, one of the significant sites of pre-Turkic culture has been largely ignored and has only been excavated to a minor extent. The reason this matters is because the morale in Turkey’s population appears to be low given what accurate information one can attain and having cultural victories gives legitimacy to a government. The Turkish government which plays a balancing act between multiple world powers with the Bosporus could greatly improve its standing in the international community and at home by investigating into its own backyard. One can compare the idea of this to how when one visits France, UK, or Germany; it is common to see the great architecture and artwork when one is there. Very few questions come forward of the long term stability of these western nations. The funding involved to increase a nation’s appearance is minor and the dividends are vast to present yourself as strong in the international community.

With the contrast of the Turkish and Egyptian Archaeology policies, one can extrapolate that it is crucial to search for social victories when managing a nation. When a country has supported its national identity by positive, constructive developments; it is much more likely to stay in power than one that does not listen to the people when they call for change.

Sources:

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Zahi Hawass | History| Smithsonian Magazine Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – Global Heritage Fund

On NATO

NATO, a tested hypothesis once more.

The concept of NATO,The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was intended as a post World War 2 strategic alliance led by the United States to counter the rising Iron curtain of the USSR in Eastern Europe. The essential details were that the members of NATO are to support one another in a traditional sense. To provide aid to one another in times of war and to spend a certain amount to maintain their military.

In reality, members of NATO have not maintained the original charter for what was expected of them and this has created a situation that is very similar to how the Byzantine Empire ran its foreign alliances. The Eastern Roman Empire, known to modernity from its 19th century term of Byzantium, ran a large governmental structure centered in the great middle ages city of Constantinople, it had maintained a large amount of trade and wealth generation from its provinces. With this money, it attempted to counter the troubles of the day; which included conducting war and to defend its land territories. This basic plan worked for a time when the Eastern Empire had dealt with smaller federations of migrations of people including Varangians, Tatars, and other Germanic tribes.This strategy failed however once the Byzantine Empire encountered a unified front from elsewhere. In the Byzantine case, this was the rise of Islam and the first Islamic Caliphates. Under strong pressure and the failure of quid pro quo diplomacy, the Byzantines lost their eastern provinces in the middle east and north Africa and thus lost a lot of influence in the 600s. The reason for this is that the Byzantine Empire had traditionally bribed tribes to fight amongst each other; yet, once it encountered a strong unified foe, it failed to make a strong defense.

The situation of a wealthy nation trying to encourage discourse for strategic gain has been seen in the post WW2 United States. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States funded the rebel groups to take to guerrilla warfare in order to fight the USSR. This was successful in large part because the USSR had tried to control the area by using tactics that had worked in traditional warfare. The belief of the Soviets was that they could kill enough resistance that eventually the country would bow down to them. This worked fine in the cities of Afghanistan, but as those who are aware of the situation in Afghanistan. There is a large influence of the countryside tribes in the country. When the majority of these tribes went against the Soviets and formed their Mujaheddin factions. The USSR had little opportunity to try to divide and conquer. Despite this not being a European conflict, we can use this as evidence to show that deep consideration must be made of alliances and situations on the ground.

For NATO, its actions after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 has been very aggressive in its expansion approach. Evidence for this is that there seems to be a strong correlation between the growth of the European Union into Eastern Europe and the expansion of NATO. Nations such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland are participating states in the expansion of Western ideas and economic practices. All of these countries have sent delegations and maintained memberships in the European Union for many years now. For the Russians, these developments have been cause for alarm in Moscow. For some perspective of how the Western nations have out competed the USSR and the Russian state take for example the Kremlin provide a statistic of in the year 1980, the USSR had a third of the economic size of the United States. Now, the Russian economy is about 1/15th the size of the United States. Hence, economic stagnation is a major pull factor of Russia to enter into Ukraine to protect its national albeit Imperialistic ambitions.

From what can be seen is that the NATO nations have had success to divide Russian Influence from its post Soviet sphere of influence, yet it has not paid adequate attention to its eastern counterparts. . Russia is part of BRICS, an acronym standing for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have come to represent a sort of counterbalance to that of the OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD has many countries under the Western banking sphere and has a large influence on economic policy. BRICS is trying to remove the US Dollar from its World Reserve Currency status by economic promotion, so when the nations of NATO are pushing sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, its still not addressing the financing and economic power of BRICS and even the Western nations support it by the purchasing of Chinese goods. This profit made in China can easily be fed back into Russia, if needed. What logically should be done is that there should be an ultimatum to China, where if they do not cut off trade with Russia then they will also be under an embargo. This would cause harsh penalties to Russia and may push the Chinese to convince Russia to call back the attack.

The problem fundamentally with NATO was that it was going to hit a roadblock onto how much division it could cause in Russia’s sphere of influence and its reliance on the United States to lead the alliance. The United States has waned somewhat in power projection in the early 21st century. This has allowed members of NATO to not take seriously its called for obligations within the alliance with notable members such as Germany, not holding up their budgetary responsibilities to provide for a strong military. When Ukraine was invaded on 24 February 2022, Germany was not prepared and even relied on Russian Natural gas to fuel its factories. Without this natural gas, Germany, which needs 1/3rd of its supply of total natural gas to fuel its robust factories could not operate at a strong capacity. The Germans were unprepared and so were the French. French president Macron had taken up the delegation to negotiate with Russia for a peace deal; he and his advisors failed to materialize this. France based on its contributions to NATO should not be given authority to negotiate on behalf of the alliance. It is the failure of strong leadership in the United States that is ultimately just after Vladimir Putin to blame for the developments in Europe in February 2022. Now, NATO has responded and appears weak to the rest of the world due to its failure to deal with a united Russian front. One of its biggest mistakes was to announce that a nuclear option was not possible. Even if one doesn’t want to do that, it should not tell the enemy so, this is because an enemy who has this information will do everything it can to exploit it. It is probable that Russia would have been less aggressive if they thought Moscow might be obliterated for its actions.To be frank, NATO sounds good on paper, but with the reality of this event and others priors, it shows that NATO as currently structured does not work and should be abolished and replaced with something else.

Ultimately, NATO and the United States’ role in the alliance shows just as past Empires have come to understand is that you cannot only rely on divide and conquer to deal with your enemies and you can’t buy your way out. It is necessary to be adaptable to the times and to keep all options on the table.
Sources: 1. https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV 2. https://www.worldeconomics.com/GrossDomesticProduct/Russia.gdp

On Entrepreneurship

On Entrepreneurship, or the Art of paying attention.

There is an idea that is common among people that you need to have an extensive business plan in order to run a successful business. You must have a lot of start up money, that is capital to get your business off the ground. It is considered normal to run in the red until through perseverance and grit that you finally get to a good place in your business. Although, a solid business plan and capital is definitely a wise thing to do and have, it isn’t fundamental to start a business. For this contradictory standpoint, I will provide personal anecdotes and then expand to general terms.

I am the type of person to keep tabs on world events. Perhaps, this understanding of events may be superficial, yet it gives me a fundamental advantage of perspective over someone who does not care. The events unfolding in China in late 2019 and early 2020 rang alarm bells in my mind. I knew that it would be important to make further consideration of how to secure more income because of lock downs in China that I had seen. In this line of thinking, I committed to selling items online.

In the past, I had experimented from time to time, over the years with selling this and that here and there, but nothing was ever too serious. I did notice how one could make a good return if they had bought something at a low enough price and then sold at a higher price. It was simple supply and demand. When February, 2020 had emerged and things had not improved in Asia, I determined to sit down and think about what to do to make more money. This action was very good in hindsight because just as March and then April had rolled around, my hours at work had been cut dramatically. For many people with a similar situation, they did not see this coming; however, with this more worldly perspective, I got to work selling online seriously. During the first month, I used some of my savings to buy some merchandise and to get rid of some items that were just laying around the place. I managed to sell a few hundred dollars worth in the first few months and was happy to have this money coming in. By June, I had expanded this action of buying and selling in the 500-600 dollar range and continued. Financial stress continued in my main employment, so that situation had not improved much, yet I wasn’t tied to filling deadlines like others out of sheer desperation for a bailout. By the end of 2020, I had increased selling to amounts in the thousands of dollars range. Was this some sort of remarkable sense of business? No, it was not.

Entrepreneurship in my opinion is the ability to see opportunity and to go for it. Paying attention to the events unfolding and potential consequences of events, doesn't have to be a negative task, but rather a challenge for something to change. The worldwide lock downs caused many people to be stuck at home, and because of the high standard of living in 1st world nations, people still had access to the internet, and their desire for stuff just increased. The internet still has a lot of opportunity as a sort of digital wild west and there is money on the table for those who are willing to work for it. Compare this to the capital needed to run a physical location, the comparison to the start up costs online is next to nothing.

The example of reselling takes one to see where you can procure items at a fair cost and then finding the markets, this case online and then bringing merchandise there. For some, their pride doesn’t allow them to lower themselves into making lower gains or returns, but it is this kind of attitude that would sink them if there had an inheritance or access to capital. Making a mistake will 500 dollars is much more manageable than sinking 50k into a failed venture. This may seem like common sense, but with the amount of physical business that fail each year, it begs the question of what is the logic of buying before you try.

Trying out different ideas and tactics is very similar to the Scientific method. There, it is common to try and retry different hypothesis and steps in order to get a reproducible conclusion. If the hypothesis holds up, then it becomes a theory. We then use these theories in order to build a lot of technology that people take for granite, yet if it wasn’t for this experimentation, we would be a lot further back in the scheme of things. Due to this, I propose that when it comes to business, use the entrepreneur mindset to get started.

In conclusion, learning to pay attention to the world around us gives us daily valuable information. By exploring different markets and supplies, it allows us to try before we financially buy and this can save a lot of people, time and effort that could be used to start them on a brighter future.

LL 2022

Ideas on Learning Languages in 2022

At the end of the year, many people reflect on the different goals and their progression in those areas. They think of whether they have met or have not met goals during the year and decide what to take on next. Due to this being a large scale issue, I will focus on some reflections on a topic that is important to myself and others with similar perspectives. This would be the topics of language learning.

Many individuals, particularly those who are on the younger side of the life spectrum have a lot of excitement for learning new languages. This is a great thing; however, a lot of people don’t really understand how to develop a sound program to get themselves to the goals they want to achieve. For some, the idea of “fluency” and reaching that is the goal, but they don’t know how to start or how to continue towards that path, so today I will attempt to lay down some elements, some methods to help them get there. On the other hand, some need to learn a language because of workplace employment opportunities or requirements. For them, it can be hard to maintain a proper motivation to keep to their goals.

To be clear, it is evident that those who have a genuine interest and discipline will do much better than those who don’t. These suggestions put forward won’t be a quick path, but an effective one for progress; therefore, here are observations and suggestions for language learning for the new year.

To start, perhaps the most important part of language learning in the new year, is to realize that your ideas now will likely change as the year progresses. For example, you might be interested in German, French, Spanish and Italian. This hypothetical person might do 3 months of German and then decide to work on Spanish. For the rest of the year, they work on Spanish until December. This individual may think they have failed, but what they don’t realize is that, they are just are on a different time scale then they had set about. Unless, they decide not to learn those other languages, whose to say that you must learn those 4 languages in a year’s time. Chances are, getting that strong foundation in one or two languages can give you the opportunity to learn the culture and cover more topics than learn 4 languages to a basic level. In the Romance languages, they build upon each other in the scheme of learning, so if you want the majority of them, then progress in one will lead to progress in others. Patience is a virtue as they say.

For the daily route, spending 10 minutes a day is much better than spending 70 minutes on one day. If you think about how you learn in school or something you are interested in, then it’s clear there is a lot of repetition. For some situations, grinding can be effective, but not when you’re just beginning. What comes to mind is taking an exam or going for an interview, grinding can be useful. If you are doing this a side project for fun or even in a productive capacity, repetition is key.

For watching shows, if your language level in a given language is intermediate or above, then casually watching shows is just fine. That being said, if it’s not there; which you can evaluate by watching without subtitles, then there is little profitable time happening if you don’t work while watching. According to material and studies supporting this conception of repetition, it is necessary to understand at least 90-95% of material to grasp and gain from watching or reading a material. If one writes or records vocabulary during a show, then it can be useful.

On number 4, I think a rounded program of the three major elements of reading, writing and listening is crucial to give you the overall usage for interacting with native speakers. I doubt that only knowing how to read will be satisfactory for those who like to communicate with others on a daily bases.

Finally, for your learning project. Find out what works for you. I like lists since I don’t prefer to be told when and what to learn. Creating my own schedule is much more fulfilling to me; yet for some, they like being told what to do. Nothing wrong with either of those tactics.

In conclusion, don’t be hard on yourself about learning a new language. If you want to learn a new language, then you will get there if you keep at it. Depending on your schedule, you can always adjust your schedule to increase or decrease your time involved. Taking an outline such as the common framework for languages with the references of B1, B2 and so on is very useful. Anyways, everyone have a great new year!

Film Review for Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln

Check it out below.

Link

Space Gas Station 20

*ding dong*, “welcome!”. Announced the cashier, a man in an asteroid 753 suit approached the center, “the usual please”, as he glanced at his watch, “and what would that be sir?” asked the cashier. The man looked up and rubbed his forehead, “new huh, well Ceres Menthol then”, “alright”, the cashier walked to the back and grabbed the cigarettes. “Here you are, will that be all for today?”. “Yes, that and 20 Zeno on station 9”, “okay, that’ll be 30 Zeno please”, as the man pulled out his hologram wallet, he looked outside and saw a car stop at station 8; 2 cops left their spacecraft and began inspecting the stationary craft on station 9, ‘shit’, “sorry, kid nothing personal”, the man pulled out a laser pistol from his belt and pointed it at the cashier, “you’re coming with me” yelled the man. The cashier raised his hands and led the sketchy man out the doors, the cops noticed the pair and raised their weapons “freeze! That’s enough now!”. “Don’t move, if you approach any closer I’ll splatter his head across the galaxy”, the cops relented and allowed him to enter his spacecraft and he booked it, once at a far enough distance. The man turned to his captive, “list to me, I need you to pull up a station, I need to contact someone”, the cashier hesitated, “it's a complicated situation, I won’t hurt you unless you try any trouble,” the cashier complied and pulled up a stream. “Enter 666666,” told the man, the cashier looked at the man in shock, “oh, don’t give me that look, the guy who I need to call is a bit out there, '' once the numbers were entered the stream began. “Hello, Reznovski” stated the voice, “come on Viktor, no need to be so formal with me, I know we’ve had our differences, but I need your help”, “if you pay 1 and a half times the normal price, then I’ll supply you.” Reznovski gritted his teeth ‘you son of a…’, “alright; I need some fuel, I got some guys tailing me and I had to resort to taking this kid as leveredge to get out of there”, “tell me the coordinates and I’ll see what I can do”. The cashier in haste, sent a message with their position, “ah, galaxy… quadrant…, sector…”, you are in luck, there is a station, 5 light years away; I can divert the police for you… but that will be extra of course.” Viktor smiled, showing golden teeth, Viktor sent them the coordinates and the duo jumped to the correct speed, once they arrived at the station, Reznovski looked over to his captive, “here’s the plan, I'm going to fuel the vessel up, you’ll stand watch; once I finish, i’ll hand you a charged credit; it’ll be enough for the taxi ride home and then you’ll forget everything that happened today, do you understand?” The cashier nodded and when Reznovski finished fueling; the screens of the other fueling consoles turned red, and began beeping then.. “What the?”, *kaboom* the entire station exploded in flames, after the flames settled, Reznovski pushed the ruble to the side. The flesh of his face had melted off, along with the rest of his body; he looked over and saw the cashier’s organs spread out crushed among the wreckage, “alright, Viktor I’m going to hunt you.” He waited in hiding until a group came to confirm the job had been completed, after they left the spacecraft, Reznovski rushed to the vessel and got into the drivers side; he gunned it out of there among a hail of laser fire.

Reznovski arrived at the new Tarntanya City, South Asteroid Cluster.
Once at the port, Reznovski walked down mainstreet among a haze of lights advertising this and that sin overhead, he proceeded to a bar on Suleiman road; there he entered a passage into a shadow filled building; he ascended the stairs and knocked on a door where he was asked “what is the password?” asked the voice behind the door, “Trabzon'' stated Reznovski and so, the voice replied “very well” and after a short pause the door opened, there Reznovski leered around the room and approached a mahogany bar. A madam server asked him “what can I do for you this evening?”, “what is the price on Viktor this evening?” asked Reznovski, the women walked to the other side of the room and typed information into a console and then returned, “the price on Viktor Parshenkov is 500,000 credits alive, 350,000 credits dead.” Reznovski paused and then stated “what leads are there?” The women approached Reznovsk and activated a Radio frequency that emitted into Reznovski’s brain. “Alright, thank you” and so Reznovski left the bar and entered main street. Once Reznovski approached the building where Viktor Parshenkov was stationed at, he took cover behind a concrete barrier in order to mask his surroundings; he waited until nightfall and then made his move, outfront of the establishment, there were two guards patrolling between the perimeter; once one of the men turned. Reznovski approached behind him and covered his mouth, as the victim struggled; Reznovski snapped his neck and dragged the man into the covering. Reznovski took cover and waited for the other guard to approach and once he repeated the fateful maneuver; Reznovski covered the man's mouth and gave him a piercing blow to his 4th vertebrate, the victim dropped and laid still. Reznovski went to the second story door, he laid a wire under the door. Once peering through, it appeared to be multiple people occupying the establishment, Reznovski kicked the door open and rushed into the corner room next to the door and chucked a flashbang into the room, once the occupants were disillusioned, Reznovski blasted the three members with a hail of bullets, he ran to the nearby wall to take cover from the onslaught of bullets from the other rooms. Reznovski rolled into the next room where he found Viktor using the refrigerator as a shield, Reznovski lit the ice box with many rounds until Viktor shouted “alright, I give up!” and left his cover. Reznovski smirked and retorted “good on ya, let’s get down to business” Reznovski held Viktor by his handcuffs and threw him down into a chair in a dim lit room, “tell me, how me how much did they pay you?”

Filipino Language Announcement

Hello everyone! Today, I am announcing that with the cooperation of a good friend of mine, Ms. Lagare that she has completed a translation of Lingq's 60 mini stories into the Cebuano language.
Cebuano, referred to by most of its speakers as Bisaya or Binisaya is one of the important languages of the Phillippines, despite this, it does not have the educational internet presence of its neighboring languages such as Tagalog or Indonesian in the English language, therefore, for the interest of expanding that presence, we've come up with the translations. These translations are in the public domain. Audio for they do not exist as of yet, but that may come in the future. I hope for those of you interested, that these will be of help when learning more about the Cebuano language and Filipino culture.
Sincerely,
Hikari.
Link: https://archive.org/details/cebuano-translation-docs

A Christmas Poem

Dear Miss,
I wish you good fortune on this Christmas Eve,
As the light falls faster, and the leaves disappear,
when the snow reaches its peak, you know it is at hand,
for a jolly Christmas has come to the land,
Family and friends recall great times of yesteryear,
for soon, it will be the new year.
Merry Christmas to you, and have a great time
Sincerely,
Hikari

The Mettle of America

From shore to shore, when challenges arrive at our door. America's temperament leads towards betterment, forsaken not by heathens, interloppers nor invader, when times are tough people proclaim enough! Disregard what media may say, people will find a way forward. When war broke, people enlisted, engines roared, and manufacturing soared; despite the loss, people came back and on track; the economy soared. In the 1990s, a great invention came to fruition, a web of information started a revolution, beginning in the next century, it was challenged by economic realities that led to industry fatalities, when the coast was clear, people cheered, it all went well until 2008 fell, people lost their jobs, homes and some even lost family, ;yet, overtime people fought this bind; they found a way forward. In the beginning of the 2020s, a new threat came to the shores, a virus from an unknown land, with its unknown plan. The doors shuttered, people went inside, those with malevolent intentions made moves; nontheless, school buses deliver meals, found continued on wheels, teachers took advantage of new technology to educate students, brave men and women continued working: Driving, supplying and moving logistics, banks provided relief despite the steep setback. The times will change, but our spirit will not; whatever the challenge, America will face it with mettle.

Feum Volume 1 Chapter 1-8 Audio links

FEUM Vol 1 1st Draft Audio Chapters 1-8

Check them out below.

These are the first 8 chapters of FEUM 1 unedited; Have a great new year!
Link1
Link2

Running in the 10s

Final Element Unknown Miracle Volume 1:

Story starts.

Here is a link for my first novel that I wrote. A good way to end the decade I'd say. Link

In the future, I will be releasing a refined version for sale on Amazon KDP.

Welcome: First Announcement

  This main intent of this public blog is to incorporate media that is not in video format on YouTube; this may include: Writing,Referrals,Music, etc...   Anything posted here that is not explicitly stated to be from another creator will be of my own creation or a joint effort involving collaborators and I. In the case of a joint collaboration; due credit will be given in the post.
  Onto the content itself; over the course of time, there has been some content that had been previously hidden or that have been posted on different channels that I am considering releasing onto here; one of the main reason for the delay of release was that these were Work In Progress material and thus wasn't entirely finished; therefore, stay tuned for those posts.
For specific groups of material, I will make a ledger for those so that you (the reader), may have better access to it; these will be primarily the fiction series. 
That's all for now, Thanks.