A bit over a year ago I blogged about my experiences with Duolingo, the language-learning app. At that point I had been trying it only with Irish and Dutch; the system gives you sentences to translate and other exercises, some of which are rather amusing.

Dutch

The Dutch course in particular displays a bit of a fixation.


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Elvish as she is spoke
What Tolkien was doing and what other people did to it.
(tags: tolkien languages )

What Donald Trump Needs to Know About Bob Mueller and Jim Comey
Fascinating (long) read.
(tags: uspolitics )

Fury as government confirms plan to axe housing benefit for young people
Tories continue war on the poor.
(tags: ukpolitics )

Do the Koreas Speak the Same Language?
Mostly but not entirely.
(tags: languages korea )

NI Assembly: imminent prospect of Brexit causes shift in attitudes
My analysis for the Irish Times.
(tags: northernireland )

Second paragraph of third chapter: This chapter concentrates on the death date, the date after which Proto-Indo-European must have ceased to exist. But it helps to begin by considering how long a period probably preceded that. Given that the time between the birth and death dates of Proto-Indo-European could not have been infinite, precisely how ( Read more... )

EU Law Analysis: Brexit and the Future of Human Rights Law in the UK
Not pretty.
(tags: brexit eu ukpolitics humanrights )

The EU’s Brexit negotiators prepare for disaster
The Economist reports.
(tags: ukpolitics eu brexit )

Learning Avar
It's not easy. (Difficult language, few materials.)
(tags: languages )

Most Mammals Take 21 Seconds to Pee
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Belgian beer culture added to UNESCO world heritage
Hooray!
(tags: Belgium beer )

Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy
Excellent, long analysis.
(tags: uspolitics language )

DWP ignoring effects of benefit sanctions
UK gov't war on the poor continues.
(tags: ukpolitics )

EU Commission: The Smart Money is on Clean Energy
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How badly is Jeremy Corbyn doing?
"Labour’s current position is poor, but not exceptionally so."
(tags: ukpolitics )

How many presidents has America had?
The Cleveland confusion.
(tags: uspolitics history )

The Terrifying JFK Airport Shooting That Wasn’t
Extraordinary.
(tags: waronterror psychology )

Watership Down and the power of not-quite- ( Read more... )

Love in Translation
A hilarious and moving piece about learning your spouse's language. #fb
(tags: languages )

Why Don’t We Trust Our Leaders? by Ngaire Woods
What leadership is, and isn't.
(tags: politics )

The only way to save the American dream
Be like Denmark.
(tags: economics USA denmark )

The secret origin of the Salisbury steak
Eat meat!
( ( Read more... )

Precedent and learning Martian
You can do it!
(tags: psychology Life )

More than 300 dead in South Sudan fighting
Very sad. Unhappy fifth birthday. #fb
(tags: southsudan )

Why I renounced my US citizenship (Hint: it’s not because I’m avoiding taxes!)
Though tax is an issue! #fb
(tags: uspolitics )

Čay v tea
The words for "tea" in European ( Read more... )