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thelanguagecommunity · 6 years

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“what language should I learn?”

“is it better to learn [x] or [x]?”

“is it worth learning [x]?”

I get this type of question a lot and I see questions like these a lot on language learning forums, but it’s very difficult to answer because ultimately language learning is a highly personal decision. Passion is required to motivate your studies, and if you aren’t in love with your language it will be very hard to put in the time you need. Thus, no language is objectively better or worse, it all comes down to factors in your life. So, I’ve put together a guide to assist your with the kind of factors you can consider when choosing a language for study.

First, address you language-learning priorities.

Think of the reasons why are you interested in learning a new language. Try to really articulate what draws you to languages. Keeping these reasons in mind as you begin study will help keep you focused and motivated. Here are some suggestions to help you get started, complete with wikipedia links so you can learn more:

Linguistic curiosity?

For this, I recommend looking into dead, literary or constructed languages. There are lots of cool linguistic experiments and reconstructions going on and active communities that work on them! Here’s a brief list:

Dead languages:

Akkadian

Egyptian (Ancient Egyptian)

Gaulish

Gothic

Hittite

Old Prussian

Sumerian

Older iterations of modern day languages:

Classical Armenian

Classical Nahuatl (language of the Aztec Empire)

Early Modern English (Shakespearean English)

Galician-Portuguese

Middle English (Chaucer English)

Middle Persian/Pahlavi

Old English

Old French

Old Spanish

Old Tagalog (+ Baybayin)

Ottoman Turkish

Constructed:

Anglish (experiment to create a purely Anglo-Saxon English)

Esperanto

Interlingua

Láadan (a “feminist language”)

Lingua Franca Nova

Lingwa de Planeta

Lobjan

Toki Pona (a minimalist language)

Wenedyk (what if the Romans had occupied Poland?)

Cultural interests?

Maybe you just want to connect to another culture. A language is often the portal to a culture and are great for broadening your horizons! The world is full of rich cultures; learning the language helps you navigate a culture and appreciate it more fully.

Here are some popular languages and what they are “famous for”:

Cantonese: film

French: culinary arts, film, literature, music, philosophy, tv programs, a prestige language for a long time so lots of historical media, spoken in many countries (especially in Africa)

German: film, literature, philosophy, tv programs, spoken in several Central European countries

Italian: architecture, art history, catholicism (Vatican city!), culinary arts, design, fashion, film, music, opera

Mandarin: culinary arts, literature, music, poetry, tv programs

Japanese: anime, culinary arts, film, manga, music, video games, the longtime isolation of the country has developed a culture that many find interesting, a comparatively large internet presence

Korean: tv dramas, music, film

Portuguese: film, internet culture, music, poetry

Russian: literature, philosophy, spoken in the Eastern Bloc or former-Soviet countries, internet culture

Spanish: film, literature, music, spoken in many countries in the Americas

Swedish: music, tv, film, sometimes thought of as a “buy one, get two free” deal along with Norwegian & Danish

Religious & liturgical languages:

Avestan (Zoroastrianism)

Biblical Hebrew (language of the Tanakh, Old Testament)

Church Slavonic (Eastern Orthodox churches)

Classical Arabic (Islam)

Coptic (Coptic Orthodox Church)

Ecclesiastical Latin (Catholic Church)

Ge’ez (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)

Iyaric (Rastafari movement)

Koine Greek (language of the New Testament)

Mishnaic Hebrew (language of the Talmud)

Pali (language of some Hindu texts and Theravada Buddhism)

Sanskrit (Hinduism)

Syriac (Syriac Orthodox Church, Maronite Church, Church of the East)

Reconnecting with family?

If your immediate family speaks a language that you don’t or if you are a heritage speaker that has been disconnected, then the choice is obvious! If not, you might have to do some family tree digging, and maybe you might find something that makes you feel more connected to your family. Maybe you come from an immigrant community that has an associated immigration or contact language! Or maybe there is a branch of the family that speaks/spoke another language entirely.

Immigrant & Diaspora languages:

Arbëresh (Albanians in Italy)

Arvanitika (Albanians in Greece)

Brazilian German

Canadian Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic in Canada)

Canadian Ukrainian (Ukrainians in Canada)

Caribbean Hindustani (Indian communities in the Caribbean)

Chipilo Venetian (Venetians in Mexico)

Griko (Greeks in Italy)

Hutterite German (German spoken by Hutterite settlers of Canada/US)

Fiji Hindi (Indians in Fiji)

Louisiana French (Cajuns)

Patagonian Welsh (Welsh in Argentina)

Pennsylvania Dutch (High German spoken by early settlers of Canada/ the US)

Plaudietsch (German spoken by Mennonites)

Talian (Venetian in Brazilian)

Texas Silesian (Poles in the US)

Click here for a list of languages of the African diaspora (there are too many for this post!).

If you are Jewish, maybe look into the language of your particular diaspora community ( * indicates the language is extinct or moribund - no native speakers or only elderly speakers):

Bukhori (Bukharan Jews)

Hebrew

Italkian (Italian Jews) *

Judeo-Arabic (MENA Jews)

Judeo-Aramaic

Judeo-Malayalam *

Judeo-Marathi

Judeo-Persian

Juhuri (Jews of the Caucasus)

Karaim (Crimean Karaites) *

Kivruli (Georgian Jews)

Krymchak (Krymchaks) *

Ladino (Sephardi)

Lusitanic (Portuguese Jews) *

Shuadit (French Jewish Occitan) *

Yevanic (Romaniotes)*

Yiddish (Ashkenazi)

Finding a job?

Try looking around for what languages are in demand in your field. Most often, competency in a relevant makes you very competitive for positions. English is in demand pretty much anywhere. Here are some other suggestions based on industry (from what I know!):

Business (General): Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish

Design: Italian (especially furniture)

Economics: Arabic, German

Education: French, Spanish

Energy: Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

Engineering: German, Russian

Finance & Investment: French, Cantonese, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish

International Orgs. & Diplomacy (NATO, UN, etc.): Arabic, French, Mandarin, Persian, Russian, Spanish

Medicine: German, Latin, Sign Languages, Spanish

Military: Arabic, Dari, French, Indonesian, Korean, Kurdish, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu

Programming: German, Japanese

Sales & Marketing: French, German, Japanese, Portuguese

Service (General): French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Sign Languages, Spanish

Scientific Research (General): German, Japanese, Russian

Tourism: French, Japanese, Mandarin, Sign Languages, Spanish

Translation: Arabic, Russian, Sign Languages

Other special interests?

Learning a language just because is a perfectly valid reason as well! Maybe you are really into a piece of media that has it’s own conlang!

Fictional:

Atlantean (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)

Dothraki (Game of Thrones)

Elvish (Lord of the Rings)

Gallifreyan (Doctor Who)

High Valyrian (Game of Thrones)

Klingon (Star Trek)

Nadsat (A Clockwork Orange)

Na’vi (Avatar)

Newspeak (1984)

Trigedasleng (The 100)

Vulcan (Star Trek)

Or if you just like to learn languages, take a look maybe at languages that have lots of speakers but not usually popular among the language-learning community:

Arabic

Bengali

Cantonese

Hindi

Javanese

Hausa

Indonesian

Malay

Pashto

Persian

Polish

Punjabi

Swahili

Tamil

Telugu

Thai

Turkish

Urdu

Vietnamese

Yoruba

If you have still are having trouble, consider the following:

What languages do you already speak?

How many and which languages you already speak will have a huge impact on the ease of learning.

If you are shy about speaking with natives, you might want to look at languages with similar consonant/vowel sounds. Similarity between languages’ grammars and vocabularies can also help speed up the process. Several families are famous for this such as the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Romanian), North Germanic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) or East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian). If you are a native English speaker, check out the FSI’s ranking of language difficulty for the approximate amount of hours you’ll need to put into different languages.

You could also take a look at languages’ writing systems to make things easier or for an added challenge.

Another thing to remember is that the languages you already speak will have a huge impact on what resources are available to you. This is especially true with minority languages, as resources are more frequently published in the dominant language of that area. For example, most Ainu resources are in Japanese, most Nheengatu resources are in Portuguese, and most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish.

What are your life circumstances?

Where you live with influence you language studies too! Local universities will often offer resources (or you could even enroll in classes) for specific languages, usually the “big” ones and a few region-specific languages.

Also consider if what communities area near you. Is there a vibrant Deaf community near you that offers classes? Is there a Vietnamese neighborhood you regularly interact with? Sometimes all it takes is someone to understand you in your own language to make your day! Consider what languages you could realistically use in your own day-to-day. If you don’t know where to start, try checking to see if there are any language/cultural meetups in your town!

How much time can you realistically put into your studies? Do you have a fluency goal you want to meet? If you are pressed for time, consider picking up a language similar to ones you already know or maintaining your other languages rather than taking on a new one.

Please remember when choosing a language for study to always respect the feelings and opinions of native speakers/communities, particularly with endangered or minoritized languages. Language is often closely tied to identity, and some communities are “closed” to outsiders. A notable examples are Hopi, several Romani languages, many Aboriginal Australian languages and some Jewish languages. If you are considering a minoritized language, please closely examine your motivations for doing so, as well as do a little research into what is the community consensus on outsiders learning the language.

#o #writing this post took a long time but it was really fun!!#langblr #language learning #choosing a language

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tinyshe · 4 years

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Immaculée Ilibagiza was born and raised in a small village in Rwanda, Africa. She enjoyed a peaceful childhood with her loving parents and three brothers. Education was very important in her household, so it was no surprise that she did well in school and went on to the National University of Rwanda to study electrical and mechanical engineering. It was while she was home from school on Easter break in 1994 that Immaculée's life was transformed forever.

On April 6 of that year, the Rwandan President’s plane was shot down over the capital city of Kigali. This assassination of the Hutu president sparked months of massacres of Tutsi tribe members throughout the country. Not even small, rural communities like Immaculée’s were spared from the house-by-house slaughtering of men, women and children.

To protect his only daughter from rape and murder, Immaculée’s father told her to run to a local pastor’s house for protection. The pastor quickly sheltered Immaculée and seven other women in a hidden 3 x 4 foot bathroom. For the next 91 days, Immaculée and the other women huddled silently in this small room, while the genocide raged outside the home and throughout the country.

While in hiding, anger and resentment were destroying Immaculée’s mind, body and spirit. It was then that Immaculée turned to prayer. Prior to going to the pastor’s home, Immaculée’s father, a devout Catholic, gave her a set of rosary beads. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the anger inside her, and the evil outside the house. It was that turning point towards God and away from hate that saved Immaculée.

In addition to finding faith, peace, and hope during those three months of hiding, Immaculée also taught herself English. Immaculée was always a good student and already fluent in Kinyarwanda and French. Using only a Bible and a dictionary, she spent countless hours in that cramped bathroom learning her third language.

After 91 days, Immaculée was finally liberated from her hiding place only to face a horrific reality. Immaculée emerged from that small bathroom weighing just 65 pounds, and finding her entire family brutally murdered, with the exception of one brother who was studying abroad. She also found nearly one million of her extended family, friends, neighbors and fellow Rwandans massacred.

After the genocide, Immaculée came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and one of her brothers. After enduring months of physical, mental and spiritual suffering, Immaculée was still able to offer the unthinkable, telling the man, "I forgive you."

In 1998, Immaculée emigrated from Rwanda to the United States where she continued her work for peace through the United Nations. During that time, she shared her story with co-workers and friends who were so impacted by her testimony they insisted she write it down. Three days after finishing her manuscript, she met best-selling author Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who, within minutes of meeting her, offered to publish her book. Dyer is quoted as saying, "There is something much more than charisma at work here - Immaculée not only writes and speaks about unconditional love and forgiveness, but she radiates it wherever she goes."

Immaculée's first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House) was released in March of 2006. Left to Tell quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. To date, it has been translated into seventeen languages and has sold over two million copies. Immaculée's story has also been made into a documentary entitled The Diary of Immaculée. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, The CBS Early Show, CNN, EWTN, CBS Evening News, The Aljazeera Network as well as in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, and many other domestic and international publications. She was recently featured in Michael Collopy's Architects of Peace project, which has honored legendary people like Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Immaculée has received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Saint John's University, Seton Hall University, Siena College, Walsh University and the Catholic University of America. She has been recognized and honored with numerous humanitarian awards, including The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace, the American Legacy's Women of Strength & Courage Award and the 2015 National Speaker’s Assocation’s Master of Influence Award.

Left toTell has received a Christopher Award "affirming the highest values of human spirit," and was chosen as Outreach Magazine'sselection for "Best Outreach Testimony/Biography Resource of 2007." Left to Tell has been adopted into the curriculum of dozens of high schools and universities, including Villanova University, which selected it for their "One Book Program," making Left to Tell mandatory reading for its 6,000 students.

Immaculée has written six additional books in recent years - Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, Our Lady of Kibeho, If Only We Had Listened, Visit from Heaven, and The Boy Who Met Jesus, and The Rosary.

Today, Immaculée is regarded as one of world's leading speakers on faith, hope and forgiveness. She has shared this universal message with world leaders, school children, multinational corporations, churches, and at events and conferences around the world, including a recent presentation to over 200,000 people in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A major motion picture about her story is under production with an international release in theaters in 2018.

#rwanda #left to tell #immaculee

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memorylang · 4 years

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Language Learning, Mom’s Birthday | #43 | August 2020

Since Mom had held language-learning close-to-heart, I dedicate my August update to a language theme!

With August 9, 2020, my late mom turned 55. I’ve often felt since 2017 a bittersweet fondness for the summer months between Mother’s Day and her birthday. That year had been my first summer in China getting to know Mom’s family after her death.

For this August’s story, I’ve reflected a great deal on my experiences with language learning. Of which I’d written before, I’ve basically chosen five languages as the ones I want to be functional using (my native English included). So beyond the usual reflections from this COVID-19 summer in the States, I also take us back through my young life learning.

And, I’m pleased to announce that I've begun to work on a new writing project! More on that soon.

From Multilingual Mom to Me

I start us from spring 2020, around evacuation back to the U.S. from Peace Corps Mongolia.

By April 10-16, I’d been in my sixth week in Vegas again. Yet, less than a couple months before, I was in Mongolia packing to evacuate. As part of my coping while packing, I’d listened to hours of music. Much included Chinese Disney themes I’d found on Spotify.

Well, having returned to Vegas, you might recall that the sisters’ songs in “Frozen II” resonated deeply with me. Whether while waking or working the yard, I’d listen to “Frozen II”' tracks in Chinese, sometimes in English. Finding songs in other langauges fit my 2020 exploration resolution. I humorously suspected that my Spotify Wrapped 2020 will surely list the same tracks in different languages... if only Spotify had Mongolian versions. Well, a month later, by week 10 (May 8-14), I’d exchanged the songs’ English versions for Spanish!

That week also featured May 13, 2020—the third anniversary of Mom’s funeral. This year, something special happened.

I’d received a fateful book—A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin. My college pastor had ordered this for me just days after I’d asked him what I should consider studying while discerning during quarantine a doctorate in religious studies. After my pastor noted my interest in world Christianity, especially its past and present in Asia, he highly recommended I study Church Latin.

My pastor’s suggestion pleased me in a curious way. It reminded me of my Duolingo dabbling back in Mongolia, how at that time I’d favored Latin over Greek. Still, Liturgical Latin, studied seriously, seemed like quite an undertaking. Nonetheless my pastor commended my talents and felt confident I could succeed along paths God may open for me. I felt grateful for the aid!

Embarking on my quest to learn Latin, I’ve found the language remarkable.

It’s felt at times the culmination of my years learning languages. In fact, Mom had actually wanted my siblings and me to learn languages since we were little—She’d taught us to read English then tried to have us learn Chinese. Most summers, she’d have us in the mornings copy down Chinese characters before she’d let us play games or do activities that weren’t “educational.”

While cleaning my family’s garage this COVID-19 this summer, I’d unearthed old notebooks in which my siblings and I would write Mom’s required phrases. I noticed how even back then I’d seem to try harder than most of my siblings, given how many characters I copied. Still, I hadn’t much inclination to know the language words beyond, then, clearing Mom’s barrier to letting me play games.

Still, even if the notebooks had implied some aptitude I’d had for languages, Mom’s requirements left me if anything more averse to language acquisition than eager.

Suffering Through Spanish

Many today may feel surprised to know that for years I’d called Spanish my second language.

Given my childhood disdain for studying languages beyond English, I’d found my task to study Spanish in high school assiduous. I formally began in the language fall 2011 as a freshman. Spanish was our Vegas school’s only foreign language option, and all honors students needed two years of language. Yet again, my language studies drew from a requirement—little more.

Many of my classmates and I rapidly found our classes exhausting, for our instructor had a thick French accent. Furthermore, verb conjugation, unfamiliar tenses and gendered vocabulary felt alien. I didn’t get why a language would be so complicated.

Yet, despite my struggles to understand our teacher, she’d commended me because I “made the effort.” Well, I sometimes felt like I’d make the effort to a fault. When peers cheated on exams, my darn integrity had me abstain.

By my second year, when I was succeeding in college-level AP world history, my fleetingly flawless GPA took from Spanish a beating. That hurt. By my senior year, at least Mom let me take Spanish online instead. I’d learned that I’d known more than I thought, but I still sucked.

Redemption Through Mandarin

By fall 2015, I’d had graduated high school and enrolled as an honors undergrad facing another foreign language requirement.

Licking my wounds from Spanish, I ruled out that language. I saw the University offered Chinese, though. Studying world history had interested me in Mom’s cultural background and native tongue. Considered she’d made my siblings stare at the language since childhood, I hoped it wouldn’t be too hard. So, I chose Mandarin Chinese.

And by my first days learning Chinese, I could already feel the benefits of having taken Spanish.

Chinese felt astoundingly straightforward. Spanish had taught me to recognize that English letters (better known as the Latin alphabet) sound differently in different languages. For example, I felt pleased to notice that the ‘a’ /ah/ letter in Spanish sounds similar to its Chinese pronunciation. Thus, Spanish’s “mamá” and Chinese’s “māmā” relate, despite appearing in separate languages.

Thanks to my Spanish experience, I picked up Chinese’s general pronunciation system far faster. Furthermore, I felt relieved to find that Chinese grammar lacked the conjugation and gender nightmares I’d faced in Spanish. I’d even loved how Chinese characters’ little images could often help me guess word meanings intuitively!

My interest and success with the Chinese language led me to study abroad in 2017, planned with my mother before she was killed. I returned to China a year later, in 2018 on an intensive program. Both times, I spoke my mother’s native tongue, meeting relatives and making friends. I even received awards for my skills.

Yet, despite my progress in Chinese, I’d often considered it only my third language. After all, much of my success in Chinese came having struggled through Spanish.

Finding Peace with Spanish

In my college senior year, January 2019, I’d attended a religious pilgrimage in Panamá—a Spanish-speaking nation.

By that time, I’d grown acquainted with language immersions. In fact, I readily used my Mandarin skills when I met World Youth Day pilgrims from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan. They often felt shocked to meet someone outside their communities who knew their language!

Of course, Panamá left me at times surrounded too by folks who only spoke Spanish, including my host family.

I listened carefully. A luminous spark, I’d felt. Buried memories of my broken Spanish resurfaced. Near my last day in Panamá, I felt awed to have had a conversation with a cab driver completely in Spanish.

My peace with Spanish became a renewed interest.

After our pilgrimage, I’d continued with my host family and new Latin American friends to speak and write almost exclusively in Spanish. Online, we benefited over WhatsApp with Google Translate, too. Panamá in 2019 had taken a language that was for me dead and breathed in it new life.

Peace Corps Language Level-ups

Later that year (last year), I began to learn what would be my fourth language and one entirely unfamiliar—Mongolian.

I should note that before reaching Mongolia June 1, 2019, I couldn’t even read its Cyrillic alphabet. I’d basically started at zero.

Peace Corps’ language briefings had at least taught me that Mongolian is an Altaic language, distinct from Indo-European language like English and from character-based languages like Mandarin. Over the course of summer in villages of Mongolia, Peace Corps put us through mornings of immersive language training followed by returns home to our host families.

Still, many Peace Corps Trainees felt unmotivated to learn Mongolian. After all, with statistically few Mongolian speakers worldwide, many felt that we wouldn’t have much utility for Mongolian outside Mongolia. Nevertheless, I felt motivated by desires to understand and feel understood. I powered through.

Initially, Mongolian baffled me.

Its Cyrillic alphabet (and its script one, too) includes consonant and vowel sounds unknown to English, Spanish and Chinese. Furthermore, Mongolian uses a case-based grammar of suffixes, a reversed subject-object-verb order and postpositions instead of prepositions. Mongolian even reintroduced me to my nemeses gendered vocabulary and tense-based verb endings!

I felt grateful for the sparse Chinese loanwords I wouldn’t have to relearn! Yet, my kryptonite was often pronunciation. Challenging consonants and tricky long vowels left me so inauthentic. Regardless, I was an ardent study who savored most every chance to receive Mongols’ clarifications and corrections.

Finding Latin in Asia

Curiously, Catholic Churches became great places for my language learning.

This was the case for me both with learning Chinese in China and Mongolian in Mongolia. Parishioners would often take me under their wings to support me. Curiously in Mongolia, an English-speaking French parishioner pointed out once that Mongolian grammar is quite like Latin. I didn’t know Latin, though.

I had encountered Latin, though. For, Asian vocabularies for Church topics often derived more directly from Latin than even English translations! These pleased me, since learning the vocabulary to speak about religion felt less foreign.

Then came the sleepless nights during Mongolia’s COVID-19 preemptive quarantining, January and February. I’d had taken up Duolingo and opted for Greek or Latin in hopes that they’d bore me to sleep. I’d also hoped they might supplement how I teach English and read Scripture. And while Greek felt hopelessly confounding, Latin vocabulary felt surprisingly... natural. Despite my lack of formal training, I did alright just guessing.

My Roads Led to Latin

From late May through mid-June 2020, I’d read the first four chapters of the Church Latin book. Meanwhile, mid-summer, I felt pleased to reach Duolingo’s Diamond League! Realizing that to become Champion would take far more effort than I cared to give, though I focused just on keeping my streak.

Still, my Latin especially progress slowed after Dad’s remarriage and my relocation to Reno, Nev. My mostly-free summer rapidly grew hectic. But even in those first four Latin weeks, I’d discovered true gems in pursuing the historic language.

At face value, Latin’s vocabulary reminded me of Spanish and English. Sometimes, Church words I’d learned first in Mandarin and Mongolian too related! Vocabulary felt profound.

Furthermore, Latin grammar felt reminiscent of not only Spanish conjugations but indeed Mongolian cases! I felt relieved that Panamá had freed me from my conjugation aversion. Likewise, my Mongolian skills felt far from obsolete!

To supplement my Latin studies, I try to translate between Chinese and Spanish, the way how in Mongolia I’d translate between Mongolian and Chinese. By juggling languages, I seek to codeswitch in more contexts with a more unified vocabulary.

Wherever I wind up academically and professionally, I hope to work between languages. Through daily discipline, textbooks, apps, videos, notes and conversations, I trust I’ll go far. Feel free to connect if you want to practice with me! The more corrections, the better.

From Ecclesiastical to Classical Latin

On August 23 (of my stateside week 25), I’d reunited in Vegas with a high school friend who’d studied classics in undergrad. From that meeting on, I’d not only ramped up my Latin studies but also transitioned from Ecclesiastical Latin to classical.

For, Church Latin is but an evolving Latin. To understand the orgins of many words—beyond simply their uses within the Roman Catholic Church—I would need the eternal Latin that changes no more. Well, my friend offered to tutor me, so I offered to try!

Classical Latin is harder, by the way.

And in the midst of my suffering throughout September, my friend had even offered to tutor me Greek. While mostly joking (but also not), I’ve offered that I might learn Greek from him if for no other reason than to thank him for teaching me Latin!

Nearly a month since beginning the tutorial system with him, we’ve since cleared over a fourth of a textbook meant sometimes to take a year’s worth of study. I hope by the year’s end to have finished the book.

At least a third of my waking hours at times seem to go into Latin. But, it’s nice to keep learning! That same week, my siblings had all resumed their undergraduate studies. At least I’m still learning something!

Embarking on a Book Memoir

Besides working on my other languages, I’ve even placed time in my English.

Lastly, I want to share about my writing quest! Although the project isn’t always across the top of my agenda, I keep at it. We return again to mid-summer.

Peace Corps friends and I have often checked in on each other since evacuation to the States. Some also write. During a webinar for evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, I’d met many looking to tell their stories.

Most weeks since July, I’d also have a few video calls. I’d take these no matter what I was up to. I’d still been doing that ‘groundskeeping’ in Reno, Nev. of which I’d written before. Whether I was getting the mail, trimming the hedges, pruning the flowers, watering the lawn, raking debris, sweeping the floor, taking out the trash, tugging the garbage bins, adjusting the windows or washing the dishes, I’d often had some task that Dad requested I’d tend to. Calls with friends broke the monotony.

After encouragement from mentors and friends, I’d decided to write a creative nonfiction book memoir for publication someday!

The first step, of course, is having a manuscript. So, since week 17 (June 26–July 2), I’d been typing away at the first chapters to what seems will be a story spanning my three years of studies and service overseas after Mother’s death, leading up to my acceptance and peace. I'm excited to tell stories about finding purpose and identity, despite grief and loss. I hope it helps readers to find their own peace amid confusion. All things are so fundamentally interconnected.

By three weeks in, I’d felt so grateful for the outpouring of support I’d received. Frankly, I wouldn’t be writing so much if people hadn’t been saying this has potential. Thankfully, readers offer marvelous insights. They treat the story as one deserving of quality. I love their attention to details.

Still, among the most grueling lessons I’ve learned learned has been that a book about grief has needed me to relive the hurt of my mother's death for repeated days. I trust nonetheless that once I’ve written and rewritten well, the remaining may rest behind me.

If you’re looking to read what’s coming, you’re in the right place. Merely starting on the book has helped me to improve my blog writing. You may have noticed in my recent summer 2019 throwback stories, for example, I’ve used more narrative than before. I hope you’ve enjoyed!

The language studies and the book continue, though I’ve taken more breaks lately with the book. From mid-August I’d embarked on advocacy projects with the National Peace Corps Association. I’ll share more on that soon. Having doubled-down on my Latin studies from mid-September, it can be a quite a black hole for my time! For everything there is a season (Ecc. 3:1).

Seeking to Stay Holy

A couple friends admired my dedication and called upon me to help them meet their spiritual goals. What a kind expereince! In helping them keep accountable, they’ve likewise helped me.

With a homebound Knight of Columbus, we’d continued July’s rosaries throughout August, as many as three times a day leading up to the Catholic Feast of the Assumption. Afterward, we’d reduced our count back to two times daily through early September. I’d never prayed so many rosaries before!

Through August, I’d also read a chapter of Proverbs daily with a friend. I’d reconnected with her during my outreach for the book. I enjoy our weekly Scripture chats, and she shows more Protestant perspectives on our faith!

I find God a great companion along the journey of life. Regardless of how you view religious and spiritual topics, I trust that you have companions, too. They’re so important!

On a positive note, I’d gotten to revisit my undergrad parish. I felt so amazed to hear that students I’d never met thought I was a cool person! I try not to think too highly of myself, but I feel touched when people notice me. I hope I inspire folks.

Coming up Next

Thanks for reading my meta-stories about languages and stories!

If you’ve been following my tales for a while now, you may recall I’d mentioned feeling surprised to learn that my mother had been studying Spanish around the same years I’d been studying it. I felt awed to realize that even when I’d tried to learn one of my earliest new languages, Mom was trying to learn what was for her one of a few. I’m glad to have perhaps inherited Mother’s interest in languages.

Up next, I have a very special piece dated for September 2020 [and ultimately released in October]. I’m focusing on perspectives—mine and others’. I’m particularly excited to share adventures with teams including those within the American Psychological Association and the Honors College at the University of Nevada, Reno. They’ve given me plenty of fun roles amid the pandemic!

I’m also writing about national and state parks! God, I love nature.

Stay healthy, friend.

COVID-19 and America Months 11 through 15 | April, May, June, July, August

Easter Epilogue in America | #35 | April 2020

Remembering Mom—Third Year After | #36 | May 2020

Fathers’ Day, Faith and Familiarity | #38 | June 2020

23rd Birthday~ Roses and Rosaries | #39 | July 2020

Language Learning, Mom’s Birthday | #43 | August 2020

You can read more from me here at DanielLang.me :)

#memorial #WithMe #StayHome #languages #Nevada #Peace Corps #Mongolia #memoir #story #Catholic #God #memoryLang #Disney #Chinese #Mongolian #fall #Latin #evacuation #Coronavirus #COVID-19

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dandimary · 4 years

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"¿A quien le importa lo que digo por ahí? ¡Antes muerta que sencilla!"

TMR Renaissance ➝ Toni Martinez

General

Full Name: Pilar Antonia Martinez Nickname/Aliases: Toni Birthday: September 29th, 2000 Gender: Cisgender Female Hometown: Madrid, Spain Current Residence: London, England, UK Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Education: Beauxbatons Academy of Magic Spirituality: Catholic

Physical Appearance

Faceclaim: Ana De Armas Height: 5′8″ Hair: Wavy, brown, shoulder length Eyes: Hazel, brown speckles in the center, light green rims. Build: Lean, toned curves, long legs. Notable Traits: Tiny mole in the middle of her left cheek.

Relationships

Parents: Emmanuel A. Martinez (father), Maria Rosa Martinez (née Flores, mother) Other Important Family: Megara Flores (cousin), Avalina Flores (cousin) Best friend(s): Megara Flores, her roommates back in Madrid. Romantic Interest(s): N/A Relationship Status: Single

Biography

Only child to Emmanuel and Maria Rosa Martinez, the moment Pilar Antonia Martinez was born, she was bred up for extravagance and worldly matters. Her childhood days were spent either accompanying her father on his travels around the globe or with her mother, exposed to the finest art lessons while surrounded by bookshelves filled with classic and foreign literature. From the age of 8, the most skilled witches and wizards within her extended family would take turns in teaching her to become proficient in Legilimency. Ever since then, Toni - as she is affectionately called by her loved ones - has had a quaint appetite for linguistics. Upon graduation from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, she knew how to speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, French - and began learning Arabic as her fifth language. During her school years, she even participated in a one year exchange program at the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages in Havana, Cuba. Apart from her academics, Toni has an extensive taste in music, from the archetypal flamenco sounds of a guitar to the popular, muggle music found on the radio, and everything in between.

All these extracurricular activities served a purpose beyond keeping a brilliant, outgoing little girl busy. These interests were engrained in Toni to prepare her for a just, poised life in the world of bureaucracy and diplomacy - a life very familiar within her family. Toni’s parents knew she was an incredibly gifted young woman, who would be successful throughout the course of her life in whatever she chose to do. There were no limitations of what her path would be, so long as she had a plan and worked hard to be the best. With that said, there were no objections from her parents when instead of becoming a politician’s wife, as they had imagined, Toni decided she wanted to become the politician herself.

Toni has always had fire within her blood - a desire to learn so much about the world around her and make it better. It’s unsure whether it’s stemmed from often being able to read into people’s minds, but she has a curiosity to satisfy and opinions to be voiced. Having the honor to represent the Spanish equivalent of the Ministry of Magic, as an International Confederation of Wizards Ambassador, is a privilege she doesn’t take lightly. Having recently grown close with her cousin Megara, Toni has seen firsthand a growing movement within the werewolf civil rights community - one that she plans to take active part in. However, as many diplomats before her have faced and been tested, Toni has a line to be wary of striding; when does “politically correct” become a detriment to the good she’s capable of accomplishing?

Personality

+ well-cultured, intuitive, charming, outgoing, diplomatic - headstrong, dependent, self-indulgent, fiery, conformist tendencies

Links

Blog

Character Tag

#bio #Toni Martinez

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jeannereames · 5 years

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hi if it's not a too personal question to ask how did you come to be interested in history/antiquity/alexander..? I mean did you always like it as a child? or how did it start?

It’s not too personal, and in fact, I LIKE to tell this story, as I’m the definition of coming in the back door, which might encourage others.

Understand, I’m a chick from the other side of the tracks. My generation was the first to get a college education, and I’m among the few to go on to grad school, especially not professional *(e.g., law or med school). I was lower middle-class growing up. My father is from one of the two poorest families in Jackson County, S. Illinois before (and after) WWII. My mother was better off, her father a successful farmer and carpenter, but the Brouillettes had been Catholic (even if he wasn’t), and (worse) they had Indian blood.

There was no silver spoon in my mouth. I had better: wonderful parents who cheer-leaded me all the way. So if you disbelieve a father as great as Amyntor could exist? That’s MY parents. Amyntor-Berenikē are real, and their names were Ed and Idalee. Rise is dedicated to my father. Some of us get that lucky, and I’m HUGELY aware of my fortune, especially as I aged and realized my fellows didn’t have parents like mine. So Hephaistion’s desire to share his father with Alexandros? That was me. All my friends came to my house to visit my mother.

My love of history owes entirely to HER. She loved history, and understood it was about the stories of people. But my elementary and junior high history teachers made it about “kings-n-things” with lots of dates, etc.

So I HATED history.

I hated it all through regular school, then my tenure at UF, where (despite being a humanities major) I AVOIDED all history classes except one, an elective on the history of the Early Church. I think it’s pretty much a crime that a humanities major anywhere can graduate without a history class. WTF?

Yet it’s all the fault of poorly taught history. Plus, yes, younger students are less inclined to understand why it matters. Not all, but a substantial portion regularly return surveys saying history doesn’t matter because it’s the past, not the future.

Back to my clever mother. Instead of teaching me history, she told me about my family: the story of my ancestors, my people, including my tribe (Miami-Peoria). I was routinely hauled around to cemeteries as a kid, shown where my people were buried, and then told stories about them. Respect for Elders and the ancestors is a native thing. Yet I became fascinated, constructed family trees, and tried to trace back their stories, as most of my mother’s family were French who came in the 1600s/early 1700s, or Native Americans. My father’s family were more recent immigrants, but it all made a wonderful puzzle.

The story of me.

That’s history. The story of us, more broadly.

And so my clever, sneaky mother taught me to love history by coming in the back door.

Yet as a teen and undergrad, my interest in other cultures were largely Celtic and Scandinavian. I was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien as a teen and remain a HUGE fan. My “home” fiction genre, insofar as I have one, is SFF (science fiction and fantasy), where a number of my friends publish. So I resisted the whole “Classical” field until quite late. Latin was the most popular language at my HS (Lakeland Dreadnoughts), and had the most active student group… so of course I refused to join! Never was a follower. I took German instead. In college, I took RUSSIAN, just to be different.

My undergrad degree was a BA in English, with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in acting. My M.A. was in theology and early church history. While at the Candler School of Theology, Emory, I kept hearing about this dude, “Alexander the Great.” I had NO idea who that was. (That’s how bad my previous history education had been.) Yet as he seemed so pivotal in cultural transfer, east to west and west to east, I wandered over to the Emory library to check out a couple of bios.

By chance, they were N.G.L. Hammond’s King, Commander and Statesman, and Peter Green’s (original, Thames-on-Hudson, later re-released by U. Cal Press) Alexander of Macedon.

I literally couldn’t have picked two more different bio’s if I’d tried.

AND HE FASCINATED ME. Who was this KID, who conquered most of his known world by 32, but generated such different evaluations, positive to negative?

Like Alexander, I’m a bit inclined to … obsess?

So I kept reading, and reading, and reading (articles, not just books), and then got into Macedonia (which then in the 1980s, was mostly articles).

By the early 1990s, I’d decided I wanted to study him professionally, not just to write a novel about him, so on the urging of Judy Tarr, I called Gene Borza at Penn State. He was my #1 choice to study with (in the US) as I’d admired his honesty to reply to those who disagreed with him, not just ignore them. So Gene asked me what I’d read, and I started reciting my list, until he said, “Stop, stop! You’ve already read more than most of my current PhD students!” He encouraged me to apply.

Ergo, if my BA was in English, and my MA in Theological studies, and I’d originally intended to go on to a PhD in the latter, I sent off ONE application—to Penn State—for history.

Guess which one offered funding (e.g., a graduate assistantship).

I wound up at Penn State, studying Macedonian history with “Aristotle” (e.g, Gene Borza, whose resemblance to the philosopher is a wee bit uncanny). It was, I think, the best choice I could have made. I remain Gene’s “academic daughter,” and Book 1, Becoming, is dedicated to him due to Aristotle’s prominence, while book 2 is dedicated to my father, Ed Reames, because he’s the model for Amyntor.

So yes…there IS a backdoor for those of us determined enough. But be aware, the handicap never goes away. I face it every single day. My Latin and Greek wasn’t “good enough,” and I don’t have the extensive reading in Classics that someone with a BA in Classics would have. But I DO bring my diverse previous experience. I have a background in bereavement counselling and ER on-call duty that allows me to look at Alexander’s mourning and such events as the Philotas Affair with experience most of my colleagues (however good their Greek and Latin) don’t have.

So be prepared to justify your existence to your colleagues who had Latin in high school and pursued a BA in Classics or ancient history. Don’t apologize.

And those of you who DO have the above, remember, there are a couple of us out there, scrappy and “previously untrained” who loved the field enough to work our asses off to get a degree, and eventually, a job. So unlike some of my colleagues at Penn State, don’t snort and look down on your unusual fellows. Help them out.

I’ll also note that of the students I entered with? Only two of us received the PhD. Tim Howe, my academic brother who came with better prep, teaches today at St. Olaf’s in Minnesota. But dammit, I fought my way through. And I finished, and I’m at a uni that, with my colleagues, created an Ancient Mediterranean Studies Program at the BA/BS and MA level. I’m damn proud of that.

The field has changed since I applied to grad school in 1991, I won’t lie. Tenure-track jobs in the US, especially in ancient history and Classics, have turned into unicorns. Other countries are different. But if you are determined enough, and damn stubborn enough, you might be able to carve your own path, as long as you keep an eye on the current state of the field. I won’t lie to anybody about how few ancient history and Classics jobs are out there on H-Net these days. BUT don’t let the afternoon-tea set make you feel less than them: “imposter’s syndrome” for pursuing a PhD in ancient history or Classics. Some of those Classics blue-bloods won’t get a job, at the end of the day.

I am THE definition of an “imposter’s syndrome” faculty member who succeeded. And I don’t give a good goddamn what anybody thinks of me. I excel at what I do, and I’m proud of it.

#classics #Classics in the back door #ancient history #stubborn ancient historians #realities of the field #asks #Jeanne Reames #ancient Macedonia #degrees in history #advanced degrees in history

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ontarionewsnorth · 7 years

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Open Houses at CSCNO High Schools: Chapleau, Wawa, Blind River (version française incluse)

OpenHouses at #CSCNO HighSchools in #Chapleau #Wawa #BlindRiver @VisitChapleau @Wawa_Ontario @AFOCSC @MonAssemblee @M_Mantha @CarolHughesMP

Version française ci-dessous NORTHEASTERN ONTARIO – Grade 8 students and parents are invited to take part in the Open House events for all French language Catholic secondary schools of the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO) from Tuesday, January 16, to Thursday, January 18. With its network of nine French language Catholic secondary schools and one adult learning centre in…

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rabbitcruiser · 6 years

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Canada Post Trois-Rivières

For thousands of years, the area that would later become known as Trois-Rivières was frequented by Indigenous peoples. The historic Algonquin and Abenaki peoples used it as a summer stopping place. They would fish and hunt here, as well as gather roots and nuts. The area was rich in resources. The French explorer Jacques Cartier described the site while on his second journey to the New World in 1535. The name "Trois-Rivières", however, was not given until 1599, by Captain Dupont-Gravé, and first appeared on maps of the area dated 1601.[10]

In 1603, while surveying the Saint-Lawrence River, Samuel de Champlain recommended establishing a permanent settlement in the area. Such a village was started on July 4, 1634, by the Sieur de Laviolette. Additional inhabitants of the early city of Trois-Rivières include: Quentin Moral, Sieur de St. Quentin; Pierre Boucher, Jacques Le Neuf, Jean Godefroy de Lintot, Michel Le Neuf du Hérisson, François Hertel, François Marguerie, René Robineau, and Jean Sauvaget. The city was the second to be founded in New France (after Quebec City, before Montreal). Given its strategic location, it played an important role in the colony and in the fur trade with First Nations peoples. The settlement became the seat of a regional government in 1665. Ursuline nuns first arrived at the settlement in 1697, where they founded the first school and helped local missionaries to Christianize the local Aboriginals and developing class of Métis.

French sovereignty in Trois-Rivières continued until 1760, when the city was captured as part of the British conquest of Canada during the Seven Years' War. Sixteen years later, on June 8, 1776, it was the theatre of the Battle of Trois-Rivières (part of the ill-fated invasion of the province of Quebec by les Bostonnais, Americans from the Boston area) during the American Revolutionary War.

Trois-Rivières continued to grow in importance throughout this period and beyond. In 1792 it was designated as the seat of a judicial district. In 1852, the Roman Catholic church made this the see of the Diocese of Trois-Rivières.

In 1816, Captain A.G. Douglas, a former adjutant at the British military college at Great Marlow, recommended a military college for Catholic and Protestant boys be established at Trois-Rivières. He proposed it operate in a disused government house and he would be superintendent. Douglas' college was intended as a boarding school to educate the young sons of officers, amongst others, in Latin, English language, French Language, History, Geography, Drawing and Mathematics. This preceded the founding of the Royal Military College of Canada in 1876.

In 1908, the greater part of the city of Trois-Rivières was destroyed by a fire; most of the city's original buildings, many dating to the French colonial years, were destroyed. Among the surviving buildings were the Ursuline Monastery and the De Tonnancour Manor. As a result of the destruction, a major redesign and renovation of the city was undertaken, including the widening and renewal of many of the city's roads. Many new businesses and industries became established in the town, attracting additional residents.

During the mid-century, the city became heavily industrialized and lost jobs during the later restructuring. In the 1960s, Trois-Rivières undertook a large-scale project of economic diversification, including founding several cultural institutions and attractions. The Old City of Trois-Rivières was declared an "historic sector" in 1964. The Laviolette Bridge, linking Trois-Rivières to Bécancour and the south shore of the Saint-Lawrence River, was opened officially on December 20, 1967. In 1969, the city founded the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, known for its chiropractic school, its podiatric medical education, and its programs for primary and secondary school education.

Although historically an important centre of commerce, trade and population, Trois-Rivières has been superseded by the two major cities of Quebec: the metropolis of Montreal and the capital of Quebec City. It remains as one of the principal medium-sized cities of Quebec, along with Saguenay, Sherbrooke, and Gatineau.

Source: Wikipedia

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parisiangiraffe · 6 years

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*cheats and sends every symbol

OH GOD YOU GOT ME GOOD(answers under the cut since this will be long)

📱 Show your phone lock screen and/or home screen

My lockscreen…to absolutely no one’s surprise

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters1) Cinder (obviously)2) Akito from Fruits Basket :*)

🕹 Video game you are currently playingPokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu!

🌡 Fave seasonAutumn, not too hot and not too cold~

🏫 Are you in school, what gradeNah man, I graduated last year

🎒 Are you in college, major area of studyI graduated last year, but I majored in Spanish and minored in French (also psychology but never went to the damn registrar to put it on my program…did all the classes tho)

🏢 Your job (You don’t have to be specific) or dream job if you don’t workI’m a writer and translator for an educational/test-development company :*)

📷 Post the 12th photo from your phone’s gallery

This is almost 4 years ago…jfc

📅 Your birthday

September 1st~

🎂 How old are you23~

📏 How tall are you

5′7″ but I normally wear heels that make me 5′9 or taller

🔑 Key to your heartNothing specific…Just don’t be an ass and do listen to what I say?

📖 Fave bookI’ve really liked the first book in the Throne of Glass series :*)

📝 Fave quoteI honestly don’t have one

🌐 Languages you can speak and/or are learning. Which are you fluent inI speak English, Spanish, and French. Italian at an intermediate level. I’m learning Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Russian at the moment. :*)

💻 Desktop/Laptop/iPad/otherI have a Dell inspiron…it drives me fuckin nuts

📔 Do you keep a traditional diaryNah, I have a Tumblr

☠ Something that angers youCheaters

🐷 Junk food you can never get enough ofChocolate YES

🌼 Fave flowerSunflower~

📺 Fave animeFruits Basket!

🎥 Fave filmBaby Driver or Kingsman

📻 Fave song currentlyLook What You Made Me Do- Taylor Swift

🎙 Can you singThat’s a HELL NAH

🎁 Best gift you ever received and whyMy borb, and I miss her :*(

👾 Do you believe in aliensI mean…sure lol

👻 Do you believe in ghostsI want to because those ghost shows freak me out lmao

⛪ What is your religionI’m Catholic!

🌎 What country do you live inUS of fuckin A

📸 Post a selfieI don’t have a recent one that I haven’t posted, but here’s a slightly older one of me makin a duck face

#Anonymous

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humansofhds · 6 years

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Nougoutna Norbert Litoing, PhD candidate

"The value of a person is inherent by virtue of the fact that the person is created in God’s image and likeness ... whether or not we are considered “productive” by society."

Norbert is a Jesuit priest and a third-year PhD student in the Committee on the Study of Religion. His research involves the comparative study of Muslim and Catholic pilgrimage traditions in West Africa and the relationship between pilgrimage, memory, and identity.

At Home in the World

I am from Cameroon, which is geographically along the Western coast of Africa and politically a part of Central Africa. Cameroon shares a border with Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo. I am specifically from North East Cameroon along the border with Chad. My parents are from two different ethnic groups, my father is from a group called Masa (different from the well-known Maasai of East Africa), and my mother is from an ethnic group called Tupuri. My father’s village is about seven kilometers from my mother’s, so they didn’t have to travel a long distance to meet each other. I grew up mostly in the south of the country. My father was a soldier, so we moved around where his work took him. For about 14 years I lived on different military bases around the country. We had to adapt to each new place. As one of the consequences of this constant movement, I have very few childhood friends from when I was young. I have, however, learned to be at home wherever I find myself.

When I was 10 years old I expressed the desire to become a Catholic priest to my parents. I asked to join a minor seminary, which is basically a middle and high school for young boys who are thinking of joining the priesthood. I got my A-levels in S1 (math, physics, and chemistry) at the minor seminary, which is the certificate that qualifies you to go to university. Even though I still desired to be a priest, I felt the need to take some time for further reflection before making a firm commitment. I consequently decided to go to university and began to study mathematics. In the meantime, I was in touch with the Jesuits who I had discovered by reading and through a friend from the minor seminary who was already in touch with them.

The Language of Love

During my freshman year, I journeyed with the Jesuits and eventually entered the Jesuit novitiate at the end of the year. Even though there is a Jesuit novitiate in Cameroon, I was sent to the one in Rwanda, in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The novitiate is the first stage of formation for Jesuits. It lasts two years. It is a time of initiation into the Jesuit order. A center-piece of this initiation consists of undertaking the spiritual exercises, a 30-day retreat during which you have the opportunity to read your own life story as a sacred journey, being able to find the traces of God’s presence in your own life and the ways in which God might be calling you to serve people out there.

Apart from the retreat, another memorable experience of my novitiate formation was an internship that I was asked to do in Burundi. I spent six weeks there in a center for mentally and physically handicapped children. It was one of the most important experiences in my life up to now. At the beginning, it was very frustrating. I had a language barrier. I couldn’t speak with the kids. My Kirundi was next to nothing and my Kiswahili was very basic. I was asked to teach them French, and after three weeks I was still trying to teach them the alphabet.

What helped me to overcome my frustration was the realization that I was being called to speak with them using another language: the language of love. Just being there with them, they simply enjoyed being around you. By the end of my stay there it felt like home. As my parting gift, the kids gave me a big piece of paper on which they had drawn a heart. They had colored it and written their names. I kept it because it reminded me of my experience there, which taught me that the value of a human being does not reside in what a person is capable of eventually producing. The value of a person is inherent by virtue of the fact that the person is created in God’s image and likeness. I learned that we have an intrinsic value independent of what we are capable of doing or producing, whether or not we are considered “productive” by society. I remember one kid in particular, her dad was a prominent university professor in Burundi. Sometimes he was frustrated when he realized that he had this prominent brain and all that it produces, but his own child could not even make a full sentence. It was frustrating for him. But to have a child like that was an invitation precisely for him to realize that there is another way of assessing the value of a person. That’s what those children did for me.

Service and Studies

After those two years in Rwanda, I was sent to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I studied philosophy in what has now become Loyola University Congo. I spent three years there, earning a BA in philosophy. After that I was sent to Senegal for regency, which is a time of pastoral ministry. I lived and worked in a city called Tambacounda, not far from the border between Senegal and Mali. There, I was in charge of Religious Education in our Jesuit parish and Catholic junior high school.

In Tambacounda, we equally run a socio-cultural center that serves children from poor families. I mentored a number of these kids. My first year in Tambacounda was difficult because I was adjusting, but the second year was wonderful, so much so that I actually asked if I could stay there beyond the required two years of regency. I was, however, not allowed to stay, as my Jesuit superior sent me to Hekima College, a Jesuit University in Nairobi, Kenya, to study. I did a master of divinity degree there and was ordained a deacon in February 2012. That same year I was sent to England to do a master in Islamic studies at the University of Birmingham. I was ordained a priest in the Roman/Latin rite of the Catholic Church in June 2013. In December of the same year, I was sent to Senegal to help open a new Jesuit community in Gandigal, a village located approximately 45 miles from Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. Together with another Jesuit, we were tasked with exploring the possibilities of opening a center for interfaith relations there. I spent a year and a half in Gandigal, serving religious communities in Senegal and Gambia.

I was then sent to Boston College School of Theology and Ministry for a Master’s in Theology (ThM), a one-year program. I then joined the PhD program in the Study of Religion here at Harvard in the fall of 2016 under the subfields of comparative studies and African religions. I hope to work on Muslim and Catholic pilgrimage traditions in West Africa in a comparative perspective, exploring the relationship between pilgrimage, memory, and identity. I am now in the third year of the program. I serve as TF for two classes while I prepare for the general exams, which I intend to take in the spring.

As a Jesuit, when in studies, my pastoral ministry is very limited. A cornerstone of our Jesuit spirituality consists in “finding God in all things.” My studies currently constitute the site of my encounter with God. From time to time, I celebrate Mass and listen to confessions in some of the local parishes as a visiting priest, but my studies constitute my main mission right now.

The Tortoise

I wouldn’t trade the experience of living in many places for anything in the world. It has done something to me; it really gives you a unique perspective on people and life. It forces you out of your comfort zone. And if you go to these places with an open heart, you usually learn a lot from the people you encounter and through the experiences you have.

I tell people that everywhere is home for me. If somebody asks me “have you gone home?” I say, “I am always home.” The symbol of my mother’s ethnic group, and it has become a symbol of my own spiritual life, is the tortoise. It moves around with its home on its back. I tend to be at home wherever I find myself. It is true some places can be more home than others in terms of the experiences you make. But I believe that other people do not have the power to determine whether I am happy or not; I don’t give that power to people. You should have it in your own hands. Don’t give them the power to determine what becomes of your life.

The poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley is my favorite. It says, among other things, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” It’s the meaning of my name as well—my last name Litoing means “self-made.”

Interview and photos by Anaïs Garvanian

#jesuit #catholic #Christianity #Harvard #Harvard Divinity School #africa #cameroon #large

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, September 24, 2021

Travel in Canada is a prize for the vaccinated and vigilant (AP) Americans wanting to experience Canada’s vibrant autumn or its winter landscapes can do so again. But getting here means jumping through hoops before you go. Those hoops? To get into Canada as a tourist you must be fully vaccinated. You must have a PCR-variety COVID test taken no more than 72 hours in advance, with results ready to present at the border if driving or at the airport of departure before you can board. You have to pre-register with the Canadian government and get a code. You must present the basics of a backup quarantine plan in advance, in case you are randomly tested again upon arrival and found to be positive. You can’t be like the man from Atlanta whom border guards were talking about when I crossed. He’d pulled up a few nights earlier, unvaccinated, no test, no pre-registration and no hope of getting into Canada, more than 16 hours from home.

COVID-19 creates dire US shortage of teachers, school staff (AP) One desperate California school district is sending flyers home in students’ lunchboxes, telling parents it’s “now hiring.” Elsewhere, principals are filling in as crossing guards, teachers are being offered signing bonuses and schools are moving back to online learning. Now that schools have welcomed students back to classrooms, they face a new challenge: a shortage of teachers and staff the likes of which some districts say they have never seen. Public schools have struggled for years with teacher shortages, particularly in math, science, special education and languages. But the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem. The stress of teaching in the COVID-19 era has triggered a spike in retirements and resignations. Schools also need to hire staffers like tutors and special aides to make up for learning losses and more teachers to run online school for those not ready to return.

Sad perspective (Vanity Fair/NextDraft) In 2020, more than 5,100 kids under 18 were shot ... and more than 1,300 died. And yet, you’ve heard less about all of those deaths combined than the killing of Gabrielle Petito. Petito was a social media star and the pieces of her case are rolling out in real time. It’s understandable why internet users became obsessed. More worrisome is the way that what’s popular on social media drives what makes headlines. Every editor knows the endless and exhaustive coverage of a single murder case, in a country where murder is the national pastime, is beyond absurd. But they just can’t stop themselves.

After fence-mending Biden-Macron call, French envoy to return to U.S. (Reuters) The U.S. and French presidents moved to mend ties on Wednesday, with France agreeing to send its ambassador back to Washington and the White House saying it had erred in cutting a deal for Australia to buy U.S. instead of French submarines without consulting Paris. In a joint statement issued after U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone, the two leaders agreed to launch in-depth consultations to rebuild trust, and to meet in Europe at the end of October. The call, which was requested by Washington, was an attempt to mend fences after France accused the United States of stabbing it in the back when Australia ditched a $40-billion contract for conventional French submarines, and opted for nuclear-powered submarines to be built with U.S. and British technology instead.

Pope jokes he is ‘still alive’ despite some bishops wishing him dead (Washington Post) Pope Francis has a message for his haters: “Still alive. Even though some people wanted me dead.” Hundreds of Italians cheered for him under a Rome hospital balcony this summer. But not everybody was happy that he made it out of colon surgery, the pontiff has quipped. In his eight-year tenure, Francis’s more liberal overtones than the popes before him—from his invitation of LGBT advocates to the Vatican to his calls to welcome refugees—have stirred tensions with conservatives, and drew pushback. The post-op papal joke about bishops wishing him ill marked a frank acknowledgment of the forces within the church who are at odds with him. In answering questions about the challenges the church faces—and the divisions within—one detractor Francis mentioned was “a large Catholic television that constantly gossips” about him. Still, the pontiff said, “I just go forward without entering into their world of ideas and fantasies.”

Ambush in Ukraine (Washington Post) A top Ukrainian presidential aide, Serhiy Shefir, narrowly survived assassination when one or more attackers opened fire on his car with a barrage of at least 18 bullets Wednesday. The attack took place on a forested stretch of road near Lesnyky village, outside Kyiv, the country’s capital. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in New York, announced he would return to Kyiv after addressing the United Nations General Assembly later Wednesday. Police are pursuing three main lines of investigation—that Shefir was attacked because of his state duties, that it was an attempt to put pressure on the country’s top leadership or that it was an effort to destabilize the political situation in the country.

Tensions grow as US, allies deepen Indo-Pacific involvement (AP) With increasingly strong talk in support of Taiwan, a new deal to supply Australia with nuclear submarines, and the launch of a European strategy for greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. and its allies are becoming growingly assertive in their approach toward a rising China. China has bristled at the moves, and the growing tensions between Beijing and Washington prompted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the weekend to implore President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship, warning they risk dividing the world. As the U.N. General Assembly opened Tuesday, both leaders chose calming language. But the underlying issues have not changed, with China building up its military outposts as it presses its maritime claims over critical sea lanes, and the U.S. and its allies growing louder in their support of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, and deepening military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

Myanmar junta abducting children of people targeted for arrest, says UN expert (Guardian) Myanmar’s military junta is systematically abducting the relatives of people it is seeking to arrest, including children as young as 20 weeks old, according the UN special rapporteur for the country. Tom Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions in the country had continued to deteriorate. His speech was followed by the release of a report by the UN Human Rights Office on Thursday, which warned of a “human rights catastrophe” and said abuses perpetrated since the coup may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The military and its forces have killed more than 1,100 people, according to the UN report. It details systematic, targeted killings by the junta, including the use of semi-automatic rifles and snipers against pro-democracy protesters. Weapons designed for military confrontation, such as grenade launchers and artillery shells, have also been used against protesters and fired into residential areas, it said.

Mideast in shambles, but the world has moved on for now (AP) There was a time not long ago when uprisings and wars in the Arab world topped the agenda at the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York. With most of those conflicts in a stalemate, the world’s focus has shifted to more daunting global challenges such as the still raging coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as new crises in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. But the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated significantly in more countries and in more ways in the last two years. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are teetering on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, with skyrocketing poverty and an economic implosion that threatens to throw the region into even deeper turmoil. “The region’s been crowded out by other global crises, but there’s also a sense of Western hopelessness after so many years of crisis,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Cinema returns to Somalia after decades of shut-downs and strife (Reuters) Dozens of Somalis posed for selfies and chattered excitedly in rows of red, plush seats as they waited for the start of their country’s first movie screening in three decades. After the overthrow of president Siad Barre in 1991, clan-based warlords blasted each other with anti-aircraft guns and fought over the National Theatre, which they used as a base. The building was hit so many times that the roof collapsed a year into the conflict. Islamist militants who seized control in 2006 took over the building. They banned all forms of public entertainment—from concerts to football matches—that they considered sinful. African Union peacekeeping troops clawed back control of the capital in 2011 and the new Western-backed Somali government reopened the venue the following year. But just three weeks after that, a suicide bomber from the Islamist al Shabaab insurgency struck during a ceremony, killing six people. The building reopened again in 2020. Mogadishu resident Hassan Abdulahi Mohamed remembered spending half a Somali shilling on a movie ticket and one shilling on snacks at the theatre in the 1960s. “Last time I watched films in the cinema, it was 1991,” he said.

Books (Pew Research Center) A new study from Pew Research Center found 23 percent of Americans said they hadn’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, including print, digital and audiobooks. An interesting component is that younger adults—with TikTok and their awful attention spans—were in fact considerably more likely to have read one book than older respondents, with 28 percent of those 50 and up forgoing books compared to just 19 percent of those 18 to 49. Overall, 23 percent didn’t read a book, 5 percent read one, 25 percent read two to five books, 15 percent read six to 10 books, 11 percent read 11 to 20 books and 18 percent of people said they read more than 20 books.

Shifting Sands (Hakai Magazine) Two studies looking at how islands in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Gilbert Islands have changed amid sea level rise found that among 175 sparsely populated or uninhabited islands, while lots of them have shrunk, lots of them have also expanded since the 1940s. Micronesia increased its land area by approximately 3 percent since the ‘40s and the Gilberts are 2.45 percent larger. It clarifies the simplistic idea that all islands are all just going to be sucked under amid sea level rise, which is true in many cases but misses the reality that the complex relationship between tides and waves and surges makes things more complicated to forecast than “water go up, island sinks down.”

#headlines #news

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tinyshe · 5 years

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Resource Links, Pro Life Europe

source https://www.priestsforlife.org/plgroups/europe.aspx

Europe

CARE CARE was formed in the United Kingdom then expanded in Europe to support and encourage Christians to express in a compassionate way God's heart concerning abortion and provide resources on matters of public policy. CARE is represented in the United Kingdom Parliaments and Assemblies, at the European Union in Brussels and the United Nations in Geneva and New York. European Pro Life Doctors Christian conservative group of physicians who have stood against the “Culture of Death” since their founding in 2001 Human Life International Europa Pro-life resources in Polish, English, Russian and Ukrainian

France

Association to ProtectChildren (Association pour la Protection de l’Enfance) A platform of networks, associations, professionals, elected officials, and individuals who support any initiative aimed at the defense of the best interests of children International Center for Life (Centre International pour la Vie) Based in Lourdes, a non-denominational, non-profit group that uses all forms of media to inform the French public on Pro-Life issues with materials available in several languages Right to be Born (Droit de Naître) Group of concerned parents who have worked to see a change in French laws such that the trivialization of abortion is removed SOS Bebe Informative websites detailing the rights, resources and options for pregnant women including a crisis center and information on how to get in touch with adoption agencies The Truce of God (La Trêve de Dieu) A Catholic group that aims to help and support the Pro Life campaign and denounces legalized abortion as a crime against humanity

Germany

Caritas-Germany Through this German site, an expectant mother with difficulties can engage directly in a private chat with a diocesan consultant.

Ireland

Human Life International Ireland Irish branch of Human Life International (HLI) - a worldwide pro-family, pro-life, charity organization. Irish Bishops' Committee for Bioethics Committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference focuses on stem cell research and euthanasia Precious Life Organization works to keep abortion out of Northern Ireland Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) Non denominational lobbying group protecting life from conception to natural death & campaigns for resources for pregnant women in need & those suffering from post abortion trauma Pro Life Movement (Ireland) Stay informed about what's happening with the pro-life movement in Ireland. Rachel’s Vineyard – Ireland A ministry of Priests for Life, Rachel's Vineyard offers women and men weekends for healing after abortion along with a 13-week support group model around the world. Youth Defence Youth activist organization committed to education and campaigning for full constitutional protection for Irish mothers and babies that also operates the TruthTV website

Italy

The Cooperative Friends for Life (La CooperativaAmici per La Vita) Responsible for media publications that defend lifefor conception The Truth and the Life Committee (ComitatoVerità e Vita) Association of pro-life citizens who denounce immoral laws Thousand Year Oak (La QuerciaMillenaria) Organization that attempts to prevent therapeutic abortions by paying the medical costs of women who are expecting a child with multiple disabilities.

Lithuania

PRO VITA--Pro-Life in Lithuania A group that celebrates life by remembering the tortured unborn dead with prayer, sorrow, days of repentance and memorials.

The Netherlands

Cry For Life (Holland) The Pro-Life Organization of the Netherlands

Poland

The Polish Association for the Protection of Human Life Educational association with a website in Polish and English

Spain

Silence No More (No MásSilencio) Help for women who have had abortions

Switzerland

Human Life International (Switzerland) This site contains pro-life news and information in the German language.

United Kingdom

Abort67 A project of The Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK (CBR UK). It is the name given to the public education project that seeks to change the way we think about abortion.

ALERT Group warns people of the dangers of any type of euthanasia legislation and pro-death initiatives All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group Cross-party group (includes members of all three main parties) united to protect human life from conception until natural death CareConfidential Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) operates a website networking independent crisis pregnancy and post abortion counseling centers across the United Kingdom Christian Medical Fellowship An evangelical, interdenominational organization that links together Christian doctors and medical students in the UK Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) Public interest group focusing on ethical dilemmas surrounding human reproduction, particularly the new technologies of assisted conception The Guild of Catholic Doctors On this website you will find details of some of the Guild's activities, and membership information. LIFE Crisis pregnancy support with the message of “loving life, offering hope” offering education, housing and their FertilityCare Program Precious Life Organization works to keep abortion out of Northern Ireland through non-violent, direct action Pro-Life Care Online Resources for pregnant women, men whose wives or partners are pregnant as well as women suffering from abortion RTL RTL is the UK's newest campaign group committed to upholding the dignity of human life... from its conception to its natural end. Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) Based in the United Kingdom, a leading educational and lobbying organization that affirms, defends and promotes the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception in the United Kingdom and at the United Nations Student LifeNet Pro-life, campaigning national network with the mission to be at forefront of student politics United for Life A website resource linking health and human life issues, organizations, facts and history, of a medical, scientific, social, political and religious nature including both national and international items

#pro life #abortion #resource page #Europe pro life movement

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batonrougeinfo · 4 years

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Baton Rouge Schools: Highly Regarded Public Schools

For many of the parishes, where schools are suffering in many ways, securing quality education for their children is an issue. In fact, many parish school systems were recently rated poor by the Louisiana Department of Education's Office of the State Inspector General. In Baton Rouge alone, six of the nine public high schools faced some form of financial review from the state. Three of the high schools received Ds or Fs, while only one received an A grade.

Local administrators, including the school board, have taken some steps to correct the problem. Two months ago, the city school board released a report showing that despite making some structural changes, the quality of instruction at all levels was still unevenly distributed. The report identified five key areas that had been contributing to the achievement gap between minority students and those in the general population. In particular, it was noted that despite the progress made in closing the achievement gap, poverty and inadequate academic preparation were still major concerns. The report also showed that the percentage of minority students attending a poor-performing school had increased from thirty percent in 2020 to fifty percent in 2020. The parish had the nation's highest percentage of uninsured people, which contributes to a higher percentage of poverty.

In both the report cards and in the comments of local officials, the OIG emphasized that much of the problem is attributable to the lack of affordable housing, poor educational conditions, and an unsuccessful response from the national school reform movement. However, the report did note that many of the problems were related to staffing levels and that the schools had made some progress in reducing student drop-out rates over the last few years. In addition, most parishes are still very low in per capita income, even as the national average rises slightly. This means that families in the parishes do not have the financial wherewithal to adequately fund the quality of their children's education.

The report drew some criticism from several Baton Rouge residents, who had criticized the lack of visible information about schools in the previous years. However, the new city mayor, Desiree Couvee, promised that the implementation of the changes would be transparent. She announced that she had asked the boards of each parish to post sample letters on the Internet for people to read. She also indicated that the new communications system would allow communities to more easily track changes to programs and services such as after-school activities. The new system will also allow community organizers to more easily distribute newsletters and information about events.

The new system also includes plans for a new grading system that will replace letter grades with a four-tiered system that gives more importance to differentiated instruction and will use more natural language in describing academic topics. Principals will receive personalized instructions from teachers. The entire classroom will become a learning environment that makes learning fun. It has been found that students learn better when there is an element of humor in the classroom. One reason for this finding is that teachers tend to take a more positive attitude toward students, when they are enjoying what they are teaching.

In the past, the city of Baton Rouge had some difficulty with the ranking of its elementary schools. High school administrators were often criticized for the poor student test scores that some of them achieved, despite the fact that students were not granted the same resources as their higher school peers. In recent years, the rankings of elementary schools in Baton Rouge have improved. High school officials were able to attract even more students by adding basketball courts, tennis courts, and other athletic fields to the school systems. The improvements in these schools helped the city to climb into the number one ranked position.

Private schools in Baton Rouge offer a unique opportunity for parents to provide the type of education that their children need. There are two types of schools that are found in Baton Rouge: public and private. The city is divided into five parishes, and the school systems are located in French Acadole, Barrell College, parish schools, Baton Rouge Schools, and four private schools. The private schools are mostly Roman Catholic, but they also include evangelical, Jewish, and other Christian-based schools.

The city of Baton Rouge has developed an excellent public school system. However, it is unfortunate that many parents do not have enough money to send their children to private schools. As a result, the city has invested a great deal of effort in providing state of the art public schools. Today, there are more than forty different public elementary schools. All of the schools are accredited and teach a similar curriculum. In addition, there is a highly experienced private school system superintendent who oversees the public schools.

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