Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 38

• The book called The Book—plus a lagniappe: a book about type

  By ljd42 on March 26, 2021

  

  Read The Book in hardcover! Not in paperback. Nor on your Kindle. And don’t listen to it as an audiobook! The hardcover is essential. The full title is The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, as you… Read More ›

• Hwæt?Beowulf? newly translated for your enjoyment

  By ljd42 on March 23, 2021

  

  The world is atwitter at the arrival of a new translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley. Well, a certain segment of the world, anyway. And you may well wonder why. The idea of reading this epic poem has never appealed to… Read More ›

• “Guess the Language”: quite a challenge!

  By ljd42 on March 21, 2021

  

  If you heard a short sample of a language that you didn’t know, could you still guess which language it is? Quite a challenge, no? Well, in this video, you have the opportunity to see Latvian linguist Julie Maksimova face… Read More ›

• Troubled Blood

  By ljd42 on March 19, 2021

  

  Robert Galbraith has a secret identity, though you won’t spot him changing in a phone booth. What’s his secret identity? Well, many people know him better by his pseudonym, J.K. Rowling. No, wait! That can’t be right. J.K. Rowling is… Read More ›

• A really important dispute about “OK boomer”

  By ljd42 on March 17, 2021

  

  According to a post the other day in All Things Linguistic, it is widely believed that the correct translation of “OK boomer” into Middle Egyptian is whereas they point out that a more accurate translation would of course be Perhaps… Read More ›

• The Font of the Baskervilles

  By ljd42 on March 16, 2021

  

  The Hound Font of the Baskervilles? We’ve all learned, particularly in the last few years, to be cautious about believing what we read. Some people (though not nearly enough of us) have even learned to be cautious about what we see… Read More ›

• Pi(e) day: not actually a national holiday!

  By ljd42 on March 14, 2021

  

  OK, I tried to release this at precisely 3/14 1:59:26.535897932384. How well did I do? But why would the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) lie to us about Pi Day? This is just too distressing for words: Declared a… Read More ›

• O chess pieces, what are your names (in 79 languages)? And what did my dad have to do with it?

  By ljd42 on March 12, 2021

  

  Chess, of course, is endlessly fascinating. For some reason, however, I no longer play chess. I never became good at it, even though my dad started me on it at an early age. Chess meant a lot to him because… Read More ›

• So, Classics, which is it? Are you Latin + Greek? Or are you Racism + White Supremacy?

  By ljd42 on March 11, 2021

  

  I started thinking about college, as one does in certain families, when I was in eighth grade. I had no idea where I wanted to go, but I was pretty sure that I would want to major in Classics. What… Read More ›

• At least somebody appreciates teachers!

  By ljd42 on March 9, 2021

  

  For the last few months it has seemed that nobody in Massachusetts appreciates teachers (I’m talking to you in particular, Governor Baker). But then I spotted this sign on someone’s front lawn during my walk today. It is on Msgr…. Read More ›

• Ashmont Grill yet again

  By ljd42 on March 8, 2021

  

  Last night it was once again time for Barbara and me to enjoy takeout from our favorite local restaurant, the Ashmont Grill! Of course takeout is not the same—either gastronomically or socially—as dining in, and it’s not warm enough yet… Read More ›

• Do you speak Abruzzese? What is that? Can I understand any of it if you say something in Abruzzese? Is it a language? a dialect of Italian? a dialect of Neapolitan? Or have you never even heard of it?

  By ljd42 on March 6, 2021

  

  This great video will repay your close attention! And it does demand close attention. Also, you should definitely turn on closed captioning, unless you happen to be fluent in Catalan, French, Latin, and Spanish. And of course you’ll be listening… Read More ›

• FUE (Frequently Used Emojis)

  By ljd42 on March 4, 2021

  

  Apparently I am the only person in the world who has trouble with emojis. I find, at least as they are usually used, that they are too small for me to pick out the details. Most of the facial expressions… Read More ›

• Code-switching, code-meshing, and linguistic bias in the classroom

  By ljd42 on March 2, 2021

  

  Catherine Savini has an interesting piece in a recent issue of Inside Higher Ed. Although it’s aimed at college professors, it applies equally well to secondary educators. The issue is a familiar one: how to respond to students who don’t speak or… Read More ›

• A Place for Everything

  By ljd42 on February 28, 2021

  

  Yes, the title of the book is A Place for Everything. No, it is not a Marie Kondo knockoff. It will be the subtitle that tells you what it’s really about: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order. That’s what it’s about…. Read More ›

• Just Thai… but what more do you need?

  By ljd42 on February 27, 2021

  

  Tonight’s yummy takeout from Just Thai: JTK wings, gyoza, teriyaki beef, pork with garlic and oyster sauce.  

• Repairing Boston’s electoral process

  By ljd42 on February 26, 2021

  

  We continue on from yesterday’s post talking about some good advice from Bill Walczak… That one was about how to repair the police (repairing instead of “defunding”); this one is about how to repair the election process in Boston, which suffers… Read More ›

• Repairing the world (or at least the police)

  By ljd42 on February 25, 2021

  

  Bill Walczak reminds us: [T]he ability of police officers to be successful in ensuring peace and safety depends on characteristics like judgment, empathy, being unbiased, and able to handle people in crisis. … If our goal for policing is peace… Read More ›

• Can you explain this puzzle, WGBH?

  By ljd42 on February 23, 2021

  

  Can anybody explain this? Barbara and I have been members of WGBH for decades now. For the past 36 years GBH has sent their monthly magazine to the correct address: (As you see, I have redacted the street name to… Read More ›

• Support your local restaurant! For instance, the Ashmont Grill again…

  By ljd42 on February 21, 2021

  

  Barbara and I shared a delicious takeout dinner from the Ashmont Grill last night: garlic parmesan chicken wings fried Brussels sprouts with cilantro and mint (three nights’ worth!) wood-grilled hanger steak, cooked medium rare as ordered, with fries cheddar cheeseburger,… Read More ›

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