Things that people on Metafilter have said “should be taught in schools”:
– Creationism (x 2)
– The skill of questioning the veracity and value of an information source
– Good literature
– “applying basic skills to accomplish daily tasks”
– these first three paragraphs
– The latest accepted standard for page markup
– This letter
– “ignoring people unless they can have a direct effect upon my life”
My buddy Beth is a choir director who came to visit me in Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago. She made me a lovely list of musical recommendations that managed to combine my indie rock tendencies with her love of Renaissance music. Here’s the list, posted mostly for my easy access and so I’m allowed to throw away the index card:
-Brandi Carlile, especially the acoustic album
– Bon Iver / DeYarmond Edison (one of her old students plays with them, too!)
– Bobby McFerrin, Circlesongs and the album with Chick Corea, especially “Spain”
– Sarah Vaughan, Live at Mr. Kelly’s
– Ellis Paul, the live album
– Fleet Foxes
– Jewlia Eisenberg, Trilectic
That’s the more modern stuff, but she also included some rad early (and classical) music, with her favorite performers:
– Gesualdo, especially the Motets
– Perotin (which is early polyphony), especially performed by the Hilliard Ensemble
– Victoria, “Requiem,” especially performed by Harry Christophers and the Sixteen
– Trio Mediaeval, Stella Maris
– Beethoven’s later string quartets
So, pending the coming move to Lebanon, I’ve been making some serious attempts at learning Arabic. This certainly comes with its struggles. Here’s what’s up so far:
– There’s not time for me to get into a class, and only recently have I understood the script well enough to warrant private lessons. But with only two more months in these United States, and not a lot of money to go around, it’s all independent study, all the time.
– Arabic has a ton of differing dialects. The one I’ll be around the most will be Levantine Arabic (and let us not forget the French). Teaching materials are typically created for Modern Standard Arabic – MSA – and trying to speak it is much like hopping out of a cab in front of Grand Central and delivering one of Hamlet’s soliloquies. “Hark ye, kind sir. The grace of God be upon you on this day of light. Forsooth, couldst thou kindly direct me to the shining doors of the L train?”
– I’d eat bugs for some cognates. So far, we’ve got “beij” and “sah’ra”: “beige” and “desert.” To be fair, though, they’re written as “نيغ” and “صعلرا”. Remember to read ’em right-to-left!
Wrestling with all my strength with a language has its rewards, though. German looks like the simplest thing in the world. The internets provide great little corners of help: streaming BBC television news, PDF versions of dictionaries, class syllabi. If anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to slap up some links to my favorite treasures so far. For now, I’ve earned myself a reward beer.
Paint Shop Girl 