Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
I love learning languages because it constantly reassures me how similar we all are regardless of superficial differences.
Every time I visited a new country for the first several years I was traveling it was like "oh, but what if the rumors are true and-" and then I'd talk to a couple people and everyone would be like "I value good food, intimacy, housing, and expressing myself". Maybe they paint, maybe they're a programmer, intellectually/physically disabled or a pilot, but people are, in my mind, undoubtedly people first, just like all the other people.
Now I've been traveling for 15 years and I don't worry about "them" in a new country being any different than everyone else I know. Chinese are Texans are Guatemalans are people, people, people and you have everything in common with them.
English, Mandarin, Spanish, and I'm crappy to mid in a bunch of others.
It’s all The Blanket.
What's the blanket?
It’s a concept from the movie “I ❤️ Huckabees” where it’s being explained that everything in the whole of human existence, past present and future, exists as only part of one whole connected thing. Like it’s all one blanket. genocide, famine, Nobel laureates, orgasms. It’s all the blanket. Essentially, no reason to get upset at a person for wronging you, because they are, you. Anyway it’s been like 20 years since I saw it but the concept stuck with me.
Oh, got it. Yea, that's how I feel about people. I remember watching that when it came out, but not since then either, wonder if it stuck with me too.
One of the many things I find fascinating about learning about different languages is how differently people can think about certain things. You add water to vodka in English? You water it down (since you're decreasing the concentration, right?). Same thing in my language? You water it up (since you're increasing the volume, right?). Most of the adjectives after nouns in Spanish. Entire structures that you would expect at the beginning of a sentence in English being pushed to the end in German. SVO/VSO differences. Different or similar idioms, phrases for the same thing. Two birds with one stone? Two birds with one throw? Two flies with one slap? Two pigeons with one bean? I'm boring already and I can't even stop.
I completely agree, I love the different comprehension and expression of an identical concept, it's part of why I never get bored traveling or learning languages. It extends to actions and behaviors too, like using chopsticks instead of forks because "of course you would, they're the primary eating utensil." Keeps my mind broad to remember that everyone around me is sure the world looks a certain way and they're all seeing different things.