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Author: Patrick Rhone

Bilingual

During the daytime work hours my daughter, Beatrix, is taken care of at the home of a young lady (whom I will call “CJ” for the reasons of safety and privacy) and her son, who is about a year and a half older than Beatrix. We think the world of her (of both of them actually). She treats Beatrix with the same love, kindness and compassion she displays for her own child. She is extremely active and loves to take them to museums, parks, zoos, play dates – basically anything to keep them the happiest of children. It’s perfect.

CJ is from England and still has a very proper accent. Being an unabashed Anglophile myself, this only helps solidify her position as a permanent addition to our extended family. It has also been a fascinating experiment in the nature of language learning and linguistics with the test subject being Beatrix.

You see, when Beatrix is around CJ or, in conversation discussing anything related to CJ or her son, she uses British terms in place of American ones where a difference exists. For instance…

  • Shopping Cart = Trolley
  • Trash Can = Rubbish Bin (Bin for short)
  • Diaper = Nappy
  • Trunk = Boot

When she is with us or speaking to us, she uses the American phrase. In other words, she has become bilingual in two versions of the English language and, at age two and a half, knows which of these two “languages” to speak based upon the others in conversation with her.

For those of you who are in bilingual homes or have immersion school/daycare experience, this may be just the way it works. That said, to see it happen within the confines of a language that is largely shared is a fascinating peek into the way the brain works and how important it is that we expose our children to such experiences at the earliest age possible.

Shutting Themselves In – New York Times

Shutting Themselves In – New York Times

One morning when he was 15, Takeshi shut the door to his bedroom, and for the next four years he did not come out. He didn’t go to school. He didn’t have a job. He didn’t have friends. Month after month, he spent 23 hours a day in a room no bigger than a king-size mattress, where he ate dumplings, rice and other leftovers that his mother had cooked, watched TV game shows and listened to Radiohead and Nirvana. “Anything,” he said, “that was dark and sounded desperate.”

Fascinating story about the problem of “hikikomori” – Japanese youth, mostly male, who feel compelled to shut themselves away in their rooms for years. One solution: A therapy program that includes “rental sisters” – Young women who’s sole job it is to coax them back into society.

If you do something that you’re proud of, that someone else understands, that is a thing of beauty that wasn’t there before – you can’t beat that.

Teller (of Penn and Teller)

The Christian Colonies | Quiche Moraine

The Christian Colonies | Quiche Moraine

And thus it is that, while many of the original colonies were founded as Christian colonies, not all of them were. More importantly, when the time came to model our country’s religious character on all of the colonial experiments that had taken place, we chose the experiment that had worked.

We chose to not become a Christian nation.

Fascinating argument against the idea that this nation was founded by Christians, who imbued our founding documents with a belief in a solely Christian understanding of God. The back and forth in the comments is equally enlightening. 

Utility Journal: Tip Sheet: Tea

Utility Journal: Tip Sheet: Tea

There are plenty of reasons to drink tea, and knowledge is power when it comes to getting the best from your own. So in this first Tip Sheet article, we’ve compiled a concise round-up of useful information about earth’s second favorite beverage (water is the first).

Some really good, succinct information, about something I have been wanting to know more about. Really great. (via Chris Bowler)

It doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or a baker. When the mood strikes you and you find you can suddenly make things happen, do everything to stay in that mood. Create, build, bake. You can always rework later.

Randy Murray

Inside the City’s Last Silent Place | The New York Observer

Inside the City’s Last Silent Place | The New York Observer

Writers need neutral rooms in which to work, not spaces that burden inhabitants with the pressure to generate anecdotes. “You hardly ever see anyone else’s face-quite literally,” said Megan Hustad, author of How to Be Useful. “That sensory deprivation trains the imagination.”

Interesting short writeup about the secret room in New York’s central library reserved for working published writers. You need a keycard to access and there is no wifi. Sounds like a dream. (via Coudal)