Here's a little diddy I'm working on this summer: I'm calling it, The Fluent Summer. Essentially, I'm going to be trying to immerse myself in Spanish and Portuguese, and hopefully by the time the next semester begins, I'll be confident enough to embrace a PhD-level course taught in Spanish. In order to do so, here's what I've decided to work on: Changing my cell phone interface into Spanish.Watching an hour or more of tv in Spanish or ... Read the Post...
One Year Down, Many(?) More to Go
If you've been wondering where I've been, it's working or procrastinating. Last week was the week of finals, and for me that meant two big essays that have been driving me crazy. One was on the symbolic power of a dictionary: if your language has one, your language is legit. It's real. If your language has one, but you want to assert your own group identity, you make one. If you have to work with a group of people to make a dictionary, how do you ... Read the Post...
Excursions: Defending the Social Sciences
STEM and Liberal Arts STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and it became a hot button concept in the past decade or so for a variety of reasons. One, international competitiveness. The United States had been falling behind other countries in churning out students prepared for careers in STEM, and it was starting to have implications in our workforce, with a greater immigrant population working ... Read the Post...
My Favorite Song: Magnólia by Jorge Ben Jor
All in White You decided to wear your best outfit, a white suit with an outstandingly floral tie with tropical flowers. The suit doesn't fit you perfectly, it's a bit roomy, requiring you constantly readjust the coat so that it doesn't fall too far forward or back. Hoping you were going to grow into it, whether by extra food or extra weight at the gym, you bought it from a thrift store not too far from here. In the year since you last saw her, ... Read the Post...
