Lithuania v Poland

I stumbled over this video, (completely uninteresting)-



but if you read the comments below it on youtube, the Lithauanian-Polish tension is evident. The person who posted this video of 2 stumbling drunkards under the title "Lithuanian Umbrella" claims to be from Poland- the comments go back and forth (these are just a few, in English):
"typical lithuanian fold"
"THIS IS NOT LITHUANIANS!!!"
"Its not lithuanians. Rated 1* for trying make bad name for Lithuania. Pole I think.(no doubt) Lithuanians could standup "
"these arent Poles...they would walk or lie...these must be lithuanians"
"These are Poles, no doubt. Lithuanians would be able to stand up and walk straight with that much alcohol."
"verdammt polen !Damn polen guys !
these guys are not Lithuanian man u bastard!
pakeisk pavadinima durniau !"
"omg its wasnt in Lithuania :D just polish can be soooo drunk.."

One small reason to get behind Obama

I preface this by saying that I'm not an Obama supporter (and less of a McCain supporter), but here's one thing he got as right as you could expect from a politician:



It would have been nice to elaborate on why we should learn Spanish (or any other language), besides measuring up to our European counterparts. (And we wouldn't want to look bad compared to Europeans! It might destroy our American sense of being the biggest, best, smartest, richest, ...)

Which language is better? Russian, of course!

I found this flyer in the bathroom stall of the language building on campus. Intriguing- someone went to the trouble of creating this document, with images and apparently real quotes from TA evaluations... but who did it? The TA who received these comments? Are they all from one TA (though I'm sure all TAs of Russian 101 are "better")? An enterprising, lone TA trying to sell Russian 101? Or a powerful professor looking to boost numbers? I wonder when they posted this flyer- it must have been a couple weeks ago, at the beginning of the semester. Why did they choose to advertise Russian 101 in the restroom? Did they post similar advertisements in the men's restroom? Were there more in other places? This is the first time I've seen it and I practically live in this building!

I don't quite know what to say about the use of comparatives and superlatives in this document. Better than what? More rewarding than what? Way more fun than what? Other course subjects (math, history, science...)? Other languages?

I guess it's just something to think about when registering for a language...

(does that mean "think about how much more fun, rewarding and better language courses are" or "think about how much more fun, rewarding and better Russian is"? I suspect the latter.)

I wonder why Russian 101 is so much better than the other languages. I guess the Russian language is just... better! ;)

Subtitling...

There's a fad on youtube for subtitling foreign language anything in 'what it sounds like' in English. Example:



I imagine the subtitler is simply being playful- in a way, the subtitler is saying that the sounds of the language he is making a parody of are similar to the sounds of English, even though he knows the meaning is certainly quite different.

If you haven't had enough of the Lega Nord...

I think I might translate some of these, just for fun, but to give you an idea of the Lega Nord's policy towards immigrants:
"Invasion in the classrooms", taken from a document entitled "School: Tower of Babel... about to collapse."

On immigration and American Indians

It's a stretch to compare immigrants to the Italian peninsula to the colonizers of the Americas... Are the people who published this political ad really worried about becoming marginalized like the American Indians?





Or are they concerned that newcomers not be given representation in their political system?
Want more info: see www.leganord.org/