Language is one of those things where, if I ruminate on it too long, I get amazingly overwhelmed and it starts to seem unbelievable. The number of languages in the world is incredible, and the countless...
“Am I allowed to swear in this interview?” asked first-year Aubrey Nickle. My finger hovered over the voice memo record button.
Regardless of my answer, she continued buzzing around her room,...
This year, 2022, is the first year Whitman students will have the opportunity to graduate with a Chinese major, signaling the growing strength of the program. Despite its small size, the Chinese department...
On Saturday, Jan. 27 at 11:50 a.m., Olivia Nicholas sent out a survey to the student listserv with two short questions: “Do you believe Arabic courses should be offered at Whitman?” and “If Arabic...
Why is it that so often those most likely to talk about the virtues of detachment struggle the most with their obsessions? To take an example, Herman Hesse, the great writer of "Siddhartha," suffered breakdowns...
Seeing that Whitman has a cultural pluralism/language requirement and many students do in fact speak one or more languages other than their first language, I thought it would be interesting to give...
Hello readers. It's been a while. I was abroad last semester in Argentina. Needless to say, I'm excited to get back to blogging. At some point I'm hoping to write about the linguistic points of interest...
Illustration by Catalina Burch.
Starting conversations is an uncomfortable business. Enunciating words requires a concerted effort, while excessive eye contact with the wrong fellow is liable to result...
Let me preface by acknowledging that I idealize the past; it's fallacious to assume that bygone days saw the meanest peasants talking like Shakespearean dukes. That said, I believe social media is hastening...
