I’m 1.5 Gen immigrant to the US and idek Cantonese/Chinese volcabulary outside of basics, like 2nd grade level words, so I’m probably gonna be speaking a weird Canto-glish to my future children, or maybe just English only 🤷‍♂️

I even struggle to talk to my parents lol

I’ve almost never been in a situation where speaking Spanish was gamechanging…

So yea they’ve been teaching Spanish for like 2 years in middle school, never retained much except basics like uno dos tres cuatro cingco seis… and me llama pizza, and me no hablo espanol…

since I never got to use it outside of class

But yes I agree, its cool to have another language, but then it again you just lose it anyways since you never have the opportunity to use it, most people will never use it.

Also its about a person’s will

I remember school used to make me read boring shakespeare shit or the oddyssey, yeah I just can’t… soooo boring

Same logic with language learning…

Honestly I have more chances of using Chinese (I’m ethnic Chinese living near a lot of Asians) than using Spanish… so yea there’s that

And an average non-Asian that never goes to Chinese restaurants probably don’t need to learn any extra languages at all.

Also a lot of countries teach English because its a lingua franca so I think English speakers just expects others to be able to communicate anyways and so theres a less of an incentive to learn anyways.

Oh btw my high school does requires two credits (aka: two years) of learning a foreign language…

So guess what:

I chose the easy way out and just picked Chinese since I already knew it from two years of school in China 😎 (you can boo me all you want but who wouldn’t just do this for an easy A?)

They actually put me in Spanish at first but all the kids (I know its “high school” but people still act like “kids” so I’m gonna use that word) were misbehaving that I was just like why not just switch to Chinese, a language I already knew LOL

I’m glad I did make the switch, so comfy there lol, literally everyone behaved better (cuz no mishaving kid is gonna choose the hardest language, they’d probably be trying to change out of that class)

Edit: Went to school in Brooklyn, NYC for elementary, never got spanish class, then for middle school and high school it was Philadelphia, PA, and it was Philly that I had Spanish classes for two years in middle school.

Edit 2: Also I’d like to add: Learning a language later on as you get older plus the lack of immersion… for like a one hour class 5 days a week for two school years… yea that’s nearly impossible.

I’m lucky to come to the US as an 8 year old so I had that advantage of learning English. My dad never really learned English, still a non-citizen… 👀

My mom did, but still struggles to express things

So I sort of have a weird language barrier with parents…

I’m gonna sound so schizo, so bear with me:

My most paranoid suspision: History is false, this is a simulation. Humanity is long extinct and aliens have recreated a few humans in a test lab for shits and giggles.

Some lower-stakes suspicion: Okay maybe history isn’t fake but someone tampered with my brain and deleted some memories, perhaps negative opinions I have about certain family members were altered to make me less hostile against them. Idk I just read about ECT and I got paranoia.

Or: Maybe my parents aren’t my real parents… 👀

NYC, specifically Brooklyn.

Idk if favorite-favorite, but favorite nostalgic, absolutely.

Best childhood memories were make while living there.

Just trying to figure out the NYC metro is like solving puzzles… I was kinda good at my sense of directions, or at least that what everyone says about me.

But other than that, probably Hong Kong…

Only been there once as a tourist, not much memories of it. But it’s a very internationalized/westernized city and most importantly, it’s a Cantonese-speaking stronghold, Cantonese is one of my native languages and I’ve always felt a stong emotional connection to it, both the fun times and the same language that I got verbally abused in by family members but it’s simultsneously the language my mother, intermittently, expresses love in… so I kinda have a love-hate attachment to the language…

Hong Kong the last bastion of the Cantonese language… and most Hong Kongers are pro-democracy… so I kinda just feel attached to that place, I just hope Hong Kong remains Hong Kong and not become a “Xianggang” or whatever (mainland-ization and mandarin dominance)

For me: Hong Kong and Cantonese are the symbols of resistance against CCP, which is why they’re trying so hard to get rid of Cantonese.

Community moderators have long standing reputations. Some of them gets removed by admins

Are we just let every 1 hour account to post ragebait questions and silence dissent?

“Are child sacrafices okay?”

OP gets assigned moderator

Deletes all answers but “YES”

“Alright, the internet have spoken, the ritual will happen in an hour”

Window open means bugs get in

No window screens? 🤔

I thought that was the standard for every window… never even saw a window without the window screen thing

bad neighborhood

I remember when I was in China we used to have 防盗网 (“Anti-Theft Nets”) all over our windows… I mean it also prevents us kids from falling out of windows I guess.

I remember my old apartment in Guangzhou, there was a sofa next the the window, the TV is on the opposide of the sofa. And behind the sofa was the window, that looked down straight to the alleyway (not a street, cars can’t get in, the main road is like 10-20 minutes of walking distance away)…

Like sometimes as kids you play around and climb the sofa and then the top of the sofa (like the thing where you lean you back against) is the same height of the window.

So you could accidentally play around and if the window was open, you could, you know how kids be, peek out the window out of curiousity and fall out and die.

Like the only thing standing in the way is the Anti-Theft Net thingy.

This is what it looks like (random image found online):

I was always told to “be careful or you can fall out of there and DIE” and jeez… kid-me got so terrified of heights.

The stairs also have a bare-minimum concrete/cement barrier, you can get drunk, accidentally hop over it, and fall down to your death…

Come to think of it you could literally murder someone and pretend they accidentally fell. (Russian Dissidents have joined the chat 👀)

I remember when I visited one of my aunts apartment… it was like 16 floors high in the middle of Manhattan… OMG I got so scared… but I wanna look outside the window but I immediately just feel like I have a panic attack like “OMG what if I fall out?”…

I remember having a sleepover there with my family and literally every moment awake I was like Window = Scary

But yea I asked my parents “why not install those like we had in China”, but apparantly most cities in the US have city ordinances against these things, you need a permit for it… and then since it’s not the norm in the US, you’d just get targeted since people would think: “Ooh they must be rich / hiding a lot of valuables” so yea we don’t have those anti-theft nets here in the US.

fresh scent of Mint

Oh you…

xD this is the best Linux joke by far.

(You did make a Linux joke and it’s not a coincidence right?)

So your quesrion is: “Should large countries exist?”

I mean honestly idk…

I hope humanity one day grows past tribalism and we just have one big “European Union” type of thing and worldwide Schengen area and there be no wars.

But unfortunately humans are tribalistic and eventually people are gonna wanna form a bloc, whether it be military alliances like NATO, or confederations like European Union (btw I’m curious what happens if an EU country that isn’t in NATO gets invaded… EU is not a millitary alliance so it’d be very weird…) or more commonly, people form countries.

That’s just human tribalism.

If mainland China democratizes, then I could see somewhat of a “bloc” being formed between mainland China, HK, Taiwan… as for Tibet and Xinjiang… I have no idea, their culture seems very distinct, I mean they have a whole separate writing system whereas mainland, HK, Taiwan all use the same writing system and have some of the sameholidays (Lunar New Year for example).

Eventually there could be an entire “bloc” in Asia.

Like I really don’t like the idea of China being divided into separate provinces without a common military front… and that’s not because of ancestry reasons, like for example I do not have any European Ancestry and never been to Europe, but also don’t like European Union and NATO getting broken up for the same reasons… it feels weak to get separated… too much chaos, Russia could invade any time. I mean even China literally got threatened by Russia’s predecessor, the USSR. (see: “Sino-Soviet Split”)

I think forming a “bloc” isn’t an inherent issue, I think the key point is avoid centralization of powers… federalism or confederalism would try to slow down ant autocratization attempts, but ultimately, people are people and there’s no democracy that will last forever if the people insists on electing wannabe dictators.

one president

Directorial System like in Switzerland, maybe?

Or like EU where there is no one “President of EU”

central government can’t legitimately represent hundreds of millions of people.

Federalism or Confederalism (European Union)

Central heating, no AC.

Heat is not carried by air, but by those pipes with hot water running to radiators… so I don’t know if there’s any airflow.

Built before 1978, might have lead paint under there… but it was painted over once before we moved in so its probably lead safe(? I hope lol, i’d be lame to lose a few iq points to something stupid like lead)

“Why is the Milk Gone?”

(great channel btw

Existential Crisis Warning 👀)

Joke:

“How did the Russian dissident survive the assassination attempt?”

“He went to an Apple Store”

(Sorry if this joke is dumb lol)

Oh shit, the FBI is on to me, brb gonna make sure the bodies in my backyard are well hidden

Heathcare is expensive and I need their ongoing financial support to even seek treatment for depression lol

Catch 22

It’s not a building, its a townhouse. I don’t think the air circulates unless you open windows.

My house always feels so suffocating since windows never get opened so I have to open it in my room, then I get yelled at and I begrudgingly close it then be sad that I struggle to breathe.

Sometimes its warm outside (spring/summer/fall) and I open windows on the living room areas, then next day I find it closed again… and I just get tired of opening the windows…

How to install Linux in my house?

Can I do “sudo circulate air” without losing warmth?

Lol mom told me to “go outside if you can’t breathe” 🙃

So what do I choose, freeze to death or suffocate to death?

I dont think we ever circulate the air… felt like I lost a few iq points… from the lack of oxygen

In less dramatic circumstances, the parent might choose to give more money to kid 1 because they think they need it more, or because they think they will manage it better.

Or because one has depression the the parent think less of them since they don’t “act normal” and they get threatened with getting left out of the will… 🙃

(It’s me, I’m the puddle of depression… guess why I’m even depresed in the first place… thanks a lot, mom 🥲)