Tuesday, August 16, 2005
(7:54 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Tuesday Hatred 13
[PREQUEL: Scott McLemee has interviewed Alfredo Perez, the genius behind one of the few genuinely indispensible blogs out there, Political Theory Daily Review. Perhaps this is already planned, but I would love to see a companion piece on Mark Woods, the creator of wood s lot.]I hate that Chief Jason always come here every Tuesday specifically to say that he hates me. I hate that my past [sic] negativity ended up alienating people.
I hate that I am incapable of playing piano accompaniment. At a wedding this weekend, the pianist was playing Bach's first prelude, and I thought, "Hmm... I would have played it a little faster." Then I thought, "Oh, also, I would have played distractingly badly and made the vocalists look like idiots." I now wish I would have played more often in group settings, from an earlier age, because then I would have an actual service to offer people. (I can say that now because the majority of people who might have asked me to play at their weddings are already married.)
This feels related to the piano accompaniment thing: I hate how frightened I am by the prospect of having to speak a foreign language. I've had ample opportunity to practice "my Spanish" living in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, but I feel like I'd look like an idiot (as opposed to the imposing figure I cut when I mumble in English). Whenever I think of a "three wishes" scenario, my first thought is always languages -- money seems like it would be too transient. I would wish to be completely fluent in Spanish, French, and German, if the genie wouldn't allow me to wish for total fluency in every human language and dialect. In fact, in my frequent fantasies of going back in time and doing it over, I always think that I would want to start learning a language early and take it much more seriously, or at least seriously in a different way.
I hate that it's impossible to learn to speak a foreign language in high school and college language courses, as they are usually structured. If I were a left-wing wacko conspiracy theorist, in fact, I'd say that such classes were specifically set up to prevent students from learning the language at hand and to convince them that learning a language is impossible.
I hate Richard's aggressive use of pawns in e-mail chess.
[For those keeping score, there were three "Tuesday Hatred 10" posts in a row. The first time was when the count actually reached 10. The second time was the following week, when I looked to the bottom of the drop-down list for the "Title" field and saw #9, not thinking of the fact that #10 would be grouped right after #1 due to the over-literalism of computers. When Ben Wolfson pointed out the error, as is his mission in life, I resolved that the following week would also be #10, in the hopes of bothering him. Things are now set right.]
