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Post by Kleanthes on Jul 15, 2004 5:07:10 GMT -5
@ DPR (from a long time back...):
1. I agree, I always hated the "it's human nature" argument ("argument" inside double quotes too!). What do we really know, where is the research that unambiguously tells us that people are by natrue bad and violent?
2. The Malatesta quote is fantastic and I've used it as my sig file as an undergrad 8-10 years ago!
Everybody else (new); yeah, welcome of course. Later.
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leni
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Post by leni on Jul 15, 2004 9:39:36 GMT -5
hi everyone and natasha to answer your question, I usually mention music to define myself probably simply because music takes a lot of my time and energy. I ve been playing violin since I was 5 so I suppose its part of my identity. Now, i m involved in improvised music, which is totally denied and ignored by the french audience and I suppose I could make the same statement about linguistics... I was wondering if the same is true in your respective countries: here, society has created a kind of hierarchy between, first, manual and intellectual workers and second between what people call science (mathematics, chemistry, biology...) and the rest (including linguistics, probably because most people simply don't know what it s all about). As a result, most of the money the french state gives goes to the so-called "scientists" and we share the rest... To illustrate this, students in the department of science get everything they want and we have to wait for years to get dustbins for our department! The reason behind this is of course because the french state thinks that we don't produce anything... But what about people in general? My brother teaches physics and when he was a student, I remember people saying: " he's so brilliant and clever". Now, these same people usually say about me: " she works a lot", suggesting that being a good physicist is about being clever whereas being a linguist is about being a hard worker... or maybe it s simply because he is a boy (and then boys are brilliant and clever...) and i m a girl (girls are hard workers...). But anyway, when i told my teachers I was going to study linguistics, they asked me if i was depressed and tried to convince me to study mathematics... Is it the same elsewhere? Does this stupid hierarchy exist in your countries too?
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ghost
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Post by ghost on Jul 15, 2004 10:32:44 GMT -5
Leni: some things you say are very recognizable, for instance the view that physics is for smart boys and linguistics is for hard-working girls. One of my high school teachers tried to convince me into computer science and when I said what I was going to study she said I was going to waste myself. And it also sounds very familiar that physicists get more money than linguists and language teachers (the department I worked for in Russia waited for years to get some new chalkboards to replace those that were so old that chalk did not leave a trace on them anymore). Dustbins are also a problem. And light bulbs and what not. Yeah, I think you are right - there is some kind of hierarchy in the collective mind of a society. But this is not all there is to inequality.
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eyecon
New Member
yay schinkelism!
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Post by eyecon on Jul 15, 2004 13:26:08 GMT -5
True, so true... Leni, you're talking about things which I suppose almost everyone of us has in mind. When I tell people I study art history and philosophy, the reaction is always like: "oh nice, and when are you gonna do something useful?" People like to read, see art(in what way ever), watch tv, want answers to their personal questions,... But nobody seems to recognize that there have to be people who care about all that. I have to admit that I don't know much about linguistics and what I learned about it at school I found rather boring... But I supose it was just like most of the other subjects at school that didn't catch my attention(maths, history,...) until I was out of school.When teachers are boring and uninterested themselves, the subject can neither be interesting... Well, what I wanted to say is that this "segregation" between "good" sciences and "useless" ones is present everywhere. But who cares? I don't need anybody's applause for what I'm doing as long as I like doing it and as long as I know what it's good for. I'm happy with my useless science, yeah! And noone can stop me and I will conquer the world and everyone will have to study art history and ....well,I forgot: muahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! Uh...yeah, something like that, whatever! Clemens
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leni
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Post by leni on Jul 20, 2004 9:10:12 GMT -5
hi everyone I have a question and I thought maybe some of you could help... The question might sound a bit stupid but anyway... How did you choose the subject of your Ph Dissertation? Last time I saw my tutor at university, he told me "now it s time to think about a subject for your PhD". well, ok but how??? I know so little about linguistics so how can I "find a relevant subject"? Given what I have done so far, I can tell that my main interests go to syntax and language variation and change but I can't really think about any subject for the moment... How did you manage to decide? leni
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ghost
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Post by ghost on Jul 21, 2004 13:23:40 GMT -5
leni: it is not a stupid question! And your choice is probably less wide than you think it is. If you have time to think, look at your tutor's publications and also at the publications of the other people at your department. This is what they think are relevant areas of research, and this is important for your choice, because if you choose something no one of them does/knows, they will either not accept it as a topic (although it is not necessarliy a totally irrelevant subject generally), or, and this is worse for you, they may grudgingly accept your topic but make your life bad when it comes to completing and defending your dissertation. I am not saying they are all bad or whatever - it is just that everyone is an expert in some area of the whole. OK, once you've looked at what you think are their representative publications at this time, think of what you want to know, and make a list of possible subjects that, you hope, will be interesting to you and your professor. I did it slightly differently myself - just made a list, discussed it with my professor, and we chose. But I got into problems with our other faculty because I chose an area they disliked. So think of what you want to know but limit your choice! Hope this helps a little, although this is advice from someone who got her degree in Russia, not France or the USA. Natasha
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leni
New Member
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Post by leni on Jul 22, 2004 9:55:53 GMT -5
thanks a lot for your advice natasha leni
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Burn
New Member
<insert something witty here>
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Post by Burn on Jul 24, 2004 18:01:02 GMT -5
Hi everybody, another new guy. The name's Bjoern, 27, from Cologne, Germany. I'm preparing for my finals at the university of Cologne and met Kleanthes in the course he mentioned earlier on in this thread, so I thought, why not check out the forum Klea keeps talking about...
As for scientific interest, I'm probably even less of a linguist that anyone else on this board. I'm currently writing a paper for my finals about "Mutant body identity and minority politics in Marvel Comics’ X-Men" So, there you go, my interests summed up in a 10-word-title. ;D
Looking forward to having great discussions with y'all...
-Bjoern
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MRCS
New Member
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Post by MRCS on Jul 29, 2004 21:15:26 GMT -5
So Hi everyone!
I'm a student of Cologne University Germany. I'm even less a linguist than Mr. Burn is but having had the oppertunity to get to know Mr. Kleanthes I felt like participating in this online community. So this is my first appearance and I'm curious to see what might happen here. I already know what happened in Cologne ;D so this might be a good thing as well. I'm looking forward to discuss with you subjects not too much related to linguistics. I'm always interstested in things and stuff and I also don't mind an insult or two.
regards, Pen2
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ghost
New Member
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Post by ghost on Jul 30, 2004 7:46:21 GMT -5
Hi, Pen2. I am curious about what made you use ';D' when mentioning Cologne events. Looks like you had some hilarious experiences - am I right?
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MRCS
New Member
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Post by MRCS on Jul 30, 2004 9:18:54 GMT -5
Yes that's very true and hilarious is the right word. We did spend a lot of time together after class still discussing things. Up to 3 in the morning. I had some very nice nights and usually some terrible hang overs the next day. When Kleanthes joined in on the fun it gave the event an extra spin....ähem...so to say. Since then I can't really remember how the nights ended. And I know I'm not the only one with memory problems (maybe if Carsten doesn't join the forum I might tell you a story of how a young and promising academic needed 4 hours for a 300m walk). I think its not difficult to find drinking students on campus but the mutuality/atmosphere of the events was quite special. Just something one will miss in the holidays. Cologne University is quite big for Germany (roughly 50.000 students). To have some sort of personal/non-personal contact to a teacher/professor is not easily achieved. The daily routine is really a anonymous one. So that was probably as well a big plus. Of course you would still need the right people for such an event. Actually for some of our beloved teachers the atmosphere within class was still to formal! The alternative not-authoritarian teaching structure still a utopia, so to say.
By the way the forum administrator performed with almost russian stamina and was usually the last man standing (the last man lying was C...). ;D
Pen2
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ghost
New Member
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Post by ghost on Jul 30, 2004 10:12:41 GMT -5
eeee-yah-haaa!!! 4 hours for 300 meters is quite an achievement even for a promising academic. I know a story of another promising young academic who wound up in hospital with alcoholic poisoning (bad vodka, I presume) and escaped the next day early in the morning because they told him it was appendicitis and he would be operated on soon, but yours is probably better. Banzai!
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Post by Kleanthes on Jul 30, 2004 10:49:59 GMT -5
Pen2 and Burn. The Cologne Posse's coming to town. Good to see youse here, I'm back in CY but need a bit more rest. If anyone's cold, forecast is giving us the hottest summer with Monday going up to 50 degrees celsius. I'll be back online when it's dark and a bit cooler. Cheers!
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MRCS
New Member
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Post by MRCS on Jul 30, 2004 11:10:14 GMT -5
Wow, hospital...impressive . I think my friend was 'forced' to drink some [glow=red,2,300]Absinth[/glow] or two by a to us familiar guy. I think that did the trick. There are photos on the net. I don't know if thats of any interest to you. Just drunk (german/spanish/greek/herforder) strangers smiling. Anyway: www.dennisott.de/uni/germanistik/wv/fotos/ Greetings, Pen 2
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Burn
New Member
<insert something witty here>
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Post by Burn on Jul 30, 2004 12:29:56 GMT -5
Holy shit, I am not going to tell you guys where I am on those pics.
Yeah, this course was one of the best things that happened in uni so far. That's how things should be, acquire new and purely academic (pun intended, harhar, errr... *sigh* ...forget it) insights and then drink till the brain kisses your mind good-night.
@kleanthes: looking forward to ordering the PIS merchandise. When will it be ready? How about some shirts with something like PIS off! on the front and punksinscience.org on the back?
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