#LanguageLearning & Mass Transit to Build Empathy via Esperanto

   Esperanto is a very simple language to learn, by design.  Given the interest readers have expressed over the years, I thought I might share some of my newest language learning journey here on my blog.  It may be a stretch, but I’d also like to note that some of my most fun and interesting language learning experiences have taken place on mass transit, like the time a whole bus full of people helped me translate a (clean!) lymerick into Turkish!

I decided to learn Esperanto, finally, after years of reading about it, but having more important linguistic priorities, like learning the languages of the countries where I was working so that I could rent an apartment!

So, since Turkish is the language in which I am still needing to work on grammar and reading/writing, while Spanish is the easiest and my most comfortable learned language (I am also fluent in French, but I tend to think more in Spanish), I take most of my notes in those two languages, and in French as I review my notes.  This helps me connect the new learning to my already learned material, and makes things much easier.

Most language learning starts with the letters and numbers, which I did get to, but I have moved my notes around so much that those pages are lost, so I will start with this, and provide specific notes in posts as requested by interested Readers.

Many videos exist for learning Esperanto, and so I searched in Spanish and in Turkish for video playlists, which got me started with a nice comparison set.  I found it easier to learn the Esperanto alphabet from Turkish, for example, due to some of the similarities, like the letter “c” with a hat on it, pronounced as the same letter with a tail on it, in Turkish.

More soon,

and

        Hopefully, the empathy that studying languages builds, and a little more good example via story, will help all of us learn to be more open to the needs, feelings, and happiness of others.

…

Hoşça kalın!  Saluton!  !Nos Vemos! 

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing, or even writing a guest blog post here, about #ProjectDoBetter.  Phase I aims to build empathy for public goods (libraries, transit, healthcare, and education) via language study and story, among other tools.

Shira Destinie A.  Jones, MPhil

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Sihirli Annem (My Magical Mom: s1e15), and Dealing With Hypocrites

  Last week was , bölüm/episode 14: Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e14) and What Does it Mean, Adulthood?

…  

The summary comes from a fellow blogger (Birgit)’s point of view.

…

In this episode, Eda and Tarık announce that they want to get married. His brother is not so happy because he thinks that he is not good enough for Eda, and her mother Dudu is furious and fetches her home.

-Mom, Tarık and I…

-Have decided to build a life together!

At night she dreams about the marriage of Eda and Tarik and gets a stroke, which makes her unable to move or speak, only her eyes can move.

She can only be healed if Eda promises on the holy fairy book that she will break up with Tarik. Eda is torn in pieces, because on the one hand she really loves Tarik, and on the other hand he wants to heal her mother. She and her father (the dog Taci) contemplate leaving her in this state, but in the end they cannot do it.

The head fairy Perihan, Betüs and Taci give all her love to Dudu and as the final touch, Eda swears on the book, but the book is a cookbook, not the holy fairy book. So she intends to meet Tarik secretly.

Mom, I swear on the Fairy Book that

I will not marry Tarık!

Betüs covers for them because she pities them.

The kids told the maid Firuze and their uncle Tarik that they would go to see their grandmother after school and would they tell their parents. Both forget it because they are too much fixated on their own affairs. Tarik meets with Eda at the house, and Firuze is too busy watching them jealously to think of the kids.

When Dudu calls the house Firuze tells her that Eda and Tarik had met. She wants to make trouble for Tarik, with whom she many years ago had been in love and who ignored her. She does not consider that she at the same time makes trouble for Eda. And she still doesn’t call Betüs and tells her that the kids are safe when she finally remembered, although they are driving around searching for them.

Perihan deletes the memory of what Firuze had told Dudu from Dudu’s mind and punishes Eda by making her confess her lie and that she loves Tarik. Dudu’s reaction is her punishment, who swears to never stop trying to break them up. But Eda does not seem to have in mind to leave Tarik. After the conversation with her mother, she winks at her father and calls Tarik. She will go on a picnic with the whole family.

I spoke with Eda in secret on the phone just now, and she’ll be at the door.

–

Many, many thanks to Birgit, of the Stella, oh, Stella blog, for all of the of the English and image content, today.

–

      This is an episode that reminds me of when I lived in Izmir, and saw the tremendous importance Turks place upon harmonious relationships, and on talking things through.   Many of us would refuse to speak, especially in the case of Firuze, being married yet sabotaging the relationship of a person (Tarık) for whom she still has feelings of jealousy and rejection.   Yet, Betüş takes the time to ask her why she acted as she did, and to find a solution that works for everyone, taking Firuze’s pain into account.  In the case of Eda and Dudu, where Dudu is angry with Eda for lying about being in love with a mortal, yet dating a mortal man herself, things are more difficult, since Dudu has the power of a parent to shut down the decisions of her child, even an adult child like Eda.  Yet, Eda continues to try to talk things through.  This is an important lesson that I draw from this episode:  even when it seems that there may be nothing left to talk about, just  keep trying to find solutions that can help put balm on the wounds.

–

        Hopefully, the empathy that studying languages builds, and a little more good example via story, will help all of us learn to see from the perspectives of others, without having to suffer a similar fate or pain, first.

Next week will be blm/ep. 16:   ,

…

Hoşça kalın!

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing, or even writing a guest blog post here, about #ProjectDoBetter.  Phase I aims to build empathy for public goods (libraries, transit, healthcare, and education) via language study and story, among other tools.

Shira Destinie A.  Jones, MPhil

Shira
Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursday Series Review: Las Villamizar, and Freedom For All

    Netflix has recently added a series from Colombia, set during the war of independence led by Simon Bolivar, starting at a point during the time of the Comuneros uprising against Spain, which is not the same as the one mentioned in an early episode of El Ministerio del Tiempo, but seems to be related in ideology despite the separation of time and an ocean.   I had not realized that the Rebellion of the Comuneros in Spain implied the existence of this movement, later on, in Spain’s colonies, as well.  This is a time when the slave trade is also still alive and quite well.

 

    This series is set mostly in 1816 in Colombia during the Napoleonic Wars, and deals very effectively with the themes of revenge versus justice, and the limits of freedom.  There are 74 episodes in total, and the first twenty are mostly setting up the backstory and are good, but get even better later.  What first drew my attention was that the protagonists are three sisters (oops, actually four sisters, but one is by a different mother…) from the upper classes who are given a mission by their father, and prepared rigorously for this mission.  Whether they want it, or not.  So from nearly the first episode, we begin confronting the issue of parental authority and the boundaries between preparation for life, and over-control (or dictating) of one’s childrens’ future.  It reminds me of a classmate in 1988 at the US Naval Academy, who was from an old Annapolis family.  He wanted to leave three weeks into Plebe Summer, and his father apparently refused, so he made an irrevocable decision, unfortunately.  That does not happen in this series, but the lives of these three sisters are as fully controlled by their father even after his death as if they had in fact themselves died to their own desires.  They follow in the mission, even when they do not want to, and resent their father for having imposed this life upon the three of them.   Despite the anger, they take care of each other, and confront some very difficult issues, including one of them being a Lesbian in a time when such an identity was punishable with exile or prison, at best, or even the death penalty, in the worse case.   They also have to confront the pain of discovering that they have a fourth Villamizar sister, one who is not considered to be even a person, in the eyes of the law.  Their sister, the daughter of their father and an enslaved woman whom he set free and provided for separately from his ‘legitimate’ family, enters the scene and brings a new view to the life of a Black person in a society where skin color and family origin defines your status and your level of protection (sound familiar?).   This show was so good that by episode 21, beginning with the situation of our Lesbian protagonist whose lover has been murdered, I began to quote the best lines.  The Spanish is very easy to follow:

Episodio 21: “Aún existen muchas personas a quienes puedes ayudar a soltarles sus ataduras. “

/

Ep. 21: “There are still many people whose bonds you can help break.”

and the show also tackles the issue of women being intelligent, capable, and willing to take up difficult and needed positions in society, like that of public defender, and yet being denied these important jobs merely for being women.  Sophie is a French expatriate living in this Spanish colony, and the only person willing to defend a woman accused of the crime of preferring the company of other women:

Episodio 31: “… y yo soy la litigante qué va a defender a Leonora Villamizar.”     ¡Gracias, Sophie!!

/

Ep. 31: “…and I am the lawyer who will defend Leonora Villamizar.”    Thank you, Sophie!

Despite an excellent defense, Leonora refuses to lie in order to save herself, preferring to be free internally, even if the price of that true freedom might be having her liberty restricted physically.  Sophie is forced to explain this to an older sister who is angry that Leonora could not simply obey directions to deny her love for her murdered partner:

Episodio 32: “…los que anhelan la libertad lo hacen a todo nivel.”

/

Ep. 32: “…those who yearn for freedom do so at every level.”

Leonora is punished with a humiliating day of being displayed in the town square for all to spit upon, and then exiled.  Having no place to go, she obviously joins the Army of Independence forming the resistance to the Spanish colonial occupation of the land.  She does so as an open lover of women, and teaches more than one man to respect her “No” with a bit too much of a firm hand.  Her commander praises Leonora’s intelligence and courage, but reminds her that

Ep. 37: “…las ganas de luchar no deben salir de los dolores del pasado. Deben estar sembradas en el futuro, en la añoranza, en el deseo de lograr algo más.”

/

Ep. 37: “…the desire to fight must not come from past pain.  It must be sown in the future, in yearning, in the desire to accomplish something more.”

This, btw, is exactly what Project Do Better proposes!

Returning to the theme of how to define justice, and what that may look like when the authorities tell you that they are the side of law and order:

Episodio 48: “…son nuestras acciones las que definen qué es justicia y qué no.” 

/

Episodio 48: “…it is our actions that define what is justice and what is not.”

Episodes near the end ramp up the action, of course, and near the finale, we see a beautiful homage to the Albigensians (aka The Cathars), as they prepared to go dancing to the pyres:

Episodio 70: Qué triste y que bella la música de las oraciones, como los Buenos Cristianos, los Albigenses de la fortaleza de Carcassonne en la última noche…/How sad and beautiful the music and prayer, like the Good Christians, the Albigensians of the fortress of Carcassone on the last night…

This was simply a gorgeous and uplifting series.

#LasVillamizar

#BloodTies

Podemos hacer y ser mejor…
(yes, we can Do  and Be Better…)”

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing about     #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtless Thursdays -La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), Part 5, Ep. 10, The End

—           

   Part 5, episode 10:  “Tradiciôn Familial“

 

P. 5,last ep:  I love the problem-solving techniques we learn in this show!

    The Project Do Better manifesto, P. 200 reminds me of the İnspectors (both of them!!), and sometimes also the Professor’s method of problem-solving, eliciting suggestions from the group and using the process of elimination. 

 

   Even the soldiers respect The Professor.

 

And the global financial system as a giant Casino:  good analogy, sort of.

Now we see why the series is called House of Cards/Paper: because the global financial system is really an illusion, as the Professor explains.

 

And even working in a mention of the Spanish Armada!!

 

Excellent!

 

And of course, who could pull this off except for the Spaniards?

🙂

 

 

–

    Last week’s review was  p5e9 of La Casa de Papel: La Casa de Papel/House of Cards (Money Heist) P5e9 Really Does Transport Us…

…

   The first post in this series was P1e1, if you want to go back to the start of this series, or you can continue with us to the even better series, El Ministerio del Tiempo, starting Monday!  Both are available here: B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, and now also, El Ministerio del Tiempo, Reviews

–

  “Somos la resistencia.”

   We are the Resistance.

Shira

 

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we can be part of the Peaceful Resistance…

2.) Write a book, story, post or comment that uses these thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Thoughtful Readers, please tell us how you see a way of contributing to #ProjectDoBetter.  This post is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

 

 

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e14) and What Does it Mean, Adulthood?

  Last week was , bölüm/episode 13: Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e13) And Would You Want to Go Back & Be Young Again? …  

The summary comes from a fellow blogger (Birgit)’s point of view.

…

Dudu finds out that the magic of male fairies is stronger than that of female ones (there is gender inequality even in the fairy realm). Therefore Dudu hatches the plan to wed Eda with a fairy so that Dudu can use his magic to break up Sadik and Betüs.

Eda does not want to marry a fairy, but a mortal. She explains:

“…the mortal world isn’t like that.  They have to struggle for what they want.   One who worries about me, is sometimes jealous, no magic, but full of surprises.  That is the kind of man I want to marry.”

At the same time Sadik’s younger brother Tarik comes to visit, just back from military service. Firuze used to be in love with him and did not forgive him that he did not reciprocate the feelings. Sadik is not enthusiastic about his brother’s visit, as he is not a man after Sadik’s taste, but more a grown up child. The kids love their uncle for that.

      “Hey, don’t start gossiping about me as soon as I get here!”

Eda leaves the castle and hides at Betüs’s place, where she meets Tarik and the two fall in love with each other at first sight. This is the first time somebody falls in love with her without her using magic.

Dudu doesn’t like that and takes her home.

The chief fairy learns about Dudu’s evil plans and punishes her, leaving Eda free to go back to Betüs. Betüs and Sadik leave Eda and Tarik by themselves and pretend to have to talk to the children. (It is actually only Betüs who does that on purpose, Sadik is clueless.)

That ends in an epic cushion fight, while Eda and Tarik look each other deep in the eyes.

–

Many, many thanks to Birgit, of the Stella, oh, Stella blog, for all of the of the English and image content, today.

–

       This episode is a fascinating study in both the question of what adulthood means to different generations, and in who gets to define that state.  Both Sadık and Dudu, in my humble opinion, fall into the same trap, in this episode, while Eda actually climbs out of a similar trap, or begins to, this episode.  Sadık, because he demands that his younger brother learn how to start acting “like a man” by the traditional definition, meaning job, house, wife, and kids.  As Sadık himself has done.  But that is not the sort of life that his brother wants.  Likewise with Dudu, as we already know, she feels strongly that only a certain kind of marriage is acceptable, and is perfectly happy to arrange a miserable marriage for her daughter Eda, who protests this idea kicking and screaming, literally.  Both Sadık and Dudu deny the possibility of defining one’s own life goals and perspective, and they both fall back on predefined traditional ideas of what it means to be an adult, and whom a person should marry.   Finally, Eda, in telling her sister that she finally understands how she must feel, being persecuted all of this time by Dudu, takes a great leap forward, and out of that same trap of thinking that one must accept only a certain way of thinking.  But look how long it has taken Eda, and how she had to be placed in the same situation before she began to see her sister’s perspective.

         Project Do Better looks at this question in detail, during Phase II especially.  Adulthood, in a democratic society, requires large amounts of compassion and empathy, as well as critical thinking and the freedom to be a contributing adult in the way best fitting for each person.

        Hopefully, the empathy that studying languages builds, and a little more good example via story, will help all of us learn to see from the perspectives of others, without having to suffer a similar fate or pain, first.

Next week will be blm/ep. 15: Sihirli Annem (My Magical Mom: s1e15), and Dealing With Hypocrites  ,

…

Hoşça kalın!

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing, or even writing a guest blog post here, about #ProjectDoBetter.  Phase I aims to build empathy for public goods (libraries, transit, healthcare, and education) via language study and story, among other tools.

Shira Destinie A.  Jones, MPhil

Shira
Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

La Casa de Papel/House of Cards (Money Heist) P5e9 Really Does Transport Us…

        Wow:  that is true solidarity and a sense of honor, Profe…

       And the Prof. will now help us all understand why and how our global finance system really is just a house of cards…

Last  week  was Part 5, episode 8: La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Mass Transportation to WWII Italy Thursday, via P5e8?? …

and

Next week takes us to the end, P5e10: Thoughtless Thursdays -La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), Part 5, Ep. 10, The End  .

–

    Si:  “Somos la resistencia.”    -Ahora.

“We are the Resistance.”     Now, yes…

Photo by Ana Maria on Pexels.com

Shira

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we can be part of the Peaceful Resistance…

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

Science Fiction/Fantasy Shows,  Lupin, or Money Heist

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers,  please consider reading about   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Review: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, by Elif Shafak

     I found this book after searching for books by an author recommended to me by a friend from Izmir.  I’ve been working on reading Orhan Pamuk for a while, but found his writing too difficult for my level of Turkish reading so far, and I also wanted to find a woman to read in Turkish.  As it seems to turn out, this book was originally written in English rather than Turkish, apparently, much to my disappointment, but I continue to work my way through the Turkish translation of this book, which I read in English some time before being able to find a Turkish version.

I was really not sure how to rate this book, because it is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. While it tells a very much needed story, with interesting connections between what was going on at various points in history, it also leaves me feeling a bit ambiguous and possibly ambivalent.   Here are my updates during the reading of this book:

Wow, soiling the hand towels just because they can?   People may be irredeemable.

     No way. (The idea that souls choose the family/mother to whom they will next be born:)  This idea, again.
If so, then how many of these chosen families have betrayed the trust show by the babies who chose them?”

I love her best friend being named after the famous architect. (Mimar Sinan…)

“One is never forgiven for leaving the family religion.”

   Yup.  I can attest that this is true.

–

   There is a section that reminds me of my University colleagues in Izmir who used to read their coffee cups every single day at lunch time. And took it all very seriously.

-Interesting:

   Another part of this book connects to events happening in Mexico at the same time that this death is slowly being drawn out, in Istanbul.  Only 6 months before Las Matanzas at the UNAM…

Finally, she gives the advice, in this story, to share someone else’s story.  Taking that advice to share someone’s story, being temporary occupants of a living city who keeps all of her stories within her walls, yet does not allow the walls to speak: (I had found a story on GR which is no longer available, unfortunately…).  This is in agreement with Toni Morrison’s thoughts on the job of a Black woman writer, which is to bear witness. 

     On October 15, 2021, I began reading the Turkish edition of this book, and here are the new updates:

3.06% “…kalbi daha az evvel durmuş … Nasıl inkâr edebilirdi ki öldüğünü?”
/
Yeow! How to let people know that she’s dead?!

3.57% It’s true, people do rush through life on auto pilot… (Turkish Edition)

and finally, on page 18,  4.59%

“Polisi ara ki… / Let them go find the police…”

How awful that her mind is still working, begging that passersby see her as alive, and call the police to save her.” (Turkish Edition)

   I was surprised to see how differently the Turkish version reads from the English, and then to find out that it was a translation, with a Turkish translator, out of the English original.  That sent me looking for other women writers from Turkey who write originals in Turkish, and more carefully, this time.  It turns out that not a few writers are popular in countries of their partial origin, yet, do not write in those languages, for a variety of reasons.  Her work is important, but I prefer to find a less popular but entirely living in Turkey and writing in that language, Turkish writer to read, now, even though Shafak’s writing is also devastatingly important.

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This book review is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e13) And Would You Want to Go Back & Be Young Again?

  Last week was Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e12) And Can Rich Folks Learn From The Poor? , bölüm/episode 12, featuring young Mahmut.  This week, we ask about being young again.

The summary comes from a fellow blogger (Birgit)’s point of view.  (Translations are mine, corrections welcome / ben çevirdim, yanliş varsa, hemen beni düzet, lütfen... -Shira)

…

In this episode we see Firuze leaving her husband in the middle of the night because he is drunk and hits her and the children. She seeks shelter at Betüs and Sadik’s house.

“Like a woman, I work, and come home work some more, then get waken up and pushed around like an animal.”

Meanwhile, Dudu plans her new spell to break up Betüs and Sadik. She wants to turn time to 30 years later.

“Seriously, mom, I absolutely cannot let you do this kind of magic!”

Eda is fed up with this. First of all she doesn’t think that they will ever break up the couple, so why try all the time, and on the other hand she is afraid that her father, who presently is a dog of 60 human years, might not be alive anymore then. Even Dudu shows some concern but says that she would turn the spell back in that case. Eda tries to talk her out of it but to no avail.

Firuzes husband Davut turns up drunk at the house and wants to take his wife back with force. He is fighting with Firuze and Betüs, who has to use magic to overpower him. Suzan comes by and hears through the open door what is going on and gets so angry that she beats up Davut even without any magic.

“Your hand is enough, right? Come on, hit me! Hit me!  Hit me!”

The next day everybody is 30 years older. Umur, Dudu’s new lover, is dead, and Taci, her ex-husband, has obviously turned into a human again. Dudu reverses the spell, and everything is like before … with one change: Cilek the little fairy girl can speak to everybody now, not only to Betüs.

Also Firuze’s problem is being solved by magic this time: Betüs turns him into a kind and responsible husband. As it seems, that spell was still working 30 years later.

–

Many, many thanks to Birgit, of the Stella, oh, Stella blog, for all of the of the English and image content, today.

–

     My question, this episode, is about going back in time.  Many people seem to think, like Sadık, that everyone would like to go back in time, to their youth.  But this is not so.  Many people, particularly those who had especially difficult childhoods, have no interest at all in going back in time, and would rather forget having been young, and all that happened during that time to them.  People like orphans who never found loving families, or children who were abused by family or guardians, or even kids who were bullied in school.  Kids not accepted by their peers because, like Firuze’s son Mahmut, whom we met last week, they were poor, and did not fit in for any number of reasons.  This makes them more vulnerable, due to domestic violence, and later bullying, if no one will stand with them.  And that is a terrible waste of human potential, because, as Hakan reminds us, every child has potential.

–

        Hopefully, the empathy that studying languages builds, and a little more good example via story, will help all of us learn to be more open to the needs, feelings, and happiness of others.

Next week will be blm/ep. 14: Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e14) and What Does it Mean, Adulthood?

…

Hoşça kalın!

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing, or even writing a guest blog post here, about #ProjectDoBetter.  Phase I aims to build empathy for public goods (libraries, transit, healthcare, and education) via language study and story, among other tools.

Shira Destinie A.  Jones, MPhil

Shira
Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Mass Transportation to WWII Italy Thursday, via P5e8??

        Would these people please remember that this song is not a celebration song?!  Ok, a homage to the fallen, yes, but not a happy song!  This song is a way of going back to the WWII Italian partisans who were taking leave of their loved ones, it’s a way of going back to that desperate and brave time of resistance against impossible odds, that it where this song takes us!   Thanks to the Prof.’s grandfather:    Betrayals and more betrayal…

Last  week  was Part 5, episode 7: La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Transports us Where, This Public Transportation Thursday (P5e7)? ,

next week is P5e9: La Casa de Papel/House of Cards (Money Heist) P5e9 Really Does Transport Us… …

–     Si:  “Somos la resistencia.” “We are the Resistance.”     Now, yes… Shira

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we can be part of the Peaceful Resistance… 2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

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Click here to read, if you like:

Science Fiction/Fantasy Shows,  Lupin, or Money Heist

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about ongoing   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e12) And Can Rich Folks Learn From The Poor?

  Last week was a beautiful and special episode, and this week is another incredible episode, as we wondered, on  (ep11 )  Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e11) What is Really the Best Mother’s Day Gift?   and this week, we see one of my favorite episodes, bölüm/episode 12, as little Mahmud, in the featured image cropped from the party image below, goes from the poor outcast to the teacher of these ‘rich’ kids.  

The summary comes from a fellow blogger (Birgit)’s point of view.

In this episode the son of the family, Cem, has heartbreak. He caught his girlfriend Tugce whispering with another boy. He dumped Tugce and hit the boy. Sadik is proud of his boy and says he did the right thing, whereas Betüs can’t believe that of Tugce and thinks that there must be a misunderstanding. They start fighting about this and Sadik makes a very hurtful remark to his wife. This is very bad timing as it is Cem’s birthday, and his classmates are coming. Sadik and Betüs had planned to go for dinner alone, but that is now canceled.

“I can’t believe you, Sadık!  Your son says he beat up a classmate, and you’re proud of him!”

Dudu who saw everything through her magic crystal ball is happy that they are fighting without her even casting a spell around them. She expects both daughters to live with her soon.

But Eda has other plans, she wants to marry a mortal, which her mother is strictly against, so she leaves the castle.

Umur asks Dudu to marry him, and she agrees under the condition that they first live in their own houses until they got used to each other.

Eda’s plans fail, as she had used a spell again to make the man fall in love with her, which only lasts 24 hours. She meets with Betüs in the café, with Perihan also there. Suzan, Avni’s wife also comes there as Avni is still seeing fairies, about which Suzan is unhappy. Dudu also appears and is gloating with her plan to get married. Her daughters protest, as Dudu is against fairies marrying mortals, and now she plans to do the same.

   -Eda:  “So, if you are going to prevent me from marrying a Human, then I will prevent you from marrying a Human.”

In the end there are three parties:
– The birthday party, where Cem is dancing with his sister’s friend for Tugce’s friends to see, which is supposed to make her jealous. Tugce comes to deliver her present to Cem, which was the reason why he was whispering with the boy, he knew how to get a special kind of sneakers. After that is explained, all is forgiven and forgotten.

 

– A man’s party at Avni’s place, where Sadik and Umur go.

“…I don’t think I can live without Betus.”

– A girl’s party in the café.

The other two parties end well, when the men go over to the café to tell their women that they love them, and they are being forgiven.

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Many, many thanks to Birgit, of the Stella, oh, Stella blog, for all of the of the English and image content, today.

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    This is a fantastic episode from Mahmud’s point of view!  Also, we see the high importance in Turkish culture of talking things out with others (even to my surprise, back when I worked in Izmir, when someone has clearly done something that we Americans would generally consider imprudent…)  Who is Mahmud?  He is the son of Firuze, the housekeeper.  They are poor, but in an unusual step, the kids invite him to Cem’s birthday party in spite of this, and at first, Cem’s classmates show poor Mahmud that he is not welcome, until little Cilek gets him up to dance.  Then, the real fun begins.  When the music (European/Latino pop music which all of the middle and upper classes in the big cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara, listen to…) goes out, all they have is a little radio that Firuze listens to in the Kitchen while cooking.  The songs are all traditional on the radio, and these middle class kids, used to American, Latino, and European music, do not have a clue what to do with it.

     When a traditional “Zeybek” comes on the radio, Mahmud, used to what is considered the poor or lower class traditional music, gets up to dance!  And these ‘rich’ kids learn from him!!  This was a tears of joy moment for me, as I also happen to love the history and style of the traditional Zeybek (claimed by the Greeks as the Zeibekiko), and it’s fierce spirit.

    Thank you again, Sihirli Annem, for pointing out that everyone has some part to contribute and to teach, if we will only listen instead of assume!

What a beautiful episode ending!!

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        Hopefully, the empathy that studying languages builds, and a little more good example via story, will help all of us learn to be more open to the needs, feelings, and happiness of others.

Next week will be blm/ep. 13: Turkish Tuesday: Sihirli Annem (s1e13) And Would You Want to Go Back & Be Young Again?

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Hoşça kalın!

Shira

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Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing, or even writing a guest blog post here, about #ProjectDoBetter.  Phase I aims to build empathy for public goods (libraries, transit, healthcare, and education) via language study and story, among other tools.

Shira Destinie A.  Jones, MPhil

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.