Kukri, boy or girl?

You have a point there. And with the lack of gender sounding impersonal, I can see what you mean there. It does seem impersonal when you think about it. What I like about the lack of gender though is that you don't need to know the specific gender, it's generic so you lose specificity but gain simplicity. Plus it always seemed weird to refer to seemingly masculine things as feminine and vice versa.
Oh so true. I like English for its effectiveness. Yes there are some irregular verbs and the same letter sounds different many times, but still nothing compared to having to remember a gender for everything, everything! If you grew up with it, its 0 effort but when learning it new, I would fail at German.

From all the languages I know English is the easiest to learn. Russian grammar is way harder, and don't get me started on Hindi where there are so many different sounds for each letter and they all sound the same to me. 4 or more different versions of the same letter? Wow.
If it were for me the whole world should switch to English. Would just simplify a lot and maybe increase international understanding on different levels than just language. But people are kind of touchy when it comes to things they grew up with. :p

Jut take me. Should I teach my daughter the metric system since it makes more sense to me or would it be better to prepare her for what she'll learn in school? 12 inch a foot, 3 feet per yard and 1700 something yard a mile?
Or 10 millimeters a centimeter, 10 centimeters a decimeter, 10 decimeter a meter, 1000 meters a kilometer and so on.
I guess I'll go with the complicated one first. Will challenge her a bit more and I'll also finally remember it. :)
 
Last edited:
I know it happens in Russian and Nepali, neither of which are from Latin. Beyond that, no idea. I don't think it happens in Japanese, and I think it happens in Tagalog.
Sanskrit and later Nepali and Hindi have origins similar to European languages. Indogermanic languages I think they are called. If that's the common root which caused genderization then at what point was it dropped in English which has similar roots?
In Japanese I've no clue. All I know is from martial arts classes :p. Certain letters at the end of a name indicate it's a girl or a boy but I've no knowledge about non living objects.

Edit:
WIKI:
Old English had genders like it's still used in German today. Middle English dropped it between the 11th and 14th century.

So if somebody gets confused with me accidentally using genders for animals or things I'll tell em it's due to me learning the old English in school. My beard is turning grey so they might believe it. Now I just have to stop shaving.
 
Last edited:
.... Should I teach my daughter the metric system since it makes more sense to me or would it be better to prepare her for what she'll learn in school? 12 inch a foot, 3 feet per yard and 1700 something yard a mile?
Or 10 millimeters a centimeter, 10 centimeters a decimeter, 10 decimeter a meter, 1000 meters a kilometer and so on.
I guess I'll go with the complicated one first. Will challenge her a bit more and I'll also finally remember it. :)

How old is your daughter? I see you're in California, so she'll learn the "English system" in school, shopping, etc. She might get some exposure to the metric system in school, but that depends on the school, the teacher, etc. Therefore, I would teach her the metric system because it widely used even in this country in medicine and the sciences, also on all kinds of product packaging (sometimes along with the English system). It is much more a worldwide standard, despite the influence of U.S. traditional measurements. Now that almost everyone uses the internet it is even more important for young people to become comfortable with the metric system.

I'm still not "fluent" with the metric system. When I see a measurement in mm or cm, I have to think "2.54cm = 1 inch" and mentally divide by 2.54 to convert to inches. And that is not easy to do in your head. :)
 
Just so the world knows (I'm sure the world don't really care) bawanna hate the metric system.

I do recall a helper hanging sheetrock and he's calling out measurements. 52 and 15 of them little marks. The little marks or the really little marks. It was a challenge.

In one of my kids classes like 1st or 2nd grade I wasn't a full time derelict yet but helped once in awhile in class. The teacher for reasons I don't recall had me build a dog house to demonstrate basic construction. Got it all built and it wouldn't fit through the door, another story.

Anyhow as I was hauling my stuff out she had moved on and was addressing basic fractions.

Several just weren't grasping the concept, I know adults even who still don't.

It struck me as one of them idea's and I whipped out my trusty 25' Stanley tape measure and asked the teacher for a moment, she was strict but one of the best teachers.
I just whipped out about 6 feet. Folded it in half and showed the number 3 feet! Then just pointed out 1 inch, look at the middle count the marks 1/2". The light bulb lit up on about half or more of the class.

The teacher who we've stayed in touch with still mentions that tape measure from time to time and uses one in her class.
 
Which brings us to the question. Has there ever been a female kami ...

Yes, there was a news article last year about seven women blacksmiths in Nepal who make khukuris, etc. (the link has been fixed).

A recent news story about seven Dalit ("untouchable") women who started a blacksmith shop in Nepal:

"Smithy raises seven Dalit women’s economic status"
- from eKantipur.com, The Kathmandu Post, September 29, 2013
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2013/09/29/nation/smithy-raises-seven-dalit-womens-economic-status/254200.html

They've been in business for two years, and are making "sickles, axes, spades and khukuri".
 
Last edited:
How old is your daughter? I see you're in California, so she'll learn the "English system" in school, shopping, etc. She might get some exposure to the metric system in school, but that depends on the school, the teacher, etc. Therefore, I would teach her the metric system because it widely used even in this country in medicine and the sciences, also on all kinds of product packaging (sometimes along with the English system). It is much more a worldwide standard, despite the influence of U.S. traditional measurements. Now that almost everyone uses the internet it is even more important for young people to become comfortable with the metric system.

I'm still not "fluent" with the metric system. When I see a measurement in mm or cm, I have to think "2.54cm = 1 inch" and mentally divide by 2.54 to convert to inches. And that is not easy to do in your head. :)
Good point. Maybe I'll do it at the same time.
She's 5. Just started Kindergarten in August. They don't teach her anything at that highly rated school. So it's up to me. I taught her longhand subtraction and additions with carry overs. Grasped it really well and does about 70 of them everyday by herself. Has only 3-4 percent wrong. Usually just mistaking a plus for a minus due to lack of focus. In her school they are counting to 20 and make geometric shapes out of play dough. Their "reading" and "writing" is similarly non existent.
Next week I'll concentrate more on place value and fractions.
If it wouldn't be for the social experience I'd just home school her. Even if teachers are more experienced than me (at least I hope so) they have to spread their attention over 25 students and then they can't leave anyone behind so it's all down to the level of the least capable kid.
I bet dogs are trained more efficiently depending on how much promise they show.
Anyways we make the best of it and if I get her to skip a few years in school I might just take her out for 10 months and conquer the appalachian trail.

Bawanna
Metric could be fractioned too if you like. A third of a meter would be totally acceptable. And if you want to stay strictly metric and millimeter aren't fine enough you could use micro and nanometer.
Measuring tapes are great. In second grade my friends and me took one tape to the sandbox and figured out by ourselves that for different circles the ratio of circumference to diameter was 3. Now it wasn't an super accurate pi and we didn't proof that it would hold true for every circle of every size. Still kind of nerdy which today is cooler than back then. Our teacher dismissed our findings. Either she didn't know Pi or she didn't want to hurt our young brains. I guess the former since she only taught very basic math and German and other subject to only the very little guys like us. Luckily we had some parents who had a clue and encouraged us. I kind of try to do the same.
 
Last edited:
I'm reminded of the little boy waiting in the corner for his father to get home, the corner he always had to sit in whenever he messed up.

His father got home and asked him what he had done. He said he had been sent to the principles office that day at school.

Father of course asked why.

Well the boy says we were doing addition in math. Teacher asked me what 2 plus 4 was and I said 6. Father says well that's right, what's the problem.

Well then the teacher asked me what 4 plus 2 was, dad says what the XXXX is the difference. Boy says, that's what I said.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm reminded of the little boy waiting in the corner for his father to get home, the corner he always had to sit in whenever he messed up.

His father got home and asked him what he had done. He said he had been sent to the principles office that day at school.

Father of course asked why.

Well the boy says we were doing addition in math. Teacher asked me what 2 plus 4 was and I said 6. Father says well that's right, what's the problem.

Well then the teacher asked me what 4 plus 2 was, dad says what the XXXX is the difference. Boy says, that's what I said.

lol...
 
I'm reminded of the little boy waiting in the corner for his father to get home, the corner he always had to sit in whenever he messed up.

His father got home and asked him what he had done. He said he had been sent to the principles office that day at school.

Father of course asked why.

Well the boy says we were doing addition in math. Teacher asked me what 2 plus 4 was and I said 6. Father says well that's right, what's the problem.

Well then the teacher asked me what 4 plus 2 was, dad says what the XXXX is the difference. Boy says, that's what I said.

Lol. For me that's funny in two ways.
The boy was so smart that he was flabbergasted by the seemingly stupid question.
And
He got in trouble for talking exactly like his dad.

Gotta share this one on occasion.
Thanks for the laugh :-D
 
Back
Top