Every society has its own specialities. Sweden has taken gender neutrality to its furthest. Children are brought up with as little attention to their sex as possible.

Toy shops send their catalogues to homes every year before Christmas. This year two companies made their Swedish catalogues gender neutral which means in the pictures girls are playing with guns and boys nurse dolls. In many countries this news was received with astonishment.

                  http://www.thelocal.se/44628/20121124/

I quite like it. But when a Stockholm kindergarten banned the words girl and boy and began to call every child a friend it was a little bit too much in my opinion.

You miss him eh?

The right help at the right moment is essential. It is not only about teaching but also about making the learner visible and making her more engaged to the task. I have had so many excellent teachers on this site I really feel privileged but if it wasn´t for si++ who was always around when I took my first toddler steps and needed something explained or checked I probably wouldn´t have ever come this far. Not to forget all those in-depth language discussions we have had afterwards.

I still have no outbox. I can send a PM (I guess) but the outbox remains empty.

How can you backbite anyone in the forum, Vince?

I wonder also. Turkish may and probably will raise its areal status because compared with Europe Turkey is a young nation and because politically and economically it is the bright spot of the area. But hardly it is going to have a world wide importance like English. Apart from the local enthusiasts it is only a small group of freaks who struggle to learn its secrets.

Popular culture is important, yes, but I think that is mostly an areal phenomena also. Look at TC (it is like the world in a small size): who wants to learn Turkish because of being attracted by TV seria?  -  Arab girls.

Afiyet olsun. A giant pizza is exactly what is going to make your mind clear enough for this issue.

When a text has been translated well it should bring about the same feeling in the speaker of the target language as the original text brings about in the speaker of the source language. The translator should make herself as invisible as possible.

Translating presupposes bilingualism. Bilingual people have always been in the very core of cultural contacts. And what we understand as historical changing of language is often the fingerprint bilinguals have left in it.

Finally a place for me and good company also.

Sevindim. Ellerine sağlık, gokuyum.