Scott Meyer
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How to Evaluate Someone Else's Plan
🕑 Added 2024-11-18 08:00:02 +0000 UTCNOTE TO YOU, THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE:
Because of the lag time between when I create a comic and when it runs, I am writing this message to you from Monday the 4th, the day before the US presidential election. Needless to say, I am having difficulty concentrating. Also, I have a great deal of admin to do involving the release of my new novel, That's Not Right (Available for pre-order now on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible!) so I am taking this week off. The comic will be back next week. Sorry for any inconvenience.
END TRANSMISSION FROM THE BEFORE TIMES!!
Yes, another language learning comic. Missy and I are taking an organized Portuguese class now, not trusting an animated owl on our smartphones to see us through. You can probably expect more language humor and school-based insecurity.
Lucky you.
Here’s an interesting factoid: Portuguese does not have a single word that replicates the usage of the English word “is.” Instead, it has three different verbs that cover three common use cases for “is,” and each of those is regularly conjugated five different ways, depending on what “is,” and how it “is.” That’s fifteen different words for basic usage.
Examples:
If the subject is in a state that is temporary, as in “The student is panicking,” you use the verb estar, conjugated for a single subject.
If the subject is in a state that will not change any time in the foreseeable future, as in “The student is middle aged, and doesn’t learn language as easily as he did when he was young,” you want the verb ser, again, conjugated for a single subject.
If you’re describing the subject’s permanent location, as in “The pharmacy is across the street, if the student needs pain relievers for the headache this lesson has given him,” you use the verb ficar, which means “to stay.” And you would conjugate it as a singular. When dealing with verbs, we don’t have to worry about gender, but for the record, pharmacies are feminine, obviously.
My teacher puts a friendly face on it by talking up the incredible specificity of the Portuguese language, and she has a point. She is always able to point out specifically why the word I chose was incorrect.
Comments
Scott Meyer
Thanks so much for asking, and for being interested in the books to begin with. Really, when it comes to audio books, you can get them through Audible or Apple. How you pay them makes little difference in terms of my eventual take. (The details are unimportant!) Whatever legal means of buying the book one chooses is more than fine with me. Do whatever is most convenient for you, my friend.
Tom Bisciglia
Scott - i’d like to listen to your new book as well as listen again to your Magic 2.0 books as audiobooks. This will be my first time dipping my toe into the audiobook pool. What way benefits you best? Do you have an affiliate program for audible? Is it best if we buy books individually? What format makes the most sense? It makes absolutely no difference to me, so we might as well know what benefits you so that you can keep cranking out the stuff we love.
Scott Meyer
please tell him he has my sympathy, and he is not alone.
Glen Newsome
Similar experience as my pastor friend who is presently taking Ancient Greek.
