Learning another language is difficult, but never occured to me to think it would be somehow impossible to anyone. It might be that having english as your native language puts you in a uniquely difficult position as it is the default international language. World is getting smaller and people coming from smaller languages usually also learn the local international language as well. If you are born to family speaking estonian today you probably pick up also english or otherwise you spend your life surfing only estonian websites. It requires no special talent (although some people are fast at picking up new languages)
> It might be that having english as your native language puts you in a uniquely difficult position
Personally I suspect English has some great advantages. The main disadvantage is defaulting to superiority.
The natural disconnect between written and spoken English is tremendously helpful. Well educated English encourages copying sounds - pronouncing foreign names and places correctly. This is a huge leg up compared against some other cultures. Think sports stars having their foreign names pronounced correctly. People often know how to try and say Paris or Barcelona correctly. We naturally know that how something is spoken trumps how it is written.
English speakers often have the ability to hear sounds because there's so many wildly different English accents. Especially vowels (we natively use a wide range of vowel sounds). There are sounds English speakers struggle to hear, but I think we have an advantage over some other languages.
If you're the type of person that attempts to mimic accents, then you've often learnt how to say a huge range of vowels and consonants. And how to stretch them (Strine, some US accents) or shorten them.
I don’t know where you’re from, but if you’re European (it sounds like it?), you probably take for granted the head start you get by knowing multiple languages from childhood. Every European I meet has a comfort with language learning that I can only approximate with great effort.
I agree with you about the disadvantage of being a native English speaker, but mostly I think the real disadvantage is being an American, and never having a reason to learn another language (though that has changed in my lifetime with Spanish, and possibly Mandarin).
In any case, a lot of academic researchers claim that it’s impossible to learn a language to a native level as an adult, which may be true, but that claim has been twisted into “impossible to learn a second language” by a lot of others.
This is phrased ambiguously, but most Europeans only start learning foreign languages in school, so around age 6 or later. By that time you're past the "critical window" and you'll almost surely have a very recognizable accent and learning the language is very effortful and takes many years. It's still probably easier to learn when you're 7 than when you're 40, but it's not even close to language acquisition as a toddler.
You're also forgetting that school-based language instruction is not so great at all. Imagine a class of 30 students having a 45 minute English class twice a week, by a non-native teacher with a heavy accent. It's not a lot of learning, very little speaking, and most kids unsurprisingly don't learn to speak well from that. It's mostly about memorizing grammar tables and vocabulary for tests.
You need much more intensive paid courses or private instruction if you really want to be good at it, even as a teenager. Not strictly necessary but learning purely from public school is usually not as effective as you seem to think. Or you have to be an outlier in diligence and do a LOT of homework practice on your own, translating, reading, writing, listening to media etc. Video games can be a great motivator but it also gives a very lopsided skillset and won't easily get you to pass a B2 or C1 exam.
And yes, it's true. For Americans learning a foreign language is an exotic hobby or a requirement of some very rare foreign-associated jobs. For people whose native language isn't English, learning English is just part of the basics for professional work. It's around the same level in basicness as getting an undergrad degree. Certainly not something that every single person does, and there are jobs you can do without it, but white collar, professional knowledge work will require it.
In most European countries you also have to learn a second foreign language at school at some point, though not as many years as the first foreign language. This one is usually the language of a big nearby European country, so German, French, Italian or Spanish are popular. But just as it is for Americans, learning this second, non-English foreign language is much less motivating once you know English. Though economic motivations do exist, for example to learn German, especially when you live close to the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) countries and there are many economic ties.
It’s the same phenomenon, but I got similar strnge feeling when reading an article from the atlantic about film students who are incapable of sitting through films[0]. Why would you study to make art in a form you don’t even enjoy yourself?
That article is about them not wanting to sit through long boring slow paced movies assigned in school. And they scroll the phone a lot. And they wamt to watch them at home, not in class.
That is NOT the same as being incapable to sit through a general movie. That does not mean they dont like film in general.
Good point, I hung too much on the headline. I guess there is disconnect between how film has been thought and how it should be taught now. Traditionally it has been building on top of the previous waves and often the avantgarde have beem the big cinefiles drawing from
history (someone like Martin Scorsese, who is now deeply in the history himself). But times change and simlar to knowing how computers operated in the 70s is not that relevant anymore as we now work on top of huge stack of layers maybe art students should also look more forward and not spend time with slow films.
I used to think that it was hard to make the decision to have kids, but somehow now it feels harder to make the decision to not have them. I am at the age that people around me have kids ranging from new borns to young adults (and somebody is always pregnant). Having kids is totally normalized. I socialize a lot in childrens parties. Kids schedules determine what we can do with friends most of the time. I am often the babysitter and take care of other peoples children.
When I was growing up I thought everyone had kids (I guess I only socialized with families with kids). This was my future. As a young adult making the jump to having kids seemed like a big decision, but with hindsight that looks like following the default path. Now that there is growing amount of people like me with no kids I am wondering what life should look like. I lack the rolemodels.
I have witnessed my friends grow a lot in short time period when they have a kid. At first it’s a bit jarring how baby takes over their life. I think it is super cool and all of them say that it is an unique experience they can’t really explain.
By the time kid hits maybe 10 years old they have adjusted and interaction with them is pretty normal again from my perspective.
At the same time I feel I have also grown at my own pace. I don’t feel totally out of sync with my grown up parent friends although I must say I can be bit more lighthearted and experimental with my life. The stakes are low. It is not like I think life is about career or hedonistic pursuits anymore. I don’t want to live the life of a 30 year old. I value being part of society, socially present and giving. Enjoying simple things and seeing beauty in the world.
In a way my life looks like that of an empty nester, but without the prospect of seeing my child building a life for themselves, having grand children etc. Feels like a big decision I have done for my future self.
> I mean I can be told it but I cant understand why you would waste millions on real works just to have fake ones, why not just go all fake? If its a half way house then does no one care what is real?
I work with VFX and try to always have something real in the shot. Explosions and the like are easier to expand but quite difficult to just add to empty shot. Fireworks are a bit easier but there is interplay with the environment which is hard to fake.
All these films where they announce ”we did it for real with practical effects” usually mean that it’s a mix and match between practical and computer generated effects. It can look better than either on their own.
Also I guess they had audience there so you need something for them as well.
Let me guess, that's crypto value, because no one in their sane mind would pay $60K in real money for crude, combinational images. I hope this, and Bored Ape Yacht Club still exist many years in the future, just to remind our descendants of the things we burned the planet for.
There is also the category of people who have enough capital to not to work. This group of people have detached their activity from their income. They can be very active or lazy and it does not make a big difference. You are working to pay their dividends.
Often in making art you need to love the process. Otherwise you’ll never get good enough. Most filmmakers don’t even watch their films after they have spent years with it discussing, planning, shooting, editing etc. There is lots of travelling, new friendships, comradery involved and in a way it becomes the whole scaffolding of your life. Replacing this with prompting is probably not interesting to this particular group of people, but might be appealing to completely new set of people.
There are people who love coding and really dislike vibecoding, but atleast coding and prompting are the same mode of activity (typing in to a computer) so you don’t have to change your whole life to move from one to another.
> Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see
Your mind also creates the visual field. It is not real even though it is usually quite consistent. Brain fills the gaps after it has filled all the rest.
Just a handy visualization of a world that is likely to be a lot more chaotic.
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