Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, under way since February 7, have taught us a big lesson: Russia may lag behind English- and German-speaking countries in winter sports, but it is far ahead of us in orthographic efficiency. Russian needs only four letters to spell the name of the host city: Сочи. English needs five, while German — for shame! … >>
After two and a half years, my high-school German class reached a milestone when our teacher put away the textbook and got out the board games. We were so proud to have learned enough of a language that we could actually do something with it. Monopoly wasn’t a language game per se, but playing it in German taught us important … >>
No one is sure who first said it, but most of us will agree that “Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language”. To Americans, Britain is a strange place where fish have fingers, cars have bonnets and people collect children. Or are we the strange ones for putting the baby carriage in the trunk instead of … >>
With the soccer World Cup approaching, much of the world is focused on athletic prowess. But wouldn’t it be nice if intellectual achievements were followed with as much passion? What if, instead of showing men chasing a ball, the television cameras showed a contest of mental skill? Exactly that happened last week, when American sports channel ESPN and the ABC … >>