Jeremiah Bourque Profile picture
Mar 25 6 tweets 2 min read
#English #英語学習 I'm going to use this as a teachable moment. There's a website with a fat headline about Gen. Milley rebuking various presidential primary candidates by saying the US is an important national interest. They, said vital.

They are not the same thing. 1/
Vital US national interests are part of the traditional "tests" that generals and presidents have stated, or have been said to have, for committing US troops to combat. No literate person passingly familiar with these issues should be unfamiliar with the use of "vital"... 2/
The below is an example I found of use of "vital" national interests. 3/

airandspaceforces.com/article/0104ke…
If, for instance, Gov. Ron DeSantis says Ukraine is not a vital national interest, and Gen. Milley says it's an important national interest, that's NOT a rebuke because it's not the same language. One is saying "no blank check - no US troops on the ground"... yeah? 4/
You know who else is opposed to US troops on the ground? President Joe Biden. Some rebuke. But, saying Ukraine is an "important" national interest says "It's well worth sending weapons and other aid." Agree or disagree with that, this is the English comprehension angle. 5/
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More from @jbtutor

Mar 26
This is #English #英語学習 material and a shining lesson in two wrongs don't make a right, Gun Control Edition.

In the middle of trying to one-up Rep. Cori Bush, I quote "First, there’s no such thing as an “assault rifle,” so since they don’t exist, you can’t ban them."
There's a big problem. It has long been argued/ shouted that "assault weapons" is a made-up term constituting what politicians find sufficiently scary, or enthusiasts find sufficiently cool and desirable.

This is emphatically not true with the term "assault rifle".
Assault rifles have existed in warfare for a long time, but came into greater use and fame after WWII. Examples include the AK-47 and M-16 (+ variants). So yes, assault RIFLE is a valid term...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_r…
Read 5 tweets
Mar 23
#English #英語学習 "Two wrongs don't make a right." This proverb is fundamental to English-speaking civilization. You can't walk two feet and not see it in practice. "Just because someone did a wrong doesn't mean you are allowed to do your own wrong in return." 1/
Vendetta and vengeance is not allowed. The rule of law forces people to go to the state for redress: police, courts, trials, juries. Just because Person A got away with theft doesn't mean Person B is allowed to steal a pizza from a bakery. The principle is so fundamental 2/
..that people often forget to explain it. The expression is just a short, compact way to summarize.

"Two wrongs don't make a right." Two crimes do not offset each other. They are both crimes. If three people get away with unethical behavior, the fourth, who was caught... 3/
Read 4 tweets
Mar 23
OK, this is a "teachable moment". 教えるチャンス。#English #英語学習
A US federal magistrate judge nominated for a full federal district court judge position was asked about Brady motions. I think the judge was 100% truthful saying that it had never come up in court BUT! 1/
So the judge couldn't answer what a Brady motion was or how one is assessed. It's explained below, but to add, federal prosecutors have immense power. So, they're required to hand exculpatory evidence to the defense AT TRIAL. (Not for a grand jury.) 2/
The real problem came after.
"Kennedy then asked Crews if he was familiar Brady v. Maryland. Crews claimed he had heard the name of the case. But when Kennedy asked what Brady v. Maryland was about, Crews responded that it “involved something regarding the Second Amendment.” 3/
Read 5 tweets
Mar 20
OK. Let me break this down. A headline reads:

"Emmanuel Macron's government may be teetering"

Teetering is often swapped for the idioms "on the edge/ on the brink", and associated with wavering, rocking back and forth, moving or balancing in an unsteady way. 1/2
The actual content is the govt survived a no-confidence vote... but narrowly.
"The second vote is expected to draw less support, so a bullet has been dodged. And yet the President of France currently appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place."

So more idioms. 2/
Dodging a bullet means having narrowly escaped a perilous situation. But "between a rock and a hard place"... a rock is also a hard place of sorts so it's a false comparison. It means being stuck between difficult options, a lack of wiggle room. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Feb 14
#English #英語学習 「ストレス」が悪いことね。しかし、英吾の言葉"stress"は複数のバージョンがある。一つはストレスの状態、日本語と同じ意味で。もう一つはemphasisと同様、意味は:強調。この場合、”to stress"の動詞です。例:"Let me stress this point:" 1/
英吾にとって強調は重要な事。この言葉が無ければ、発音の話は厳しい。例:"Ahead". "HEAD" のシラブルが強調するべき。"AH-head"じゃない、"a-HEAD"です。これがシラブルの"stressing" -> "stressing a syllable". これは発音の基本。2/
しかし、テンションは近いケースです。感情的に、テンションが上がるが解りやすいでしょう?物理的の場合は違う。"Wire tension"はワイヤの張力。ある意味で、これは"physical stress"けど精神の緊張には関係ありません。金属疲労の場合、一定以上の物理の”stress"は危険です。3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 18
So here's something I want to say without naming... shows, because normally I would never even remark on this, it's not something "this year" or even "the past few years", and I don't feel like it was someone's individual call.
I saw an anime's final episode this morning. I liked the anime, won't name the show. I heard 愛 (ai, love) spoken. I saw "respect" written as the subtitle. It's a Japanese show, a Japan setting (of sorts)... to me there's no way you accidentally swap those two things.
It's the sort of change I hate to see simply because it just wasn't enough years ago such a change would feel necessary. Purely out of respect for the work I shake my head at it. If it "had to happen", that's unfortunate, and hence why I don't blame individuals at all.
Read 5 tweets

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