The other day as I completed my Duolingo practice, I asked myself, Will I ever really need to know how to say “this theory describes liquids” in Russian? Or “We need to measure the size of the particle”?
(I’ve reached the “Science” section of the app; other upcoming lessons include “Politics,” “Justice,” and “Nothing,” which I assume will teach me to write about existentialism in Cyrillic. In my Mandarin course, there’s a section on “Existence,” which promises much the same.)
My answer to my rhetorical questions was “Surely not!” until I overheard the following in my apartment this morning, re: one roommate welcoming another to share his milk:
“Feel free to be communist about it”
“Go ahead and milk my udders”
Communism. Liquids. The only thing missing is the theory. OR IS IT?
Then there’s me, who has spent the morning asking roommates to come smell my room to check for cigarette and/or chemical odors. Is someone smoking in the nail salon beneath me, and is their ventilation system actually getting rid of the acrylic glue fumes? Or am I breathing in measurable carcinogens? I think we need to measure the size of the particle…
