I have a serious dilemma, folks, and I don’t know what to do about it.
As many of you know, I now live in Thailand after spending about ten years teaching history and ESL (English as a Second Language) in China. I still teach online English to some students in China, and herein lies my problem: I don’t know what to teach them anymore. What is “English?”
I was confronted with this problem recently when I used a simple crossword puzzle about “People” to teach a child student. One of the questions was, “If you are not a woman, you are a _____.” And the answer had three letters. Since we no longer know what a “woman” is (I thought about calling a biologist and asking, but I don’t know any in Thailand), I was very perplexed about how to answer this question. The eight-year-old student I taught this exercise responded, “man.” He thought he knew even if I, the President of the United States, all of American academia, and a Supreme Court justice didn’t know. This crossword puzzle comes from England, and I have to wonder if the authors of the puzzle are now in jail. What to do?
Anyway, I finally came up with what I hope is the correct answer: “cis”! Is that right? Who knows anymore?
Pardon my above facetiousness. However, preposterous Leftists are now making it very complicated to teach the English language to foreign students. Pronouns are especially difficult. Even without Leftist stupidity, English pronouns can be challenging to master for foreigners: “I, me, my,” “he, his, him,” “she, her, hers.” We used to teach that those are singular forms, applying to individual people. “You, your, yours” can be either singular or plural and is as confusing to native speakers as it is to foreigners. But at least we knew the difference between singular and plural pronouns. Well, we once did. Now...” they” and “them” can also be “singular,” and all because somebody wants somebody else to use them—uh, those pronouns—to refer to...that person (are “that” and “those” singular or plural?). So, we must now reform English to appeal to the selfish fancies of a small, favored group of deranged crybabies. No society in human history, normal or deranged, has ever done that.
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I absolutely will not do it forever. I love the English language. It is a beautiful, expressive language, and usually very clear and illustrative when used properly. I refuse to let a few perverts destroy it for the sake of their perversion.
All languages evolve and change over time, and some words modify meaning. But, when that happens, society must accept what becomes normal usage. It must be a total societal acceptance; otherwise, communication will become impossible. If “woman” can mean whatever I want it to whenever I want it to mean that, then how can I ever successfully communicate with another person? I say “woman,” and the person I’m talking to may think of an adult human female. But Katanji Brown Jackson and her ilk don’t know what it means. How could I ever communicate with her? Them? It? Whatever she, uh, that (“those”?) person calls him/her/it/themself. Are you confused? Join the club. That is what the Left is doing to our language.
But I refuse to play their game. I’m an English teacher; I CAN’T play that idiotic game with my students trying to learn the language. So, if you are born with something hanging between your legs, I’m going to call you a male (though maybe not a MAN). “He,” “him,” and “his” are your pronouns. If you have a problem with that, talk to God, not me. He is the one who made you what you are. I will NOT change the English language to placate or indulge your delusions.
If you don’t know what you are (male or female), or if you can’t face the reality of it, then, for your own sake and the sake of the people who love you, get some help. Don’t demand that everybody else be dragged into your mythological fantasyland. I’m not going to burp you; I’m not going to encourage you in your chimera; I’m not going to LIE for you; I’m not going to warp the beautiful English language to indulge you, to spread your unhinged falsehood, to perpetuate your esoteric fiction and help you deny scientific reality. I refuse to do it.
An eight-year-old Chinese child knows what you are. Why don’t you?
About 18 months ago, when I published on Chinese social media a statement by a British Labor MP that “some women are born with penises,” the Chinese hooted and laughed and thought that was about the stupidest thing they’d ever heard. And they were absolutely right. Even the Chinese Communist Party knows it can’t change men into women and vice versa, and doesn’t even try. Or want to.
When Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked if she knew what a woman was, she answered that she didn’t know because she wasn’t a biologist. Yeah, well, I’m not a vet, but I know what a cow is. I’m not Nolan Ryan, but I know what baseball is. I’m also not a psychiatrist, but I know what an idiot is, too.
I have a question: if Kamala Harris wins the Presidency and then claims she is a man, will the Left still think she is the first woman President of the United States? Or if Donald Trump wins and then says he is a woman, would HE (she?) be the first woman President of the United States?
My ESL crossword puzzle also asked for a four-letter word, “the opposite of ‘boy’.” My eight-year-old politically incorrect student got that one right, too.
Or, he thought he did. What am I supposed to tell him?
Subscribe to my substack: mklewis929.substack.com. History, Bible, the “why” things happen, not just the “what.” Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Go back to a great age in American history and read my Western novels, Whitewater, River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma, all available on Amazon.
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