Not on the same level considering the difference in how the Eastern and Western languages are formed.

I'm generalizing a bit here into Western being Germanic or Latin based languages and Eastern being primarily Chinese.

Western languages typically use symbols that represent the component sounds of a language (phonemes) where Eastern languages use symbols for whole words or concepts (morphemes). So you would have a single symbol for house or tree instead of a series of symbols for the words.

This means that the word spelling would change in Western languages as the spoken language changes more rapidly and show a large difference between two closely related languages in their spelling for the same word.

Conversely, in Eastern languages, the spoken language is not as closely tied to the words used. (To translate into English as best I can: The character for house could be pronounced like house, home, building, cave, lean-to, castle, shed, etc depending on where it's being said). So, you'd have, after a few generations, the same character pronounced two very different ways with two different meanings

As an English speaker who's dabbled in other Germanic and Latin languages, absolutely. I dislike Dutch specifically because it will either start to read like English or German then fall off the deep end real quick.

Portuguese (at least Brazilian) looks and sounds like a mashup between Spanish and French.

This is kind of to be expected when you look at the history of how these languages evolved. The reason Japanese and Mandarin would be so easily confused is that the writing system was imported from China and there are a lot of words that either still look like the parent words or very similar. The same for the Latin and Germanic languages as well as their related offshoots. The history of invasion, language mixing, adaptations, and standardization has produced languages that are in various levels of mutual understanding.

It's still how most things are made. Stateside, the prison system is the only slavery left but worldwide, there are many examples still going strong. It's nowhere near as prevalent as it was though

Yeah, it's 1-3 days before it and now that's how I'll remember when summer starts

We can't have summer until we remember the injustice of slavery and the freeing of a quarter million slaves in one of the last bastions of that deplorable practice

Well, it'll have to be thoughtfully arranged. They can't just pop down to Joanns to pick up more so they can't waste it. Sure you can get stuff online but you can't feel if that batch will twist how you want it to. It's just not the same

Oh, in this part of the world, it's not a picture of the birth certificate but of their genitalia. Ignore the pedophilic over and undertones of requiring children to show their genitals to adults(read: men typically because women shouldn't be in places of power, obvs) who can confirm that they appear to be the correct set for what is being requested. Fondling might be necessary to make sure they aren't prosthetics.

This is serious discussion that my state has been trying to get into law to prevent people from using "the wrong bathroom" or "gaining an advantage in sports". Fuck I hate this timeline

But you see, we have to heal and reach across the aisle or something

It's the financial version of "if we stop counting COVID deaths, the numbers will go down"

But they super promised they never even heard of it or was going to use it. Then installed its writers in key positions. Purely by happenstance.

Legend of dragoon, vanguard bandits, .hack series, and final fantasy tactics are some serious comfort games for me when it comes to jrpgs. I do realize I have a bit of a type when it comes to jrpgs

The good/bad news is that the old "I swear to God you bootlickers need a good ass kicking" and "Jesus is ashamed at what you do in his name" styles of country are making a comeback

And for inclusivity, there's a sub genre devoted to the "you tried to end my people but I will not die" style which includes focuses on lgbtqia+, women in general, pagans/wiccans, indigenous groups, other, and various combinations therein

The bog witches, fae creatures, and {unknown description of Appalachian denizens} have been putting out some good stuff

For me, it was realizing that while I was smart, the shit level of schooling was more an impediment to me gaining the skills needed to continue excelling and I continue to be surrounded by absolute dipshits wherever I go.

In school, I didn't have to study to pass and there was no real incentive to learn how to. This bit me when it came to university because the lectures didn't cover everything that was to be tested on. Turns out, trying is a skill I never needed until then.

Then, in the workforce, I'm constantly exhausted dealing with people who are at best functionally literate and I have to cater to their understanding of literally everything. No desire to either understand the problem or fix the root cause, just make the thing do what they want right then.