Postcript Education, Languages, ect.

 "Unlike the stomach, the brain won't alert you, when it's empty." "When you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes and the monkey remains." Ubuntu African proverbs.                                                                                                                                                 A young girl, approx. 10 years old (not sure of her exact age or nationality) with a very special talend for learning foreign languages, presently masters 9 languages and intends to continue. The most difficult languages in her opinion are Arabic and Chinese. Well, it is easier for children to hear and speak the exact pronunciations and memorise the vocabulary. Once you reach the age of 30 it unfortunately  starts to becomes more difficult to hear the differences. Reference learning Arabic as a foreign language this presents a real problem. If your pronunciations are not quite correct various folks won't understand what you are trying to say, some kids laugh while surprisingly others manage to understand you none the less. Cats seem to be able to learn any language (at least a few sentences), but will reply in their own language. They manage to quickly know not just the name humans give them but also that of their comrades/ other "family members".  This of course also applies to so called street cats. I was surprised to note how few folks know the word Baguette (in Arabic called Hobes), considering that it is the most common and pretty cheap bred here and also in other countries of this continent, a heritage of the French colonies in Africa. On the other hand quite a few kids use the English word "bitch". If you are aware that a bitch is a good mother for her puppies (and sometimes also for other animals), sensitive, really caring mum, no need to feel insulted. Neglecting the young onces is less common among them than among humans. We could have a better world if we would try to learn more from animals.  Mother: "Son time to get up."  "Son: " I don't want to go to school, nobody likes me there, the teachers don't, the pupils, even the staff there. " " Mother:  "You must go, my son, you are the director....."         Heinrich Boell's "Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic" was published 1963. Recently I discovered an altered version of this famous short story as of "African origin". Likewise some proverbs exist in various countries. While in Germany it is considered to bring you good luck to find a small coin ("Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist den Taler nicht wert."), people in Portugal believe that if you need to bend down for a small coin, you are not worth possessing big ones. Occasionally I find Millim coins and then I say, if money lays on the street here, folks can not be so badly off....