Shout out to the time my middle school class had a teacher defend ("give you the counter argument you aren't going to hear anywhere else" American Slavery with such stances as "why would you take your own TV and break or destroy it" and "it was a different time".

(Also knowing what the languages culture considers polite and offensive helps. Swedish and Danish people don't talk around subjects when they want to be polite, for example, unlike most English-Anglo communities)

Lastly, in terms of pronunciation, listen to see if there's a difference in the way the tones change during different sentences. There are several languages that end upwards, which makes them sound like they are constantly asking questions to English speakers, for example

-watch media in the target language, use subtitles in your language, eventually start switching to subtitles in that language
-read simple books in the target language

-familiarize yourself with the alphabet and common letter combinations and associated sounds

For those first 100 hours or so...
-every day practice is ideal; it needs to be substantial, but doesn't need to be long. I tell students that 2 half hour classes are better than 1 hour class.
-duolingo's fine, but learning with someone who can speak the language is better

A few months will get you to proficient, but any amount of time is good, even a week (If you go to a place, do your best not to surround yourself with people who speak your language, and to try and reduce the media you consume in your native language)

I teach ESL! The fastest way to learn a new language is to spend about 100-200 hours learning the target language (ideally with a tutor who speaks your language and the target language), and then go to a place where the target language is spoken and live there for a while

If it's okay to ask, what feels like the rationale with framing Islam like this? "Islam is Bad and Christianity/the western world is Good"?

I encounter that a lot while doing research into the Mexica - there, it always feels like a retroactive justification for the colonization. (Searching "Aztec genocide" shows a justification for Spain's actions because the Mexica were "commiting genocide" as the second result)

Ugh, that's obnoxious!

and let the silverware of nights be flecked,
the moon pocked to distribute more or less
indwelling alloys of its dim and shine
by nip and tuck, by chance's dance of laws.

i do not know enough to speak i do not know enough to remain silent

there is a fear that holds me and it sounds like wind it sounds like katydids in catalpa

ah the tall grass of the days before i knew there was a before me

I'm friends with Ripley, who's working on a speculative fiction project (which I write for occasionally) though there's nothing published so far, so I don't know if it's what you're looking for: www.tumblr.com/iguanodont

Excited to listen to this, thanks for sharing!