Recent content by IratePanda

Interestingly, I've heard similar comments about Tan Sixin, who was Komova's main competitor at 2010 YOG. She was trained to be perfect--but she never learned how to fight or think on her feet. I think we could have a thread titled, "Gymnasts for whom perfect was the enemy of good."

I learned it all--characters alongside Pinyin, plus a sink-or-swim approach to conversation (lots of contact with native speakers and plenty of "dubuqi, wo tingbudong"). Chinese was my college major, and my doctorate is in a related field. I also lived in China on and off during the 90s and...

My dad (RIP) grew up in a house where the adults spoke Yiddish when they didn't want the kids to understand. He turned the tables on them by studying German for 20+ years.

I used to be fluent in Mandarin. Now it's serviceable, if rusty. I also understand French and Spanish quite well, but I'm hesitant to use either in conversation. I've dabbled in Khmer (Cambodian) and picked up enough to follow soap operas and old pop songs. I attempted to learn Japanese in grad...

Me as an innocent Jersey girl: It's just a game. Philly in-law: It's a life-or-death-matter. We have to win while eating our weight in low-quality bread, meat, and cheese. And shitty potato chips.

Yeah, if anyone here has ever seen or read Silver Linings Playbook, that's not even the tip of the iceberg.

Well, chronological age and maturity don't necessarily go hand in hand. Add the partisan, atavistic nature of sports fandom, and you've got a toxic environment. It's not limited to gymnastics. American football fans are batshit crazy. GymReddit has nothing on sports talk radio in this country...

Gymnastics Reddit fascinates me. So many people with so little knowledge and so much time on their hands.

I would garrote myself.

I see what you did there...snail tracks? 🤣 While we're on the subject, I really didn't enjoy Gogean's gymnastics at all. I first saw her at the 1990 GWG, and she just creeped me out. My opinion did not improve over the next seven years. Milosovici, on the other hand, I loved. She was such an...

Many Europeans are multilingual. Most Americans, alas, are not. @MaryClare We really do appreciate the Russia updates!

Deng Linlin has joined the mom club.

Any idea why it was denied?

I think so. Forums foster a sense of community that just doesn't exist on Twitter or Instagram.

And the writing is inexecrable.