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In French, "pingouin" is the name for a flying bird[0] though very few people know it and most mix up pingouins (auks) with manchots (penguins, literally "armle
by seszett 8y ago
In French, "pingouin" is the name for a flying bird[0] though very few people know it and most mix up pingouins (auks) with manchots (penguins, literally "armless"). Saying that penguins can fly is technically correct but people will laugh at you unless you are prepared to spend a long time explaining it.
I think it's a shame that a teacher would mislead a child the way yours did.
Having worked with penguins (the flightless ones) though, I have to say that while they are funny they didn't strike me as the most interesting or intelligent birds ever. I was quite disappointed, they regularly die by getting stuck in seaweed lying on the beach, and just keeping trying to walk straight until they get exhausted and fall. You get more meaningful interaction with a crow or even a common blackbird.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razorbill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razorbill
- icpmacdo 8y agoCrows seem in a relative sense very intelligent, I'm impressed with them. I think penguins main appeal is there cuteness.
- williamdclt 8y agoI wouldn't say that "very few people know it", it's just that people don't think about it. Just tell them "pingouin, not manchot. Pingouin flies but not manchot. Manchot is called penguin in english". Also, the confusion is greater from the fact that the Grand Pingouin (extinct in the XIX century) did not fly
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- droithomme 8y ago> I think it's a shame that a teacher would mislead a child the way yours did. I had a really good teacher who would sometimes tell us particularly absurd things to see if we would figure it out and contradict her. When we did she would remind us that we should think for ourselves and not accept at face value claims just because they were presented by an authority figure.
- stallmanite 8y agoI do this with my son all the time to see if he’s listening / get him to think critically. I always let him know if he doesn’t catch on though so he’s not misinformed.