I apologize in advance for this tangent, but I'm curious about one thing I've noticed in the French language (in which a friend of mine is unusually fluent; but she hasn't been very cooperative or informative re: the following), which is the tendency to write and speak in the present tense regarding past events, such as from the link (translated into English, please correct it if it's way off): "when he learned in 1975 that he is suffering from cancer." An English speaker would instead put this in the past tense, such as, for example: when he learned in 1975 that he was suffering from cancer."
I've noticed that traditional peoples tend to speak more in the present tense like this, too, and that the most ancient of religions, such as Taoism, recommend trying to "live in the present." I think this is suggestive of something important, which the most hypermodern societies (such as the USA) may have lost (and, no, to any negative-minded critics, I'm not interested in emulating traditional society for emulation's sake--only in potentially learning if and where something offers the potential for real improvement, whether traditional or hypermodern). Do any of our French members, or anyone else, have any insights on this? Thank you for whatever insights you can offer.
Topic: Instincto Debunker debunking (Read 19620 times)