u/Doveswithbonnets

I've been having trouble knowing when to use du, de, de la, and des in certain expressions. For example:

>Je viens du Québec, c'est le symbole du Québec.

but...

>Le bateau a quitté le port de Québec.

I wanted to find an explanation in my grammar reference book (Essential French Grammar by Routledge) but I couldn't find what I was searching for under the articles section.

Edit: Thank you to all the helpful comments.

The subreddit has been slowly growing since it was created last year, and we now have around 560 members. Due to the amount of people brigading similar subreddits, I was debating if once this community reaches 1K members, I should turn it private. As many of you know, r/AutisticPeeps went private a few months ago because it was being targeted by redditors from mainstream Autism forums. The subreddit was often targeted by political extremists, self-diagnosers, and neurodiversity advocates. My intention is for this space to remain a place where professionally diagnosed autists can speak about their experiences. For now, the subreddit will remain public, but this will most likely change in the future. Any major changes to the subreddit will always be prefaced with an announcement like this one.

The Catholic Church teaching is that Genesis is not scientific nor historical, but rather an explanation of why humans were created and how the Fall occurred in a metaphorical sense. The official teaching is that science and faith should not conflict but support each other, and so Genesis must allow for evolution. They do believe that there were two first humans. My question is whether the Catholic view of Genesis is supported by the original Jewish readings of Genesis.

Up until starting college at age 20 I had a lot of issues making/keeping friendships. At least I think so. In elementary school I would try to hang out with a girl who was much older than me (I was in second grade and she was in fifth) but she would constantly cancel on me. I'm not sure if I got anything out of hanging with people back then, but the loneliness was so strong that I was grasping for straws. There were several girls in elementary and middle school who pretended to befriend me but left me at the drop of a hat as soon as their popularity status was endangered. I stopped trying to meet up with people around ninth grade. Before that, I had tried to meet with classmates outside of school a couple times a year, but then it turned to one time a year, finally to zero. I met some nice people at college who genuinely wanted to hang out with me so I tried it, but it felt like going through the motions. I can't connect to people. I feel absolutely nothing when I'm with them. In fact, I feel far more invested in conversations with strangers about intellectual topics that interest me. The more time I spend with a person, the less new knowledge they have to share with me, and so the more boring it becomes.

There's this aching loneliness in me that's been there for as long as I can remember but nothing seems to fix it. A very nice girl went to the cat café with me but I felt absolutely nothing the whole time, even though I like her. It's as though there's a permanent invisible wall around me and other humans. The only time I feel less lonely is when I'm hugging someone, because then it all seems real and tangible. I get so sad when I realize it will always be this way: that the loneliness isn't even due to a lack of company or friends, it's due to my neurological wiring. Several people in college have called me their friend even though I have no idea what that signifies. I don't feel attached to anyone and it's depressing.

I was frequenting a different subreddit for a while before realizing how full of self-diagnosers it was. Specifically, I came across a post from someone who called himself autistic and uses it to explain his awkward behaviors in conversations, even though he was never professionally diagnosed. His reasoning: "I already know that I have Asperger's Syndrome. I don't see how an official Autism diagnosis will make any real difference for me. Aspergers doesn't require medical attention. The people affected are just a little different from what's considered normal. I'm not going to seek an official autism diagnosis because an anonymous person on the internet wrote that I can't call myself autistic without one." Today, I saw another such comment from someone who quote "is trans and autistic and getting diagnosed formally would put [them] at too high of a risk for [their] comfort." Their other excuse was that they already have other disabilities which "come with just as much eugenics." This person also claims self-diagnosis has been studied and proven to be accurate. Since this encounter, I have heard three other people claim that they are autistic, but that acquiring a diagnosis would not benefit them.

If someone self-proclaiming to be autistic uses such an argument as an excuse to not get evaluated, the chances that they're actually autistic are already next to none. It demonstrates that they don't fit the criteria for a disability, since they don't need the accommodations or support that comes from having a diagnosis. Even level 1's struggle in day to day life and receiving a diagnosis helps greatly in improving quality of life. For example, I, as a level 1, was taken to get evaluated by my mother because I had been taken out of school for intense mental health issues: I was starving myself, cutting constantly, running away onto the highway, punching walls, etc. No matter how much or what kind of medication I took during my teens, my issues functioning in day to day life continued to worsen and they'd only started to improve once I'd gotten my diagnosis. My diagnosis allowed me to work with a therapist on areas that related directly to my autism, like DBT training, and it has allowed me to be exempted from study abroad/take tests in a controlled, quiet setting for my college major. I genuinely think my mental state would have worsened even further if I'd never gotten evaluated, and I would probably be dead right now.

I don't mind it so much when I'm naked to shower or even when I'm defecating, but I mind it a lot when I'm working out in my room. I had a dark childhood and can't cohabitate with people because I'm hypervigilant around other humans. I had a father who is very controlling and used to spy on me. The idea of someone witnessing me 24/7 and never truly being alone makes me deeply uncomfortable, even if it's by a benevolent being. I don't want to be perceived in those moments. I want to be completely alone. The realization that saints can see me and I have a guardian angel following around seems to make the sensation worse.

Edit: Thank you to all the detailed comments. This has helped a lot.

For context, I have Asperger's Syndrome (ASD Level 1 requiring support) and so I have a lot of issues with the environmental aspects of college. Four year undergraduate university completely drained me to the point where I was missing a lot of classes in the last three semesters, head full of brain fog and only doing a deep cleaning of my apartment once or twice a semester, skipping meals because I didn't have the energy to cook. It was a test of endurance, to say the least. I'm happy that I finally graduated this year with two Bachelor's, in German and French. I completed an honors thesis in German, as well, to see how I fare with research. I don't expect a high-paying job, but I would like a job that doesn't drain me so much. I could get by with $20,000 a year, since I live a minimalist/very modest lifestyle. My goal really is to not be homeless and to be able to live independently. I completed an internship as a library assistant a few years ago and I liked it a lot. Archives combine my interest in foreign languages with historical documents.

I have a 3.91 GPA so the academics aren't holding me back, rather my condition is. I saw that UNC Greensboro is offering an ALA accredited MLIS program online for a good price. It would allow me to live with my parents while I complete the program and pair it up with an internship nearby. Completing an online program would allow me to avoid burn-out and undertake more in day to day life. Then there's UNC Chapel Hill, which offers a more prestigious program, however I'd have to relocate to their campus and take four classes a semester for two years to complete the program in time in order to avoid extensive costs. I took four classes at my undergraduate university for every semester except the last, but it was difficult for me to manage given my executive functioning issues on top of sensory issues.

Basically what I'm trying to figure out is whether going to a more highly-ranked or prestigious school for an MLIS is worth the extra stress. Because if going to UNC Chapel Hill doesn't make much of a difference in future job prospects, then the stress is not worth it. Right now, I don't know if I would have the endurance to be able to complete another two years of schooling.

I began learning German primarily due to the way it sounds, but upon engaging more with native material, I discovered the German speaking world's deep appreciation for nature. It's seen in the culture's love for hiking and Biergartens, in their romantic poets and artists who write with a calculated wonder. Then there's the whole rabbithole of Germany's environmentalist history, which seems distinct from that of other countries in its intensity. What's something that you only discovered about your target language's culture later on in your learning?

There's been a noticeable pattern amongst generation Z and alpha, which appropriates labels. As someone who is both asexual and autistic, I've especially seen these parallels in my respect communities. For both asexuality and autism, definitions have become broader, and so much so to that point the original meaning of these labels is erased. Asexuality quite simply explains itself by the name: the lack of any sexual desire or attraction. So-called "sex-favorable asexuals" have taken over the main asexual subreddits and shut out the voices of actual asexuals, pushing themselves into everything. Maybe you've heard one of these people impede and say "well, asexuals can have sex and enjoy it," or some other excuse for their sex lives. These kinds of comments spread misinformation on asexuality and are dangerous to actual asexuals, who will increasingly be confronted with heterosexuals or asexual-masquerading men with a purity fetish trying to coerce actual asexuals into intimacy. The same erasure of criteria has been occurring with autism. Tiktok and other social media influencers have made the definition of autism so blurry that now "everyone is a little autistic." The spectrum—for them—ranges from unable to speak, to perfectly normal, with everywhere in between counting as autistic. Any slight deviation from normal seems to signal to these people that they're autistic. It's the same way that "sex-favorable asexuals" view heterosexuals as libido-filled humans constantly desiring intimacy, and everything outside of that being on an asexual spectrum. The asexual community has had to create a new forum to avoid all of the sex positive talk and comment bashing. In the same way, actual autists have made spaces like this one for diagnosed individuals who get their voices shut down in the main subreddits.

What are your thoughts?

Currently hoping that there will be something remaining of the package I ordered if it ever arrives at my mailbox. I ordered it on April 20th and it's currently May 20th. It has been cruising along the East Coast for a month, basically, reaching the distribution center a city away from me, only to end up later in a different state. It's visited more states than I have, and if this continues, it might have completed a van tour of the entire United States. It's currently in Florida and I'm in North Carolina. It loves circling back to Washington D.C. and West Virginia. It was in Jamaica a few weeks ago, so I guess we're making some progress.