Italian art blog

I came upon an art blog by Alessandro Andreuccetti, who's from Italy. The only problem is that even though I studied Italian a while ago, and even translated a bit of it, my Italian is quite lame now. So I can't understand the text that goes with his great sketches.

Lighting matters

This is an obvious observation, but when I watched The Star Trek Voyager episodes of Future's End, I noticed how important lighting is in movies and TV.

For instance, Captain Braxton looks quite different in Part One when he first is trying to destroy Voyager (see pic below).



But then in Part Two, he looks totally different because events in time changed, which made the future change, which made Captain Braxton change as well (see pic below).



It's all from the lighting--it's very effective. So since I saw those episodes a while ago, I often see how lighting is used in stuff I watch. It's interesting how it sets the mood in addition to aesthetics.

Bling

I went to someone's place in a very upscale part of the city, where one of the pillows had the word "bling." Then I heard a suburbanite use that word, which made me wonder where it came from.

It's from a trashy hip hop song from the late 90's. The song is so disgusting that I don't want to post it here, so I'll just link to the lyrics.

What's weird is that a lot of milktoast people are using it, who live far away from the dysfunctional ghetto culture that is glorified musically (and visually) in our country and throughout the world. Which makes me glad that I haven't used that word yet--it's derivative of nothing I respect.

Midwest Japan site

A guy in my Japanese class who works at the Japanese Consulate created the Japan Media Midwest blog.

JMM covers traditional and modern Japan-related events, fine arts, film, dining, and music in a ten-state area. States include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

If you live or work in those states and have anything to announce, you can contact them at japanmediamidwest at gmail. Or you can just read it to find out what's going on :)

Company

I had no idea that the word "company" comes from the Latin "cum panis," which means "with bread."

I found a very interesting resource online that mentions "cum panis": a book from 1872 called An English grammar and reading book for lower forms in classical schools. It lists two words in its glossary that come from "cum panis":

companion: a sharer of food, a comrade, fellow-traveller, partner

company: association, a number of partners

Now I'm thinking of looking more into Google books because you can download that one and others for free. Very cool.

Excellent Orwell site

Even though I read a meaty Orwell biography, I wanted to know more about him, especially his son, and came upon an excellent Orwell site. There's a lot I can pull out of there including articles, books, commentaries, links, and lots of other stuff that I doubt I'll get through in this lifetime. But check it out--it's worth a bookmark, for sure.

Finally done!

I have been reading Inside George Orwell for at least a few months, and I have FINALLY finished it! It was quite long and complex, as I've said before, and it really took me through a lot. Basically, he was very productive and lived a short life--he died in his 40's. What a tragedy. He was a complex, intelligent, talented man, who was unfortunately a womanizer--actually, he had an unhealthy view of women. His first wife, who also died in her 40's, had to endure his affairs, egotism, etc.--a marriage I would never want to have.

But Orwell was definitely an impressive person, and he died too young. I wonder what he would've thought of the Iron Curtain and other societal nightmares--people who lived in such oppressive regimes said that it seemed as if he'd lived there too.

Westernized bows

I lived in Japan for a few years, and learned some bowing rules, including the fact that you are NOT supposed to make eye contact when you bow.

But if you look at some commercials in the U.S. (and probably Canada too and other parts of the Western world), the Japanese people do not bow that way. They maintain eye contact with the people they're bowing to. The latest example is in the Wii commercials. The Japanese guys who go to people's houses, telling them they'd "like to play", are maintaining eye contact while they're bowing towards the homeowners, which would be considered quite inappropriate in Japan. But obviously, they're doing it for non-Japanese people, and it's quite dramatic, so it works for us.

Those commercials are great, by the way, and include some awesome shamisen playing by the Yoshida Brothers.

Way to go, Japan.

Update: some Japanophiles were telling me that in the martial arts, you HAVE to look at your opponent when you bow. So they suggested that the Japanese guys in the Wii commercials are acting as if they're bowing towards their opponent in martial arts. That makes sense.

Medieval help

This is hilarious! I thought it was Danish, but it's from Norwegian television. I guess Norwegian and Danish are very similar.

I also recommend watching the video of a Norwegian newscast that includes an interview with the writer who created this sketch.

Chuffed

I learned a new word today, which Americans never use: chuffed, which means "very pleased." It's a British word, of course.

Popjisyo to the rescue!

A long time ago (it seems) I mentioned Popjisyo, which is an excellent resource for reading Japanese (and Korean and Chinese, but I don't know them). Today I had to read an article for class, and didn't want to sit down with a dictionary, so decided to "cheat" by using Popjisyo. It made my reading enjoyable, and I was able to understand the article quite easily and quickly! It is just the best!

So if you have any online Japanese (or a few other) texts that you need to read, I highly recommend it!

(And you can tell I'm quite serious about my enthusiasm because I've used a lot of exclamation points in this post.)

Something to think about

I am *still* reading Inside George Orwell, which I started a while ago, possibly a few months ago. During that time, I read other books and lots of meaty stuff online, and I should have finished this book, but it is not an easy read, partly because they reference historical events, people, and literary figures that I don't have background knowledge on. Plus, one sentence can have several heavy-duty ideas within it. Basically, the older he got, he became extremely intellectual and analytical, and he was friends with other brainy people, so the biography becomes more complex and his life progresses.

There are many amazing statements in this book, and if I were more organized, I would've marked them. But here's one that I just came across:

A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable. It can never permit either the truthful recording of facts, or the emotional sincerity, that literary creation demands.

He also predicted the Cold War. Incredibly smart guy.

Acronym Finder

I found out about a nifty application at Linguistics & Languages: an Acronym Finder:

...the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms...contains more than 4 million acronyms and abbreviations...

It covers several categories including Information Technology, Military & Government, Business & Finance, Science & Medicine, Organizations & Schools, and even Slang & Pop Culture. This is definitely worth a bookmark.

But that's not all! "You can also search for more than 850,000 US and Canadian postal codes."

They have so much there, I'm wondering if they're able to squeeze in anything else there.

China from the sky

Someone sent me several very pretty pictures of rural China. If I were to post them all, it would make the post too long. So here are a few. When I was there, I saw terraced farms, though they weren't as beautiful as these pictures. I can tell these photos have been touched up (via Photoshop?).

Teaching and translating

Sometimes my teaching and translating work intersect. There have been times when I have translated Japanese, then taught a Japanese person (or group) English. I haven't had that experience with French, which I've been translating most frequently--I've never taught French people English, and actually, I haven't even been to France. But I have been teaching Spanish speakers since the beginning of this year, and lately I've been translating Spanish. So it's sort of cool: I get to read conversational Spanish, and then I can go to the school and hear the students speak it. So the two gigs can reinforce each other.

Note: when I say "translate" I mean the written word, not interpreting, which is for the spoken word. Sometimes people use the word "translate" when they mean "interpret."

Metrotalk

Okay, this is what I was talking about in my previous post: Metrotalk, which is my online radio "show". I put it in quotes because it's not a daily show, but it is broadcast live, then archived as an audio file that is very easy to access.

I created Metrotalk to interview interesting people from Chicago and beyond. I love talking to interesting people--seriously. It's my hobby. So this is a good way to do what I love and share it with the world.

My first guest was Jim Moran, who's a radio pro here in Chicago. We talked about the radio biz and are going to continue the interview next week when we talk about a history book he wrote about a town near Chicago.

I have some other interesting guests lined up, so I'll keep people posted.

Coming soon

I'm working on something that I think is quite cool and exciting, and when it's finalized, I'll post more information about it here. But I just want to let folks know that there's more coming from Metrolingua that everyone will be able to enjoy (I hope).

Also, I really need to go into my archives and categorize my posts, because I think there are some good reads that people don't know about because they're not labeled. So if someone clicks on a label, they might not see many posts (or any) that can go along with it because there are too many posts to deal with--hundreds, actually. I just have to avoid laziness and spend the free time I have on such nerdy pursuits as categorizing blog posts. Exciting :)

Cute words

Here are some cute words that I see around Chicago: "polskie filmy." I think the meaning is evident: Polish films. I see those words on signs at video stores in Polish neighborhoods. Actually, the Polish community is so large in Chicago, people say it's the largest population outside of Krakow. I think what makes those words so cute is the "ie" at the end of "polskie" and the "y" at the end of "film". They look diminutive. In English, the word "film" sounds so serious compared to "filmy." It's just so cute, like, "Oh, look at that little filmy--so cute. That little polskie filmy." And then you just want to pinch its cheek.

Serbian email

I know someone in Serbia, and discovered that I got on their Serbian email list because I got an email with this in the subject line: "Ovo je zakon! Napravi forward, mo3da ne1to svi zajedno zaradimo! A ako ne bar znamo da smo poku1"

What does that mean? I opened it up and saw that it had been forwarded many times to a bunch of Serbian-looking names (and maybe Croatians too, since their languages are similar). The original email, which is very long, started with "Da vidimo kdo bo èastil, haha." So I guess it's a joke. And we're supposed to forward it because that's the only English word in the email I received.

It's sort of cool to get an email in a language I totally don't understand--I'm probably the only non-Serb/Croatian on the list. I hope. But it's too bad I can't laugh with them.

Curiosity hasn't killed that cat

Recently, Studs Terkel celebrated his 95th birthday, and he said, "Curiosity did not kill this cat" which is a great modification of the idiom (proverb) curiosity killed the cat. It basically means that you have to be careful about being too curious, or you will get in trouble or be harmed. So Terkel is saying that his curiosity did not kill him--he actually made a successful career out of it. Lucky guy.

But why does that phrase involve a cat? The earliest reference is from a 16th century British play, but it involved the concept of "worry". Shakespeare used it that way too. But

The earliest known printed reference to the actual phrase occurred in The Washington Post on 4 March 1916 (page 6): CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT

because the curiosity of a cat literally killed it when it went somewhere it shouldn't have gone, was trapped, and died.

What I don't get is that people think the proverb means that people shouldn't ask too many personal questions. Sure, that's probably a part of the meaning, but it doesn't encompass its entirety.

To the point

I was reading about Edna St Vincent Millay, who had a crazy life. Even the way she died was odd: she "was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her house...having broken her neck in a fall."

Among her interesting writing is a quote that's to the point:

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.

70k

Well, I've surpassed 70,000 unique visitors here, from over 100 countries. It's quite amazing because there are only a handful of people who've listed my blog, and I've done no "marketing" or any kind of online promotion. I appreciate all the visitors, and hope to be posting stuff that even more people will want to see :)

It's over!

I had a feeling and didn't do a search online because I didn't want to know (face reality), but Gilmore Girls, a show that I've been watching consistently from the beginning, is now over!

They say that the show started in 2000, but I thought it started in the 90's, because I was working at a youth hostel when I first saw it. It was the second or third episode, and I was flipping through the channels when I came upon the show. I thought the mother was ditsy and didn't understand what was appealing about watching her not acting her age. But I kept watching because I kept working those nights (it was originally on Thursdays), and got hooked.

This is basically why: it allowed me to escape. I mean, isn't that what entertainment is for? I thought it unbelievable, thus worthy of escapism, that a small town would include so many interesting, quirky people. Usually there is intolerance towards "difference" or odd behavior, but the townspeople seemed to appreciate such qualities. Also, the townspeople got along with each other and they were a true community. Plus, the Gilmore family were rich blue bloods. That's not common, so it was enjoyable to see their fancy parties, exclusive clubs, and tasteful consumerism. Problems were solved, everything was cute, and relationships were interesting.

Of course, there was a point when I thought it jumped the shark, so I didn't watch it for a bit, but I returned because I wanted to keep following the characters. I didn't have the same kind of interest and "love" for it as I originally had, but I still had to know what was going to happen.

And now it's over. My Tuesday nights are going to be lacking, and I won't see any more developments in that make-believe world of wealth, intelligence, and eccentricity. I can't believe it, but I have to accept it.

Vestal

Someone assumed that since I am a "linguist", I'd know the meaning of "vestal"--they wanted to know why they're called "vestal virgins."

Well I didn't know the meaning of vestal, so I looked it up:

a virgin consecrated to the Roman goddess Vesta and to the service of watching the sacred fire perpetually kept burning on her altar

So now you know. Now you can impress your friends with obscure language knowledge :)

(And for the record, I'm not a linguist--I'm just into languages. For some reason, people think I'm a linguist. I don't know why. Maybe it's because there aren't a lot of non-linguist language lovers out there.)

The way of sushi

Mad Minerva (a very smart chick) sent me the link to this video. It's quite thorough--maybe too much. But if you wanted to know almost everything about sushi eating and etiquette, then this is for you.

Writing to cope

Yesterday I was working on a short fiction piece that is probably one of the weirdest things I've written (though it may not be weird enough), and I walked away from the computer very happy. Which means that I have to keep writing because when other stuff doesn't fall into place in life, writing sure does. Or at least the way I feel about it does.

I think my mistake has been to put all my eggs in one basket: whether it's a job or people or whatever. For some reason, I sometimes assume that things in the non-fiction world (ie, reality) will be enough, but then when I hit walls, instead of focusing on the obstacles, all I've got to do is write, and it's a nice option to real-life disappointments.

So the lesson I've learned is to keep pursuing creative projects because it makes life a lot more tolerable. Sort of like a backup plan: if there's no real-life adventure, then writing (or photos) can provide it.

Going to TO

As I said yesterday, I'm going to Toronto for the weekend, so I'll most likely not post anything for a few days.

Hating Toronto

I didn't know so many people in Canada hated Toronto. I like it, which is why I'm going there this weekend for a short vacation. Too bad I can't see this documentary there. That would be cool. But it was only shown for a couple of days (last weekend), and it sold out fast.

According to an interview with the filmmakers, if people don't hate it, they mock it. That's odd, but I guess they don't have much else to do up there ;)

Italian George?

I came across an Italian proverb:

Meglio sola che male accompagnata.

Better to be alone than in bad company.

But then I found a similar quote from George Washington:

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

So which came first: the Washington quote or the Italian one? Or did they create those independently? Or maybe George Washington was Italian ;) Either way, it's good advice.

Weird writing

I'm attempting to write something for Jon Konrath's crazy/weird-themed zine, based on situations I've seen both fictionally and realistically. I posted a comment that's related to the theme I'm writing about at someone's journal, and thought there'd be no reponse. But then much later, they *did* respond, saying that I was "weird", so I figured, hey, since someone said such a thought showed weirdness, it's a kind of confirmation, so I might as well try to write something I've been thinking about for a while. It's yet another "what if" that has led me to other fiction writing (that has yet to see the light of day). I've written part of it and plan on finishing it soon because I want plenty of time for the potential rejection or editing request (hope it's the latter).

Sounds vague, and there's a lot I'd like to write about it, but I can't.

Vitamin C

I was talking to a fluent English-speaking German about Vitamin B (the German phrase that people use to describe good connections), and he suggested that English speakers say "Vitamin C" because C stands for "connections" (while of course the B in German represents Beziehungen). I have yet to hear English speakers use that phrase, however. But it's a good idea.

Pop

Sometimes I watch home design and clothing design shows (the kind that give people advice on what to wear) and I often hear the designers and commentators say "pop" as in, "This pillow makes the red in the couch POP." And the way they say it, it's as if they've never said the word before and want to experience the excitement of it. Why? Is it because it's a trendy design word, and those people want to be fashionable in words as well as things? Or is it because of the sound of it, which lends itself to its emphasis?

"The scarf makes the color of your eyes POP."
"The curtains make the blue in your carpet POP."
"My head is going to POP from saying POP so much."

Guessed wrong

I met someone today who didn't sound like they were from Chicago or even the midwest, so I assumed they were from Philadelphia or at least Pennsylvania, since the way they were pronouncing their r's and other consonants was different. Plus, their words didn't sound as "relaxed" as other parts of the country.

Well, I was wrong. They were from New Jersey, and I was disappointed I hadn't guessed their accent, especially because I know people from New Jersey and have heard the accent often. Then I realized that perhaps because they were originally from New Jersey but had been living in Chicago for a while, that perhaps their accent had become softened and not remained as "severe."

I used to be pretty good at guessing accents, and still think I'm okay at it, but maybe because I don't meet as many people as I used to, it's affected my accent-detecting skill level. Oh well.

Vitamin B

I've resumed corresponding with Nev recently (a German-speaking Brit I've mentioned before) and was telling him about situations where people are given certain jobs just because they know someone (ie, they're incompetent but are given the job anyway), and he said that having contacts is called Vitamin B in German:

Vitamin B (VEET-ah-meen BAY) is good connections (gute Beziehungen) to influential people, an expression that came out of World War II and food rationing. Vitamin B2 (BAY-tsvye) is even better connections.

I also found some interesting historical information about it as well:

East Germany had a command economy, in which virtually all decisions were made by the governing communist party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED). The system of planning was inflexible and eventually caused ruinous economic conditions. Power, influence, and personal connections (Beziehungen, or “vitamin B”) drove economic decisions, and all groups, including trade unions, were expected to collaborate to achieve the SED's economic objectives.

I need more Vitamin B, for sure.

Speech accent archive

Here's something so extensive, only a strongly supported academic could put it together: The Speech Accent Archive:

The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed...This website allows users to compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of the speakers in order to determine which variables are key predictors of each accent. The speech accent archive demonstrates that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech.

There are many accents in there from well-known and more obscure language backgrounds. You can spend a lot of time there listening to all those variations.

I miss German

I've been studying Japanese consistently, but at one point I studied German too, and I haven't studied it in a while. My work schedule does not allow me to take a German class, and I don't want to study it privately because I want to be in a class with other students. I did study it privately for several months or a year (I forgot how long), and if so much of my work time wasn't solitary, then maybe I'd consider taking private lessons again.

The bottom line is that I miss studying it. Sure, I can look at my textbooks and read German stuff online, but it's not the same as doing homework, going to class, and having an overall structure, which is easier than trying to find the discipline to study on my own. There are already other things that require discipline to do on my own, such as writing fiction and finishing the query letters that have to be sent out for the inevitable rejections I will receive.

Maybe my work schedule will normalize enough to squeeze in a German class, but for now, I just have to deal with missing it and try to be disciplined enough to look through texts from past classes and other German sources.

Double English

I finally saw Das Boot. It's a great film, though not really my type of movie because I'm not interested in war movies or thrillers or plots that are overwhelming suspenseful with disturbing scenes--there's enough stress in life without the need to get lost in a movie that is relentless. It clearly shows how awful war is and how humans can suffer and inflict suffering and express degradation and debauchery in difficult situations.

I was fortunate to see the director's cut which I guess has lots more scenes in it than the original. I recommend that version, though I have nothing to compare it to, but the director said that this version allowed him to show what he wanted without the constraints of time and content that international distribution required back in the early 80's. It was a big-time hit back then, and I was actually old enough to be able to tolerate it when it came out, though I doubt I would've appreciated the subtleties and artistically presented scenes.

One cool feature of the director's cut is that you can play it in dubbed English (the original is in German, of course), and you can watch it with subtitles in French, Spanish, or English. But what's really a weird experience is watching it in dubbed English with English subtitles--they don't match up! The idioms are different and so are the phrases. So if you're really into the variations of English, you can be exposed to both at the same time.

I am looking forward to seeing the extra features: The Making of/Behind the Scenes and Director's Commentary, which I'll probably watch later this week.

What's weird is that it wasn't made in Germany, but WEST Germany, ie, when there was Free Germany and Commie Germany. Which reminds me of the awesome German movie I recently saw about East Germany.

Funny conspiracy

A while ago, I saw the Voyager Conspiracy, and took it quite seriously as I followed Seven of Nine's explanations of her theories of sabotage aboard the ship. Then I found out that it was all a result of information overload and her resulting paranoia.

Well the episode is on right now, and I'm just cracking up because I know what the outcome is, and I see Janeway and Chakotay distrusting each other, while Seven is even accusing a girl of taking sides in supposed looming destruction. Too much information in her cortical implant. Which reminds me of conspiracy folks I've met who even doubt the validity of the landing on the moon.

Danish language

I saw this funny video at Languagehat (aka, The Great One). I wonder if the subtitles are really Danish, and what Danish folks think about it. I should ask Lily :)

Japanese comfort

When I hear people speaking Japanese, I like to practice my listening skills by eavesdropping on them. Sorry, but I'm going to be rude about it and not respect people's privacy because I've put way too many hours into studying Japanese to not do it.

Last week I was in a cafe, watching the rain and taking a break from writing, when two Japanese people sat down at a table near mine and started talking about different stuff. Even though I had work to do (well, "work" that may never see the light of day because it's a pipe dream), I managed to catch the gist of what they were saying.

If I eavesdrop on Spanish conversations or another language I've studied, I have to concentrate more to figure out what they're saying, even to understand where the words separate into comprehensible units. But with Japanese, I can relax. Sure, I don't know all the words, but because I lived there and have continued to study it, I feel comfortable, so my mind can settle on the sounds of the language. Even if I'm watching a movie where Japanese is spoken and I don't totally understand what they're saying, I still feel "at home" with it. I still have a long way to go until I'm awesome in that language, but at least it doesn't scare me.

Text to speech

Arrogant Polyglot found a nifty text-to-speech application for the following languages:

Catalan
Chinese
Dutch
English
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish

And each language has different voices to choose from. It's an incredibly cool application that is also practical: someone today asked me what the pronunciation of Aegean was, and I used the application to verify it. It's also fun to try out the different voices and English words in different accents if you choose a non-English language to voice them.

Japan in DC

Someone sent me this really cool picture of cherry blossoms in Washington DC from the cherry blossom festival. I lived in Japan, so I often saw cherry blossoms every spring, but I've never seen them in the US. The cherry blossom trees were a gift from Tokyo in 1912, and more were added throughout the years.

Eccentric endangerment

Rose (whose blog I unfortunately discovered too late because she's not blogging as much anymore) had a post with a quote from John Stuart Mill:

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

Well, I don't think a lack of eccentricity is a "chief danger," but then again, he wrote that before a lot of horrible stuff happened even as societies became more "civilized" and industrialized and modern. But I do see how a lack of individuality creates group think and apathy.

Crazy schedule

I was going to do a more lengthy post tonight, but I just got home, and I have to wake up in a few hours. So I'm going to do a post tomorrow. I'm just letting folks know because I usually post more often, but I've had a very long day which started when I woke up at 4 AM. So I have to manage to get at least a few hours sleep instead of thinking a lot for a decent post.

Integrity

Here's another word that I often want to use but always forget: integrity. When I see someone or a group that I respect, I want to say, "They have integrity" but I forget what the word is. So I use other adjectives that don't come close to describing what I'm looking for. And it's very frustrating, which is why I'm posting it here--as a reminder.

The last often-forgotten word I posted was tedious, and since then, I haven't forgotten it, even when I've had to do tedious work. So now I think, "Wow, this work is tedious" rather than saying "This work is...I forgot what word I'm looking for, but it's like nitpicky and boring, but there's a better word for it."

Well, tonight was a situation that I want to end: I was thinking of Rush, and how they work hard to create quality music and don't have typical "rock and roll" or trashy lifestyles, and wanted to say that they have integrity, but I drew a blank. So I said, "They have, you know--it starts with an 'a'," then thought that maybe the word I'm looking for is "ethical," but that can't be right because ethics are about honest values, and I don't know if they have that. So then someone reminded me that the word is "integrity."

However, the definition mentions "moral" in one of the meanings: "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values" though I don't think of "moral" when I think of all folks who have integrity. But it's good to see "artistic values" mentioned, because that's what I often think of.

So now that the word is posted here, I won't have to search for it again.

Where else I am

Okay, I said I probably wouldn't say where else I'm blogging, but if you want to know what other kinds of thoughts I have that aren't related to language or Star Trek or whatever else I post here, check out the first blog on my blogroll.

Milking the British accent

Toby Young, one of the few famous people I'd like to meet, has an interesting article that refutes the popular belief that Brits "have succeeded in bilking the American entertainment industry out of hundreds of millions of dollars simply by speaking in 'veddy Briddish' accents." He quotes Stephen Fry (some Brit who's probably well-known but whose name I don't recognize) as saying, "I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there."

Sorry, but Americans aren't so duped, and luckily, Toby agrees:

In my experience, this particular cliche is long past its sell-by date. Planeloads of freeloading British hacks - not to mention the three million British tourists who visit the country every year - have poisoned that well. On first hearing an English accent 50 years ago, Americans might have thought: stately home, private school, good manners. Nowadays, they think: low income, poor diet, alcohol problem.

So according to Toby Young, Brits perhaps can't milk their accent anymore. They actually have to prove themselves.

Hookish enough?

Ok, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who've whined about the writing process, and I'm not going to pretend I haven't. And this is my latest concern: I wonder if my story has enough of a hook. That's the important word, I guess, in the fiction biz: hook. I think what I wrote is something that women are going to be able to relate to, but it's not earth-shattering. So if there's no fancy hook, is a potential book doomed? Perhaps what I wrote is not hookish enough for the PIC (Publishing Industrial Complex). But I won't know until I polish my query letter and send it out. Then after 50 or so rejections, I will know, and will have to go back to the drawing (writing) board.

Tell-all origin

I watched "Mommie Dearest" today. I had never seen the movie, though I read the book back in the late 80's, and it was quite tragic. What's sad is that people didn't believe that Joan Crawford could be so abusive, and they essentially implied that her severely abused adopted daughter was lying. She and her brother were victims--he obviously never got over it (he was abused more severely than she was) and after he led a screwed-up life, he died in his early 60's a psychologically and economically broken man.

What I discovered is not just that "Although 'tell-all' books regarding celebrities are somewhat commonplace now, Mommie Dearest was the first book of its kind" but that the term "tell-all" originated when the book was published.

I read the transcript of a Larry King interview with Christina Crawford, the author of the book and other books about abuse, and saw this:

KING: Did you ever feel there is a part of me here that is doing the tell-all?

C. CRAWFORD: That -- that phrase was coined after the book, so that was never my intention. The one thing that surprised me...

KING: You mean, tell-all resulted from your book.

C. CRAWFORD: Yes.

KING: The term "tell-all?"

C. CRAWFORD: Yes, yes. The one thing that surprised me was that so many people who knew did not understand that I was speaking as the victim and the survivor.

The King interview is really good--I recommend reading it if you want some more info about her and her upbringing. I'm tempted to read the revised edition of the book (with 100 extra pages), which was published on the 20th anniversary of the original release.

Good artist's statement

I know an artist who is having an upcoming show, and he shared his artist's statement with me today (I can't directly link to it because of how the site is set up--you have to go click on the "Statement" link at his site). What he wrote is quite good, especially this part:

The world I live in today is filled with the most amazing shapes and colors. For every dark there is a light, for every push there is a pull, for every contour there is a moment of silence. My goal is to recognize each of them with the respect that they deserve.

Sometimes I read artists' statements that sound fake and grandiose, where the artist is trying to sound important, serious, deep, etc., but he really means what he said. Actually, I know other artists who write what they mean, so it's not like I see phoniness everywhere, but then again, I tend to know artists who aren't full of themselves or who aren't posers. And not all artists are like that. But whatever--the statement (and the art) is worth a look.

Language chick

My husband came upon a cute language site, Jennifer's Language Page, which lists greetings and phrases in hundreds of languages. There's no bio information there (unless I didn't look carefully enough), so I'm assuming she's just really into languages. She has a very long list of contributors, so maybe she set it up and people kept sending her more and more translations.

Many translations have come from people who have seen these pages and sent me comments, suggestions, additions, and corrections by e-mail from all over the world, as well as people I know who I have asked for translations. These people have provided a lot of the translations on these pages and also have verified (or corrected) translations I have found from other sources. Other translations have come from my own research in libraries and online, from dictionaries, phrase books, travel books and Internet language resources.

Her language resource list seems quite comprehensive. She also offers her email address, in case you want to contribute.

INCREDIBLE German movie!

I just saw one of the best movies ever (not just an excellent German film): The Lives of Others (or Das Leben der Anderen in German).

It deservedly won an Oscar--it wasn't just awesome because of the interesting story, which takes place in East Germany before The Wall went down, but it works on so many levels. I could easily see it again. I don't usually get so excited about movies, but this one was entertaining, evoked a range of emotions, and had symbolism and layers of meaning.

I highly recommend this film! Even with the subtitles, you can see how great the actors are and appreciate both the complexities and subtleties of the story. It was so thought-provoking and stimulating that I'm sure it will be on my mind for a while.

Etc etc

Sometimes I see a sign with a list of things the place has to offer, and instead of saying "etcetera" or "etc." once, they say "etc etc" - in other words, they say "etc" twice.

That is redundant. Etc means essentially "and more", so if they're repeating the word, they're adding to the concept of more. More is more, you don't have to repeat it.

I think when people double up "etc" on a public sign, they're doing it out of naivety. Some people will purposely repeat the word to emphasize the abundance of something, so I'm not talking about them. They are knowingly "misusing" the word to illustrate a point. But I think when people think they "should" use two etc's, they really don't understand the meaning of that word.

I'm not prissy

I've been looking at examples of successful query letters, and they seem prissy. That's not me. I came upon an agent (who's not accepting any unsolicited queries, so I can't contact her anyway) and she posted an example of a "great" query at her site (which I don't want to link to because I don't want to slam anyone by name).

I read it over, and thought that it was wordy and prissy and silly and self-consciously "cute". But according to the agent, it's a winner, and the book ended up not only getting published, but sold as part of a series. Actually, I read the book, and the writing style was a lot tighter and more straightforward than the query. So based on that example and others I've seen, do we have to write prissy queries in order to get our straightforward books accepted?

And then there's the inevitable editing that happens: the prissy query I read didn't have the same plot as the finished book. Which means that the agent had the author rewrite it before submission to publishers. Which goes back to my usual complaint: why do we have to kill ourselves to write a "perfect" manuscript if it's going to get rewritten anyway?

I just want to write a straightforward query, not some fussy, girly words that are supposed to make the agent giggle in glee.

How a word looks

I saw a sign today as I was driving along, and it had a word whose meaning seemed to reflect how it looks and sounds. Or do I just think that way because I know the meaning of the word?

When I see the word "strict," for example, the s-t-r combination makes it sound like a serious word, like someone means business. But it could be that I know what kind of effort it takes to make that sound, which implies seriousness.

I wonder if speakers of other languages notice this about their own languages, at least those folks who don't use scripts such as Chinese characters or kanji.

Tedious

This is a word I should know, but for some reason, it often escapes me. Someone mentioned their work being "tedious," and it occurred to me that I often forget to use it. So if I'm doing work that requires concentration, is detail-oriented, and not very exciting (ie, it numbs the brain), then I should use that word. But for some reason, I'll say that such work is "nitpicky" when what I mean is tedious, implying that it's very detail-oriented and tiny in its goals.

However, when I saw the definition as "so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness," I realized that it's not exactly what I've meant to say, though if I'm doing such work it does become quite boring, as in the example they provide: "the deadening effect of some routine tasks." So actually, since I've seen that definition, I've realized that yes, the work I sometimes do is truly tedious because by the end of it I want to scream and run around and get away from it to loosen my brain.

I've certainly not thought of their other example, "a boring evening with uninteresting people," as tedious but rather as a simply uninteresting time. I think if I were to get to the point of a social function being "tedious," then I better check my ego to make sure it's not outgrowing the room.

Another place

Since my exodus from MySpace, I've been thinking of starting an online journal that will cover observations and thoughts that don't fit into the scope of Metrolingua.

Actually, the idea started to form when I went "fishing" in the online "sea" for a phrase, and found a journal that I've since been reading. Typing a phrase in Google is also how I found Jon Konrath's journal, which is my fave.

I think when I establish the other place, I might not mention it here, just write stuff and let people discover it. I have a journal on my computer, but for some reason, I want to start a public one, probably because I like writing and don't always want to do it without an "audience."

So if you find something that sounds like me, it just might be :)

Online Canadian phrasebook

Via Languagehat (aka The Great One), I found out about A Canadian Phrasebook which is in progress, so if you have any additions, feel free to contact them.

The Phrasebook started life more than ten years ago as a goofy comparison of regional terms in four Canadian places...Before long, readers from all over the country—and beyond—were sending in their ways of saying things, and the letters have never stopped coming. Like Canadian English, the Phrasebook clearly has a life of its own. We’re working on a more interactive version of it for www.geist.com. Send all Canadaspeak from anywhere—we love it!

Canadaspeak--neat word :)

More Spanish

I think I'll be talking about Spanish more often here because I'm sort of in that world, since I teach Spanish speaking people and work with them as well. Today I had to interact with a lot of Spanish speakers, and I just could not get over their openness to me speaking (butchering) their language. I studied Spanish but never got the chance to speak it, so my knowledge of it is passive--I can understand it okay. A while ago, I spoke Portuguese enough to be able to survive a couple trips to Brazil, but my Portuguese at this point is quite lame. So I don't have that to fall back on when I speak Spanish.

Well today, people walked up to the table where I was and started speaking in rapid, natural Spanish. They had no idea that I didn't really speak it, they just assumed I did--and not because of how I look--I don't look Latin American. So I pulled out the miniscule Spanish I knew out of the far corners of my mind and tried to speak with them, and they were just so cool about it.

But most of the time I was thinking, "I shouldn't try to go all the way with it--I should just throw out some words and mix it with English, because I'm American, not Latin American." But then I realized that I had adapted such an attitude from my Japanese speaking experience (which I've talked about before) because no matter how comfortable I am with Japanese, they won't assume I'm in their world at all. But the Spanish speakers were very welcoming, which not only made me feel good, but made me try harder to understand what was going on.

Why I left MySpace

Last summer, I decided to join MySpace because my friend kept telling me how great it was. When he first told me about it, I didn't join right away because I wasn't sure I wanted to participate in such a sleazy, tacky place with no purpose (such as promoting a book or whatever). It's worked for him since he does photography, and his network has grown. It really took me a while to join--he was getting annoyed with my indecision, and he thought I was being uptight because I was worrying about what impact it would have on me, etc. But I joined, and ended up feeling yucky, so I yanked it the other day.

I am not being critical of people on MySpace or the concept of it--I know some decent people over there, and it's really worked for them. But overall, it seems like a big, shallow, drive-by party where a lot of people are there to be seen and not much else.

There are a lot of things I can say about it, but one thing I noticed is when people I know offline (or in other contexts) would transform into the shallow people they really weren't. Like the friends list: people chose folks they hardly knew as their "top friends", but then they wouldn't choose their supposedly "real" friends because they didn't appear cool or hot enough. Another thing I noticed is that I would meet someone offline (or in other contexts), then post a comment, and wouldn't get a response. That doesn't happen in the blog world--usually, I've noticed that if you get along with someone and post a comment on their blog, they'll eventually respond at their site or even through email. MySpace doesn't seem to foster such sincerity.

One way is how the site counts your "friends" and reminds everyone how many "friends" you have. So it becomes a game and popularity contest to see how many "friends" you can collect. Another is how it's a quick hit-and-run experience--people leave short comments and slutty or dumb pictures, send mostly useless or innane bulletins, and post blogs that no one reads--because people aren't into reading there, just mostly seeing, as if they're trying to create a music video or reality TV show, since they don't know anything worthwhile to emulate, nor can create anything independent of the sleazy culture they've been exposed to and want to aspire to.

Every time I logged on, I would be greeted with pictures of half-dressed people who were part of ad campaigns for singles sites, or a list of new members who were always in ignorantly exaggerated poses as if they were trying out for an MTV spot. The stuff I don't like about the popular culture that appeals to the lowest common denominator is all there.

Sure, people use it to keep in touch with their friends and family, and others have succesfully used it for their professional and creative endeavors, but at this point, I don't have such needs. And I don't want to be on that "popularity" ride, receive friend requests from mercenary people, see tacky layouts that take forever to load, or be exposed to the aesthetically unappealing MySpace site design that is technically faulty and has no purpose other than to get more consumers.

If you're there with no purpose, it does, indeed, seem to be the ghetto of the Internet. But if I ever need to be there to promote anything, I'm going back. Until then, I'm going to stick to blogs, and other aesthetically pleasing and relatively quality sites.

Bitter gall

I was reading Proverbs 5 and saw the phrase "bitter as gall," which made me wonder what the heck "gall" was. It seems that it's bile, but initial definitions, at least in my copy of Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, describe "gall" as "something bitter or severe" or "bitterness of spirit." Which is odd, since the proverb compares bitterness with gall. So what's originally written as a noun becomes an adjective, using the comparison to become the definition itself.

60k

I just found out that I've had over 60,000 unique visitors to this site, from over 100 countries, including:

United States, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, China, Ireland, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, France, Iceland, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, Taiwan, Belgium, Sweden, Russian Federation, India, Israel, Romania, Malaysia, Austria, Singapore, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire), Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hungary, Denmark, Mexico, Finland, Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia, Norway, Portugal, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Ghana, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Lithuania, South Africa, Senegal, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ukraine, Chile, Ecuador, Croatia, European Union, Luxembourg, Greece, Ethiopia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Jordan, Guam (USA), Slovak Republic, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Tunisia, Moldova, Panama, Qatar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Nigeria, Belarus, Cyprus, El Salvador, Palestinian Territories, Macedonia, Sri Lanka, Monaco, Bangladesh, Algeria, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Benin, Albania, Trinidad and Tobago, Armenia, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Myanmar, Saint Kitts & Nevis Anguilla, Mongolia, Macau, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Syria, Polynesia (French), Bolivia, Gabon, Antigua and Barbuda, Virgin Islands (USA), Libya, Bermuda, Netherlands Antilles, Madagascar, Lebanon, Andorra, Malta.

What's cool is that I haven't asked people to promote my blog, have no online advocates (though a few bloggers list it), have done no articles that link to it, and have done nothing to market it. It also has a relatively narrow focus (ie, no politics or social commentary or controversial content, etc). A while ago, I read "build it and they will come," which is true. My blog isn't a blockbuster, but it's apparently decent enough to get visitors. So thanks! I will mention this when I contact agents :)

"Election"

I put that word in quotes because here in Chicago, there was an election and I voted, but as usual, the results were predictable: Da Mayor won. No surprise there. It's his sixth term, and if he lives through it (unlike his dad, who also was elected for a sixth term), then he'll be the longest-serving mayor here.

He's corrupt, but he's done a good job overall. But really, what can we do? The competition can't match his experience or power, so I really see Da Mayor more as a king than an elected official. There were also aldermanic races, and I was going to say that my ward is another predictable election, but surprisingly, the incumbent alderman might actually lose! Which means that I have to follow the election results, which I never do on the city level.

Chicago is a one-party town, which makes voting odd: you're either voting for one Democrat or another. Luckily, not everyone thinks the same way, but it's sort of strange to live in a free country yet have a huge city with only one party. And what's also bizarre for a "free" system is that the aldermen in the city council usually go along with what Da Mayor wants. So they're the knights in the ruler's kingdom.

Snow in Denmark

I haven't been too happy about the below-zero weather here in Chicago, but Denmark (according to Lilly) seems to have worse snow than I've seen here. I like the change of seasons, but dang--they have too much to deal with.

Excellent Japanese movie

I just saw an excellent Japanese movie--actually, it's an excellent movie, no matter where it was made: Always - Sunset on Third Street. The acting is great, the story is interesting with humorous and sweet moments--it's just a lot better than some other films that everyone goes crazy over. It won a bunch of Japanese Academy Awards and could easily win awards in the U.S. too, but people are too busy salivating over such drivel as the Pursuit of Happyness, which I seem to be the only one it didn't win over.

Also check out the official Japanese site too.

Online picture dictionary

This is incredibly neato: an internet picture dictionary in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Each dictionary has flashcards, fill-in-the blanks, word scramble, spelling, and straight recall based on the pictures. And there are various helpful links there, too.

Keep the Canadian accent!

I saw this letter in a media column:

Just when I thought it was safe to watch TV news again without having to cringe at Canadian accents and mispronunciations, Channel 7 hires Ravi Baichwal. I'm sure he is a nice guy, and I'm willing to give him three months. If he hasn't dropped the Canadian accent by then, I say we call it a day.

I disagree--I like Canadian accents!

Need to write

Since I finished the novel, I've started working on another one (amazingly!) while looking for agents. I didn't write all weekend because I took the time off, but I shouldn't have because I'm at the point where I can not NOT write. This is a big deal because a lot of unpublished writers give up, or they want an incentive to write, but my incentive is that I enjoy it. Sure, I'd love to publish what I've written, but it's not the sole reason anymore.

I know people who tell me that they want to write a novel, and I give them a trite response: "then write it." But they think there's some magical feeling they should have. It takes discipline and commitment and a belief in the worthiness of the process. But people don't want to sit down and do it. Or they're scared because it's difficult (which it is) and it's hard work and requires people to let go and become something/someone that they might not usually be.

Great lyrics

I heard "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash, and was struck by these lyrics that seem sad but hopeful:

Well you ask me if I'll forget my baby.
I guess I will, someday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll get along.
I guess I will, someway.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

You ask me if I'll miss her kisses.
I guess I will, everyday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll find another.
I don't know. I can't say.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

Garrett Wang seems cool

I highly recommend listening to the interview with Garrett Wang. It's a podcast, and the interview isn't at the beginning of it--it starts around a quarter of the way in.

It's interesting to hear about his background, and his impressions of Hollywood and Voyager (which includes harsh opinions about producer Rick Berman and tidbits about Kate Mulgrew's negative reaction to the addition of Jeri Ryan).

The interview is long--a rarity in the media, which is why podcasts are sometimes better than other audio/video, and it allows you to really see what Garrett Wang is like: he seems interesting and fun!

I've posted a picture of what he looks like now, with another Trek actor I'd like to meet: Tim Russ.

If anyone wants to grant me a wish, it's that--and I think they'd think I was interesting, too :)

Temperature converter

It has been very cold here, and since this blog's readership is international, I wanted to use both Fahrenheit and Celsius to describe the temperature: it's been around 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is -15 to
-12 degrees Celsius.

How do I know what the temp is in both forms? From the Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter. You can convert either way--just enter the temperature you know in its respective box, and it'll do the rest. Very nifty and handy!

They should've asked me...

Someone gave me this weird translation of a Japanese sign--there are so many native English speakers there who could've translated it correctly, but they went with this odd meaning...or they could've asked me to do it :)

Done!

Ok--I reached my goal of finishing the novel today. I was supposed to meet Johnny B for lunch, but it was snowing so much, it would have been a very long trip up to the burbs, so we rescheduled for next week. But my goal was to finish the book by the time I met up with him today, and I still stuck to my goal. Which is a victory.

And now all I have to do is proofread it. I'm so used to it hanging over my head, it's strange to not have to write the story anymore. The story has been told! I just can't believe it--I started a while ago, did different drafts, trashed a lot of stuff, got into radio and put the novel aside for a while, and now it's done!

Besides proofreading it, I have to get a list of agents to contact and write a convincing query letter. There's a lot more work to be done and rejections to be received. But I'm still motivated, and am happy that I stuck to my goals and was disciplined and focused enough to write it. I see the fact that I worked on it despite the absence of any editor or agent waiting for it as an incredible feat--lots of people give up when there's no such external motivation.

One side note: the upside of work not being too busy or satisfying is the ability to think about and pursue writing--and my attitude towards it has changed. Because I took the time to write, it helped me appreciate the process. I have a lot more to say, but will save it for another time. I'm both elated and feel sort of odd that I've finally crossed the finish line.

Basho was lonely

I read that Basho, the Japanese poet, was quite lonely: "The more famous and wealthy Basho became, the more dissatisfied he was. He was lonely and depressed..."

And his writing reflected this as well:

I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon, I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel.

You'd think that even though he had hardships, all the students and fame and acquaintences would help his loneliness, but that wasn't the case. And he became successful from his writing, but it didn't seem to help. What was his deal?

Destinos

A while ago, I had to take science and other classes for a teaching certificate I was going for (which I ended up never using, but that's another story). I ended up taking language classes to help balance out the dreaded education classes I had to endure, and one of them was Spanish through the television: a telecourse called Destinos.

Destinos teaches speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in Spanish. This telenovela, or Spanish soap opera, immerses students in everyday situations with native speakers and introduces the cultures, accents, and dialects of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Understanding of Spanish and appreciation of many Hispanic cultures increase as students become absorbed in the mysterious and entertaining story.

An excellent series. I didn't know Spanish when I started out, so I didn't understand everything, but by the end of the first section, I was paying attention to the story, not thinking about the structures (ie, not analyzing the language itself). So I got engrossed in the story as I was learning--which is the point.

Of course, I didn't learn how to speak because it was about listening and learning grammar and vocabulary, but at the beginning of foreign language acquisition, we're passive anyway. So it suited me fine. Even when it comes on the TV now, I still watch it--it has good memories for me.

Manglish

Linguistics & Language had a guest blogger who talked about the blend of Malay and English called "Manglish". Here are some examples:

“Why you so likedat wan?” - Why are you like that?

“I dunwan to talk you anymore.” - I am not going to talk to you anymore.

“You say correct anot?” - Do you agree with me?

“Die-die I oso want.” - No matter what, I also want (something).

But most significant is our ‘lah‘. We use lah to emphasise our point.

Come lah!
Let’s go lah!
Eat lah!

She uses also uses Manglish at her blog.

There are a lot of such blendings throughout the world, including Spanglish here in Chicago, and Japlish, which my friends and I dabbled in when we were in Japan--the mixture is hard to avoid the longer you're exposed to more than one language.

Misogynist Weekly

Nunavuter (who reads this blog) created these lovely magazine covers. The "article" names include "10 Tips to Shut Her Up During Football" and "Finding the British War Bride for You." It is, after all, "the magazine for men who love hating women."



It's satire, in case you're wondering...

Franglais

I saw this at Arrogant Polyglot

Not lay

What's wrong with the quote below?

Firefighter: I saw him laying facedown
Firefighter saves 8-year-old -- the 2nd rescue of his career

When Chicago firefighter John O'Brien got to him, 8-year-old Max Crawford was in a heap on the floor at the end of his bed, his little nose black with soot. He was barely breathing.

"I [saw] him laying facedown on the carpet," said O'Brien, who crawled through thick smoke in an early Friday morning fire on the West Side to find Max, who was wearing his PJs.

It's the verb: lay. I often hear people say, "I need to lay down." I want to ask, "Lay down what?" because "lay" is supposed to take an object. The correct word is "lie", as in, "I'm so tired, I need to lie down." So the firefighter should have said, "I saw him lying facedown." But he was too busy being a hero, saving someone's life to worry about grammar :)

(seen in a Sun-Times article)

The end is near

I am almost done with the novel I've been working on. The first draft took just a few months, which I was happy about because I've discovered that it's best to write something quickly instead of agonizing over stuff that will inevitably be revised again and again. I felt like I was being disciplined and responsible by getting that first draft out. But the problem was that I felt like it was fake, that it wasn't from the heart, so I put it aside and pursued other creative stuff. Then I observed some interactions between people and found out about some other people's experiences, and ended up wondering "what if...", which I incorporated into the story. So I got rid of the first draft and totally started over. It took a lot longer to do the second draft because I was involved in exciting work that sort of subdued my desire to write. But the desire came back strong, so I started working on the book again.

Now I really don't have a lot more to do--I see the end of the tunnel, which is driving me even more to finish it. I even have put off other stuff to do it, which isn't so responsible, but is still a breakthrough because this book might never get published, and that's not stopping me.

I actually don't feel the despair we unpublished writers usually feel but excitement that I've written something I'm pretty happy with that is going to be completed. Hopefully I'll remember that when I get the rejections.

Funny menu

Someone sent me a link to a hilarious menu that was weirdly translated from Chinese. There's a lot more than what I'm posting here, so check it out. It will crack you up, even if you like more raunchy humor.

Great day

This is for the record: I had a day yesterday that ended up great. I had to work in two locations that were very far apart both in terms of distance and culture: the far southwest side of the city, surrounded by factories and functional stores, and the northwest suburbs, where tidy lawns and huge malls reside. Then I went to a friend's place on the north side of the city for an enjoyable dinner and wine with interesting music playing in the background, then a smooth martini lounge nearby. The conversation was great and I was able to truly relax after a very long work day. I was going to do a post here last night, but I ended up chatting very late with an online bud, and amazingly, I'm back this morning at the computer writing. So at least yesterday's activities didn't set me back.

Canadian idiot

Not kiyoto

Here's something I've noticed but have never mentioned here: how English speakers say "Kiyoto" [kee-yoto] instead of "Kyoto." Even the Japanese characters 京都 do not allow for the "ki" sound because the first one is "kyo" (or more precisely, "kyou" because the vowel sound is long).

I think it's because the "kyo" sound isn't common in English, or really exists in English words (I don't think--I haven't done a word study on it), so to say "Kyoto" is strange for English speakers. "Kiyoto" allows for alternating the consonant and vowel sounds and is more comfortable, it seems.

Proves my point

Yesterday I talked about the lack of enthusiasm I encounter when I speak Japanese to Japanese people whose English isn't great. Well, I experienced an example of that today.

I was at a Japanese store, and asked a guy, in English, where the fruit was. He was speaking Japanese with a female coworker, and I haven't seen him speak English with people before, so I didn't know if his English was good. But I used it anyway. He looked at me blankly, and so did his coworker, so I asked them in Japanese. The woman said in muddy English, "You speak Japanese" with a nervous smile, and spoke no Japanese with me, but pointed in the direction of the fruit, then told me in broken English that it was elsewhere as well.

If I had walked into a store in a Mexican neighborhood, they would've spoken Spanish once they discovered I could speak it. And a similar thing would happen in Chinatown, I'm sure. It wasn't as if I had asked the Japanese workers incorrectly where the fruit was, they just didn't want to continue in the language because, I think, I'm not Japanese, so broken English is better than me entering their language world.

So it's both ironic and convenient that such an incidence occurred the day after I had a post about it, lest anyone think I was making such an observation up.

Shakuhachi and Japanese

The shakuhachi (sound samples here) is my favorite instrument--especially in modern contexts, such as in more experimental jazz or contemporary world music, which I would characterize as a blend of various instruments throughout the world playing together. I like when instruments are taken from various cultures to create new music that goes beyond their national sources, without losing traces of their own ethnicities.

Tonight I saw a concert that included contemporary Western "classical" (put in quotes because since it's contemporary, it may not be "classical") chamber music and music from Persia and Asia. The latter music was incredible and dynamic, though I did like the Western music as well. But the Persian and Asian blend was very interesting and refreshing to hear in a venue that usually offers Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, etc.

After the concert, I got a chance to greet the shakuhachi player, who is Japanese and Danish. I told him I lived in Japan, and he started speaking Japanese with me--even though I didn't tell him I could speak it. I was pleasantly surprised because Japanese people rarely speak Japanese with non-Japanese (outside Japan), or if they do, they don't initiate it. Many other language groups are happy if people can speak their language, but I've noticed that Japanese people aren't. Sorry, but it seems to be true in my experience. Perhaps that guy initiated Japanese conversation because he's half European, so he's not caught up in the idiosyncracies of Japanese culture. Whatever--it was a rare opportunity that I enjoyed.

What's interesting is that earlier today, I was speaking with some Chinese people about my dilemma: that I know Japanese but don't encounter many Japanese people, and if I do, they would rather speak bad English than Japanese. But when I went to China, I noticed that Chinese people were happy to hear even a few words, and even in Chicago, I can see conversational opportunities if only I spoke Mandarin (don't have much interest in Cantonese). One Chinese chick who speaks good English even said that if I were to learn Mandarin, she'd speak with me. Imagine that.

Language tools

My husband found a site called iTools Language Tools which has:

**several English dictionaries

**VoyCabulary, where "you can change the words on any webpage into links, so you can look them up with just a click--in a dictionary of your choice"

**terminology dictionaries

**several thesauruses

**a crossword solver

**Babylon, which translates words "to and from Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish"

**a Text Translator from English into Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian or the other way around"

**a Web Page Translator from English into Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian or the other way around

That's a a lot! Though I don't think Babylon is the best translation tool, but still--that place looks packed.

Chinese high

What are they smoking in there? Just straight weed, or are they mixing it with tobacco to create a British-style spliff, or what? I wonder if their pot is spicy.

But seriously: this is a word challenge as well, of course, as a cultural one. "Rolling" can be a verb, thus the humor of this sign. But "rolling" can also be an adjective, which I'm sure means something different in Chinese--bad translation!

Still writing

I was going to do a post here yesterday, but I totally forgot because I had to do some translations and when I finished those, I decided to work on a novel I've been revising. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm almost done, which means that this year, possibly even before winter ends or during the spring, I might be approaching agents for more rounds of rejections. But the difference between what I'm writing now and what I wrote before is that I really feel like the book I'm working on now is a lot better and something that more people (especially women, since the protagonist is a chick) will be able to relate to. I hope. If not, then I'm just going to move on to the next novel, which will be my third attempt. I already have an idea for one, and am ready to get going on it.

Why I keep pursuing fiction writing is a mystery to me because I've had no indications that I'm going to make it. I've gotten positive feedback here and for other non-fiction writing I've done for work, but not for fiction. But I really like writing it, so I have to remember that if I fail again, at least I've enjoyed doing it. That's all we can do, really, because if we don't enjoy it then it's all a waste of time.

Rush on

Bruce spotted this very cool license plate. It references the Toronto International Airport (YYZ), a typical Canadian word (eh), and Rush, since they have a song called YYZ.

Online multilingual keyboard

Language Hat (language blogger extraordinaire) mentioned an incredibly cool site that is an online onscreen virtual multilingual keyboard emulator that "enables you to write in your language wherever you are in the world."

You can type in the following languages:

Albanian (Shqip) / Arabic (العربية) / Armenian (հայերեն) / Azeri (Azərbaycan) / Belarusian (Беларуская) / Bengali (বাংলা) / Bulgarian (Български) / Chinese (中文) / Croatian (hrvatski) / Czech (Česky) / Danish (dansk) / Devanagari (देवनागरी) / Divehi (ދިވެހި) / Dutch (Nederlands) / English (English) / Estonian (eesti) / Faeroese ( Føroyskt) / Farsi Persian (فارسی) / Finnish (suomi) / French (Français) / Gaelic (Gàidhlig/Gaeilge) / Georgian ( ქართული) / German (Deutsch) / Greek (Ελληνικά) / Gujarati (ગુજરાતી) / Hebrew (עברית) / Hindi (हिन्दी) / Hungarian (magyar) / Icelandic ( Íslenska) / Irish (Gaeilge) / Italian (italiano) / Japanese (日本語) / Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) / Kazakh (Қазақ) / Korean (한국어) / Kyrgyz (Кыргыз) / Latvian (Latviešu) / Lithuanian ( Lietuvių) / Macedonian (Македонски) / Malayalam (മലയാളം) / Maltese (Malti) / Maori (Māori) / Marathi (मराठी) / Mongolian (Монгол) / Multilingual / Norwegian (Norsk) / Polish (Polski) / Portuguese (Português) / Punjabi (ਪਜਾਬੀ/पंजाबी) / Romanian (Română) / Russian (Русский) / Serbian (Српски) / Slovak (Slovenčina) / Slovenian (Slovenščina) / Spanish (español) / Swedish (svenska) / Syriac / Tamil (தமிழ்) / Tatar (Tatarça) / Telugu (తెలుగు) / Thai (ไทย) / Turkish (Türkçe) / Ukrainian (Українська) / Urdu (اردو) / Uzbek (Ўзбек) / Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt).

Congee recipe

Mad Minerva saw my congee crisis post, and sent me the following congee recipe. The sort of disconcerting thing is that they call it "Rice Congee Soup." That sounds so serious and formal--it doesn't have the same cute ring to it as "mixed congee." Plus, I like the canned congee that I get--it has a consistently delicious taste. One time someone made some for me, but it wasn't the same. I guess I'm pedestrian in my congee tastes.

Congee is called "jook," so maybe next time I should use that word when I confound the folks in Chinatown.

MM says, "Here's a recipe that's pretty close to mine (I like to stir-fry some paper-thin slices of ginger -- you can do this easily with a veggie peeler -- in a bit of oil in the pot first, then add the other ingredients. I don't use the random turkey wing, but do use chicken broth --low-sodium canned is OK -- for the liquid). I hear you can do the congee in a Crockpot too!"

9 cups water
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
2 teaspoons salt
1 fresh turkey wing (about 1 pound)
1 (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger (about 1/4 ounce)
Chopped green onions (optional)
Minced fresh parsley (optional)
Julienne-cut peeled fresh ginger (optional)
Low-sodium soy sauce (optional)

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 1/2 hours or until soup has a creamy consistency, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; keep warm.

Discard ginger piece. Remove turkey from soup; place on a cutting board or work surface. Cool 10 minutes. Remove skin from turkey; discard. Remove meat from bones; discard bones. Chop meat into bite-sized pieces, and stir meat into soup. Divide soup evenly among 6 bowls; garnish with green onions, parsley, julienne-cut ginger, and soy sauce, if desired.

MM continues: "Yup, ladle out the congee and pile on whatever toppings you want! We've done stir-fried veggies of all types, stir-fried meat of all kinds, etc. etc. Even quail eggs and straw mushrooms. Try with braised beef too with shiitake mushrooms. Yum!

"This recipe uses uncooked rice, but my family and I always make congee with whatever white jasmine we have left over from dinner the night before. If you start with cooked rice, you can basically cut the cooking time by about half. A great way to use up leftover rice if you're tired of recycling it by making fried rice (stillI know one restaurant in Taipei that makes 60 kinds of fried rice!)."

Thanks MM! Now can you share some of your brain power with me?

Mom

I talked before about how Thai people (or some, at least) laugh online: by using "5" because it is "ha" in Thai. So someone will say 555 to show laughter instead of what we do, which is "lol" (laugh out loud).

Well Austin (an interesting and nice guy who I actually know offline from my Japanese class) had another nifty idea: say "mom" when wanting to laugh online, because "haha" is mother in Japanese. So, if something is funny, instead of typing "lol," he might type "mom". The only problem is that he'll have to explain the whole thought process: how it started with a conversation about the Thai use of "ha" for 5 and how that led to the Japanese use of "ha ha", which all came from the need for an alternative to "lol."

I'm still not a fan of "lol"--it looks cumbersome.

Six years

I wrote about how teaching is degrading in Air in the Paragraph Line. I was going to do a post here about it, but since the theme of the latest issue is work, it gave me an opportunity to vent there, and to use many more words.

I pretty much quit pursuing teaching as a career in 2000 after an awful experience, but I occasionally taught a class or a private student once in a while. But 2000 was the last time I taught in a school. Well, I'm returning to teaching a class in a school on the southwest side of the city, and so far, things don't seem so bad. At least from an administration and co-worker standpoint. But I'll see next week when I step into the classroom.

One co-worker is totally into languages: he's from Iran, so he speaks Farsi and also speaks English totally fluently. I first met him in a Chinese class we briefly took, where he would write the Chinese words in phonetic Farsi. I remember looking at his notebook and asking him what the script was above the Chinese ones, and he said exitedly, "Farsi--it's easier to understand the pronunciation." Very cool, indeed. He could also say hello in several languages, and had a curiosity that is rare, especially in people his age (he's closer or beyond 60).

Recently, I saw him speaking with some Mexican people in Spanish, and when I asked him where he learned it, he said he learned it on the job--without any books. When I complimented him on his language abilities, he said "I love languages." Right on! I don't meet many people who enthusiastically say that.

Congee crisis!

I was in Bridgeport, so I decided to stop by Chinatown because it's not far north of there. I thought I'd run into the place where I can get lots of mixed congee, but I couldn't find it--stupidly. In the past, there was construction, so I could follow the detour signs until I ended up at that store, but it's in such a weird location, I got lost. So I ended up in the middle of Chinatown and I figured that there had to be some stores there that had mixed congee.

I went into some stores, and they had no idea what I was talking about. It says "congee" on the can--I thought that was odd. But I guess they only know the Chinese word[s], which is too long and tonal to remember. Store after store had none, but I finally reached one that had lots of it. I was, of course, very happy, told the owner I loved the stuff, and took four cans from the fridge. As I was about to pay for it, the owner stopped me and looked at the cans. Expired! The date was late December, but still, I didn't want to take a chance, and he wasn't about to sell bad congee. So that was it--I was so close, but couldn't acquire any, and I never did find the store I was originally looking for, even though it's really big and well-known. Or so I thought--when I asked people where it was, they either didn't understand me or didn't know its English name.

Basically, I don't know where the heck I can get mixed congee. I found a Japanese place that carried it, but when I returned to buy more, it was gone. Is there a mixed congee shortage? If there is, we need to tell them (especially Taisun in Taiwan) to step up production!

Learn Hebrew

My husband likes to study Hebrew in its various forms, and found a Learn Hebrew site that has audio files and a flashcard-type set up for different languages, including English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Dutch. There's only audio of the Hebrew words, but the written translations of the words are in those languages. Each "card" offers the Hebrew word, transliteration, and translation into whichever language you need. Simple but nifty site.