Chinese whispers

I was listening to a sermon (in English), and a woman behind me was whispering to her kid in Chinese, probably telling him to settle down. I've heard different languages before, so it didn't strike me as surprising that someone was speaking another language in a mostly English situation. However, it made me wonder about whispering in Chinese and other tonal languages.

English and lots of other languages are easy to whisper in because all we care about are the words that are being spoken, and it really doesn't matter how we're saying them because it's the words that matter, not the delivery (unless you're asking a question or are angry or whatever).

But whispering in a tonal language is a whole other issue, because the tones convey the meaning of the words. So was the mother shifting or flattening or de-emphasizing the tones as she was whispering, or was she just partially expressing the words, thus it was up to the kid to get the context? It seems that whispering would deaden the tones because they're not uttering sounds, just punctuated breaths.

I should ask someone, and I will--next week I'm going to ask a Chinese person if whispering in their language changes the sounds of the words, thus the clarity of the meaning. Or I can ask a Thai person--who I'm sure is freaked that there's been a coup there!

Star Trek hell

Today I heard Kira say, "What the hell" when she was wondering why DS9 had disappeared. Even though I'd seen that episode before, I hadn't really questioned her use of the word because various characters say it.

But when I heard it today, I had to wonder: why would a Bajoran say it? Their spiritual beliefs do not include the concept of hell, so if there's no cultural basis for it, then her language wouldn't contain it, either.

Then my mind got going: have any other aliens used it, or is it just Bajorans, or more specifically, just Kira? Could it be that she never speaks English but only speaks in her own language, and the Universal Translator is converting her own Bajoran-based word to an English approximation, which equals "hell"? Did the writers even consider this, or does this go into one of those nerdy lists of Star Trek discrepencies (which I'm sure exists somewhere)?

This is another layer that I have yet to explore in that series, which can easily be answered if I did some online research, but I'm not obsessed enough with the show to do that.

Counting chickens

Sometimes I'm tempted to "count my chickens before they hatch," which means that I'm planning for something that hasn't happened yet, and it may never happen. Like, "What if I get a really cool gig, then I'll be able to do this and that, and I'll have a great time, and then I'll meet someone else who will give me an even better gig," etc.

Well, after I thought about that idiom, I wondered where it came from, and was surprised to find out that it was from Aesop's fable The Milk-Woman and Her Pail:

A FARMER'S daughter was carrying her Pail of milk from the field to the farmhouse, when she fell a-musing. "The money for which this milk will be sold, will buy at least three hundred eggs. The eggs, allowing for all mishaps, will produce two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will become ready for the market when poultry will fetch the highest price, so that by the end of the year I shall have money enough from my share to buy a new gown. In this dress I will go to the Christmas parties, where all the young fellows will propose to me, but I will toss my head and refuse them every one." At this moment she tossed her head in unison with her thoughts, when down fell the milk pail to the ground, and all her imaginary schemes perished in a moment.

Not America

A couple of Brazilians are staying with me, and when I've talked about this country (in English), I've said "America" because that's what Japanese people and other Asians and folks from some other countries say. Then it dawned on me: in Portuguese it's "os Estados Unidos" or USA (pronounced "oosa"), not "America" because they're living in America Latina.

What's interesting is that the Brazilian Times calls itself "O jornal dos brasileiros nos Estados Unidos da America"--they've literally translated "United States of America" into "Estados Unidos da America."

Overall, though, avoiding the word "America" with Latin Americans isn't a politically correct decision but an obvious one, since they really are from America--just not the same kind of one Americans are from. Which reminds me that in Spanish, Americans are called "Americanos." Which really confuses the issue, actually, because the land mass "America" is huge, along with the variety of different regions of Americans.

But I'll still call myself an American, and adjust when necessary, depending on which language I'm trying to tackle.

Hebrew alphabet chart

Even though I studied Hebrew growing up (and eventually spoke it when I went to Israel, though now I can't even put two words together), I recently had a brain freeze on how to write some of the letters in cursive. So I found a good chart to help me. It's straightforward, and provides the pronunciation, print version, and cursive version of each letter, which is a lot more helpful than the typical charts that usually just have block letters.

Not undersold

Sometimes I hear the line, "We will not be undersold" to advertise a sale. For instance, I might hear an ad for a carpet store, and they'll say what types of carpets they have, the discounts, etc., then they will proudly declare: "We will not be undersold."

I've never really understand this statement. What does it mean, exactly? They want to get rid of their inventory, but why do they have to phrase it like that? It sounds like some kind of legalese. Do they think that we really care whether or not they'll be undersold? All we care about are good prices for quality products--it's the company's problem if they have to get rid of their products.

Maybe, a long time ago, someone once came up with that line and said, "That sounds Important--let's use it" and then other companies decided to say the same thing because they wanted to sound important, too.

Well, they're just selling stuff--they're declarations are not for posterity.

Remember

9/11 photo

noooooooooo!

I just had a very long day: I left at 7:30 am and got home at 9:30 pm. So I settled down, expecting to find some entertaining tv, when I saw that I had missed a fresh episode (at least in the U.S.) of the hot inspector. No! I can't believe it! I've become slack in my obsessive Lynley recording and/or watching (depending on if I'm around to see it "live" or have to tape it for later viewing). In the past, I would've sought out any important Lynley-related info and taped accordingly, but I missed it. Oh, the suffering we endure in our cushioned societies.

I just hope that some nutcase/evil people don't want to celebrate the 9/11 anniversary in some horrific way. :(

Loaf ward

I've been reading about the history of lords in England, which was sparked by yesterday's pondering, and saw that the word "lord" comes from an ancient compound:

hlaf weard, literally 'loaf ward'--the guardian of the stock of bread in a household. Since this was usually the master of the household, the word came to mean specifically that in Anglo-Saxon (in the somewhat reduced form hlaford). Hlaford was used by Christian missionaries to translate the Latin word for 'master'...

and the ancient word "[reflects] the Germanic tribal custom of a superior providing food for his followers."

I was also wondering how the Labour party deals with lords, and while I haven't fully come to understand how someone becomes a lord (besides inheritance of title), I did find out that in 1999 "The Labour government...banished the hereditary peers from the House of Lords."

That's some serious history-making! I wonder how the lords are dealing with it now?

Labour lords

I've been watching BBC Newsnight on C-SPAN, watching them talk about Tony Blair's resignation. It's weird to see them interviewing American politicians, but it's refreshing to not see all the bells and whistles that the American news has to put on to keep the attention of the masses.

There are some things I still don't get, which makes me realize that I have to read more about European history. I've been in the Asian scene for a while, and sometimes feel that I understand more about that area than Europe, since I haven't been fortunate enough to live over there or travel the Continent extensively.

I have to do some digging, or maybe someone out there can explain: why would Labour party members want to be called "Lord"? Isn't that title based on a privileged system of elite decisions? People don't earn the title, they're just given it, aren't they? And if Labour is for The People, as an MP said tonight, then are The People wondering why there are Labour Lords running around?

I guess it's one of those seeming contradictions based in a history that I have to better understand.

City shock

If I have to spend a lot of time in the suburbs for work or whatever, I sometimes get "city shock" when I go back home, especially if I have to take the "El" (what Chicagoans call the elevated train--there are trains that are just elevated and others that become subways, but for some reason, we call all of them "the El").

This is how city shock can occur: if I'm in a suburb that is far away from the city, where people mainly drive, and the streets can be easily navigated. If I spend some time driving in the 'burbs and then come back to the city, I have to weave through other cars, some that don't care about the rules of the road or with drivers that may not have licenses. Also, I may have to put on the brakes for various reasons, including guys pushing grocery carts in the streets or doors suddenly opening up, or folks sauntering against the light.

Another difference is customer service: especially in the 'burbs that are farther away from the city, the workers are nicer and simply do their job: there's not much emotional baggage because they don't have to wade through dank neighborhoods or stand in a crowded bus to get to work on time.

Also, the boony 'burbs are so clean and orderly, there really isn't much externally that can stress people out. All they have to do is wait for the traffic to move, and if they want to stop somewhere, they can just go into a number of strip malls, which are well-maintained.

Lately I've been spending a lot more time in the city, so there hasn't been much shock. But then I start to become nitpicky about stuff I see and hear. When I'm in the 'burbs, there's just a general wonderment about how people can live with such organization and not many surprises. But in the city, there's so much more to look at, the only way to process it is to attempt categorization.

Laborless day

Today was Labor Day, which was created in the 1880's as a "workingmen's holiday." But since a lot of people in different kinds of professions (not just industrial workers) have the day off, it should be called Labor-Free Day. It wasn't quite labor-free for me since I taught a class, but because it was a holiday, I stupidly forgot to finish up some stuff that's due (!) Which means that tomorrow will be filled with much labor to make up for my slackfulness. I could have also become lax because I've been preoccupied, wondering about some labor-related changes that will hopefully be coming my way, though it could just be another disappointment that can be stored with the rest of them.

Music I don't understand

Sometimes I prefer listening to college and independent radio because they play music that other stations don't--the playlists are up to the dj and the variety isn't predictable. Actually, if technology will ever allow us to run music from the internet directly in our cars, terrestrial radio is going to be in trouble.

Yesterday I was listening to a world music show and heard a lot of stuff from Zimbabwe, then music from Southeast Asia. It all sounded great, so I kept listening. I was making my way through the north side of Chicago, which has a lot of different kinds of ethnic neighborhoods, and then it hit me: what if the music I'm listening to has some bizarre lyrics? I thought about all the times I've listened to Indian music and Arabic music and Jamaican hip hop and other stuff, and I could be listening to a bunch of garbage. I remember hearing Cuban music, then watching the English subtitles on television, and realizing the music was all about admiring a woman's behind and wanting her. Great--that's really what I want to listen to [NOT]. So it made the interesting music raunchy and I just couldn't appreciate it anymore. One time, I was having dinner with a fluent Spanish-speaking friend of mine, and she was telling me what the Spanish hip hop that was playing in the background was all about. Not something that women would want to be subjected to, even though they put up with that trash all the time in English hip hop.

So I still appreciate music from different countries, but I can't help but wonder what they're really saying.

At this very moment

La Shawn tagged me to participate in a meme on how I feel right now:

1. Are you craving anything and if so, what?

I'm craving a change in my work situation.

2. What is the weather outside, and do you wish it would change?

The weather is perfect: cool, partly sunny, and comfortable--no need to change.

3. What two websites do you think you will go to next after you are finished here?

WordReference to use their French-English dictionary and Yahoo to check my mail.

4. Do you wish you were somewhere else and if so, where?

Yeah, I wish I was either traveling or at the radio station where I work part time.

5. Do you wish you were someone else, and if so, who?

I used to wish I was someone else, but at this point, I'm glad to be me. It's just the context I live in that is not so exciting. I've met some people who have really interesting lives, and I wouldn't mind being in a similiar situation as theirs.

Google as verb

Sometimes, it's illegal to make google a verb:

Google…has fired off a series of legal letters to media organisations, warning them against using its name as a verb...

Isn’t that a bit...uptight? Or does their legal team need something to keep them busy?

Google won a place in the Oxford English Dictionary, while "to google", with a lower case "g", was included last month in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

They should be glad they got into those esteemed dictionaries! And people often use their name, so it’s constant marketing. What’s next…arranging meetings with babies to tell them to stop saying "goo goo" incorrectly, in case their wails sound too much like "goo-gle"?

It’s the same dilemma that Kleenex and Band-Aid have had: people often call any type of nose-wiping tissue "kleenex", and bandages are often called "band-aids." I hardly remember what the proper name is for those things: Brits say "sticking plaster" (or just "plaster"?) and Americans say "adhesive bandage" (officially), though I’ve never heard anyone say that. We usually say "band-aid." Sorry, Johnson & Johnson. I don’t know how that spiraled out of control.

Interactive fiction

I used to think I'd become quite nerdy, but since I've never heard of Interactive Fiction before, I think I'm still on the non-nerd side.

Interactive fiction (IF) is a broad term. Strictly speaking, interactive fiction is anything in which you influence the outcome of a story, like continuous stories you can add to or those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books with their branching stories. But there is a more specialized meaning of interactive fiction...computer adventure games.

The first computer game was created more than 20 years ago. That means that folks who played them were really ahead of the rest of civilization since personal computers were in their infancy. Some of those guys have been playing for all those years--which means they are uber-nerds.

In general, computer adventure games are computer programs which tell you a story. In them you play a character in the story, and you move the story along through your actions. In many pieces of IF you have to solve puzzles to keep the story going, puzzles like "How do I open the locked door?" or "How can I get the bridle off the alpaca so I can return it to Barry?" In some games you also have to interact with non-player characters (NPCs) to keep the plot unfolding.

Because IF involves storytelling and puzzle-solving, it tends to emphasize thought over action...

So people using their minds to play games? Doesn't sound like they'd hang around MySpace too much. They've probably written the code for something that's way beyond it. Or they taught the founder of MySpace how to do it--while simultaneously writing the latest Mensa test.

IF comes in two flavors: graphic and text. Text adventures came first. Playing them is like reading a book in which you have to type commands to tell the protagonist what to do...Graphic adventures tell their stories through pictures rather than words.

There's an IF archive for text adventures. I tried going there, but it requires more brain power than I have room for.

Chat instantly

Here's a cute and portable chat program that doesn't require installation or downloading: Gabbly. All you have to do is paste 'gabbly.com/' in front of any URL and a chat window will pop up where you are--you can chat instantly. And if there are any spammers or obnoxious folks harassing you, you can "mute" them by clicking on their name.

Update: I have been using it to chat with a friend, and it's really great--we're across the country from each other but can chat in real time, as if there's no space between us. Gabbly also has an audio feature, though we haven't been using it. I've emailed other folks to participate, but they're too busy to jump in.

Fa'afafine

This is why I like to hang out with interesting people: my friend who lived in Samoa told me about fa'afafine:

In families of all male children (or where the only daughter was too young to assist with the 'women's' work), parents would often choose one or more of their sons to help the mother. Because these boys would perform tasks that were strictly the work of women they were raised as if they were female. Although their true gender was widely known, they would usually be dressed as girls.

As they grew older, their duties would not change. They would continue performing 'women's' work, even if they eventually married (which would be to a woman).

What's interesting about this cultural characteristic is that many cultures throughout the world are male-dominated, and women are treated more as objects or servants, but in Samoa, being a female is just another option.

Toby's done it again

I just finished reading Toby Young's latest book, The Sound of No Hands Clapping, and I highly recommend it. I really hope he writes more books like this.

I read his first book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, and the new book was just as good as his first, but I think the latest one is more tightly written. But neither of them are sloppy--I really didn't want them to end--how many books can you say that about?

Even though he's an upper class British dude who's successful and well-connected, I can relate to his struggles. I really don't have much in common with him, except procrastinating writing pursuits, wanting to creatively express myself, self-loathing, and trying to achieve my goals.

He's definitely one of the few famous people I want to meet.

Stuck in French

This is interesting: I've been translating French lately (sorry AP!--it's not technical or complicated), so I've been sort of French-oriented. Nothing big, I'm just eavesdropping on French people's conversations, paying attention to French words that have made it into English, trying to decifer the 19th century artists' words at the Art Institute.

But now I seem to have also made it into the French MySpace zone: yes, I have joined MySpace because my friend Jerry kept talking about it day after day, telling me to go to his page, giving me updates on how many friends he had acquired, who they were, and why they were interesting. And he kept telling me that I have to join, it's so incredible, blah blah. So I caved because he was so excited, I thought he'd die, and I didn't want to see that happen.

So if you want to see it, go to myspace.com/metrolingua. The thing is, I wandered over to the international section and chose "French" because I've been in a French state of mind, and now I see French everywhere, except for what I type because I can't write French.

Because of how I'm plugged in, I've even seen some French begging from the site: "Bienvenue! MySpace France est encore en développement (phase BETA). Tu as des commentaires ou suggestions? Clique ici. Merci :-) !"

It makes me feel special because they could care less about all those English users enough to beg, and I'm not one of the masses. Well, I am, but I'm not like the other dopes on there.

Maybe I should maintain it in a non-English language to avoid the friend requests from weirdos and creeps that MySpace seems to have an abundance of.