Entries tagged with "language"
It's the opposite of watermelon
posted by srah on February 11, 2008 11:02 PM
Tags: arabic, in arabic, language
"You know, the root of the word Miller is a Greek word. Miller come from the Greek word 'milo,' which is mean 'apple,' so there you go. As many of you know, our name, Portokalos, is come from the Greek word 'portokali,' which mean 'orange.' So, okay? Here tonight, we have, ah, apple and orange. We all different, but in the end, we all fruit."- My Big Fat Greek Wedding We have, partway through the fourth semester of Arabic, finally begun learning vocabulary about things like colors and clothing and foods. This comes after our exciting chapters with themes like...
Don't need no hateration, hypenatin' in this dancery
posted by srah on December 6, 2007 5:03 PM
I recently read this New York Times article about name-changing after marriage (I especially liked the anecdote¹ about the couple who played a softball game - his family vs her family - for naming rights to the family). I read the readers' comments afterwards and now I mostly just want to exterminate all human life on earth. It drove me up the wall that so many people were advocating for people to hypenate their names. Actually, it annoyed me an equal amount when people complained about hypenating names. I have never hypenated anything in my life. This is because (no...
I haven't used my French in about three years! (mercredi)
posted by srah on June 27, 2007 9:46 PM
Tags: in french, language, language week, memes
Alors, on est mercredi, le "hump day" de la Semaine des Langues. Je me suis habillée en pyjama, sur le sofa, et je vais écrire aujourd'hui en français, une langue qui est beaucoup plus facile pour moi que l'arabe ou même l'español. C'est cool et relaxe. (J'adore le fait qu'en français, "relaxe" soit un adjectif.) Mais voilà le problème: en arabe, je peux discuter le temps et l'éducation. En español je peux commander les margaritas et les tacos (c'était très difficile là-bas de ne pas écrire "les margaritas y los tacos") et "pedir direcciones" et c'est à peu près tout....
Good Morning Internet!
posted by srah on June 24, 2007 5:51 PM
Tags: in spanish, language, language week, memes, ship, spanish, travel
Or rather, good evening. But I've been so lazy today it might as well be the morning for all that I've gotten done. Anyway, I'm back in the USSR. Photos from my voyage can be found here and videos of fascinating things like whales spouting and cliff divers cliff-diving can be found here. Now I must go and prepare for Language Week! All this time in Mexico and in on-ship Spanish classes has inspired me not to devote the entire week to Arabic. Soy hispanohablante, yo! Por el momento. Hasta que yo olvido todo mi español¹. Ha! What I love...
Curses! Foiled again!
posted by srah on April 3, 2007 5:54 PM
Tags: language, pet peeves, words
Current pet peeve: foliage SYLLABICATION: fo·li·age NOUN: 1a. Plant leaves, especially tree leaves, considered as a group. b. A cluster of leaves. 2. An ornamental representation of leaves, stems, and flowers, especially in architecture. ETYMOLOGY: Alteration (influenced by Latin folium, leaf) of Middle English foilage, from Old French foillage, from foille, leaf. Unless you can prove to me that you are Geoffrey Chaucer, please stop pronouncing this as FOIL·uj. Fortunately this is not a word I have to hear every day! If I worked in a nursery, I would probably have to kill someone....
Yankee go home!
posted by srah on September 26, 2006 5:27 PM
Tags: arabic, in arabic, language
In my Arabic class right now we are working on how to say "I am from ___" and "Where are you from?" We started out going around the room and saying "أنا من Ann Arbor", etc., but now that we're learning how to say and spell the names of places in Arabic (including the ever useful ويتشتا, or Wichita), we have all been assigned a country and city that we are to pretend to be from, from now on. And where am I from? Mouse over for the translation! أنا من بغداد في العراق...
Now for the tea of our host!
posted by srah on September 18, 2006 12:29 PM
Tags: arabic, in arabic, language, tea
Today I learned a word that will increase my survival-potential significantly if I am ever plonked down in an Arabophone country: شاي (tea) All I need to learn now is "please" and "thank you" and I'll be all set to get on a plane and go!...
The pen is mightier
posted by srah on September 14, 2006 12:43 PM
Tags: arabic, boys, in arabic, language
The latest news from my Arabic class is that I got my HIGHEST STEPCOUNT DAY EVER yesterday. Wait, no, that's not related. But I did. The latest news from my Arabic class is that I have a crush on the "calligraphy professor" who lives in our textbook's accompanying DVDs. He's a scholarly, bespectacled type, who knows how to wield a pen. Ah, how I love a man with stylish writing implements! Yes, I am insane. As we learn to connect more letters, I am learning more and more words that can be made out of those letters. So now I...
Me write pretty one day
posted by srah on August 29, 2006 12:17 PM
Tags: arabic, in arabic, language
An update of my ongoing progress in Arabic class: We are learning spoken greetings and progressing well with learning the written alphabet, and soon we will start putting the letters together into words and changing their shapes as we do so. We are starting with the six "one-way connecting letters", which don't connect to each other at all - they just sit next to each other and don't change shape. As a result, I can now put those letters together in the following exciting words: راد (house) داو (valley) راز (visit) دود (worms) Come راز my راد in the داو!...
!sت gnipyt m'I
posted by srah on August 23, 2006 6:42 PM
Tags: arabic, in arabic, language
I started my Arabic class on Tuesday and tonight's homework is to practice writing the alphabet, copying each letter over and over again for two lines. For the life of me I cannot write ت without making it look like I'm drawing lines and lines of happy faces. It's the "teh" sound! And it's happy teh see you! Teh heh heh!...
Je me noie dans le talent
posted by srah on July 28, 2006 2:38 PM
Tags: alfie, birthday, in french, language, language week, memes, song, srahfam
Joyeux anniversaire, Tu n'es pas mon frère, Je ne vais pas te voir aujourd'hui mais j'espère que tu n'es pas en colère, Joyeux anniversaire! (Ben... c'est pas pire que les autres...) (translation in the extended entry)...
Ceci n'est pas un article de jeudi
posted by srah on July 28, 2006 6:27 AM
Tags: in french, language, language week, memes
(see extended post for translation)...
Jedi Poo-doo!
posted by srah on July 26, 2006 9:57 PM
Tags: in french, language, language week, memes, movies, star wars, star wars: return of the jedi
Mince! J'ai failli oublier la Semaine des Langues aujourd'hui! Ce soir j'ai fait du chili végétarien à la srah. Ça consisite des tomates, des haricots rouges, des champignons, des épices, et beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup d'oignons. C'est quelque chose que j'ai inventé en France quand j'avais peur de cuisiner de la viande. Ça répresente toutes les groupes alimentaires: les proteines, les fruits... et beaucoup beacoup beaucoup d'oignons. J'adore les oignons! Alors, je n'avais pas de projets pour bloguer au suject de mon chili - je voulais écrire sur Le Retour du Jedi¹. Les seules personnages au palais de Jabba qui parlent...
Aux langues, les citoyens!
posted by srah on July 25, 2006 7:14 PM
Tags: arabic, french, in french, language, language week, memes
Je pense que je vous ai dit que je vais commencer à étudier l'arabe en automne. J'ai déjà rencontré le prof; il paraît très sympa et ça m'interesse beaucoup d'étudier le Moyen-Orient et le monde arabophone¹ et de mieux comprendre ces cultures-là. Mais c'est la langue qui me fait peur! Tout le monde m'a dit que l'arabe est très très très difficile et qu'il va me falloir dix ans pour le parler couramment. Ah bon? Il m'a fallu à peu près neuf ans pour parler couramment le français (une langue qui est beaucoup plus proche de l'anglais), alors je suppose...
Projets de voyage (et de travail)
posted by srah on July 24, 2006 3:24 PM
Tags: in french, language, language week, memes, travel, work
En mars je suis allée en Israël pour visiter les universités là-bas qui acceuillent les étudiants étrangers. En mai c'était Montréal, où je suis allée assister à une conférence sur l'éducation internationale. Ce mois je vais voyager à travers le ouest des États-Unis, vers Seattle. J'irai en Angleterre et en Irlande en Octobre pour une autre visite aux centres d'études étrangers. On a parlé un peu d'un voyage en Inde en décembre pour assister au mariage de Sylvie (mais avec mes finances ça ne va peut-être pas être possible... on verra...). Il va peut-être y avoir une autre visite au...
Behold: Language Week 4 (Electric Borgalor)
posted by srah on July 14, 2006 12:40 PM
Tags: language, language week, memes
I hereby decree that Language Week 2006 will be held July 24-28, 2006, because I will be in town that week. It would be nice if I could nail Language Week down to the same time every year, but this has never been the case. Such is the brilliant unpredictability of Language Week! Or rather, and more accurately, such is my forgetfulness. The rules of Language Week are as follows: You do not talk about Language Week.You do not talk about Language Week.There are no rules.Well, okay, there are a couple of rules but they're not very strict.Blog in a...
Adventures in francophonie
posted by srah on May 24, 2006 6:31 PM
Tags: french, language, montreal, travel
Montreal is awesome. I am doing better than expected with speaking French - instead of avoiding French altogether I string together these mangled franglais thoughts in my mind and occasionally spew them out to whoever my victim is. Example: Shuttle driver with French-Canadian accent: Which hotel are you going to? Me: Le Fairmont Reine Elizabeth¹. SDWFCA: Fairmont Reine Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth? Me: Oui. Yes. SDWFCA: Vous parlez français? You speak English? Me: (stammers) Oui. Yes. Les deux. Both. Je parle... I speak, yeah. So yeah, that was clear. And efficient. Let's speak both languages at once! And translate for ourselves!...
Parlez-vous quebecois?
posted by srah on May 20, 2006 12:24 PM
Tags: french, language, montreal, quebec, travel
No, not so much. I am off to the Great White North on Tuesday for a conference followed by some Staying Around and Sightseeing. Youpi! So far I have made all of my Montreal hotel reservations in English. I am a-feared of the Quebecois French. I'm afraid of all their funny ways of saying things and their different accent and their reputation for looking down on French-from-France and for speaking perfect accentless English to people who try to speak French to them. I was telling someone at dinner that I might just chicken out and try to pass myself off...
Vendredi
posted by srah on July 8, 2005 1:06 PM
Tags: french, language, language week, memes
Vendredi, enfin! Cette Semaine de Langues a été très populaire et je vous remercie d'avoir participé: AnP, Armin, Christina, Elemmaciltur, In Actual Fact, J, Jamie, Jen, Katie, Marisa, Noor, Patricia, Renee, Scott et Stuart. (Écrivez-moi si j'ai oublié quelqu'un!) Et je voudrais remercier aussi quelqu'un qui m'a beaucoup aidé et m'a soutenu cette semaine: [Read the extended entry for English translation; click the Language Week icon for an explanation]...
Jeudi
posted by srah on July 8, 2005 12:11 AM
Tags: arabic, french, in french, language, language week, memes
J'ai passé toute la journée à regarder les nouvelles de Londres à la télé (même s'il n'y avait pas vraiment de nouvelles, parce que rien n'a changé depuis le matin londonien!) et le résultat, c'est que j'ai oublié d'écrire l'article de jeudi. Alors le voilà, très tôt vendredi matin. Comme j'ai dit hier, je suis allée à la bibliothèque pour chercher un dictionnaire espagnol-anglais. Ce que je n'ai pas dit, c'est lorsque j'étais là, devant les livres et les cassettes de langues étrangères, j'ai pris le décision d'étudier une autre langue. J'ai tenté d'apprendre des langues plusieurs fois dans ma...
Miércoles
posted by srah on July 6, 2005 5:52 PM
Tags: in spanish, language, language week, memes, spanish
Bueno. ¡Mi español es aun peor que mi francés, entonces perdonenme, por favor! Hoy día fui a la biblioteca para buscar un diccionario español-inglés. Hace dos años que perdí mi mismo diccionario. ¡Es difícil, escribir en español con diccionario, porque no sé buscar las palabras! Empezé a aprender el español cuando estaba en Francia por primera vez y compré un libro para "Apprendre l'espagnol en 30 leçons" o algo como eso. Así, aprendí un poco de español en Francia. Después, regresé en los Estados Unidos y estudié el español en la universidad durante un año. ¡Después, regresé en Francia y...
Mardi
posted by srah on July 5, 2005 5:00 PM
Tags: food, french, in french, language, language week, memes
Punaise, que je suis nulle! Je viens de decouvrir que j'avais supprimé le fil RSS de Kim de mon agrégateur sans me rendre compte. Ça explique, un peu, pourquoi je n'ai pas eu de nouvelles de sa part depuis quelques semaines (je dépend des fils RSS!). Craints pas, cherie! Je t'ai rajouté et j'ai ajouté le fil de from rooster to donkey en plus. Alors, c'est assez difficile de bloguer tous les jours en anglais et c'est même plus difficile en langue étrangère. Mais aujourd'hui c'est Kim qui est mon sauveur (ma sauveuse?), parce qu'elle m'a transmis une mème en...
Lundi
posted by srah on July 4, 2005 6:46 PM
Tags: 1776, fourth of july, french, holidays, in french, language, language week, memes, movies
(Voilà le début de la Semaine des Langues chez srah blah blah. Je vois qu'il y a, déjà, beaucoup plus de participants que la dernière fois et je vous remercie! Parmi ces participants: Anyhoo, Armin, christina, Elemmaciltur, in actual fact, J, Jamie, katie, Marisa, patricia, Renee et Stuart) Alors, aujourd'hui on est le 4 juillet, la fête nationale des États-Unis. Notre famille vient de visionner 1776, l'un de nos films préférés, et ce qui est devenu une activité traditionnelle pour fêter le 4 juillet chez nous. L'été dernière j'étais en France et j'ai passé la plupart de notre fête nationale...
Language Week Three: Electric Beagle-ey
posted by srah on June 28, 2005 6:28 PM
Tags: language, language week, memes
It's that time of year again... LANGUAGE WEEK III July 4 - 8, 2005 There are rules!: Blog in a language that you don't usually blog in. You don't have to blog a lot if you don't want to - a few sentences will do, as long as you continue, once a day, through the week (or at least Monday to Friday). You can blog in one foreign language for five days, you can blog in five different languages or you can find some medium between the two. What the hell. If you only want to blog in Swedish once...
It happens sometimes...
posted by srah on June 17, 2005 3:08 PM
Tags: language
Sweet overuse! The word "milk" has now lost all meaning for me....
On thought and language... I guess
posted by srah on March 14, 2005 5:03 PM
In French, herbal tea is a tisane, whereas real tea is thé. I like that they have two different words for it, because herbal tea is for suckahs and when you're really desperate. It seems like by having two words, there would be less confusion and you could more easily express the idea that you want REAL TEA as opposed to herbal. Unfortunately, in my experience it doesn't make things any easier because a tisane is usually still considered a kind of thé. I don't know what my point was... probably something about Sapir/Whorf and cultural understanding across languages. But...
'Y yo, aprendí el espagnol en France con estudiantes francéses que no pueden prononcer les 'r's.'*
posted by srah on February 15, 2005 9:19 AM
Tags: language
There is an international internship program conducting interviews at my office this week. Most of the interviews are carried out in the language of the internship and I sat in on one, so now the director of the program keeps chattering away at me in French whenever he sees me. I've been thinking in French and speaking French to myself today. French is like a drug and I'm hooked on it again. I love language because you can use it from day one. There is nothing useless in language** so there's nothing for me to get bored with. There's nothing...
Fin de semaine linguistique
posted by srah on September 6, 2004 12:37 PM
Tags: language, language week, memes
Thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated in Language Week, most of whom did much better than I did: Stuart, Jez, pea, Armin and Annica. See you again in another 14 months or so?...
Semaine Linguistique 2,5?
posted by srah on September 3, 2004 2:45 PM
Tags: in french, language, language week, memes
I am the worst founder of Language Week ever! Je suis la pire fondatrice de la Semaine Linguistique!</half-assed attempt to use foreign language>...
Language Week 2,2
posted by srah on August 31, 2004 11:11 PM
Tags: french, in french, language, language week, memes
Thanks to Jez, Stuart and pea for participating! If you're playing along in your blog, please let me know! Une experience intéressante... j'ai écrit l'article en anglais, et puis je l'ai traduit en français lors de son enregistrement. Vous pouvez écouter cet article (j'ai dit 'poste' dans l'enregistrement, parce que je n'avais pas encore cherché la traduction) en français, et puis le lire en anglais dans l'entrée étendue*. ––––– * Note to manager of the Multilingual Bloglossary: Why is it an "article" but an "entrée" étendue?...
Primero mensaje
posted by srah on August 30, 2004 10:53 AM
Tags: in spanish, language, language week, memes, spanish
Bueno. Es de nuevo La Semana de los Idiomas y hace dos años desde la última vez que aprendí el castellano. No hay mucho necesidad para el español en Michigan o en Francia. El padre del Pato es en los Estados Unidos por el momento para visitar su hijo y no habla mucho inglés, entonces quizás voy a necessitar hablarlo este fin de semana. Si no necessito el español solamente para entender el Jezito, que me habla tal vez en el español Canario, lo que no entendería incluso si había estudiado el español recientemente. (All words and phrases in italics...
Language Week 2
posted by srah on August 26, 2004 9:42 AM
Tags: language, language week, memes
A repeat of Language Week has been requested and shall be granted. Yes, I know it happened in June last year, but I'm in charge and I say it happens in August this year. Ah, power! So I bring you: LANGUAGE WEEK 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO August 30 - September 5, 2004 Here be ze rhools: Blog in a language that you don't usually blog in. You don't have to blog a lot if you don't want to - a few sentences will do, as long as you continue, once a day, through the week (or at least Monday to Friday)....
Faites la queue, s'il vous plait...
posted by srah on August 12, 2004 3:54 PM
Tags: language
Jez picked me up at London Stansted airport today and drove me all the way up to his home in North Yorkshire. It wasn't terribly scenic, as we were on the main north-south motorway, so mostly we saw cars and signs. Signs, however, can be considered scenic... We passed a lot of signs suggesting that there could be traffic-backups ahead. POSSIBLE QUEUES AHEAD, read the signs. Ahem. We are a mature human being. We will not think of our blog. We will not giggle and titter. POSSIBLE QUEUES AHEAD, repeated the signs. Ahem. Renewed attempts to be mature and culturally...
La mondo kiel baron al komunikado kaj evoluigo Por la Esperantokomunumo
posted by srah on November 13, 2003 6:57 PM
Tags: language
Languagehat linked to ungreek, a site that provides greeked text (gibberish used in designs to fill in space where text is supposed to go later). One of the greeked text options they give is the Esperantists' Manifesto. My eye happened to fall on the line: Cxiu lingvo liberigas kaj malliberigas siajn anojn donante al ili la povon. I can almost read it. As far as I can guess, it says "Each language liberates... giving to them the power." I don't know who's being liberated, but I wonder if "malliberigas" is related to "malchicks", which meant young men or people or...
'What do you call the game wherein the participants see who can throw a knife closest to the other person?'
posted by srah on October 26, 2003 9:40 AM
Tags: language, michigan, united states
I call that out-of-state crackheads. What the hell kind of game is that? In Michigan, we say "pop" for sweetened carbonated beverages like Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, root beer, etc. We also say "Flore-i-da", "cray-ahn", "flurr-ish", and "groshery", pronounce "Mary", "merry" and "marry" the same and pronounce the I in "cauliflower" like the I in "sit". We say "tennis shoes", "roly-poly", "kitty-corner", "oil and vinegar", "by accident", "mow the lawn", "basement", "drinking fountain" and "goose bumps". I am somehow a mutant for my state, though, and say neither "car-ml" nor "carra-mel", but rather "care-a-ml". [via ASquared Airbeagle]...
'My uncle thought he was St Jerome'
posted by srah on September 30, 2003 10:08 PM
Tags: holidays, language, librarydom, school of information
"What Jerome is ignorant of, no man has ever known." - St Augustine Today is the saint's day of St Jerome, patron saint not only of translators, but also of librarians, archivists and libraries. I am totally naming all of my children Jérôme. [via languagehat]...
Stick a feather in my cap and call me macaronic
posted by srah on August 23, 2003 12:16 PM
Tags: language
Languagehat has a post about my new favorite verse style and word: macaronic. Modern examples cited in the comments include Lady Marmalade, Michelle and some of the work of Leonard Cohen. I would add Côté banjo, côté violon, For me, Formidable and (my favorite) It is not because you are. What are your favorites?...
Nous serons des reines! Fichues reines d'âne d'enfer!
posted by srah on July 29, 2003 5:09 PM
Tags: language
I've installed a wee translation thingy in the right column. Do you think it's really worth it when it comes out with things like: The walk of Ye' ll the board, the scurvy of ye continues! For anniversary S to celebrate Becky ', we went to re-examine pirates of the Caribbean. By observing all the appropriations love a true member of my family, I found my to call: pirate the trainer of dialect. Not a trainer of dialect for pirates in films, naturally, nor the trainer of dialect for the pirates of Pittsburgh. I will sail the seven seas, teacher...
Serious linguistic discussion between serious linguists
posted by srah on July 25, 2003 7:15 PM
Tags: language
Jez and I were IMing about important and useful phrases to learn before travelling abroad. We came up with the following. Don't say I never taught you anything. Felmelegítené ezt a cuclisüveget? Kann ich ein Opernglas ausleiben? Godmorgen, mit navn er - Hvadbehager? - mit navn er - Hvadbehager? - Mit navn er... Slim Shady....
To speak, or not to speak?
posted by srah on July 22, 2003 5:54 PM
When Robin and I bought crêpes at Art Fair, the fellow making the crêpes had a French accent. I wanted to speak French to him, but I couldn't think of anything to say. Afterwards, I told my mother how I was kicking myself for having said nothing and my mom was disappointed. She thinks that I should use my powers for good whenever I have the chance. I think she fears that if I don't get into the practice of using them for good, I'll turn to evil. No one wants to be Lex Luthor's mom. I myself was disappointed...
Al fin de la semana de los idiomas
posted by srah on July 5, 2003 11:58 AM
Tags: language, language week, memes
Thanks to everyone who participated in Language Week, including: Ain't It Cruel?, annicapannika blog, Beatniksalad, Blethers.com, Jezblog, Ministry of Propaganda, monochromatic girl, So Joyful!, and What You Can Get Away With. Hope I haven't forgotten anyone - let me know if I have! Perhaps we'll have to try it again next year. I'll let you know then....
Language Week: Friday
posted by srah on July 5, 2003 11:27 AM
Tags: assistantship, french, in french, language, language week, memes
(Except posted on Saturday, because we were having Severe Thunderstorm Warnings and a National Holiday on Friday.) Bon, ben, voilà, je suis trop paresseuse pour écrire en espagnol, même si j'ai inventé cette semaine pour pratiquer cette langue-là. C'est trop difficile sans dictionnaire, et je n'ai pas très envie de chercher chaque mot sur Babelfish. Je suis très heureuse d'avoir réçu un mél d'Agnès, qui m'a dit que les résultats des examens finaux au lycée ont été affichés et qu'elle me les a envoyés. En travaillant en France, ça m'a choqué que là-bas, les résultats des examens sont affichés, sont...
Language Week: Thursday
posted by srah on July 3, 2003 6:22 PM
Tags: in spanish, language, language week, memes
Hoy llevo calcetines con monos. No manos, monos. Calcetines con manos no existen. He tenido calcetines con dedos de pie, y no me gustan. No son muy cómodos. No me gusta la sensación de tener algo entre mis dedos de pie. Bloguo [gracias Jez!] cosas muy importante en español. Bueno... no es mejor en inglés....
Language Week: Wednesday
posted by srah on July 2, 2003 7:12 PM
Tags: french, in french, in spanish, language, language week, memes, music
No tengo muchas cosas que decir en español, y no tengo más vocabulario en chino, entonces hoy voy a escribir en el idioma francés, lo que conozco bien porque lo he estudiado desde la media de mi vida. J'aime bien la chanson Mon fils, ma bataille de Daniel Balavoine. C'est une chanson qui parle d'un père divorcé qui risque de perdre son fils, comme dans le film Kramer vs. Kramer. Mais ce qui me gène, c'est le refrain, qui raconte « Je vais tout casser/ si vous touchez/ aux fruits de mes entrailles/ fallait pas qu'elle s'en aille ». En...
Drie scheuren in het fudament der Gereformeerde waarheid
posted by srah on July 1, 2003 11:35 AM
Tags: accents, dutch, french, language, spanish
I read a Dutch card-catalogue card out loud to my mother, who told me I sounded like I was speaking French. I realized my mistake and changed my Rs from the voiced uvular fricative to flapped ones (language nerd! language nerd!), and felt like I was speaking Spanish. I read Spanish with a French accent, Dutch with a Spanish one, and French with a strange one that no one can identify, but definitely sounds foreign. I strive to be a mutant in all languages....
Language Week: Tuesday
posted by srah on July 1, 2003 11:03 AM
Tags: in chinese, language, language week, memes
Ni-men hao! Ni-men hao ma? Wo hen hao, xiexie. Wo shi zai tushuguan. Wo shi meiguo xuesheng. Wo xue faguoren. Wo bu he pijiu. Wo yo meimei. As you can probably tell, my Mandarin Chinese has suffered great losses since I took a semester of it, in the fall of 1999. I, myself, have suffered the great loss of my Chinese textbook (where are all of my language books disappearing to? There is some kind of vortex in my room, sucking them in), so I can't even check to see if what little I remembered is correct....
Language Week begins
posted by srah on June 30, 2003 7:59 AM
Tags: in spanish, language, language week, memes
Quiero comenzar, pero he perdido mi diccionario español-inglés, lo que es un problema, porque no tengo mucho vocabulario y olvido siempre donde van los acentes. ¿Que voy a hacer? Je ne sais pas. Voy a 'cheat' con Babelfish. No me gusta Babelfish. Mi colega me dijo que es un website que traduce muy bien y que debo tratarlo para ayudarme con mis traducciones. HA! Bueno. Hoy, no voy a estar cerca de un ordenador, porque voy a trabajar con mis manos, porque soy muy FUERTE! ARRRR! No, no es la verdad. Voy a trabajar con mis manos porque voy a...
The birth of Language Week
posted by srah on June 27, 2003 9:53 PM
Tags: language, language week, memes
There may already be a Language Week on the calendar somewhere; I don't know. All I know is that my Spanish needs practice. So I'm going to declare next week (June 29 - July 5)... Language Week. This is a departure from my original idea of una semana española, because - surprise of surprises - not everyone speaks Spanish. And I think it would be fun if everyone could participate. So. Here are the rules of participation: Blog in a language that you don't usually blog in. You don't have to blog a lot if you don't want to -...
Lost in translation
posted by srah on June 19, 2003 9:23 AM
Okay, so one of the main reasons I took this job again this summer was that I would actually get to use some of my skills by doing some English-French translating. And now I've got a document to translate. And now I'm scared. I never realized it, and it may not seem like it, but translating is stressful work. You're putting words in someone else's mouth. You may make them say something they didn't mean, or you may make them sound like a five-year-old, or you may make them completely incomprehensible. I fear that I am being trusted where I...
*srah ducks the flying jealous blows*
posted by srah on June 17, 2003 10:42 AM
Due to great controversy and confusion over my weight yesterday, I hopped on the scale for the first time in over a year. The verdict: 101 lbs. Perhaps I ought to go to the gym with Robin and Becky, and put on some muscle-weight. I find it interesting that the British money and the weight are both called "pounds" but are abbreviated £ and lbs., respectively. I don't know where the word "pound" comes from, but I bet the £ and lbs. come from the same source as their French translation, livre, and the zodiacal sign Libra, the scales (for...
Köszönöm and all that jazz
posted by srah on June 2, 2003 4:22 PM
Tags: chicago, language, movies
In case you were wondering, as I was, what the heck the foreign murderess is saying in Chicago, IMDb has the answer: "Mit keresek én itt? Azt mondják, a híres lakóm lefogta a férjem, én meg lecsaptam a fejét. De nem igaz. Én ártatlan vagyok. Nem tudom, miért mondja Uncle Sam, hogy én tettem. Próbáltam a rendõrségen megmagyarázni, de nem értették meg." which means: "What am I doing here? They say my famous tenant held down my husband and I chopped his head off. But it's not true. I am innocent. I don't know why Uncle Sam says I did...
Quiero mas hispanophones
posted by srah on May 15, 2003 4:25 PM
Tags: assistantship, language, spanish
I guess I was mentally prepared from last time for people not to understand me in French. My problem now is that no one understands me in French or in Spanish. It's frustrating when I say "Quiero una zanahoria" and Cheryl doesn't understand that I want a carrot. I am a mutant to come back from France speaking Spanish, but everyone in Vichy spoke some Spanish or could be taught....
Olé encore!
posted by srah on April 28, 2003 7:09 PM
Tags: belgium, language, tea, travel
Belgian thee met melk report: level three. The milk was forgotten by the server, and there were lemon slices on my saucer. This merits a ranking about equal to that of the United States. Of course I am basing it on one experience and I don't know if the results would be any different in Bruxelles or Wallonie. Did you notice that "tea with milk" is one of the few Dutch words/phrases I've picked up? Dank u wel for noticing; yes, I am an addict....
Citrus facts
posted by srah on April 28, 2003 6:57 PM
As you may know, Citroën is a maker of French automobiles. What you may not know is that citroen is the Dutch word for lemon. In other interesting related news, the Dutch word for orange apparently translates as "sinus apple". Yum....
Thoughts from the train
posted by srah on April 28, 2003 11:03 AM
Tags: language
I bet a Dutch person who learned English in Scotland would hae a really interesting accent. If such an animal exists, make yourself known. I am going to marry you. I prefer the Flemish Brugge to the French Bruges and Antwerpen to Anvers, but the French Ypres and Bruxelles to Ieper and Brussel. I am constantly convinced that if I concentrate hard enough, I can understand spoken Flemish. I can't, but something about the tones of the language makes it feel like I should. I do understand some written Flemish, but I invariably translate it into ridiculous pidgin English. Thus...
The guilt of the anglophone
posted by srah on April 28, 2003 6:03 AM
Tags: belgium, language, travel
I feel a bit confused and vulnerable and guilty speaking English to everyone here; I could pretend to be a francophone, but in most cases I assume English would be their second language and French only third. The most frustrating thing to me is that I don't know how to say "I'm sorry", something I want to say to everyone to apologize for my raging anglophony....
"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
posted by srah on April 27, 2003 7:11 PM
Tags: belgium, flemish, french, language
Belgium is a fascinating place. I may have a skewed impression, considering my hosts are Flemish, but it seems that the French-speaking minority forces the Flemish-speaking majority to submit to their language when the conflict comes up, and the multilingual flamands give in. Now I get to represent two overbearing, aggressive languages here in the the Flemish town of Antwerp, when I try to me débrouiller alone in town....
I'm so Belgium
posted by srah on April 27, 2003 6:53 PM
Tags: alcohol, language, travel
We went out for a beer tonight after I arrived. Thankfully Christianna knows what I like and ordered for me, because I am in The Land of Beer, and I am a stranger in the aforementioned land. The place we went had a selection of one hundred different beers. I will abstain, however, from commenting on their musical atmosphere, as the songs over the course of the evening included "Love Cats". We went out with Christianna's friends, all of whom speak impeccable English. Damned polyglot Belgians. When they weren't speaking English, they would throw in phrases of Flemish, the Belgian...
Linguist lost
posted by srah on April 27, 2003 1:07 PM
As you may know, I have yet to travel to a country where I don't speak the language. Hearing train announcements in Dutch panics me a bit because I don't understand anything. Not the same I don't understand anything I felt in Chile, where I could at least pick out words and general meanings of sentences, but a complete lack of comprehension. And here I am, going to visit the Flemish Christianna and her nederlandophone friends. What am I getting myself into?...
Subtitles ahoy!
posted by srah on April 27, 2003 12:57 PM
Tags: assistantship, france, language, nice people, tv
Sophie and I are hoping that the Nice People will get frustrated with their shortcomings in French (the presenters are already making fun of them for misgendering things and saying someone has nice horses instead of hair) and revert to English, a language they have probably all been studying for longer and know better. Not because we are great fans of English or Watching Subtitled TV or anything, but just because all that extra subtitling work would somehow teach TF1 a lesson. Live broadcasts will be interesting, if they find several languages to communicate in. Translators, start your typing! I...
La question que tout le monde se pose
posted by srah on April 26, 2003 6:09 PM
Tags: assistantship, belgium, language, nice people, tv
The damned Belgian on Nice People speaks five languages. The damned Belgian I'm visiting tomorrow speaks at least six. Why was I not born in Belgium? Sophie and I are both disappointed that our parents aren't foreign, as this would have given us a fine linguistic head-start. Being Belgian or Luxembourgeois wouldn't have hurt, either....
Quiero té
posted by srah on April 26, 2003 1:12 PM
Tags: in spanish, language, spanish
It throws me off that in Spanish, the verb querer can mean either want (as in Yo quiero Taco Bell... sorry I couldn't come up with a better example) or love (as in Te quiero), two ideas that are very different to me in English. I can see how in cases of romantic love the two could overlap, but it shocks me sometimes when I translate into English in my head and find someone saying that he wants his mother a lot. Goes to show you you shouldn't translate things into English in your head, I guess....
Shortbread depresses me
posted by srah on April 22, 2003 4:23 AM
Tags: assistantship, france, language
When I lived in Grenoble, I never stopped being amused by France and the French and Europe in general. I think the difference is that I have accepted and adapted to a lot more this time, rather than being amused and staying on the surface. I lived with things and was amused by them in Grenoble, but went back to my "normal" life in the USA afterwards. Now it feels like this is the normal life and I will actually have to readjust to my own country. My concern is that I will find it boring and bland and will...
In case you were wondering...
posted by srah on April 17, 2003 9:49 AM
The English and French equivalents of to suave up/suaver were invented on the way home from Thiers. They are, respectively, to englarm/englarmer and to fratouille/fratouiller. Use them at your discretion....
Multi-language question
posted by srah on April 15, 2003 10:30 AM
I'm not quite sure that I understand how this is supposed to work, but I will answer the damned question. In German. Welchen Beruf wollten Sie ausüben als Sie ein Kind waren ? Üben Sie ihn jetzt aus ? Wieso nicht ? At one point, I'm sure I wanted to be a princess. I am not a princess because I was not born one and because I have not yet ensnared a prince. I remember wanting to be a scientist, because it sounded smart. Later, I worked on my elementary school newspaper (The Mitchell Talks News... envisioned but not named...
Rico...
posted by srah on April 15, 2003 5:23 AM
Thanks to Alex and the continued efforts of the assistantes amérivichyssoises to mangle and reinvent the English language, a new expression has been born: to suave someone up. Suaving someone up consists of speaking Spanish in an effort to seduce them. We have also invented the equivalent French verb suaver, which we repeat loudly and often in front of the other assistants, who never ask us what we're talking about because they have learned to ignore us. We are now in search of a word that would mean "speaking French in an effort to seduce someone". We decided that fuaver...
En la clase de español
posted by srah on April 11, 2003 11:16 AM
Tags: assistantship, david sedaris, in spanish, language, me talk pretty one day, spanish
Hoy, estudiamos la grammatica de francés. Para aprender lenguas, es muy importante conocer bien su misma lengua, entonces revisamos el subjunctivo y el condicional de francés antes de estudiar esos tiempos en español. Correct me, lurking Spanish speakers. I know you're there. If you let me prattle along in bad Spanish, I will always sound like an evil baby. Please help me learn to talk like a hillbilly instead....
All het up about fruit
posted by srah on April 4, 2003 7:59 AM
Tags: language
Why do both English and French have the same word for the fruit and the color orange? Why don't we call that color "carrot", something orange that probably would have been more familiar to the French and English back when colors were being named? Maybe the fruit was named after the color, which I think would be super-dumb. We don't call lemons "yellows", now do we? And why wouldn't you be able to come up with a better name? Even "orangefruit" would be better....
ET, llame à la maison
posted by srah on March 30, 2003 1:23 PM
I'm still reading Contact. In the book, an alien civilization has been receiving our television signals and sends a message to the Earth. It occurs to me that if an alien civilization only had one language on their whole planet, they might think we were much more complicated than we are. If they had no concept of foreign languages, would it even occur to them to try to understand the languages in our broadcasts, or would they just think it was gibberish? And if they did try to translate, would it occur to them that our planet manages to survive...
Euro pudding
posted by srah on February 22, 2003 1:31 PM
It is always an adventure to bring together a bunch of people with varied language skills. We went to lunch at my host family's house in Grenoble today and brought together during the course of the afternoon my parents and grandmother, who speak no French, Jean-Pierre and his mother, who speak no English, and varying levels of biligualism from Bon Papa, Gaëlle, Denis, Françoise, Sophie and me. Bon Papa - to my surprise - knows enough English to as where my family was from and to sortir d'autres phrases throughout the day as needed. Gaëlle prefers Spanish to English. Denis...
Are you sick of me translating yet?
posted by srah on February 13, 2003 10:54 AM
Tags: language
I had forgotten about Lost in Translation, which transforms the quote from yesterday into "I bark that she lives in England, because in all the diverse part that disowned and disowned is. The only language, that one that I speak, I am English: They had fallen of the French in the school and I made the examinación of the jump with the sport of the square in the place. Also hour, during the buttock of the years, my reaction instinktive to the French of hearing a piedino in the sky is due to unload and to fit in the action...
More fun with translation services
posted by srah on February 11, 2003 8:48 AM
Tags: language, translation
If you translate my blog from French to English, you will discover that Jennifer always has good drunk stop stories. Weird things happen to her At the drunk stop. Another good one is Andrés: (in Spanish) You' D better watch it, but I' ll cuts to find has new girlfriend. Srah: Ahhhh! That should not be said! You will begin rumours! Never mind, I'm amusing myself anyway....
I love online translation systems
posted by srah on February 11, 2003 8:39 AM
Tags: language, translation
Would you be interested in translating my blog into really bad French? Just for your information, Je suis Sarah, connu sous le nom de srah. Je suis le Michigan, Etats-Unis, mais je travaille en tant qu'aide anglais dans Vichy, France cette année, et dépends fortement de parler (et de blogging) dans les franglais . Si vous ne comprenez pas un mot ou une expression, l'essai mousing-au-dessus de, et la traduction en anglais devraient sauter vers le haut. and also Soy Sarah, conocido como srah. Soy de Michigan, los E.E.U.U., pero estoy trabajando como ayudante inglesa en Vichy, Francia este año,...
srah's fantabulous tower of babble
posted by srah on January 15, 2003 3:40 AM
One of the things I love about Europe is that it's so polyglottal polyglottic polyglotty polyglottious. Anyway, there are a buttload of languages here. Because the countries have so much inter-European trade, packaging is usually in at least three languages. Usually it's enough for me to read one of the languages, but sometimes I find myself perusing several for my own amusement, and I begin wondering if someone's out to get me. It's always interesting to find that the Spanish and French packaging includes a direction or safety warning that is missing from the English translation. I found the same...
My least favorite things to hear
posted by srah on November 8, 2002 10:42 AM
Tags: language
Actually, there are probably some that are a lot worse. "Maybe she'll wake up if we give her an electric shock" comes to mind. But these are the phrases I would rather not hear again during my séjour in France: "Oh? You both speak English? You should speak English to each other." "You speak language x? Say something in language x." I need more direction than that, thank you. I am not a parrot. Forced conversations or forced language-speaking is, by nature, forced and therefore not natural. And when I hear one of these phrases, all logical normal speech flies...
The language nerd's adventures in Auvergnat
posted by srah on November 1, 2002 7:08 AM
Tags: assistantship, auvergnat, auvergne, language, my favorite posts
I'm not quite sure what my goal was in checking out this Pocket Auvergnat phrasebook, but it dos have some interesting information on the region. For example, Mentre tres annadas terriblas, la "Bèstia" devoriguèt dròlles e dròllas dins lo caire de Saug means, for all you Pacte des loups fans, "For three terrible years, the Gévaudan Beast devoured boys and girls in the area of Saugue." I have also learned that lai a mai de vint vialas d'aigas en Auvèrnhe and the ever useful Podria 'nar gitar las vachas ame vosautres? These are all lovely phrases, but I'm not sure...
Language nerd
posted by srah on October 29, 2002 12:45 PM
Tags: assistantship, language
At the library today, I borrowed a book-and-tape set for continued Spanish study, a book-free Russian tape set, a book on conversational Italian, and oc!'">L'Auvergnat de poche, a recently published book of words and phrases from the native language of Auvergne. If I tried to learn them all, I would get terribly confused and my head would explode, but it's mostly just to stick my toe in a few new languages and to learn some rules for each one. The tapes are rather old and stretched, so I may have to pick another language where they have CDs, which would...
The Book-Monster Strikes Again
posted by srah on October 22, 2002 1:55 AM
I am reading American Rigolos, which Agnès lent me. It's the French translation of a British book about America, written by an American. Bill Bryson worked in England for twenty years before going back to the US and bringing his British family with him. So, while he sounds American and all, he has trouble adjusting to the culture he knew a long time ago. He wrote this series of articles for a newspaper back in England, and they were published as Notes from a Big Country (in the UK) and I'm A Stranger Here Myself (in the US). The strange...
Do you speak français?
posted by srah on October 17, 2002 2:37 PM
I can tell already that I'm going to miss speaking French when I go back home in April. It will be frustrating and painful. I know this because it happened when I left Grenoble, too. What I get used to here is that when I speak to Americans (or other English-speakers), they all speak French too. I get comfortable speaking to people who speak my language but don't mind if I start babbling at them in French. It's that easy, comfortable bilangualism that I miss, falling in and out of the two languages with people who speak both....
Call me Nombrile
posted by srah on September 29, 2002 4:49 PM
Tags: language
Sophie has just informed me that Sarah means "belly-button" in Arabic. Delightful....
Je ne sais pas que idioma wo am speaking de temps en temps
posted by srah on September 22, 2002 1:15 PM
Tags: assistantship, chinese, english, french, language, spanish
With 22 years of English, 10 years of French, 1 year of Spanish, and 1 semester of Mandarin Chinese, my mind is a big linguistic muddle sometimes. I was showing my Chile pictures to Françoise last night and would switch to Spanish whenever I said a Spanish place-name, although I pronounced the Spanish place-name à la française. When I was talking to the other Srah and other Morins would enter the room, I would try to speak to them in English. When I took Chinese and didn't know the Chinese word, it would come out in English. When I'm on...
Nimen hao!
posted by srah on September 10, 2002 10:16 PM
Tags: language, technology
This page is accessible in China. Is yours?...
The voice of God compels you... to study French culture
posted by srah on August 30, 2002 10:31 AM
Went to Albion to hear James Earl Jones last night. It was like he was Dr. Guenin-Lelle with a much deeper voice, because he seemed to be teaching my Freshman Seminar. His topic was Culture. PT opened up by saying that James Earl Jones sounded more like he imagined the voice of God than anyone he'd ever heard. I'm sure it's a common belief, but it scared me because it sounded like Uncle Pete had been reading my blog. Albion gave him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters before his speech. "When do I get my honorary doctorate?" I asked...
My four favorite things about Antonín Dvořák
posted by srah on August 22, 2002 2:44 PM
1. ř 2. á 3. í 4. Slavonic Dances Why don't I have accents in my name? From now on, you may address me as şřåħ....
Je ne sais pas what's going on en mi cabeza
posted by srah on August 13, 2002 7:03 PM
Tags: language
Do you speak more than one language? Actually, I suppose this could affect anyone. This morning, I listened to music in Bulgarian, Japanese and Flemish. I found myself picking up familiar sounds and making French, Spanish, or English words out of them so that I could try to understand the song. What's up with that? Sometimes it would be nice to be able to éteindre parts of your brain. Like, for example, the part that just now could not come up with the English phrase "turn off"....
srah and her words, part deux
posted by srah on August 7, 2002 2:08 PM
Tags: english, french, language, spanish
In French (feuilles) and Spanish (hojas), a piece of paper is a "leaf". In English (in the U.S. at least), we have loose-leaf paper, but for the most part, we call individual pieces of paper "sheets". Which is the same word we use for bed-coverings. We're funny like that. I wonder why we don't call them leaves....
SCHLAG!
posted by srah on July 29, 2002 10:34 AM
Tags: language
Did you know the German word for whipped cream is schlag? How much more fun is it to order something mit schlag instead of with whipped cream? Go ahead, exclaim it right now. SCHLAG! After writing that, I have looked it up on Babelfish. According to them, SCHLAG! means impact, which is almost (but not quite) as fun to exclaim. I dunno, my mommy told me it meant whipped cream and I trust my mommy. Any German speakers out there know the real poop?...
My face is going to China
posted by srah on July 26, 2002 4:51 PM
Tags: language,