What are you doing today?

[GaryE]

I love words, but always feel bad I only speak two languages. I met a young Croatian woman last year who was close to perfect in English, but felt it was the weakest of her six languages. I can sort of understand some Spanish, and do okay understanding Italian, but I can't speak either. I wish I could.

An interesting question (to me) is how much understanding or appreciating the words in songs matter to people. I've met a number of people for whom lyrics don't matter in the least.

 

[gwand]

Lyrics really matter to me. Especially when listening to Cameron Winter, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I've become "near fluent" in a couple languages over the course of my life--German and Haitian--and picked up more than a little Spanish. But without any need or opportunity to use them, I've pretty much forgotten it all. I miss those languages, and I like to think that if the need arose and I put in some work, they would come back to me.

I've heard people in other countries criticize Americans for not being multi-lingual, but I completely get why most people don't bother. Despite what you hear, it has nothing to do with arrogance. It's simple practicality. In a largely monolingual culture, there just isn't that much need to put in the work, nor is there that much opportunity for those of us who do to actually use those skills. Skills that don't get used die out, and many people just don't see the point.

The second time I went to Haiti, some friends and I were in a meeting with a very prominent, semi-shady Haitian businessman, trying to figure out the right strings to pull to get a much-needed pickup truck imported into the country. Over the course of our interview, his phone kept ringing, and I heard him effortlessly switch between at least four different languages, according to the greeting he heard when he picked up the phone. It was impressive.

 

[connorlindeman]

Ended up starting TOTY later than expected, as I had to spend 6 hours in 20-degree weather in a random parking lot replacing the shift tube on my truck. Got it done though, so there’s that.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Ended up starting TOTY later than expected, as I had to spend 6 hours in 20-degree weather in a random parking lot replacing the shift tube on my truck. Got it done though, so there’s that.

Sounds like a character-building experience. Yikes.

By the way, I like your TS Elliot quote. It is a more succinct version of Emerson's recipe:
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded!

 

[Essjay]

Our 3 year old grandson will grow up bilingual in English and Romanian. His mother is Romanian and until last September he was looked after during the day by his non-English speaking Romanian grandmother, hearing English only in the evening and at weekends. His parents were worried that he was slow learning to talk but the speech therapist said it was because he was assimilating two languages at the same time. He started nursery in September, being exposed to English only while there, and he now won't stop talking. Apparently research has shown that bilingual people learn other languages more easily, an advantage for him when he starts language lessons at school.

 

[GaryE]

You learn the languages you use. I would like to be fluent in Spanish and maybe German. I used to have a little Korean I picked up from students, but I'm not in contact with speakers of Asian languages anymore. I've retired to a true backwater. It's beautiful and I love it, but culture-wise, it's poor. Immigrants come here but skeddadle for the city where there's work, along with a lot of the young people from here.

It's easy to use both English and French here, but I note that French speakers can speak English but most English speakers refuse to learn French. We're a few hours from an area where Scot Gaelic is still used - it was the first language for my wife's grandmother. But you don't hear it except in a few villages I haven't visited yet, and that from old people.

I find it odd. Out in the urban world I come from, I once got into a very funny conversation with a Portuguese guy. He didn't speak English or French, and I didn't speak Portuguese, so we sorted things out with rudimentary Korean. Now though, I only get to learn languages while traveling, and I'd need to plunk myself down somewhere for a few months to get any real skills.

I think because I grew up around a community that liked to make other people speak English, and that refused all opportunities to learn, I try to pick up some basics of the languages I'm going into before I travel. But alas, I'm not as good at it as I once was. My grandmother learned to speak fluent Italian in her mid seventies so she coud talk with some neighbours she liked. I don't have that level of skill. Or maybe I'm lazy....

Today, I'll speak English to the dog and to the fish, and they'll converse back in body language. Hopefully the fish will have some bawdy language as nothing's breeding.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I find it odd. Out in the urban world I come from, I once got into a very funny conversation with a Portuguese guy. He didn't speak English or French, and I didn't speak Portuguese, so we sorted things out with rudimentary Korean.

That's funny. One of the funniest (in retrospect) conversations I ever had was in Haiti. It was my first journey there; I had maybe 30 words of the local language. Some friends and I were helping people repair roofs on houses, and it was hot, as only a Caribbean Island, in June, during a roofing project can be. So we stopped to take a break.

A youngish, local woman happened to walk by. She was obviously curious, so we invited her to join us. I got into a conversation with her, talking about our respective families and such, using my few words of Haitian and a combination of charades and drawing pictures in the dirt. It was nice. But somehow, she got across to me that she found it strange that we were suffering from the heat. This made sense; this was her home and she didn't realize it was hot; just a normal day.

Well, you know how situations like this can take on a life of their own? I started trying to explain to her that where we came from, it was cold...without the benefit of the word "cold." I drew mountains and said "Home." That meant nothing; in Haiti there are some serious mountains where it is 95F instead of 105F. For some reason I started trying to tell her that we had snow back home. We were out in the middle of nowhere and this poor lady had probably never even seen a picture of snow. I knew the word for white, so I said it and pointed up at the sky. She looked at me like I was from another planet.

One of my friends knew, for some bizarre reason, the word for ice. Ah, this might do it! I said, "In our home, we have ice, from the sky." Or something to that affect, pantomiming ice falling from the sky. The lady's eyes got really big, she acted uneasy and soon wandered off. I was worried that I had accidentally said something dirty or offensive.

So on the drive home, I asked Mois, our Haitian friend, what had happened. He had me recount the entire conversation, and when I got to the part about ice, he started laughing his head off. "Thomas, Thomas, come, I will show you ice in Haiti." He took us on a detour through an outdoor marketplace. There was a guy selling ice: A gas generator and a freezer, cranking out 30 pound blocks of ice to sell.

Imagine what this poor, backwoods lady was imagining. No wonder they think white people are crazy.

 

[GaryE]

There are a lot of Creole speakers in Quebec. I find it difficult - French based but not at all like French in intonation, and in a lot of vocabulary. African French was easy, but Haitian isn't (for me). Then again, I need a bit more concentration to catch the French in Paris compared to the French in Montreal.

30 pound blocks of ice snowflakes at your home might explain what you were doing roofing in that heat.

I was just invited out for Saint Tib's Eve. That's a holiday I haven't heard of since I was a kid, and had forgotten. It's delightful to know it lives on. The older generation from Newfoundland mentioned it, which brings us to forms of English that take some getting used to.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Got another bow almost to full draw. It’s going to be a little light for hunting elk… might have to add more sinew or just give it away. But this is one weird piece of wood, and I’d be happily surprised just to get a shooter out of it.

 

[Oldspartan]

I puttered in my "new" basement workshop. Working on an art deco style silverware stand for DIL as an Christmas gift. Linda has a home visit from a PA from her insurance company. It is a make work for the insurer to justify their annual Medicare endowment. We each put up with one because of the 50-dollar reward, (mine is Friday) -- good ol' Medicare Advantage.

Other than that, I am still recovering from the Packer's losing the heart of their defense.

 

[gwand]

Or the Verdi Requiem! One of the most epic and dramatic pieces of music ever. Will be attending a concert of same in January at Carnegie Hall featuring the Cleveland Symphony.

You inspired me to listen to the Verdi Requiem. It has been years since I last listened to it. I never heard it performed live. I’m jealous! Opera fans love this master work.

 

[Innesfan]

You inspired me to listen to the Verdi Requiem. It has been years since I last listened to it. I never heard it performed live. I’m jealous! Opera fans love this master work.

Glad to be of service.

It is thrilling live. The "Tuba Mirum" is especially hair-raising with the auxiliary battery of trumpets playing from the back of the house or up in the rafters in a back and forth with the orchestra. And Cleveland is my favorite of the Big 5 (The NY Times agrees) so I am really looking forward to this, especially with the incomparable acoustics in Carnegie Hall.

That said, my favorite recording, ever since college, is Fritz Reiner conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and Choir, with a dream cast of soloists: Leontyne Price, Rosalind Elias, Jussi Bjorling and Georgio Tozzi.

 

[gwand]

Glad to be of service.

It is thrilling live. The "Tuba Mirum" is especially hair-raising with the auxiliary battery of trumpets playing from the back of the house or up in the rafters in a back and forth with the orchestra. And Cleveland is my favorite of the Big 5 (The NY Times agrees) so I am really looking forward to this, especially with the incomparable acoustics in Carnegie Hall.

That said, my favorite recording, ever since college, is Fritz Reiner conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and Choir, with a dream cast of soloists: Leontyne Price, Rosalind Elias, Jussi Bjorling and Georgio Tozzi.

The recording in my possession is of Alan Gilbert conducting the NY Philharmonic from 2015.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

45 Pounds at 27”. And it didn’t explode! I’m really surprised to get this to full draw without it breaking. This thing is kinkier than a presidential mistress.