Tag: language

What is Post-truth? Re-blogged from We, the Millennials

Other Bloggers' Work (re-posted here), This and That

Here’s a neat post that is re-blogged from We, the Millennials….. in turn re-blogged from Harsh Reality.      I always like to discover new, or more accurately “refurbished” words which are old words with new meanings.    Thanks for the re-blog permission!

 

We, the Millennials!

The Post-truth Era

Many people questioned me why I kept the name, the post-truth era blog? Is it a political blog? Are you against Brexit or a fan of Narendra Modi or Donald Trump? My answer is simple, ‘NO’. It’s not a political blog, it’s more about expressing our opinion to everyone, discuss things you always felt passionate about but never felt comfortable sharing or time to share. Most blogs have discussed this term in the reference of politics, but I want to focus more on What does Post-truth mean for us? Is this term has relevance in our life? Do we even need to know what is post-truth era?

OK, So without getting philosophical, I confess, I have never heard this word Post-truth even as far as a year back, but I read a news where after much debate and research, Post-truth was declared theOxford Dictionaries Word…

View original post 1,332 more words

some linguistic observations

Poetry, Sometimes, This and That, Writing and Blogging

An Ode to My Language

It seems the Spanish language
has vowels that are more dependable:
an A= “ah,” and an E= “ay,” an I= “ee,”
an O= “oh,” and a U= “oo”

It seems quite unnatural to a speaker
of English, in which an E= boasts
at least twenty-one possible phonemes–
which I won’t go into here–in a poem.

It seems unseemly to burden young children
who are just learning to spell…after all…
with “eight” and “ate,” “ought to” and “auto”
just to name a few.

It seems to me that it is quite unfair
when favor, labor, color, and flavor
are correct in the U.S.–but wrong in England
unless they are spelled with a U= “you.”

Furthermore, it seems to me, when I hear
“awesome!” exclaimed, I never associate that
with cut-off jeans…or even  a wonderful apple pie!
“Awesome,” it seems to me, should be reserved–

…for when an Eagle flies over a canyon
or a rainbow lightens dark cliff shadows,
when rays of golden sun light on cathedral walls
or for billowing white sails on a Clipper Ship

These phenomena, it seems to me
fill human hearts with AWE–they are Awesome!

But what of the word “Awful”– full of Awe?
Is this wording a paradox?   Can “Awe” mean
both amazement… and paralyzing fear?
Is it an Oxymoron?  Or just a linguistic quirk?

©Sometimes, 2016

Say What? Overcoming Language Differences…

This and That, travel

You know what I’m saying?

Sometimes understanding is difficult to achieve.   I have been in situations where I have had to or wanted to make myself clear.  Conversations that come to mind are often hilarious, although at the time miscommunication was not one bit funny…but frustrating, or even frightening.

I can read Spanish, but speaking it is very difficult for me.   I still translate the words from English before writing or speaking in Spanish.     The first language other than English that I learned was when I was in my twenties, trying to teach myself German before I went to Germany to live.      I bought a copy of Berlitz German, and proceeded to study and write sentences.   I will say that I learned some rudimentary proununciation and grammar rules, the vocabulary words were harder.

The first Germans that I met were in the  railway station, and on the train taking me from the port at Bremerhaven, to Frankfurt, where my army husband met me at the station on Christmas Day,1955.      When I got on the train, to my small compartment, which had a tiny washroom in it, I prudently barricaded the door with my assorted baggage…When the train reached my destination stop, the conductor opened the door…outward.   So much for closed doors.

We moved into a brand new apartment in  U.S. Army quarters, where our neighbors in the building were all U.S. soldiers.   But then almost everyone we met spoke English…so my German sort of languished.

Strange as it seems, the first foreign language that emerges from my brain is, to this day, German…which doesn’t help much in countries where Spanish is called for.

I did have some not-so-funny at the time but humorous adventures.  The one that comes to mind as both amusing and embarrassing was when I hired a taxi to drive me up a giant mountain to the city that was my destination.    I was able to figure out that the taxi fare would be the equivalent of US$20, so I knew that I could pay the driver in twenties…which was all I had at the time.   I did not have any Mexican Pesos, only US dollars…which contrary to popular belief, are not always welcome.

On the hour and a half trip up the mountain, I tried to chit-chat a bit with the driver.  He was a young man, and was about as conversant in English as I was in Spanish.   He asked me if I had any candy, but I thought he was talking about a kiss.  So idiot that I am, I got worried…it was highly unlikely that this good looking young guy would be making a pass at an old lady…but well, ya never know.

By the time we got to the city I had something new to worry about…the $20  bills.   I think the driver was wondering if I knew where we were going, as it was dark, and I had forgotten the name of the street where the hotel that I was headed for was located.   (duh…)     But he followed my directions: right, left, left, right, etc.  and we stopped in front of the hotel.   The owner answered the bell, and responded.

I explained in Spanish that all I had was 20 dollar bills…and that I intended to pay the driver for the fare, plus give him another twenty for his work…..which was a lot of money in pesos.   The hotel owner understood me…and convinced the driver that the company would be pleased with the US dollars, and that he would be able to convert his twenty.   Meanwhile I was holding my breath…I had no desire to meet the local policia … but all was well.  I got to my room and slept like a baby.

That issue about the candy was just ignorance on my part.

On the trip down that mountain, two weeks later, I was as usual…car sick.   I hoped to make it to the airport, but ….. Not knowing the words…. I just reached over to the taxi driver and tapped his arm…he glanced at me…and had no trouble understanding my   “senor…” and my impromptu  upchuck-gesture, which needed no words, and he pulled over to the side of the road to let me out.

During the two weeks I was there I did not meet any English-speakers, but it was possible to get by with my rudimentary Spanish.   Part of the issue there was that outside of town officials and shopkeepers, most of the people around did not themselves speak Spanish, let alone English…but an indigenous language.

Just being “lunatic fringe” doesn’t mean I’m wrong…

Commentary, Daily Post, Writing and Blogging

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Three Letter Words.”

As long as I am trying to respond to today’s post without using three letter words, I think I will employ this same venue to address a regular post that I have planned.    (Ha! thought I’d be tricked into using this word “utilize” which I hate.  My BFFs vocalize that since I tend to hate everything, they tend to be correct.)

Up to this point I am afraid  my writing is stilted, also awkward.    Sorry about that, I didn’t make this rule.

[Also, a caveat is that I hereby state:  three-letter words herein definitely slipped by– tend to be accidental brain-editing.].

What I want to write about is further exploration of yesterday’s post about re-arranging, also generally spruce-up, my blog.  I have been, in past times, an active member of what is called “Grammar Police.”  As a card-carrying member I have been sworn to uphold certain rules of speech.  1. Spelling. 2. Punctuation. 3. Clarity–or Making Sense.

Spelling is a bugaboo in English language.    I won’t speak to other languages, although  I have been told that Spanish is largely free from mis-use of vowel pronounciation. Letter  A is ” ah”  regardless of position.  If this is true, which I admit to being unsure of  factually,–it is darn good planning on whoever achieved Spanish grammrar rules.

I once made a poster-size chart of 21, that’s  TWENTY-ONE, different pronounciation uses of  Letter “I” (or maybe “E”…in many cases both…purpose of lesson used both in conjunction to produce an “e” sound.  Long “e”, that is.)   Unfortunately that chart disappeared years hence, although those kinds of facts tend to live on in my brain’s filing cabinets (also known as  cardboard boxes.)

This chart involved a newspaper article I wrote which explained a teaching tool used by local schools, known as Initial Teaching Alphabet .  Three of my five children learned to read (also write) by this method of reading instruction.  I hear some “ah-ha!–just three instead of five?”  Oldest learned elsewhere in a different school district; other enrolled in mentally challenged school where they refrained from teaching reading at this time.

I want to elaborate by saying I found this method to be excellent.   Altough  I admit to being a loyal member of “lunatic-fringe” minions in many issues, it needs to be said that I found myself in very good company…school people as well as “furriners” such as reportedly Royal Family kids (remaining obscure until I re-check my facts) that became readers through being taught with Initial Teaching Alphabet materials.

As an added incentive, my post will include a dynamic illustrated story called: PLEECEMAN JOE, written by a first-grader using some special characters.  Absolutely, shamless exploitation!

That is a whole different blog post…those even vaguely interested should consider themselves hereby invited to stay tuned.