Is there such thing as too bilingual? I just came home to a surprise package postaged in Italy. It turned out to be a gift from my world-traveler brother; a tote from a photography museum in Stockholm.
But before I learned and digested all that, what did I read?
Say, Che, Ese
As an American would tell a Mexican to sound Argentinian. Such things must happen.
“Let’s have a Spanish moment,” I told Yuki, a former student and longtime friend, who had graciously accompanied me on a shopping excursion and therefore found herself like the man taking a selfie with the outdoor furniture, “On vacation at IKEA.”
I pointed to the AS IS sign and explained why I disagreed with the translation. Personally I’m a little offended with some of the items included in the AS IS section. While I may find an use for a loose shelf, or be able to fix (or hide, live with) a minor scratch, for example, I have no use for a cracked ceramic vase (as much as I like mosaics). There is a difference between damaged, and broken.
But since neither condition is the original one, we say that something:
está dañado
está roto
And regardless of whether you can fix it or not, the verb that describes it is ESTAR.
Tal como son= just as they are / just as they’ve always been, unchangeable.
Tal como está(n) implies that that is how you’ll get it. Damaged, broken. On vacation, at IKEA. Although we didn’t go in. And I didn’t ask Yuki if finally she got (felt) the difference between ser and estar.
Ejemplo:
En IKEA la cosas no son costosas, y menos ¡si están rotas!
“Una noche, después de hacer el amor con la puta, mientras fumaban tendidos en la cama, le preguntó qué opinaba ella sobre tanto secuestro y tantos cuerpos de mujeres hallados en el desierto, y ésta le dijo que apenas si sabía algo de lo que le estaba hablando. Entonces Sergio le contó todo lo que sabía sobre las muertes y le relató el viaje que había hecho a Santa Teresa y por qué lo hizo, porque le faltaba dinero, porque se acababa de divorciar, y luego le habló de las muertes de las que él, como lector de periódicos, tenía noticias y de los comunicados de prensa de una asociación de mujeres cuyas siglas recordaba, MSDP, aunque había olvidado qué querían decir esas siglas, ¿Mujeres de Sonora Democráticas y Populares?, y mientras él hablaba la puta bostezaba, no porque no le interesara lo que él decía, sino porque tenía sueño, de modo que concitó el enojo de Sergio, quien exasperado le dijo que en Santa Teresa estaban matando putas, que por lo menos demostrara un poco de solidaridad gremial, a lo que la puta le contestó que no, que tal como él le había contando la historia las que estaban muriendo eran obreras, no putas. Obreras, obreras, dijo. Y entonces Sergio le pidió perdón y como tocado por un rayo vió un aspecto de la situación que hasta ese momento había pasado por alto.”
De 2666 de Roberto Bolaño.
When the (petite) therapist walked away, after impressive (and strenuous) evidence of commitment, professionalism, and kindness, the uncooperative patient said to me,
“Las chiquitas son las malas.”
“What always happens, when one studies a language, happened. Each one of the words stood out as though it had been carved, as though it were a talisman. For that reason the poems of a foreign language have a prestige they do not enjoy in their own language, for one hears, one sees, each of the words individually. We think of the beauty, of the power, or simply of the strangeness of them.”
Says Jorge Luis Borges in an essay on going blind (and learning languages).
¡Bienvenidos!
“Ellos viven happy con una variedad de proyectos que no concretan.” –Mommy
6/12/2013
“The famous ophthalmologist Peter Halberg of New York refuses to consider that he speaks a language unless and until he can conduct a medical lecture in the language and then take hostile questioning from his peers. By his standards, he speaks only five languages.”
10/16/2013
One of my students likes to converse around her one year old. Babies are sponges! She had bilingual education, so her expression flows in all directions. What we are trying to do, technically, is rein in families of conjugations (usually) to more specific subjects and objects. However, it is hard to rein in conversation that flows fluently, and especially with a one year old cruising around.
Mom places a toy that should help us in the middle of the room and starts pushing buttons: Triángulo, says the toy in a friendly pre-adolescent voice. Mom repeats it. Círculo, says a different button. The toy starts to get the baby’s attention: Morado. Mom starts reciting the colors, then. The baby, really, is more entertained playing a toy guitar. ¡Vamos a rocanrolear! Says the toy. “What does that mean?” My student asks, pronouncing it carefully, “Ro…”
“Let’s rock and roll!”
That’s the kind of word that:
1. If you asked me out of the blue, “How do you say rock ‘n’ roll?” I would be hesitant to tell you confidently, “¡Rocanrolear!”
2. I would undoubtedly use if I saw someone with long hair banging his head while playing the guitar, and for some reason I felt the need express, say, to my brother, the specific definition for that action, “Rocanroleando.”
3. I’m so happy a toy says!
Beyond basic shapes, and colors, words that reflect cultural and linguistic references is what makes our languages… well, a kind of rock and roll.
10/8/2013
Lo veo
Le doy
Me pregunto
Me gusta
Dámelo
Se me olvida
Se expresa
9/30/2013
eldictionary 