[originally posted March 16, 2009]
Every now and then I hear a phrase that is so British English that I can't help but notice. Today, for some reason, it was "full stop" that caught my attention. It was just a conversation drifting over my head, one that I was loosely hearing, but not really paying attention to. I was rather focused on my own work until I heard that term. Full stop. Period. It's something I would never use, except in the context of making a full stop at a stop sign (which I rarely do, what with the popularity of rolling stops in California). It is far more comfortable for me to say "period."
This got me thinking about a myriad of other terms that I don't normally use, like 5er (a five pound note) or alight (get off). In fact, alight throws me off quite often - for some reason I always think of that as getting on the subway, rather than getting off. It has always fascinated me, this divergence of language. Certain terms in certain regions vary greatly, as shown in the classic confusing case of fries (American) versus chips (British) and chips (American) versus crisps (British). It interested me enough for me to keep an extensive list of everything I came across in my time in England that varied from popular American usage, whether it was a different spelling, different term, or different meaning.
Chinese has diverged even more, with Cantonese and Mandarin being so different verbally that neither can understand the other without training. How peculiar for a language to split so drastically, yet remain the same (pretty much) in written form. Granted, there is still a disparity between traditional and simplified forms of writing, but generally they are similar. What I don't understand is how this came to be when this was supposed to be a united country that developed these differences. At least for Spanish, the changes can be seen correlated with geographic locations that are quite far apart. It makes me wonder how the Chinese government dealt with the different dialects.
Likewise, the romance languages have the same root and Portuguese and Spanish have close ties to each other. Spanish itself has different forms based on if you are from Europe, North America, or South America. Now isn't that something? That sort of change makes far more sense to me, since the Americas are a world away from Spain and it only natural that it evolved differently. I can even understand that Mexican Spanish and Argentinian Spanish could have moved in different directions due to the distance.
So why is it that China seems to be the only country with such a strong split? That's not even to count the endless list of other dialects that are commonly spoken throughout the country. Perhaps it has something to do with the billions of people and vast land? I guess India has seen something like that too, with their host of dialects. Still, it really puzzles me how a country can stay together when a lot of its people don't seem to be able to communicate with each other. I guess it could have worked a long time ago when writing was the most common form of communication to people who didn't live in your immediate vicinity. I wonder if that's why Chinese writing remained a constant but spoken language didn't.
Hmm.
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I just talked to Elle and she got the Teach for America offer! Now it's time to spend the next week deciding if she wants to go for it. Though she worked really hard for it and is leaning towards that path, you never with these things. It is a big decision for her life, after all, since it will take over the next two years of her life and take her out to Louisiana. Instead of looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, I will be getting up even earlier than I do for work to go to a facilitation seminar of sorts. I'm not exactly sure what it is about, but that's why I'm going! (To learn about what facilitation is and how I can add it to my list of skills.) It's a part of this whole idea of "relentless self-improvement" and learning. I feel like I should take advantage of all the resources available to me, as long as I'm even remotely interested in them. If it doesn't get in the way of work or something else that really matters to me, why not? I can sacrifice a little sleep to gain some extra knowledge. Even though it has only been three days at the office with no internet, it feels like much longer. I don't know if I should be more amazed that we are so dependent on technology or the fact that we could still function and get work done without. I have been rather disconnected during the day and never feel like taking care of business when I get back for the night, so getting it back will certainly boost my productivity. It will be nice to have the resources I need to get work done properly now. Part of the acclimation here is getting used to the language patterns. The good thing is that people in Singapore primarily speak English and some Chinese, both of which I am fluent in. However, as it is with any country, it takes time to get used to the accent, language patterns, and slang. This takes me back to my first night in my flat in England, gathered around the kitchen table with my neighbors, freaking out to myself because I could not understand a word of what they were saying. Tonight was the first time that it rained heavily here since I arrived, with the thunder and lightning rolling in soon after the winds forewarned us of their arrival. It started to pour right before we got on the bus to go home, so it didn't affect us until we reached our stop and found that we'd get absolutely drenched if we so much as went five feet in the downpour. So, to avoid ruining our nice clothes and shoes, Marylin's mom kindly drove out to meet us. Even in the mere seconds we took to get into the car, we got quite wet! It seems that a conscious effort has to be made to find non-spicy foods around here. I suppose the Singaporeans tolerate pain better than I do. And yes, extreme spices can qualify as forms of pain - after all, capsaicin creates that burning sensation and activates nerves much like painful sensations do. It's no wonder my insides still hurt from ingesting those spices. I've found that the best source of creative ideas is personal experience. It is in my day-to-day life that I think to myself randomly, "Oh now there's something good to explore and write about!" Immediately I jot it down on my "little fat notebook" amidst the growing list of topics to discuss. Just living life (and being curious) can be the greatest muse! Those of you active on facebook have probably been tagged in the "25 random things about me" note by this point. In case you haven't it's this note that someone started by writing 25 tidbits about him/herself (I'm just going to pretend this was a girl and use the appropriate pronouns) and tagging 25 people who she wanted to learn more about. You are supposed to include whoever tagged you as well, so they can read what you wrote. I think it's the most passed-on note of all facebook history. After I'd been tagged a few times, I decided it was my turn to continue the trend and I found myself reflecting on college: [originally posted February 6, 2009] |
laelene My philosophy is simple: things change. Therefore, we are all on a lifelong journey of discovery. We should be flexible, questioning, learning, adapting, and growing. Always. Archives
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