I finally figured out how to embed YouTube videos in my blog and decided to celebrate with this piece of hilarity.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Nothing relevant
I re-read my last post today - something that I should do more often, as I often find grammatical errors - and noticed that I used the phrase "supersonic speed" in reference to my reading. I thought this was funny because "supersonic" means "faster than the speed of sound." This is a slightly awkward phraseology* not only because sound has nothing to do with this, but because the speed of sound is a fixed velocity at which sound waves travel through space (specifically, a standard oxygen/nitrogen mix at 20 degrees Celsius). I don't think this is comparible to speed of reading comprehension, as the nerve impulses in my brain are traveling at the same 20-30 m/s as in any other brain. (Reading speeds, while measurable, will no doubt vary depending on word complexity and context.)
I think I'll stop there, because I'm starting to ask the question "what does move faster when I read?" Off the top of my head, I think I remember hearing that speed reading isn't about reading lines faster - it's about absorbing more words at the same time. However, this tangent could lead into some pointless research and distract me from my writing.
I am happy to report that there is one person that truly understands me. God bless you, Billy Joel. (I was surprised to learn that he's slightly younger than my dad).
*Immediately after using the word "phraseology," I looked it up to see if it was a real word. I am proud to report that it is.
I think I'll stop there, because I'm starting to ask the question "what does move faster when I read?" Off the top of my head, I think I remember hearing that speed reading isn't about reading lines faster - it's about absorbing more words at the same time. However, this tangent could lead into some pointless research and distract me from my writing.
I am happy to report that there is one person that truly understands me. God bless you, Billy Joel. (I was surprised to learn that he's slightly younger than my dad).
*Immediately after using the word "phraseology," I looked it up to see if it was a real word. I am proud to report that it is.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Which language is funnier?
K-Cizzle seems to be giving me crap for writing too much about politics and not enough about me. I cannot resist, however, expressing my excitement about my main man's endorsement of my backup man. Click the link for a class-A speech by John Edwards. In other political news, the California supreme court today ruled that a state ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It has always been my stance that the nearly nationwide exclusion of gay couples from marriage is one of the most shameful bits of injustice still alive in our legislature, and I get pretty worked up about it. For a smile, imagine me cheering out loud when I saw the news on CNN and then explaining to my Jehova's Witness host family why I was so happy.
Okay. I'm sorry, Kacie. Both of those things made me really, really happy. That's something about me, isn't it?
Sebastian and Sara Beth (no link because she hasn't updated since Thanksgiving) have both commented to me in the past over the fact that our personalities are often different depending on what language we're speaking. For example, I am widely considered to be hilarious in English, while most Mexicans who know me think I'm pretty quiet (there are more extreme examples, but none of you know the guy and then I wouldn't be writing about me). But it's definitely true. My host family thinks I'm a quiet guy who's completely devoted to his studies. This is clearly not true, but it can be hard to crack jokes in your second language.
Prime example: I got my hair cut three months ago - a rather drastic change from my ponytail-length locks. My host mom, shocked, said, "¡Te cortaste el pelo!" ("You cut your hair!") I gave her my normal reply to this comment, introducing my old joke to a new language: "No, alguién más me lo hizo" ("No, somebody else did it for me"). She did not laugh.
I pushed the event to the back of my mind, so it was not until a long time later that I suddenly realized why the joke wasn't funny. "Te cortaste el pelo" does not only mean "you cut your hair." Those exact same words would also be the translation for "you got your hair cut" or "your hair was cut." The words do not automatically imply that I did the action - they could simply be a passive way of saying the action was done to me.
Humor, though, is the least of my worries when it comes to crossover between English and Spanish. I have concluded that reading is a real problem for me, and I think I know why: in English, I am more or less a speed reader. I'm not one of those freaks you see on TV waving his hand across a page and absorbing every word, but I find that when I hand someone else a paragraph to read, I can read it to myself four or five times (or more) while they work on it once. I cannot do this in Spanish - at least not yet. But my eyes expect my brain to snatch the words off the page at supersonic speed, so they scan rapidly across the lines and leave me having no idea what I just read. In other words, how I'm trained to read doesn't work with a second language. I literally have to go one word at a time, absorbing about three before my habits kick in and I start zipping across the page again. Then I go back and read the next three words. By the time I've done this a few times, I'm thinking so much about how I'm reading that I've forgotten what I already read.
It sounds funny, but this has been a real issue for me.
Finally, I suppose I should put some kind of personal update in here for people who want to know what I'm up to. As always, I'm watching TV, interspersed with occasional bars and internet cafés. I've been at least mildly depressed for a month or two, and I'm really just looking forward to coming home and spending an entire four days with my family before I head down to Indianapolis to work (this will more than likely result in more depression, since I'm spending half my summer living alone in a city where I don't really know anyone).
There might also be one or two things bringing me down that I haven't mentioned.
And on that note, I'm out.
EDIT: Thank you John (and I suppose Elaine, though I don't know you) for this. Laughing out loud in internet cafés does invite stares.
Okay. I'm sorry, Kacie. Both of those things made me really, really happy. That's something about me, isn't it?
Sebastian and Sara Beth (no link because she hasn't updated since Thanksgiving) have both commented to me in the past over the fact that our personalities are often different depending on what language we're speaking. For example, I am widely considered to be hilarious in English, while most Mexicans who know me think I'm pretty quiet (there are more extreme examples, but none of you know the guy and then I wouldn't be writing about me). But it's definitely true. My host family thinks I'm a quiet guy who's completely devoted to his studies. This is clearly not true, but it can be hard to crack jokes in your second language.
Prime example: I got my hair cut three months ago - a rather drastic change from my ponytail-length locks. My host mom, shocked, said, "¡Te cortaste el pelo!" ("You cut your hair!") I gave her my normal reply to this comment, introducing my old joke to a new language: "No, alguién más me lo hizo" ("No, somebody else did it for me"). She did not laugh.
I pushed the event to the back of my mind, so it was not until a long time later that I suddenly realized why the joke wasn't funny. "Te cortaste el pelo" does not only mean "you cut your hair." Those exact same words would also be the translation for "you got your hair cut" or "your hair was cut." The words do not automatically imply that I did the action - they could simply be a passive way of saying the action was done to me.
Humor, though, is the least of my worries when it comes to crossover between English and Spanish. I have concluded that reading is a real problem for me, and I think I know why: in English, I am more or less a speed reader. I'm not one of those freaks you see on TV waving his hand across a page and absorbing every word, but I find that when I hand someone else a paragraph to read, I can read it to myself four or five times (or more) while they work on it once. I cannot do this in Spanish - at least not yet. But my eyes expect my brain to snatch the words off the page at supersonic speed, so they scan rapidly across the lines and leave me having no idea what I just read. In other words, how I'm trained to read doesn't work with a second language. I literally have to go one word at a time, absorbing about three before my habits kick in and I start zipping across the page again. Then I go back and read the next three words. By the time I've done this a few times, I'm thinking so much about how I'm reading that I've forgotten what I already read.
It sounds funny, but this has been a real issue for me.
Finally, I suppose I should put some kind of personal update in here for people who want to know what I'm up to. As always, I'm watching TV, interspersed with occasional bars and internet cafés. I've been at least mildly depressed for a month or two, and I'm really just looking forward to coming home and spending an entire four days with my family before I head down to Indianapolis to work (this will more than likely result in more depression, since I'm spending half my summer living alone in a city where I don't really know anyone).
There might also be one or two things bringing me down that I haven't mentioned.
And on that note, I'm out.
EDIT: Thank you John (and I suppose Elaine, though I don't know you) for this. Laughing out loud in internet cafés does invite stares.
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