Word Gymnastics

The limited spelling choices in English is wonderful to one who is doing a crossword puzzle. But for one who is constructing a crossword puzzle, it is a most frustrating obstacle.

I am in crossword puzzle class, and for my midterm I have to make one. I'll post it on here after I turn it in on Tuesday. It is hard, and I'm using software to do it. How constructors did it prior to the computer is a mystery to me.

I often wonder how anyone did anything without computers. I know we survived before, but seriously, how did you design a paper, or record music, or write and edit novels? How did people communicate?

Ya I know I sound like a true Generation X here. Sue me.

In other news, I bought two pairs of boot/shoes today, and I'm especially excited about my Merrills (see above). This means hiking and walking in the snow without discomfort! Bring on winter! (But not too fast... )

-Meg

p.s. did you see how many parentheticals were in that last paragraph? Geez louise!

Learning about learning

My teaching class is in the Social Work Building, and every time I enter there, I reminded of the weight of my responsibility.

My class is full of people who speak at least two languages each, not to mention linguistic jargon which is a tongue of its own. We adore language and wear our L2 and L3s like badges on our chests.

But one day soon I'll be teaching people who speak only one and if they're lucky, they'll be literate, too. They probably won't see English as something fun to pick up on the side; mastery of it is necessary to survive in the brutal monolingual United States.

I hate to feel like I'm learning to impose my language on others, because it isn't any better. Everyone thinks they need to speak English to do well in life, and it is sad but true. English is just popular because it was at the right place at the right time.

The best I can do is be at the right place at the right time. I won't be a hero or anything, but knowing that I'll help people gives me motivation.

And I laugh because I still remember myself saying, "I'll never ever be a teacher."

I'm still shamelessly bad at Spanish.

-Meg

Imagine that You're Me

You know you’ve been up too late because you start freaking out because not all your pictures are the same shade of sepia.

You realize that you’ve been staring at a computer screen for more than 12 hours today.

You realize, with some horror and dismay, that this is a typical day for you.

You try writing your essay by hand, because that’s how you like to write your first drafts.

You start wondering what the story would be like if told from the monster’s perspective, not Frankenstein’s.

You sit for a few minutes trying to remember if you’ve ever seen Young Frankenstein. Maybe once, at a party, or something.

You remember that Young Frankenstein is a Mel Brook’s movie. So is the Producers. You’ve never seen The Producers, but you’ve heard it. Once you listened in the bathroom while the boys were watching it in your room. You went in the bathroom to study grammar so you could focus, but you really ended up listening to the whole movie. From the bathroom floor.

You remember who those boys were, and decide to Facebook stalk them.

You try to switch your Facebook back to normal, US English; a language that you haven’t used for several months on that website. (UK English, then Spanish, then Pirate.) As you’re trying to find English (Why are they not in alphabetical order?) You come across Esperanto. You cannot help but wonder WHO IN THIS WORLD READS FACEBOOK IN ESPERANTO? So you do the logical thing and change your Facebook to Esperanto.

You notice that Esperanto’s a lot like Spanish. Which reminds you that you have to buy a Spanish textbook that costs $200 and is sold only brand new at the bookstore, AND NOWHERE ELSE!

You then fondly turn your thoughts to the new planner you bought at the bookstore, and the beautiful crimson 5 subject notebook with the U’s logo on it. You can’t wait for fall, because then you’ll be too busy to breathe. But you have your planner! And with a planner, all things are possible.

You rejoice because all things are possible. Like passing your English class. It can happen. You just have to write your essays! You’re half-way done with one of them, which is nice, but you remind yourself that you still really need to buckle down and get going.

You know that the only way to get going is to have a beautiful new pair of shoes on your feet to take you where you want to go! So you search the World Wide Web for the perfect pair of Mary Jane pumps. You find them.

You have to tell your sister and mom about them, and ask for advice on whether it is taking the risk to buy shoes online. You also have to ask if I should get the shoes in mustard or gray. (Two of your favorite colors.)

You decide you are almost ready to conclude this blog post, and thus begin thinking of a decent title. You struggle at this, and sarcastically remind yourself that this is why none of your headline suggestions will ever make it in print.

You have read the newspaper for years, and even now you study it with more fervor than ever before so that you can become acquainted with the subtle nuances of the art. So that you can be a good copy editor and page designer.

You suddenly realize how many incomplete sentences fill your blog post! Your soul is suddenly drenched in horror, repulsion, and trepidation. But you try to stay true to your word and not delete major things! So you leave them. Because that is what you said, even if it is wrong. Because sometimes you write things that are wrong, but you write them anyway, because they must come out of inside of you, so they don't boil and rot and corrupt you.

-Meg

p.s. Do you know what's ironic? I'm horrible at writing headlines because they aren't complete sentences, yet this post is riddled with half-formed, crippled sentences. WHAT IS THIS?

Just for kicks and giggles or Sólo por diversión y risas

Okay, scratch that last post. I thought of something good to say now! I don't delete things, so that wretched post will remain, but now I have a few specklings of brilliance to throw out onto the canvas of the world wide web.

I love language. I love it, even when I don't understand it. So I have this new friend, Marsha, who is in the Linguistics program with me, and Spanish is her L1, but she speaks English wonderfully too. Today I started a new institute class, and she is in it with me! I'm so thrilled! Anyway, she said the closing prayer, and she asked the teacher if she could give it in Spanish. Of course he said yes.

It was so beautiful! I just love listening to the sounds, even though I really don't understand it. I focused on the spirit of the prayer, not the words.

And of course, there was a Spanish-speaking returned missionary rushing up to her after class trying to show off his knowledge of Spanish to impress her. I giggled at that.

Anyway, I'm going to switch my facebook to Spanish because I just love Spanish, and I can't WAIT to take it in the fall! I've taken a little bit before, but I want to really embrace it now. Yay! I can't wait to be non monolingual! Wait... that would be bilingual! (Duh)

Just for kicks and giggles... here is the post in Espanol, thanks to Google Translate (my bff).

Bueno, a los arañazos que la última entrada. Pensé en algo bueno que decir ahora! Yo no lo borrado, por lo que después seguirá siendo miserable, pero ahora tengo un specklings algunos de brillo a tirar en el lienzo de la World Wide Web.


Me encanta el idioma. Me encanta, aunque yo no lo entiendo. Así que tengo este nuevo amigo, Marsha, que está en el programa de Lingüística conmigo, y el español es su L1, pero ella habla Inglés maravillosamente también. Hoy he comenzado un nuevo instituto de clase, y es en ella conmigo! Estoy tan emocionada! De todos modos, dijo que la oración final, y le preguntó al profesor si podía darle en español. Por supuesto, él dijo que sí.

Era tan hermoso! Me encanta escuchar los sonidos, aunque realmente no lo entiendo. Me concentré en el espíritu de la oración, no las palabras.

Y, por supuesto, estaba tratando de una de habla española volvió corriendo misionero hasta su clase después de hacer alarde de su conocimiento del español para impresionarla. Me reí en eso.

De todos modos, voy a cambiar mi facebook a español porque me encanta el español, y no puedo esperar para tomar en el otoño! Me he tomado un poco antes, pero quiero realmente abrazar ahora. Yay! No puedo esperar a ser monolingües no! Espera ... que ser bilingüe! (Duh)

-Megan

The Passive Voice (My final research paper)

This is my new approach to revising my essay. As you can see, I had a lot of reorganizing to do.

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Linguists have very bad handwriting, leaving me no choice but to decipher my professor's comments, which were all in Chickenscratchese. All 3 of my linguistic professors so far have had atrocious handwriting. Let it be known that I have excellent hand writing.

-Meg

Au domoni iko

Au domoni iko

Fijian for "I love you"

Grammar Day

Happy Grammar Day!

I love grammar. It used to be because I'm the sort of person who likes black and white, right and wrong. There are rules in grammar, and they make sense, at least to me. (I know, you think that they don't make sense, but trust me, they do. You just have to dig deep enough.)

I never learned grammar in school, so I think that's why I took an interest in it. I never got to diagram sentences or make trees. So grammar was some mysterious secret. A secret that makes most people nervous, true, but it was just intriguing to me.

So I took a few grammar classes my first semester of college. Wow! My eyes were opened. There are many kinds of grammar, I learned. I'd always assumed that prescriptive grammar is the only kind. When you think grammar, you're most likely thinking of prescriptive grammar. It is exactly what the name implies-- those are the grammar rules that "prescriptivists" prescribe to people. Some rules make sense, others are just stupid. (Like that splitting infinitives are wrong.)

There is also descriptive grammar. That's what linguistics use to simply describe what happens when we speak and write. They don't judge what is "right" or "wrong" They do not try to change people's habits, they simply document them.

Mental grammar is what we have in our heads. We are born with the ability to communicate in our brain, which is amazing. We're not pre-wired to play piano, or golf, or sew. But God gave us the ability to understand a language and pick it up within just the first few years of life. Our brains are a super-computers! That we can speak not one, but three or four languages is a miracle. That is a feat! I'm realizing that language is not an accident the more I study linguistics. You're reading this so your brain is taking the shapes on the screen and interpreting them into ideas and words. That is no easy feat. We are still struggling to make computers understand language the way the human brain does.

Language is a miracle. So even if you don't know the difference between "you're" and "your," be grateful that you can read, write, and speak, because it is amazing that you can!

-Meg

P.S. If you want to know more about National Grammar Day, click here.