I AM NOT VERY CATHOLIC TODAY

Hoy es domingo y último día del mes, y además lluvioso. No, no estoy muy católico hoy. Quizá sea por el cambio de horario. He estado trabajando unas 3 horas en el diccionario fraseológico y en cuanto he comenzado a cometer errores tipográficos, de negrita, de redonda, cursiva... he parado. Y se me ha ocurrido pasar un ratito buscando equivalencias a frases idiomáticas castellanas en Internet. Confieso a los cuatro vientos que como soy algo corto de entendederas, no se me había ocurrido utilizar los traductores automáticos de la Red (con mayúscula.) Habría ahorrado un par de años de trabajo.

Mi mujer ha venido "to sing me the truths", sin rodeos, y me ha "told me the truths of the ferryman." No he dicho nada porque "I am not Catholic today" y también es porque mi mujer es el tipo de persona que "goes with the truth ahead."  Pero "seen and unseen" mi mujer ha desaparecido en un "open and close eyes". 

Todo esto me recuerda un funesto librito que se vendió mucho en España "From lost to the river", que hizo furor y la comidilla de las tertulias lingüísticas. Pues, nada, "goodbye, very good." 

SPANISH GRAMMAR CHEAT SHEET - LAURA CARBONELL

 

Spanish Grammar Cheat Sheet by Laura Carbonell is one of those reference books we should all have at hand at all times, especially those who are bilingual. Google does not always have the grammatical point we search, or it is not clearly explained. "This is not a run-of-the-mill type Spanish grammar. This is the marrow, the quiddity of Spanish grammar" explained in easy-to-understand English, which will clear up any doubts we might have. The author cuts to the chase and gives us hands-on examples of usage that lightens up the darkness of Grammar. Only 141 pages, mind you, written by a native Pennsylvanian, raised in Madrid who has spent all her life teaching English and Spanish on both sides of the Atlantic. Currently, she is a member of the teaching staff of Crystal Springs Uplands School, in San Francisco, and she is also my daughter. And probably the most engaging language teacher I have ever known. 

WHAT VINTAGE SPANISH OR ENGLISH DO YOU SPEAK?

 I am surfeited with "We don´t say that in English/Spanish." This is a flash way of dismissing the language one speaks without admitting the narrowness of one´s language. Youngsters, those who are not dry behind the ears yet, are prone to defending themselves by disregarding a word or idiom they ignore and blaming you, to boot, for making up a new language. 

I have had the idea for classifying English, not according to levels, but according to its vintage, "su cosecha." For example, I speak English vintage 1956, "inglés cosecha 1956", which was a good year for language, by the way. (Remember "payola"?) Many of the people I interact with, speak Spanish 2000 vintage, "español joven." "Español joven", like "vino" joven", recent vintage, is fine, but lacks that Je ne sais quoi that people in the know enjoy. 

English vintage (cosecha) 1960 is also good English. It has a good foundation, taste, body, allure, grammar, and charms the listener. 

English vintage (cosecha) 1995 is recent English, "joven", which may be good but it needs more aging to acquire a formal status, and somehow it leaves something to be desired, a taste for more consistency, more aplomb, more poise, more "correctness"... Reading helps.

Language, like wine and women, gets better as it ages, especially if stored in good universities and libraries. 

POLYGLOTTERY

 

In my last post, I told you about Dr. Alexander Argüelles and his championship of polyglottery which is the art of collecting languages. In another interview he disclaims -contrary to evidence- he ever said he speaks or knows 100 languages. Furthermore, he states that he would never pass off as a native speaker in any of them. Yet he champions polyglottery as an end in itself: the accumulation of languages with no purpose in mind as if I learnt all possible chess openings by heart but would never play a game. The idea, in this case, would be to "collect" openings but never play ("jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today.") 

I will define "polyglottery" as the silly pursuit of language learning for no visible purpose. 

The brain of humans being the way it is, precludes the effective mastery of more than four languages. Jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind. I am a champion and advocate of language learning, and I am against the dilettante accumulation of an endless number of languages, with limited proficiency in them. To what purpose? Our brain, time, and the so-called "life" all work against us in the reckless pursuit of collecting. Circuses are on the wane.

More about this in the near future.

DR. ALEXANDER ARGÜELLES AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Dr. Alexander Argüelles is a polyglot who speaks 100 languages. He holds a Ph.D. from Chicago and explains on YouTube his modus operandi in language learning. He invests (or invested) 16 hours a day, seven days a week, studying Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Korean, Turkish, Irish (?), Greek, Latin, Finish, Russian at the same time. He has (had) time to interact with his two children, cook, go to church, go for runs, and chit-chat with his wife. Dr. Argüelles makes me feel (pardon my French) like an intellectual piece of shit. After a lifetime of working on my English and Spanish, I am having a hell of a time trying to put together a phraseological dictionary in both languages. The amount, and diversity, of idioms, are truly daunting. I am ready to quit and throw in the towel just about every day, but Dr. Argüelles seems to have no problems mastering and using all those diverse languages. He has many balls (languages) in the air, and I can hardly cope with two. When God dished out intelligence to people, I got the short end of the stick... or did I? Perhaps Dr. Argüelle´s idea of "speaking" a language differs from mine. Perhaps not. Who knows. But do watch his chats on YouTube. 

MAJOR, MINOR Y SU SIGNIFICADO

 El adjetivo "major" significa importante, grande: "a major speech, a major problem", y lo contrario es "minor: a minor problem, a minor speech": “There is major progress right now.” New York Daily News, 28 May, 2010.

“A Salem man suffered minor injuries when…” The Republic, 28 May, 2010.

Como nombre "major" significa la especialización universitaria: "I have a major in philosophy", tengo una especialización en filosofía, que se puede emplear como verbo: I am majoring in journalism, me especializo en periodismo. Y un minor es una subespecialización: I have a major in Spanish and a minor in English literature.

"A major", es un adulto, mayor de edad y un minor es un menor. Lo cual nos recuerda la famosa película de Willy Wilder, (El mayor y la menor) en donde el "major" es un militar de esta graduación, además de “adulto”, del cual se enamora la “minor”, la menor. Es un juego de palabras.

MAN Y SUS SIGNIFICADOS

 En su sentido general, el hombre, todavía se emplea mucho: “Man is subject to death”, el hombre está sujeto a la muerte. Esto significa que todo bicho viviente –no sólo los hombres- muere. En la Biblia se nos dice: “Man does not live by bread alone”, no solo de pan vive el hombre (Mat. 4:4) y eso se refiere a los hombres, mujeres, niños y niñas, como dirían ahora los tontos.

Pero “man” tiene otros usos: “A man has come to see you”, ha venido un señor a verte. “Charlie, say hello to the man”, Carlitos, saluda al señor.

Como exclamación equivale al español penínsular “tío”: “Hey, man, can you help me out!”, Oye, tío, ¿me puedes dar una ayuda? “Oh, man, you should have seen her”, tío, deberías haberla visto.

“The man from the phone company” es el de la compañía de teléfonos.

“The man” es el jefe, el patrón, el mandamás.

“My man” es lo que dicen las tías de baja estofa cuando hablan de su marido. Mi hombre, dirían en castellano.

“Every man for himself”, sálvese quien pueda (las mujeres también.)

MAKE UP Y SUS TRADUCCIONES

    

     Maquillarse: “She makes herself up in the bathroom”, se maquilla en el baño.

    Hacer las paces: “They made up soon after the fight”, hicieron las paces pronto depués de la pelea.

Inventar(se): “I didn’t know what to say, so I made up a story”, no sabía qué decir así que me inventé una historia.

Compensar: “I wasted your time but I’ll make it up to you”, te hice perder el tiempo pero te lo compensaré.

Recuperar: “We’ll make up the class next week”, recuperaremos la clase la semana que viene.

Y “To make up one’s mind”, decidirse: “I cannot make up my mind whether to marry Peter”, 

PRONUNCIACIÓN Y ORTOGRAFÍA INGLESAS

 

No perdamos los papeles nunca, con esto de la pronunciación y ortografía inglesas: El sonido de una palabra puede representarse de muy distintas maneras, y no hay que fiarse: lo mejor es comprobar siempre en un diccionario, que para eso están. Y cuando menos se piensa, salta la liebre, para el estudiante como para el nativo. A lo largo de la historia de la lengua inglesa una palabra tan simple como “where” se ha escrito de las siguientes maneras:

Wher

Whair

Wair

Wheare

Were

Wheer

Y toads estas grafías sonaban igual, o las pronunciaban igual.