The Linguist Can't Help It!

Fiorella, who is obsessed by languages, thought she detected a faint German accent in the speech of the hospital employee who was guiding her to Husband's new room so she tried "Sprechen sie Deutsch?" under her breath, just in care she was wrong.

"Ya!" the woman replied, but before she could rattle off a conversation Fio couldn't handle, Fiorella explained that she had had just ein semester auf Deutsch in college, but that her mother, who's own mother spoke German, had taught her a few words and phrases. 

What Fio didn't tell die gute frau was that the whole time she was trying out her meager German, the rooskii yazik in her kept trying to steal the show. Hmmm...maybe all it will take for Fiorella to revive her languages is to be forced to use them

Rooskee Yazeek

Fio will admit that she screamed "Dummkopf!" at Stephen Colbert last night when he mispronounced the Russian word for "Thank you." She loves her languages, especially Russian with its wonderful "zh's" and "kv's" and "rrrrr's." She hasn't retained very much of it, and she could never have carried on a conversation in it, even in her third year, because translation of a written text was the teaching emphasis back then. Maybe a fourth year would have helped, but the Linguistics Department at UT required two semesters of a non-Indo-European language, which meant Fio had to drop Russian and take up Telegu. Fio grew to love Telegu too, especially because, like with the rooskyy yazeek, she had to learn a new and different script. But again, she has lost most of the language. If you don't use it, you lose it.

And, by the way, "dummkopf" is German (Deutsch), which Fiorella had one glorious semester of.

Language Addiction

Kifallah! 

That's how you say "hello" in Egyptian Arabic, which adds yet another greeting to Fiorella's ever-growing repertoire.  She learned it from the golden-haired  clerk who checked her out in H-E-B a couple of days ago, then solidified it in her brain by repeating it to the woman yesterday when Fio realized she'd wound up in the same register line.

Where did Fio's fascination with languages come from? Maybe from the early exposure Fio has previously described--her great aunts and uncles teaching her a "soft Russian" phrase ("God, give health") to use when she sneezed, maybe from a Louisiana-born neighbor teaching her to say "I love you" in French, another neighbor teaching her hose to count to ten in Spanish, her mother teaching her how to count and recite the alphabet in German. Maybe from moving from Ohio to Texas and having to learn a whole new version of English. Maybe from her desire to communicate with everyone she meets, or from her own weird brain, which seems to be attracted to unraveling intricacies.

Whatever, Fiorella is hooked. The next time she goes through Goldie's line, she'll ask her how to  say "thank you."

Co-mingling

Bon jour, mia bella! Como esta usted sevodna? Neenu teluguloo maaTlaaDagalaru. Koennen Sie diese Sprache sprechen? Zdai chen!

Ave atque vale,
Fio, who's messing with you

Languages,Languages, Languages

Has Fio told you she's trying to learn Spanish by semi-immersion? She started by watching Univision, a Spanish-language station, every night to absorb the 's sounds and rhythm of the language, and now, with the help of Google Translator, she is trying to get everything in the house labeled so wherever she looks, she'll see the Spanish word for it. She's planning to post a color chart too.  And she's trying to build the habit of substituting Spanish words for English words when she can.

Of course, most of the words she's learning now are basic nouns, but she's pretty sure she can learn prepositions from context. And she already has a head start on pronouns because she lives in Texas. The verbs will be more problematical, but Fio will handle them in time if she keeps at it. That's what immersion is all about.

And just think--if Fio can master Spanish, she can bring her Russian back up to speed.  And her Latin.  And then there's Italian--and German--and Telugu--and Mandarin--and every other language Fio has ever wanted to speak. (You'll notice Fio left off French.  She could read it quite well at one time, but has no interest in learning how to mispronounce it at this point in her life.)



 

Fio, the Guinea Pig

Fiorella once had a German neighbor who said she'd learned English by watching American television so Fio has been watching Spanish-language TV each night to try to learn Spanish. Currently, she's only watching for about fifteen minutes at a time, mainly to pick up the rhythm of the language, the obvious constructions, and the phonemes, but as she progresses, she hopes to pick up word meanings in context. (Hint: the advertisements are gold mines.)

Just another of the 101 projects Fio has going on in her life.

Leaking Languages

Fiorella awoke with words and phrases popping out of her mouth--words and phrases from languages she studied many years ago, languages she thought had totally fled her brain.  She's been doing that a lot lately, spouting Russian, German, Telugu, Latin, even French, Spanish, and Italian, which she had somehow managed to maneuver through on her own, plus her bits and pieces of Mandarin and an exclamation in Hindi.

It figures.  Remember the four cornerstones of Fio's personal world are music, art, literature, and . . . . languages.

Now to check around Georgetown and see if anyone is running a Russian review class.  Yeah, fat chance.

Multi-Lingual Greetings

Keefik! Hola! Ciao! Chao! Guten Morgen! Preevyet! Ave! Comesta! Nee hau! NuhmuhskaaruhmuhnDee! Nuhmustey. Bon jour! 

Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, Latin, Fillipino, Mandarin, Telugu, Hindi, and French.

As Fiorella has often said, she knows just enough in far too many languages to get her in trouble anywhere she goes. Sigh--if only she knew more.

The Life of Leisure

Fio's at it again.  She's hopping in the car at 10:30 today to drop by Beleza at 11:00 and drop off some of her promotional bookmarks, then meet with Friend Paula at Dan's at 11:30, then with Friend Cheryl at Starbucks at 12:45.  After that, she'll run by the post office.  Once home, she'll write, write, write till about midnight, then sleep till eight tomorrow morning and start all over again.

She forgot to say that she'll also work in lifting five-pound weights ten times in German, will do ten plies in Russian, slip in a bit of piano practice, and oil her fingernails.

Eating and breathing are optional.

Guten Morgen. Preevyet!

The languages are leaking out of Fiorella night and day--bits and pieces of tongues she has studied through the years, but mainly das Deutsch und/ee rooskee yazeek.  And the wonderful thing is that, when she uses simple phrases, other words and phrases pop into her head.

Verstehen sie?  Pahnimahyitzee lee vwee? 

A bientot!

Vielleicht . . . .

When Husband asked Fio to let the dog out, Fiorella popped back with "Einen Augenblick!"

Now, truth to tell, Fiorella had one semester (ein Semester) of German (Deutsch) years ago in college, and she can actually remember some of it when prodded, like "Ich will schnell meine Badehose holen" (I will quickly get my swim trunks.)  But einen Augenblick (just a second) hadn't been part of her vocabulary since forever.

Fio is hopeful.  Maybe that means that, as she gets older, all those languages she tried so hard to absorb in her youth will start leaking out--ja?

Paper is Patient

What does it mean, that "paper is patient?"  It was something Fio's mother used to say because her German grandfather had said it, and it does NOT mean, as some people on Google seem to think, that what you write will last eternally.  It means one shouldn't believe everything one reads.

A word to the wise.

  .

Uno, zwei, tri, muuDu, quinque, cinq, sei

Hello, one and all, and especially you physical therapists that told Fiorella not to blog about you. What a challenge to hurl at her.

No, this isn't a scandalous tell-all.  Fiorella liked the therapists who worked with her, and she benefited from the treatments--in fact, now that her sessions are over, she's actually doing some of the exercises at home. But Fio does have one suggestion. It would make better use of your clients' time if you turned off the television and suggested they learn to count their reps in various foreign languages. Fiorella herself reviewed Spanish, German, Russian, Telugu, Latin, and French (sort of--not too good at pronouncing French) during her time on the table.  And the PT big dog, Nicole, kindly added Italian to her repertoire.

If those seven languages aren't enough, there's always Mandarin. Fio's already learned 1,2, 3--ee (high), aar (low and rising up), ssun(high to low), although she needs to read up on Mandarin phonemes before she can give you the exact pronunciation of that last one.

Numerals

SPANISH: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez

GERMAN: eins, zwei, drei, fier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn

RUSSIAN: один, два, три, четыре,  пять, шесть, семь, восемь, девять, десять

TELUGU:  ఒకటి, రెన్ఢు, మూఢు, నాలుగు, ఐడు, ఆరు, ఏఢు, ఎనిమిడి, టొమ్మిడి, పడి

LATIN:  unus (-a, -um), duo, tres, quattuor, quinque, sex, octo, septem, novem, decem

FRENCH: un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix (which Fio will never learn to pronounce correctly) 

MANDARIN?

 

Catching up with Fio

Fiorella rewrote yesterday's blog because it didn't flow right when she reviewed it that evening.  She's like that--a serial revisionist.  Anything worth doing is worth doing better.  Stay tuned.  This blog will probably get a revision too.
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Fio's numeral-reviewing project in seven languages got bogged down somewhere along the line so she decided to work on just 1-10 instead of 1-20.  She can rattle off those  numbers in Spanish, German, and Russian again, and is working on Telugu.  Latin and French should be easy enough once it's their turn.  But, now Fio wants to add Mandarin to the list.  After all, she has an appointment with her Chinese dentist next month.
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Husband and Fiorella started putting together an art desk last weekend, but they screwed in the center crossbar upside down and haven't had the time to fix it.  Ah well, there are seventeen more hours left in this weekend.

Happy Fourth!

Russian, English, German, Gypsy, Swiss,
Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Jew
Fiorella's an all-American miss
Hooray for the red, white, and blue!

Never Falls Far from the Tree

Turns out that Fiorella is half Rusyn, also known as Ruthene.  The Rusyns are a Slavic (what else?) populace native to the Carpathian mountains, but also with settlements in a narrow strip along the Slovakian border, which is where Fio's father's family hails from.

How exotic can you get?  Yet that side of the family is all as staid and steady as they come.

On the other hand, her mother's family is a mixed bag--Polish, German, Swiss, with even some English thrown in.  But in contrast to her staid paternal ancestry, this side of Fio's family is loaded with characters--a supposed gypsy, a mechanical genius or two, a witch, and a concert singer, to name a few.

Now you know why Fiorella is always coming up with yet another clever project, but she's solid as a rock.

Good News All the Way Around

It's been a semana buena en la casa de Fiorella. Su hijo menor has a job, a real live job, and his art is being showcased by un amigo of his. And the knee replacement surgery de su hijo mayor went very well--he's undergoing physical therapy as we speak. Meanwhile Fiorella is talking to a real live New York agent about Princess of Bosque Bend.

The nexus was the birthday del padre de la Fiorella en Lunes, and having Nephew Aaron's cumpleanos en Martes augmented it.

Gracias al buen Dios, muchas gracias. Merci, grazie, danke shoen, spaseeba, shyeh shyeh.

Okay, Fio took a flyer on this one so any corrections to her linguistic prowess are welcomed.