Päivän sanonta

"Suomen puhuminen on vaikeaa, kun olet nähnyt maailmaa."
-Kulta

A friend's adventures in the UK

I was chatting over messenger with a good Mexican friend of mine who is now living in the UK. She told me a couple of stories that dovetail nicely with my own that I've also posted in this blog.

She's rather fair-skinned, with blue eyes and blond hair, so I asked her if people believed her when she said where was she from. She answered that usually they don't, but the worst part was with her doctor, who for half an hour analysed her facial features until declaring that "I thought that all Mexicans were short, dark Native Americans". The funniest part was that he was Pakistani himself.

In another instance, after arriving in Barcelona for spending the holidays she was asked to answer a survey. The interviewer started going through the survey in English and as she stutterd with a word my friend ask her to switch to Spanish. The interviewer then seemed rather taken aback, as she didn't expect my friend to be a native Spanish speaker.

So, the lesson is that in Europe people think she's from an English-speaking country, whereas in my case people think I'm Morrocan, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, or even half-Thai half-Finn, but we're both Mexican.

I think it's time we all get rid of our stereotypes. They might be reference points, but they're not very valid.

Mi maestra de francés

Los cuatro lectores (Catón dixit) de este blog desde el principio saben que soy un adicto a los idiomas. Sin embargo, últimamente me he sentido bastante falto de entusiasmo en mis clases y aprendizaje de francés (idioma en el cual leo bien, escribo a un nivel básico y hablo de manera fatal, aunque medio se me entiende). Después de un concienzudo análisis, me dí cuenta de que lo que no me gusta de mis clases de francés es la maestra.

Vayamos por partes (como diría Jack el destripador). Esta no es ni la primera ni la segunda ni la tercera vez que estoy estudiando una lengua que no es la materna, ni la primera vez que estoy estudiando dos idiomas al mismo tiempo (en orden cronológico he pasado por clases de inglés, alemán, italiano, finés, portugués y ahora francés y neerlandés, además de mi amado español mexicano chilango), y a lo largo de este tiempo me han tocado maestros malos, maestros buenos, maestros buena onda, maestros estrictos y maestros barcos entre otros, pero nunca me había tocado un maestro (maestra, en este caso) sarcástico.

Después de hacer el examen de colocación, me dijeron que me podía saltar el primer nivel (que dura un año) a lo que podríamos llamar Loditos II. Empecé con una maestra pero por cuestión de la maestría tuve que cambiar horario, con lo que me tocó la actual. Con ésta tal parece que no me congracié mucho dado que cuando nos preguntó en la clase cuál era nuestra experiencia con la lengua de Voltaire yo simplemente contesté "Ninguna, pero estoy leyendo De la guerra (von Clausewitz) en francés", lo cual parece que no le cayó muy en gracia. De tal manera que cuando me toca leer algún texto o hablar sobre algún tema, no sólo me corrige (que a eso va uno, a que le enseñen y lo corrijan), sino que lo hace de una manera, digamos, poco profesional como (al haber cambiado el sexo de un sustantivo por error) "¿Qué? ¿Ya lo volviste transsexual?" o (en un examen oral, donde expliqué que estoy comprometido) "La única manera en la que vas a mejorar es consiguiéndote una novia francófona" (y uno nada más pensando "¿Y qué ______ te acabo de explicar?").

Lo peor del caso es que creo que fuera de ese detallote es una maestra bastante buena y estoy seguro que he aprendido bastante, pero no la soporto, y la verdad es que ni ganas me dan de practicar mi francés fuera de clase, con lo cual no avanzo como quisiera. En realidad estoy muy desmotivado al respecto.

Lo bueno es que no hay mal que por bien no venga. Por razones de calendarización de la maestría, voy a tener que cambiar a otra clase otra vez, así que espero que me vaya mejor (si me pudieran mandar con la primera maestra que tenía sería excelente).

Ylämäki-Alamäki not like uphill-downhill

The literal translations are the same, but the meanings are opposite. Who'd have thought?

They're afraid of me...

One of the funniest things that has happened to me in Brussels is that when I find Finns in the street and talk to them in Finnish, they get scared as hell. Why? Because I sure as hell don't look Finnish, so they don't know what's going on.

At least with the younger generation that's not such a big problem anymore, but I sure hope it'd change.

Star Wars in different languages

Saw a post at Jedifreac's blog about Star Wars in different languages. Hilarious!

Addicted to languages

I have to say that I'm really glad that I have a TV in Brussels, even though in the beginning I was very reluctant. The reason is simple: except for Finnish, Portuguese and Spanish-language channels, in my (very small) TV I have plenty of channels in French, English, Dutch, German and Italian, which means that I can practise those languages in the comfort of my home.

It's not that I speak any of them perfectly (there is no such thing anyway), but I really like the different doors they open, different ways of thinking and so on. As my old German texbook name said, they're bridges between peoples.

The most fascinating thing is that there's still so many to learn. I'd like to study Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Náhuatl, Yucatecan Maya...

So much to learn, so little time...

En V.F. ou en V.O.

Mieux en V.F... quelque chose que s'écoute trés bien en francais.

• Seigneur des Anneaux
• La noveau publicité de BMW ("pas que une voiture est seulement une voiture")
  

Mieux en V.O... quand en francais s'écoute légèrement ridicule.

• Quelq'un film avec Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Les Simpsons
  

Podcasts I'm listening to

• BBC Estudio 834: Interviews to Latin American personalities.
• Byte, tecnología aplicada... a la vida: Tecnology news.
• De Standaard - Overstekend Wild: Flemish editorial. Listen to it just to get used to the sound of the language.
• Dixo.com - Abel Membrillo: One of the radio DJs with the best voice in Mexican radio history. Talks about poetry and whatever comes to his mind.
• Dixo.com - Eduardo Arcos: Technology by one of the most renowned Latin American commentators.
• Dixo.com - Fernanda Tapia: Another radio DJ from Mexico City. Don't necessarily agree with her, but it's good to hear something different once in a while.
• Dixo.com - Muñecón: A very funny, sometimes deep commentator.
• Dixo.com - Sopitas: A radio DJ that used to work in Radioactivo, a legendary Mexico City station. Usually talks about music and sports.
• Dixo.com - Trujo: Another radio DJ that talks about personal experiences.
• Dixo.com - Warpig: A former Radioactivo DJ as well, talks about politics and music. I'd rather have him stick to music.
• Dixo.com - Sputnik: The podcast of a Mexican technology magazine.
• El Podcast the Olallo Rubio: The enfant terrible of Mexican radio, and also a Radioactivo alumni. This is one of the most popular podcasts in Mexico.
• En la Historia: Different topics viewed from a historical perspective.
• From Our Own Correspondent: One of the best programmes from the BBC. In-depth views from BBC correspondents the world over.
• Imposible estar de acuerdo: The sound desing is really annoying, but the program is quite good. Editorial opinions from mostly Mexican politics.
• In our time: A great History podcast from the BBC.
• La Libre.be Focus: Good international affairs podcast. Also useful to practise French as I know what they are talking about.
• Locura por el Futbol: Sometimes annoying, but good Mexican football podcast.
• Más allá de las Fronteras: International affairs podcast.
• mediotiempo.com - Sopitas: El Sopitas again, this time focusing only in football.
• Narraciones de Paco Calderón: One of Mexico's most famous cartoonists also worked in the radio. Here's a selection.
• Patada y Gol: Another football podcast from Mexico.
• PodCasting Brasil: Caroço: Another football podcast, this time from Brazil.
• Päivä Tunnissa - YLE Radio Peili: The day's news from Finland.
• Rai international podcast: Mostly cinema commentary in Italian.
• Rebelión: New independent rock bands from Mexico.
• Rimbombante, el podcast: Explanation of usage of difficult Spanish-language words.
• Suena en el estéreo con Rulo: Another ex-Radioactivo DJ introduces new music every week.
• Tagesschau Video-Podcast: Daily news video podcast from German channel ARD.
• Testigos del Crimen: Criminology and crime psicology. Reality is weirder than fiction.
• Trailercast.tv: Movie Trailers Podcast

Language and national character

After reading this book and some other materials for my intercultural management I've been able to slightly refine an old idea I had about how different languages express and modify the characters of the people that use it. Even though I'm not a linguist I think it's relatively accurate for some, for others I might as well get grilled. Comments are more than welcome.

• English: good for business and action-oriented. Also good for fantasising.
• Italian: temperamental.
• French: philosophical.
• Finnish: communicate the largest amount of information in the shortest amount of words possible. Also good for creating words.
• German: precise, pünktlich.
• Portuguese: playful, but at the same time rather melancholic.
• Spanish: baroque, but also depends on the speaker. Spanish speakers use it in a much more direct way than, say, Mexican speakers (because their culture is much more direct).
• Dutch: I'm having my first class today, so maybe I'll be able to tell you something in a year.

Could a Japanese speaker please explain what does no mean?

How to tell if you're from X

Similar to the post below, I came accross this page before. It's very good, and quite accurate for the countries I know.