Friday, December 11, 2015

Interrobang ‽

The interrobang is a wonderful invention! It allows us to express shock, excitement, or other emotions that need more than standard punctuation. It is just as it looks: a combination of the question mark and exclamation mark. While not widely supported as a form of punctuation, that is to say, many fonts don’t accept it, and there is no designated interrobang key, for those willing to copy and paste it all the time and keep changing fonts. For those people who aren’t quite as in love with the interrobang as I am, it might not be worth it to know how to type it, but regardless of whether you’re smitten with non-standard punctuation or not, you should always be able to recognize some marks, especially this one.


(127 words)

Is Anything Really Taboo Anymore?

Why are some words taboo? It all boils down to societal values and peer morals. I can’t tell you the stories I heard in my high school…they’re too bizarre to repeat. Some other things I hear people say, I wonder to myself, WHY ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT THAT IN PUBLIC? Some things that should stay private are aired like laundry, and I really don’t need to see the dirty laundry, and especially not if I’m not asking about it!

While I realize that I can be kind of a prude sometimes, there are just some things that shouldn’t be talked about in public. Or ever.

One of the greatest things about working in a restaurant is that a lot of people tell you a lot about themselves, not only by how they treat you, but also what they literally tell you with their words. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve heard really cool stories, and also really weird ones.

There’s one cool couple comes into the restaurant sometimes, and the lady has really awesome quirky jewelry. One time I said something about it looking pretty, and she talked to me for easily ten minutes about how different colors meant different things, how amber is “her color” for a couple different reasons, and it was not only really fun to hear about this, but it was great seeing her talking about something she’s really into.

Back to taboo, though: please, please, please remember to not only have a mental-verbal filter, but USE IT, too. I don’t need to hear the story of your mother’s uncle’s sister’s cat’s nephew’s friend’s cousin’s scandal about how the fork ran away with the spoon.


(283 words)

Franglais: when languages collide (quand les langues se heurtent)

Franglais: when languages collide (quand les langues se heurtent)

A lot of the time, when people are around others that speak the same languages as them, they tend to mix languages together. Personally, on more than one occasion I’ve caught myself wanting to mix up French and English together in the same sentence. Sometimes, but very rarely, I’ll throw in a word of Spanish or German as well. Now that some of my international friends are attempting to teach me Arabic, I will go out of my way to figure out a sentence into which I can put something they’ve taught me.

An example: j’ai noticed that quand je parle avec my friends qui speak another langue qui est la même que la mienne, I tend to mix up the languages dans la same phrase.

(I’ve noticed that when I speak with my friends who speak another language that is the same as mine, I tend to mix up the languages in the same sentence.)


(165 words)

Bilingual Entry / Entrée bilingue

English translation to follow French entry. (Traduction en anglais suit l'entrée en français.)

Pour une personne bilingue, il y a tant de choses à faire. Il peut devenir ce qu’il veut avec facilité, et il a beaucoup de choix pour sa vie. Mais pour une personne monolingue, c’est très différent. Il ne peut pas parler aux autres qui ne parlent pas sa langue. Il est plus limité avec ses choix pour sa vie. S’il veut être diplomate, c’est possible qu’il sera interdit par les organisations qui lui disent qu’ils préfèrent les gens qui sont bilingue, ou trilingue. C’est un exemple un peu extrême, mais c’est la vie.

En étant une étudiante de français comme une langue étrangère, je trouve la langue un peu difficile, mais je sais que j’ai besoin d’une autre langue que la mienne. Aujourd’hui, avec l’internet, on peut communiquer avec tout le monde. J’ai des amis en France, en Allemagne, en Arabie saoudite, et en Espagne. Oui, pour mon ami espagnol et mes amies arabes et allemandes, ils parlent anglais, mais mes amis français ne parlent trop d’anglais et ça me fait heureuse parce je dois parler français avec eux. Je pense aux gens qui ne parle pas de langue que la leur, et je suis désolée pour eux. La chance de découvre beaucoup de choses leur manque, parce qu’ils n’ont pas étudié des autres langues. Je connais des gens qui disent « eh bien, c’est l’Amerique. Si quelqu’un voudrait venir ici, il doit parler américain. » De plus en plus, je pense que les jeunes américains sont désenchantés avec leurs études des autres langues. Ils pensent que le logiciel de Google peut traduire ce qu’ils veulent dire. Malheureusement, ce n’est pas le cas. On doit étudier des langues étrangères. Oui, je sais que c’est difficile, mais ON NE PEUT PAS L’ABANDONNER !

Je n’oublierai jamais une fois que j’étais à Disney dans la Floride. J’attendais pour une montagne russe, et j’ai vu une femme à côté de moi. Je voulais lui dire que cette attraction m’amuse beaucoup, mais quand j’ai dit « c’est chouette » elle me regardait et puis elle m’a dit « je ne parle pas anglais ». J’étais gênée, et alors j’ai fait signe que c’est bon. Je ne parlais plus devant elle après ça, déprimée que je ne pouvais pas parler avec quelqu’un pour une raison comme les langues de nos pays.

Je vous demande d’apprendre une nouvelle langue. C’est la mode de communication pour le monde, et on doit parler avec nos voisins. Je vous souhaite beaucoup de bonheur et du succès avec vos études.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
For a bilingual person, there are many things to do. He could become whatever he wants with ease, and he has many life choices. On the other hand, for a monolingual person, it’s very different. He can’t speak with others who don’t speak his language. He is more limited with his life choices. If he wishes to be a diplomat, that might not happen because the organizations prefer people who speak two or three languages. It’s a bit extreme for an example, but that’s life.

As a student of French as a foreign language, I find the language to be a bit difficult, but I know that I need another language than my native one. Today, with the Internet, we can communicate with the whole world. I have friends in France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Spain. Yes, my Spanish, Saudi, and German friends speak English,  but my French friends don’t, or at least not very much and it makes me happy to speak French with them. I think about the people who don’t speak any language but their own, and I feel sorry for them. The chance to discover a lot of things is missing to them because they haven’t studied another language. I know people who say “hey, it’s America. If people want to come here, they should speak English.” More and more, I think about young Americans who become disenchanted with second language study. They think that Google’s software can translate what they want to say. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. We need to study foreign languages. Yes, I know it’s difficult, but WE CANNOT GIVE IT UP!

I’ll never forget the time I was at Disney in Florida. I was waiting for a roller coaster, and I saw a woman at the side of me. I wanted to tell her that this ride was a lot of fun, but when I said “it’s cool”, she looked at me and said “I don’t speak English”. I was embarrassed, so I just gave a thumbs up. I didn’t talk to her anymore after that, sad that I couldn’t speak with someone because of our countries’ language.

I ask you to learn a new language. It’s how we communicate within the world, and we need to speak with our neighbors. I wish you lots of luck and success with your studies.

(827 words: 428 mots en français, 399 words in English)

Spelling in Dialect

Dialects are great, until you start writing a story and the character has a very particular dialect that needs specific spelling to get the point across. For example, in Little Women, Alcott, being from Boston, wrote the name of the girls’ mother as “Marmee” because to a Bostonian, “Marmee” is said like “mommy”. These girls didn’t have some weird thing that they called their mother, Alcott just had a Boston accent, which could be a tad bit confusing for people unfamiliar with it. To my understanding, some Rs are added and some are dropped. To an Ohioan, it makes no sense, but we have our own thing. Something I notice about native Clevelanders is that we have “the Cleveland A”, which is a drawn-out nasally A. After hearing someone point it out, I can’t un-hear it. It’s like the arrow in the FedEx logo, the bear in the Toblerone mountain, or the 31 in the Baskin Robbins “BR”. Once you know it’s there, it’s never gone.

What regional things do you like? What bothers the **** out of you? Drop a line below!


(184 words)