Honest Language Lessons: Русский.
I’ve never just reposted someone’s post and I’ll admit I was curious to see what the ‘Press This’ button does exactly. (Pretty much what it says on the tin…)
The Greenery is a wonderful blog and I adore this post. It also fits in to my current thoughts on adult language learning. If I can ever work through this block, more will be posted. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful post!
The short answer is no.
I’ve been studying the Thai alphabet for the last 4 weeks. Thai has a lot of letters.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
CONSONANTS:
VOWELS:
The difference between short and long:
goal by Alan Rossiter via Flickr
Unlike English vowels, short and long in Thai don’t refer to types of sounds but the actual length of time you say a vowel. An example would be a British football sports commentator shouting:
GOAL!
vs. a Latin presenter shouting:
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAL!
In English, irrespective of the length, the word has the same meaning. Not so with Thai.
And since I’ve decided to harp on this topic, in my quest to figure out how many vowels Thai has, I came across a great response on a language chat board:
I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. In English there are 5 vowel characters ( a e i o u and sometimes y) (“AAaa!! Some people say there are 5 vowel characters in English and others say 6 … etc.” :-) But anyway, there’s a lot more vowel sounds than just those 5 (or 6) because you can combine them to form words like “ceiling” which might as well be spelled “ceeling” or “sealing” or so don’t kid yourself kids.
NOT ONLY THAT, but the sound of the vowel very much depends on the consonants in the word too. Getting scared? You will be: a in “hat” is hardly the same as a in “later”. There are dozens and dozens more.
At least in Thai when you see a vowel (or vowel combination) YOU KNOW what it’s gonna sound like. :-) 28 vowels really means 28 sounds. No hidden charges, no small print.
Chanchao
Cheers Chanchao wherever you are. This is a brilliant point and it is one of the reasons learning to write Thai actually helps beginners master the pronunciation.
If you are scratching your head at this point, you will understand why I decided to take an extended break from my lessons when our future in Thailand was temporarily up in the air.
Now that we are definitely staying—Yay—I need to get back to the books, and sounding out basic letter combinations like a first-grader. The road ahead is long and steep but I’ve invested in some good orthopedics and crampons.
When I was pregnant with my first, I was so excited to be expecting at last, I couldn’t wait to ‘show’. Having taken two years to conceive, I welcomed my new round belly with delight. Of course said belly had, for a long time, nothing to do with an expanding uterus and baby and everything to do with jumping back on the carb wagon I had forsaken in order to conceive.
My excuse? Pretzels and pasta did wonders for nausea.
The bigger I got the better, until the point my knees gave in and most people assumed I was having twins or nearly due. Of course, I hadn’t even entered my third trimester.
Something else happened: the bigger my stomach got, the stronger the positive force of attraction drawing people’s hands. What else could explain the phenomenon of perfect strangers reaching out and stroking, what is considered by most to be an intimate part of the body? Until you are ok with me reaching out and stroking your stomach, don’t even think about reaching out to touch mine! I digress.
Fast forward to baby #2 conceived about 19 months after having our first. I am sitting in my wonderful midwives’ offices. I am about 8 weeks in and already looking exceedingly pregnant. People are once again are very excited to see me and hands are already starting to reach out! I don’t even know if this one is a keeper yet–we lost one in between at about 10 weeks–and I am already having to contend with bump molesters.
I am perplexed. I know it is too early for a proper pregnancy bump and yet I seem to have one. I pose the question to my midwife. She raises her eyebrows slightly and responds something along these lines:
Midwife:
That’s a combination of the relaxin (aptly named) released in pregnancy to loosen ligaments and muscles, combined with completely weak abdominal muscles letting all your organs push your tummy out.
Me in disbelief:
Sorry? What exactly does that mean?
Midwife, tutting:
Oh honey…well you should have been doing more post natal Pilates or something else to firm up your tummy. Too late now of course.
Me slowly entering state of shock:
Why DIDNT YOU WARN ME? I would have DONE SOMETHING!
She ignores this comment and since she is inspecting things deep in my nethers, I decide not to push it. She and I both also know this wouldn’t have changed a thing given that I totally ignored her warnings about eating too much, subsequently gaining a hefty 65 lbs during my first pregnancy. But it feels good to lay the blame elsewhere.
Me:
So wait, you are telling me that those people who insist on patting my stomach without asking permission are in fact patting my…well… my nice jam-packed sluggish intestines?”
(Yes folks, when you are preggers food moves slowly through your ‘system’ in order to allow the body to get as many nutrients as possible out of it. Best not ponder that.)
Midwife pauses momentarily:
“Why yes, I guess you’re right”.
She then kindly suggests I get a corset. The last of my dignity walks out of the room, leaving me perched on the edge of the table, naked from the waist down.
The next time a near-stranger and the like approached me, practically cooing with arms outstretched, I decided against initiating evasive tactics and welcomed their pats as did my last week of meals still stuck in there. I call it instant Karma.
The American psyche is still reeling 33 years after the disappearance of little Etan Patz on his neighborhood corner. Kids have never been more coddled and cooped up. Activities like biking to school, which were once commonplace, now risk getting parents reported to social services, publicly ostracized, thrown in jail and on occasion nearly punched out by well-meaning grannies.
Is Our Fear Founded?
Every successive generation of technology along with the widespread adoption of social media means we are now, more than ever, aware of potential dangers. Couple this with competing media outlets battling it out for viewers, and we have a very distorted view of the threats facing our children today.
This article was written for In Culture Parent. To continue reading please click here.
Multilingual Mama 