Basically it’s just been a good day. Hardly one bad emotion has bubbled forth. I made lunch with Jamie and my mom and it was the best – THE BEST – potato soup I have ever had. Mm yeah. Then the three of us plus Ana had my study and I learned how to pronounce names from the bible the correct way. Let’s see…watched Baby Mama after that. Played dominoes with Todd and Abi until midnight. Had delicious faux fried ice cream. Decided on a huge multi year thing I would rather do than kill myself (in case you didn’t know I have a list which I add to every night of things I’d rather do than kill myself. I add one thing right after I write down everything good about the day. GooOoo Gratitude Journaling!) and it is….learn the top five languages used world wide. I’m not sure which I’m going to start with. I already know English enough to get by. So I dont know. I’ll figure that out and get started. So yeah. Hope you all had great days.

A tough time for trade and diplomatic ties between China and Australia, but the loan of this cuddly couple may repair the rift. Wang Wang and Fu Ni, from China’s southwest Sichuan province, will be sent to the Adelaide zoo by yearend in a 10-year loan for research purposes. Relations have been tense between China and Australia after Chinese state-owned metals firm Chinalco failed in a $19.5 billion bid for a stake in Rio Tinto, and separately four Rio employees were arrested on suspicion of corporate espionage. A decision by Australia’s government in July to grant a visa for exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer further soured ties. But panda diplomacy may be answer.

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2009/11/19/chinas-goodwill-pandas-ready-for-australia-mission/

I already said in my first post that we speak a few languages at home.  My wife is French-Swiss, born in France of Portuguese parents, she speaks French to our son.  I was born in Barcelona of Catalan parents and I speak Catalan to him.  The girl that babysits him everyday while my wife works speaks Spanish.  My wife and I met in English and keep on using it to speak to each other.

We recently hired a Chinese girl to take care of our son and to play with him for 2 hours a day talking to him in Mandarin.  Our son must think that everybody in the world speaks a different language…  how happy he will be to discover he can reuse a language to speak to different people!  (-:

The main reason for having our son learning Mandarin Chinese now is not so much for him to master the language when he is an adult.  We cannot know if he will continue studying such a difficult language.

Will he block with so many languages and we will have to “cut” one or two?

Will he have time to continue after he starts school? (if he does. We are also considering homeschooling)

Will we still be in the position to pay for this in the future?  We just don’t know now.

But even if that’s not the case, there are many postives to being exposed to Mandarin as a toddler:

- Mandarin Chinese is a very different language from the Indo-European  languages we speak.  That makes it very difficult to learn when you are an adult.

- Mandarin is a tonal language.  It has 4 different tones.  Basically, this means that the same word said in different tones changes meanings.  By learning Mandarin, you are training your ear.  That can later be useful either for learning music or for learning any other tonal language without the great difficulty usually faced by westerners.

- Playing with a Chinese person is exposing our son to a very different culture and behavior.  Hopefully, he will have an easier time understanding different behaviors in the future.

So far so good, the Chinese girl that takes care of him is a very artistic and playful person that gets along very well with my son. We are very happy he hasn’t rejected her for speaking yet another language.

I have to add that this year our son is not going to the kindergarten, so his academic challenges are only this daily Chinese “classes” and swimming, which he enjoys a lot for four days a week.

Try telling the following address by telephone:

Slash_dot_at@dot.com

The English convention of using “at” or “at sign” for describing “@” is so lame. Other languages have done better. Here are some excerpts from herodios.com

Czech (Czech Republic):  Závinaˆc, which means a herring wrapped around a pickle.

Danish:  Snabel-a, “elephant’s trunk.”

Dutch: Apestaartje, “little monkey’s tail,” though sometimes Apeklootje, a rude word for another part of the monkey’s anatomy.

Hungarian:  Kukac, “worm or maggot.”

Italian:  Chiocciola, “snail.”

Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan):  Xiao Lao Shu, “little mouse,”or Lao Shu Hao, “mouse sign.”

Russian:  Sobachka, “doggie.”
Thai: Ai tua yiukyiu, “wiggling worm.”

Let’s be creative and come up with a good name for “@” in Hindi and other Indian Languages. How about:

Hindi: Jalebi (a sweet) [picture of a jalebi]

And why stop at “@”? All the other punctuation signs are just waiting to be described graphically.

Yesterday – or was that the the day before since I lost a day crossing the Pacific? – I spent too long at LAXative airport waiting for a rare (for me, since I hate them) flight after some brilliant days on the train across the USA. One after the other came the announcements – in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, German and so on, followed by American English. (Strangely, they didn’t announce the flight to Sydney in Australian and then American, even though the two languages are often far apart.) Initially I assumed that in each case the announcement referred to a flight to Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, Germany …  But then I began to wonder. What if, I imagined, they were to announce flights in languages entirely unrelated to the destination. So a flight to Mexico would be announced in Chinese, one to Sweden in Korean, one to Sydney in Arabic. My guess is that the confusion would be no greater than that which currently engulfs airports in the USA.

london2012 games

Yes, languages and Olympics go hand-in-hand – how?

We came across a great post (by The National Centre for Languages, UK) in regards to the value and importance of languages to the success of the Games (London 2012).  It’s so true that language skills not only is critical to the execution and smooth running of the event and help bridge the communicate gap for people from around the world gathering in one place where the Games and actions are but also dramatically improve the experience and appreciation of the diversity, Games spirit, city and culture.

It’s refreshing to see that the British and London officials place great emphasis and recognizing the multilingualism in their planning and preparing for the Games 2012, even though English is statistically considered as the most commonly-spoken language in the world.  They see that language capability as a way to boost the tourism and enhance “global brand position” – so languages are a game changing secret tool for the British  now so-to-speak

Not only the British government see language capability (in communicating with visitors in their own languages) as a vital way to leave lasting legacy of a thriving, innovative tourism industry but also plays a critical in the Arts and in making the Games a truly global celebration.

We can’t agree more.  That’s truly in line with LangLearner’s aspiration and mission in helping and contributing to the language learning for traveling, cultural exchange and much more.  It’s what we do and think about day and night (even while we sleep

So, prepare yourself for a great experience, conversation and company with people from around world at the Games by learning  a few new languages now, it’s quick and fun with LangLearner tools

Ciao.

references:

http://www.langlearner.com
http://www.cilt.org.uk/home/valuing_languages/languages_and_the_olympics.aspx
http://www.cilt.org.uk/home/valuing_languages/languages_and_the_olympics/where_languages_come_in.aspx
http://sofiaecho.com/2009/09/24/788861_english-most-G12commonly-spoken-foreign-language-in-eu-new-statistics

Experienced, dedicated, detail-oriented  translator/copywriter, interpreter and tutor,  with background in communications and international business, seeking to work on Spanish/English projects.

QUALIFICATION HIGHLIGHTS

• Multilingual English, Spanish, and German
• Strategic thinker and out-of-the-box problem solver with proven effectiveness in efficiently executing projects

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

TRANSLATION – COPY EDITING – COPY WRITING

Clients: Coca-Cola, Clorox, Maybelline, Garnier, Qwest Communications, AARP, Nutrilite, McGraw-Hill Publishing, California Counties, Pacific Gas and Electric Co, Latin Grammys, among others

Positions: Independent Hispanic Communications Specialist (1999-present)

Hispanic Advertising Agencies, Account  Management (HQ, DDB, SCPF 2001-2009)

Hispanic Multimedia Co, Project Management/Account Management (Batanga.com 2006-2009)

Multinational Laboratories, National and International Sales (1992-1994)

• Created, edited, and translated copy for diverse marketing/advertising pieces:

Online, TV, Print, Radio, Collateral, Catalogues

• Translated technical documents for various industries: retail, consumer goods,
  high tech, telecommunications, educational, governamental, veterinarial, medical,
  and utilities

INTERPRETER

Clients: Corporations and individuals

Positions: Translation/Interpretation Agencies  (1999-present)

Centers for the Blind in TX and CA, Interpreter (1999-2001)

• Interpreting during customers’ conferences, meetings, and interviews
  (business / legal /medical)

LANGUAGE TUTOR

Clients: Adults and children ranging in age (8 to 50) and language levels

Positions: Independent Tutor

• Spanish, English and German private lessons for groups and individuals

EDUCATION

Here in Madrid, you ask to a Spaniard to pronounce special in English (\ˈspe-shəl\) and he usually miss two out of the three phonemes of the word: the first, cause he puts a vowel at the beginning , the second, cause he substitutes sh with a simple s. And no, the guy doesn’t suffer any pronounciation deficiency. Simply, castellano is missing both phonems: ’sp and sh.

You get curious and you start digging more on this strange deficiency of  the castellano. You end up discovering that here in the Meseta Central many phonemes, extensively used in latin and anglosaxon languages, are simply and fully missed:

1) sh as in English “shelter”, in italian sciogliere, in French choix, in Portuguese chuchu

2) sp & st, as in Italian spezia / storto, in English special / stark

3) soft s, as in Italian rosa, in Portuguese rosa, in French rose, in English rose

4) strong z, as in Italian pazzo, in German katze

5) psi, as in Italian psicologia, in French psicologia, in English psicology

6) csi, as in Italian xilofono, in English xilophone

It dosn’t end here: castellano does mix b and v up, they are pronounced with the same sound.

On the opposite, castellano has just one phoneme unknown to Italian, the j in Javier. Well, the ll too is slightly different from italian gl, but they are very very similar.

Conclusions:

1) As the weather here en la meseta central, castellano is a dried up language

2) Spaniards easily kill other languages when they use only familiar phonemes to interpret them (that is … most of the time

Hey, I like to live in the meseta central!

Finalmente li com atenção os câmbios na ortografia portuguesa em vigor desde o começo desse ano. E também li um pouco das discussões sobre o bom e o ruim dessa mudança.

Eu vejo esta tentativa de unificar e simplificar a língua portuguesa como muito boa. Com a Internet, a língua vira uma só, as barreras geográficas caem. Justo que as letras não pronunciadas desapareçam, acadêmicas estas discussões de linguistas.

Mais e mais, o que importa é como os jovens escrevem na Internet, porque somente estas formas são indexadas pelo Google / Yahoo / Bing, e são assim as primeiras a ser encontradas. Se as regras gramaticais são fáceis, os jovens as seguirão, se não simplesmente a evitarão. Tudo este inteletualismo de linguistas fica no papel impresso, em alguns fundos de biblioteca.

Musing on the continuing place of language issues in both research and practice in the information sciences, following my participation in the Zagreb InFuture meeting, I wrote an editorial on the topic for the Journal of Documentation. This post is an amended version.

Languages, in one guise or another, have been a constant feature of the landscape of the information sciences for many years.

There are, for example, the various artificial ‘languages’ – more usually thought of as notations, nomenclatures or ontologies – which have been devised to describe such things as chemical structures and reactions, medical diagnoses and treatments, and the burgeoning data-rich fields of modern biology. There is the presence of linguistics as a subject of seemingly perpetual potential relevance to the information sciences. As Sparck Jones and Kay (1973, p. 1) put it in their seminal textbook: “linguistics and information science are natural bedfellows … but there has been relatively little contact between the two fields”: the situation has not changed much in the intervening decades. There is the now ubiquitous searching of ‘full text’ databases, requiring a greater or lesser amount of ‘intelligent’ processing of the natural languages in which the content of such databases are couched.

But primarily, there is the continued need for handling communication of information in all of the world’s languages. Neither the earnest advocacy of ‘universal’ or ‘auxiliary’ languages, from Leibnitz’ logic-based characteristica universalis to Esperanto, nor the long-anticipated advent of English as a de facto global language (Crystal 2003), has reduced the demand for support for national and local languages, as the provision for 23 official languages in the European Union testifies.

This naturally has consequences for research and practice in the information sciences. A facility with languages other than one’s own has always been one of the requirements of the practising librarian and information officer, even in the traditionally language-averse United Kingdom. Sadly, the requirement for some facility with two languages other than English, a requirement when I studied information science at Masters level, has long gone from the UK, though an equivalent requirement is still largely present in Continental Europe. This manifested itself in a variety of detailed language tools for the information professions, Allen’s 1975 Manual of European Languages for Librarians, being a typical example.

In research terms, language issues have stimulated work on a variety of topics. An early example was the study of the value of ‘cover-to-cover’ translations of scientific journals, particularly from the Russian language following the shock to the Western scientific complacency caused by the Sputnik satellite of 1957 (Tybulewicz 1970). Other long-standing concerns, in the English-speaking world at least, were focused on the ‘language barrier’, the belief that valuable information, particularly in scientific, technical and medical subjects, was being missed because it was not published in the English language (see, for instance, Hutchins, Pargeter and Saunders 1971, Chan 1977, Thorpe, Schur, Bawden and Joice 1988). More recently, attention has been focused on such topics as the information practices of translators, natural language processing and cross-language information retrieval; Some examples of recent Journal of Documentation articles reporting such research, as an indication of its variety, are shown below.

These thoughts were stimulated by my attending the INFuture conference in Zagreb, Croatia, in November. A substantial proportion of this conference, which dealt with the future of information science, was devoted to language technologies – including machine-aided translation and natural language processing – and to languages issues in general. The topics covered included the European Union’s CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure) project, which aims to compile a series of digital archives with data sources for language-based materials (text and speech corpuses, dictionaries, etc.) together with language and speech technology tools. Particularly aimed at academic users in the arts and social sciences, CLARIN adopts the philosophy that all languages – irrespective of the number of speakers or of their commercial importance – are of equal importance.

It seems clear that the predictions, or fears, of the adoption of artificial languages, and of the ubiquitous adoption of any single one, are very far from fulfilment. We may expect that these issues will be an important feature of the information research agenda for the foreseeable future.

References

Allen, C.G. (1975), A manual of European languages for librarians, London: Bowker

Chan, G.K.L. (1977), Mushroom poisoning, thioctic acid and the foreign language barrier, Aslib Proceedings, 29(6), 237-240

Crystal, D. (2003), English as a global language (2nd edn.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hutchins, W.J., Pergeter, L.J. and Saunders, W.L. (1971), University research and the language barrier, Journal of Librarianship, 3(1), 1-25

Sparck Jones, K. and Kay, M. (1973), Linguistics and Information Science, New York NY: Academic Press

Thorpe, R.A., Schur, H., Bawden, D. and Joice, J.R. (1988), The foreign language barrier: a study among pharmaceutical research workers, Journal of Information Science, 14(1), 17-24

Tybulewicz, A. (1970), Cover-to-cover translations of Soviet scientific journals, Aslib Proceedings, 22(2), 55-62

Examples of recent language-related papers in Journal of Documentation

White, M.D., Matteson, M. and Abels, E.G. (2008), Beyond dictionaries: understanding information behaviour of professional translators. Journal of Documentation, 64(4), 576-601

Pinto, M. and Sales, D. (2008), INFOLITRANS: a model for the development of information competences for translators, Journal of Documentation, 64(3), 413-437

Airio, E. (2008), Who benefits from CLIR (cross-language information retrieval) in web retrieval, Journal of Documentation, 64(5), 760-778

Peng, F. and Huang, X. (2007), Machine learning for Asian text classification, Journal of Documentation, 63(3), 378-397

Talvensaari, T., Lauriiaka, J., Järvelin, K., and Juhola, M. (2006), A study on automatic creation of a comparable document collection in cross-language information retrieval, Journal of Documentation, 62(3), 372-378

These are amazing times in which to live and love Reformed theology.  I’m getting close to submitting and defending my dissertation on the Belgic Confession — a journey that I started in 2004.  One thing that has struck me between the first chapters I researched and wrote and the last chapters is that the landscape has changed so dramatically.  Google Books and other such Internet repositories have opened up so many possibilities especially with regards to primary sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The only downside is that most of those sources are still in Latin, French, Dutch or German.  I’ve had the privilege of studying those languages and while I’m not an expert in any of them, I can usually find my way with some help.  I saw a news item a few weeks back about how Latin classes in Canadian universities are fuller than they have been in decades.  Is this going to bear fruit for the ongoing study of our heritage?  One can only hope!  If you’re an undergrad, let me encourage you to study as many European languages as you can, especially the ones I mentioned above.  You’ll never regret it.

Meanwhile, there is also a lot of good translation work going on.  The Classic Reformed Theology series holds out a lot of promise.  Volume 1 was Todd Rester’s translation of William Ames’ A Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism.  My review was posted here.  Volume 2 is scheduled to be released early in the new year, a translation of Olevianus’ Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed.  It sounds exciting!  By the way, this volume is something different from Olevianus’ A Firm Foundation, a volume published a few years ago in the Baker series, Texts & Studies in Reformation & Post-Reformation Protestant Thought.

Lately I’ve become really impressed by various articles about Esperanto that I’ve read by Claude Piron. Piron was a psychotherapist and taught from 1973 to 1994 in the psychology department at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He apparently spoke Esperanto since he was a small child, and is a notable author in it.

I first encountered him as I was reading his instructional novella “Gerda malaperis” (“Gerda disappeared“). It’s a book that gradually introduces Esperanto vocabulary, moving from the basics quickly up to an intermediate/advanced level by the end of the book. It seems very well thought out as instructional material. I’m reading it online at Lernu.net, where it’s available with audio and vocabulary lists for each chapter.

After working through some of this instructional book, I somehow stumbled upon Claude Piron’s articles in English. In them, he demonstrates a powerful ability for critical thinking and analysis of arguments. I particularly enjoyed his Psychological reactions to Esperanto.

Also illuminating was his shorter article, The language of power, wherein English is analyzed. He asks if English is actually an “international language”, and argues strongly that it isn’t. Very few people in the world actually speak English, and because of its great irregularity and mishmash of romance and germanic roots, it takes thousands and thousands of hours of work in order to master it. Only about 3% of people in India can speak it, despite the elite there being quite good at it, and even people in France who rate themselves as “quite good” at English were unable to figure out 3 short English paragraphs in one test.

As a consequence, most speakers of English as a second language who don’t already come from a germanic language background, are from a higher economic class where they can afford to go to fancy schools and spend significant time living or working in an english-speaking country. Not many people have the opportunity to spend 2000 – 10000 hours learning English, and those of us fortunate enough to be born in an English-speaking country have received a free-ride in that department. In the words of one Korean that Piron quotes, he could have achieved several PhDs in the time it took him to learn fluent English. In contrast, Esperanto can be learned by most people in around 150 – 200 hours, so on a scale of months rather than years or decades.

Beyond the realm of language politics, Piron had some interesting articles about the evolution of Esperanto itself. Quite an interesting read from a linguistics perspective, and even more interesting for me as a learner of Esperanto.

In many of his articles, such as Linguistic Communication – A comparative field study, Piron stresses the hierarchy of power that develops in circumstances where some people are native speakers of a language, and have to communicate with those that aren’t. Inherent in this situation is the fact that those native speakers will always be authoritative, and the others will be in an inferior position. This could be remedied somewhat if everyone opted to speak a language other than their native language, to level the playing field, but of course in the realm of power relations this is rarely an option. In such situations, it makes plenty of sense to take as a working language one that takes an order of magnitude less time to acquire, one in which everyone is on equal footing.

It seems clear to me now that this is a role that Esperanto could and should play. Not as a “replacement” for any other languages, but as a tool of international communication that levels the current language hierarchies. Everyone can and should speak their own language or dialect in their “home” situations where everyone else around them can also do so, but in those situations that require communication with outsiders that don’t speak that language, Esperanto is the logical and efficient tool for the job. Whether it is up to the task is an empirical question rather than philosophical, and I think this has been proven by the 100+ year tradition that it has enjoyed as a language for poetry, novels, theatre, children’s play, and international communication.

…in Berlin! Yes, finally Iam in Berlin and will have time to explore Germany`s capital. By now I have been in Berlin, but never for travelling and without time for site-seeing.

We live calmly in an appartment with quite enough space and alot shops in its aroundings. We went e.g. to a public swimming centre that is so incredible hugh next to where we live. It´s a swim sport centre with alone 3 (yes three) 50m-pools and other smaller ones. And the open hours are totally worker friendly, opened till 9pm. Compared to Essen, where in the whole city there was only one public pool with a 50m lane that was opened only untill 4pm in the week, this is just the closest pool next to where we live.

Well, during last weekend I visited Nürnberg in a reunion of friends from Madrid. Nice to see you again, Lisa and Stefan! We climbed a via ferrata. These are pre-fixed tracks along or up a mountainwall secured by a steel cable. It looks like this:

Of course I already toured Berlin and was really excited of how much history this city has on offer. In particular the wall is a part of the city´s history that is mentioned many times and I guess Berlin´s inhabitants are fed up by all the monuments and signs relating that story. However, as Berlin was as well capital before WWII there is a lot of history in that city to explore that affected entire Germany. Iam really excited to see more and will let you know.

For now you´ll find some pics of my first Berlin-trip:

My name is Alex and I’m a french mechanical engineer with a specialisation in material sciences. I have a genuine interest for aeronautic and therefore I spent one year working for Airbus as a R&D engineer. I also define myself as a European Citizen and during the last 5 years I lived in 4 diferent countries and learned English, Deutsch and Espanol!
In 2009 I decided to broaden my skills and to discover the business world therefore I’ve started a master in European Business at ESCP Europe. I will have 6 wonderfull months in London followed by 6 others in Berlin.
With this blog I want to share my opinion on various topics such as business, european politic/culture, aeronautic…

Well, I am thankful for many things: family, friends, housing, food, education (really far too many things to list).

I am now pretty sure, you will be thankful for the following free resources:

Encyclopedia Judaica (HT: Mark Hoffman) EDIT: This resource is only available for JCC members living in Austin.  Sorry for the false advertising.

Language and Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language and Cognitive Science

This journal is published by Walter de Gruyter.  There are some great articles in the first two issues.  I don’t know how long free access will be granted, so sign up for free access today, esp. if you are interested in language and cognitive sciences.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

13 Dec 2009.  How special this evening will be to all of us!?!??!

I have been singing in the Choir for many years and as always, I look forward for each performance.

This 45^th Anniversary concert will be as unique and interesting.

Not only we have a well-known guest conductor all the way from Lithuania, there is also a fabulous Jazz ensemble.

Vytautas Miškinis ! A name I have known for some time but never dream that one day, I will get to meet him and even sing under his baton.

It’s just a week away that we will meet him in person … the excitement is piling!

The preparation for this concert has been challenging because we have to sing in languages that we do not know.

Getting the words right is one thing but getting the audiences (who mostly do not know these languages as well) to understand each one of them through our singing is even harder.

But I am confident that we will deliver. (YES, WE CAN!)

Happy singing !

Peiling =)

Ok. That is kinda of an exaggeration of how my brain has been like for the past few days – a flurry of Russian/Lithuanian/Latvian syllables trying to find its place in the phrase. Don’t be mistaken.. I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m sooooooooo excited about our upcoming concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Though this eggcitement could have contributed to the above confusion.. hmmm.. anyways…(do not perpetuate the stereotype do not perpetuate the stereotype. The rest of this entry will be intelligent, I promise).

As I was saying, I am excited about our concert because…..

We hardly get to work with instruments. Singing with instruments present a whole new challenge, but we shall not go there today.

The instrument parts in the Light mass are not just accompaniments as with many other voice+instrument type music. Each instrument’s part make up an important component of the music, for which the piece would not work as well without either instruments or choir.

We learn about music (and indirectly also about other cultures) that we normally would have limited access to.

We get to work with Miskinis. THE Miskinis whose name we see all over our “Cantate Domino” and “Time is Endless” scores. The man who has written close to 700 compositions; the man, who, with a wave of his magic hands (and many countless hours of hard work of course) led many choirs to success; the man who has taught invaluable knowledge to his students. It’s a rare opportunity for us on this sunny island to learn from him.

Similarly, having the chance to work with the musicians mentioned in the first point is a privilege too.

We get to travel to a far away place in singing this music and be someone else for a while.

And last but not least, being able to enjoy and perform these wonderful music with people who understand to people who will hopefully understand what we do.

Like many of my friends in SYC, I grew up amongst the midst of SYFs, Colours Awards and the like; and amongst peers who joined Band or Track & Field or ~insert any gold obtaining CCA~ because “it will get me more cca points”/”I can use it to get DSA in case I screw up in my O/A levels”/”its good in my testimonials”.

I like being in SYC because gives us the opportunity to focus on and explore things that matter – the music, the (musical) relationships, ensemble skills, voice etc.  Sure, we fumble along the way, but it gives us a sense of satisfaction and enables us to understand things beyond drilling ourselves silly to get that platinum award at competition X.

Taking that we do out rehearsal, we can find parallels in “real life” in the form of team work, interpersonal relationships, independence and synergy and so on.(Note: Actually I’m not sure what real exactly means. School and Work is quite a strange concept.)

And of course, its great to have other people understand why you want and need to spend n hours trying to learn many foreign words to sing a 2-minute song.

Just yesterday, I was chatting on MSN with Daton, who was our LO went we went to Bandung, Indonesia in 2007.

Our conversation went like

Daton: ha! I saw your facebook status. Seems like you are happy every Wednesday.
haT: HAHA! Yeah!!!!
Daton: I understand. I also feel like that when I practise with my band, even though that means I have to reach home at 1am!!!
haT: yeah! That’s good, because most people don’t understand. They think that you will not do work, or not study just because you want to sing or paint.
Daton: Yeah! My parents are like that too!! They complain about spending too much time on my band.
haT:It’s the same as someone who watches TV all day, right? Just that we choose to do something else?

………….etc

Yeah, anyways…the above conversation is linked to my next point.

I’m also excited about this concert because, to kinda put it in what Jen said in our webcast, it is amazing to meet and work with someone who has a totally different worldview from what was described in the above conversation – someone whose culture is so ingrained in the arts and in choral music in particular; someone who understands why we absolutely must spend n² hours in song every week.

This concert is also kinda like a milestone (for the lack of a better word) for me and a few others in the choir. I decided to join SYC after watching the 40^th Anniversary concert. And maybe, with this 45^th anniversary concert, someone would also be inspired to join us and to understand what we’ve come to believe in.

Oh yes, and about those Russian/Lithuanian/Latvian syllables trying to find its place in the phrase? It will be fixed with lots of sleep and lots of practise. It will be a gooooood concert. Please come!!!

- haT

SYC 45th Anniversary Concert - SYC and Friends - 13 Dec 2009 730pm - Esplanade Concert Hall

How to say Merry Christmas in different languages. Send these to your friends around the world.

Afrikaans: Gesëende Kersfees

Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees

African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats

Albanian:Gezur Krislinjden

Arabic: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah

Argentine: Feliz Navidad

Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand

Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun

Bahasa Malaysia: Selamat Hari Natal

Basque: Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!

Bengali: Shuvo Naba Barsha

Bohemian: Vesele Vanoce

Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo

Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat

Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo

Catalan: Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!

Chile: Feliz Navidad

Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun

Chinese: (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan

Choctaw: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito

Columbia: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo

Cornish: Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth

Corsian: Pace e salute

Crazanian: Rot Yikji Dol La Roo

Cree: Mitho Makosi Kesikansi

Croatian: Sretan Bozic

Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok

Danish: Glædelig Jul

Duri: Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak

Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
or Zalig Kerstfeest

English: Merry Christmas

Eskimo: (inupik) Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!

Esperanto: Gajan Kristnaskon

Estonian: Ruumsaid juulup|hi

Faeroese: Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!

Farsi: Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad

Finnish: Hyvaa joulua

Flemish: Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar

French: Joyeux Noel

Frisian: Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!

Galician: Bo Nada

Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!

German: Froehliche Weihnachten

Greek: Kala Christouyenna!

Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!

Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka

Hebrew: Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova

Hindi: Shub Naya Baras

Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!

Hawaian: Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket

Icelandic: Gledileg Jol

Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal

Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah

Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat

Iroquois: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.

Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie

Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Jiberish: Mithag Crithagsigathmithags

Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha

Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!

Latvian: Prieci’gus Ziemsve’tkus un Laimi’gu Jauno Gadu!

Lausitzian:Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto

Lettish: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus

Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu

Low Saxon: Heughliche Winachten un ‘n moi Nijaar

Macedonian: Sreken Bozhik

Maltese: LL Milied Lt-tajjeb

Manx: Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa

Maori: Meri Kirihimete

Marathi: Shub Naya Varsh

Navajo: Merry Keshmish

Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul

Occitan: Pulit nadal e bona annado

Papiamento: Bon Pasco

Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu

Pennsylvania German: En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!

Peru: Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo

Philipines: Maligayan Pasko!

Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie

Portuguese:Feliz Natal

Pushto: Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha

Rapa-Nui (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua

Rhetian: Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn

Romanche: (sursilvan dialect): Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!

Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele

Russian: Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom

Sami: Buorrit Juovllat

Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou

Sardinian: Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou

Serbian: Hristos se rodi

Slovakian: Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce

Sami: Buorrit Juovllat

Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou

Scots Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil huibh

Serb-Croatian: Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina

Serbian: Hristos se rodi. Singhalese: Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa

Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok

Slovene: Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto

Spanish: Feliz Navidad

Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År

Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko!

Tami: Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal

Trukeese: (Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!

Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai

Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym

Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho

Vietnamese: Chung Mung Giang Sinh

Welsh: Nadolig Llawen

Yugoslavian: Cestitamo Bozic

Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye’dun!

When I talk about “we squeak” what am I talking about? 

I have used this term in a couple of posts now and I want to clarify what I mean by it.

• Is “we squeak” the noise a mouse makes?  Nope
• Is “we squeak” the noise that is heard when we are complaining and whining about things we don’t like – a little bit, but not really.  That might be more correctly called “squeeking” as in the squeeky wheel.
• Is “we squeak” a noise we make when we get stepped on or surprised? – sometimes.
• Is “we squeak” the noise we make when we are all talking about the same thing, but using different words to say it?  That is pretty close.

To me “we squeak” is when we are having the same discussions about the same important subjects, using different ways to discuss it:  day after day, session after session, time after time without actually doing anything about those important subjects, beyond talking about them. 

“We squeak” is simply re-hashing the same subject over and over again (even though it might be different people “squeaking”).  Those 4 to 5 subjects entice us with that siren’s call we can’t resist.  That is the problem because there are no clear cut solutions to those 4 or 5 subjects, no matter how much we talk about them or “we squeak” at them and want to resolve them.  Those problems are greater than our limited powers to solve them are. 

What is a solution to “we squeak” – I don’t know the answer to that question, if I did maybe I could go out and make big bucks on the lecture/convention circuit and give electrifying presentations on how to resolve “we squeak” and have the Twitter back channel sing my praises.  

Actually I don’t  think that “We squeak” is a bad thing, it is just that somethings we don’t have any control over and continually “squeeking” about them do not change how they are.

What do you think of this definition of “we squeak”?