Mini Project

So, since Saturday I’ve been buying the Guardian (or in some cases the Observer) every day with the sole aim of collecting a few of the adorable and miniature language guides on offer.

The series is called “21st Century Languages” which is apt I suppose. A few years ago, in one of my bursts of inspiration I decided that within ten years I would like to have a basic conversational capacity in the six most spoken languages at the time… I think in Ireland. So Polish was definitely one of them and I think Mandarin Chinese was too. I think my attitude can be summarised as ‘me likes language learning’ so the idea of a week of little language tasters appeals on multiple levels.

As does a week of the Guardian though already I’m finding a stack of paper piling up on the couch beside me with nowhere to go. On Saturday I loved it, mostly because I had the time to read the whole thing. It’s been a while since I did that and it reminded me of why I go to the guardian website when I have a head full of space that I want to fill with something for a little while. I’d like to say this lack of reading the paper itself is a result of a wonderfully interesting few days when I just didn’t have time. The reality is that I’m a bit too engrossed in Conor O’Clery’s memoir at the moment to read other things when I occasionally stop to draw breath and/or consume caffeine.

One thing that has stunned me about the last few days is realising that the guardian costs €1. Is that a short term thing?? Surely it must be, my inner monologue cries out. It’s wonderful anyway, though I have to admit I had a few pangs of ‘oh, wait, I should buy an Irish paper’. Why? Maybe because the print media industry isn’t exactly booming. More likely because once I sat down with the guardian I realised there was a serious problem with the first twenty pages. That being, I don’t actually care all that much about politics across the proverbial water. It’s nice to know about, but I’m not going to read twenty pages of it every day. The subsequent absence of the politics I do want to read that much about adds to the overall feeling of disorientation.

But back to the point. The language books.

They’re from the ‘teach yourself‘ range (something I didn’t realise in advance) which I’ve previously found to be excellent. I have their beginners Spanish and Russian books and while they won’t take you to the point of fluency but they do exactly what they say on the tin and are fantastic in terms of confidence boosting. They have a logic to them and they mix grammar and vocabulary in a useful way. I’ve gone on to use other resources for Spanish but would still refer back to the TY book as a refresher.

Honestly I had no major plans to get the whole set of booklets this week. I wanted the first four, and now that I have them I’m here talking about them instead of studying them. They are booklets rather than books though, and I don’t think studying is the purpose. They are meant as tasters and go so far as to advertise an offer on the full size course books. So do they work as introductions to languages like Japanese, Hindi and Arabic?

Yes, yes they do.

Each of the booklets features an introduction from someone who really knows the language, and here’s the bit I was really intrigued by. The introduction to Mandarin Chinese? Written by Paddy Ashdown.

Now I mean this in no way disrespectfully, but honestly I was stunned to read that Paddy Ashdown was a qualified interpreter for the Mandarin language. Shtunned. Apparently, or so Wikipedia assures me, he is in fact a ‘gifted polyglot’. Still stunned, but the genius of having him writing the introduction to the booklet suddenly seems all the smarter.

The purpose of the set of language tasters – marketing tie-in aside – would seem to be to let people know what languages are out there, what languages are being spoken – and how to join in that conversation. To those of us raised on a roman alphabet, the Chinese language presents a very specific and seemingly insurmountable challenge. But then you have the former Lib Dem leader remarking on the fluidity of the language and how he loves to just listen to it being spoken?

Seemingly unlikely people proving it can be done.

That methinks is the point.

Where next…

I’m taking a breather before explaining why my blogging has been erratic at best over the past year.

I’m long overdue on half a dozen book reviews – including, somehow, the Twilight quadrilogy (that is a word isn’t it?).

The current process of ‘getting my life back’ consists of making lots of lists of things to do.

In no particular order they include

- Learn Flash

- Try to remember some Spanish and if that doesn’t work, start learning it again

- Master the art of the pastry chef (I’m serious – I want to go through this book from cover to cover)

- Read more, or specifically read more of what I want (Twilight does not count in this category). This does include newspapers, in paper form, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. I’m also going to file “get back to Crosaire” in this category.

- See more films; this starts with catching up on the last two issues of Empire which are sitting beside me unopened and will hopefully involve more JDIFF than usual. Also hopefully get back to writing what I think about the films I’m seeing.

So that’s what I’m doing. For now.

If you’ve done any of the above with more than moderate success and there’s a direction I should be pointed feel free to do the pointing.

Haiti

There’s little that can be said about Haiti that won’t be expressed better elsewhere.

Having said that, John O’Shea’s letter in today’s Irish Times hit the nail on the head as far as I’m concerned. A lot of the difficulties in getting aid to Haiti at the moment and in terms of any rescue effort is being badly affected by problems that have been there for centuries. The sad fact is that when an earthquake hits, people wear black dresses and red ribbons to the Golden Globes, but where was that attention last month – and where will it be by April? Similarly when is the last time someone checked how half of the countries around the coast of the Indian Ocean have been doing, post-2004?

Don’t get me wrong, it is a great thing that those in the position to do so are using opportunities to raise awareness of this crisis. But having watched the ‘Globes last night there’s a point at which you wonder, why don’t they do this every year? As John O’Shea and everyone working in similar organisations will tell you, there is no shortage of desperate poverty out there. It’s only a pity that it takes such an extraordinary disaster to make us all stop and think once in a while.

Linkies: Goal – Irish Red Cross

Sad start

There are a dozen posts floating in my head that might be a better way to kick off the new year.

But I’m distracted by the news of Michael Dwyer’s passing – to the point of being unable to start anywhere else.

I’m a little stunned by how saddened I am by it. I can only imagine how those who knew him must feel.

In a past life I met him once or twice and can only agree with the overall picture painted by the many tributes that have been paid. He came across as a genuinely decent man, and as someone enjoying the fact that he got to share his love of film with the whole country, and the whole world. It was a privilege to hear him speak and equally a privilege to read his film reviews for what I have just realised is more than half of my life so far.

Go dté tú slán.

Where do you go…

I have been MIA for longer than I realised.

I lay the blame squarely at the door of the creators of Farmville.

That is all.

File under ‘What is Wrong with this country?’

The front pages of today’s papers would really make you want to emigrate.

Not because of the recession (which is apparently over?), not because of the weather…

Because there is something deeply wrong with a country where people openly sympathise with people convicted of sexual assault, rape, child abuse etc.

I think it’s the ‘open’ bit that gets to me. This isn’t off-the-cuff, half-hearted sympathy. This is forming an orderly queue. Waiting your turn to get a word in. A word of sympathy which can only compound the victim’s horrific ordeal.

The papers are full of stories about the very same thing. Women and children being sexually assaulted by priests or ‘good respectable members of society’ and nobody batting an eyelid.

What is wrong with us?

As mentioned by Mark at IrishElection, the Kerry Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre could no doubt do with any donations they can get.

Sorry, have to update to highlight this…  Speechless.

Foinse Nua

I had intended on a long detailed post about this but I don’t have the time and don’t want to skip it altogether.

In brief, taithníonn sé go mór liom. Tá an béim athraithe ón sean-Fhoinse go nuachtáin níos oiriúnaí dóibh siúd atá ag foghlaim an teanga – nó ag déanamh iarracht í a fhoghlaim.

It seems much brighter – maybe fresher is the word for it. Also like the little foclóir on most of the news stories.

Unrelated, really, but I didn’t realise Mary McAleese had put that effort into learning the language. I know I’ve previously complained here about Bertie Ahern never bothering in his gazillion years as Taoiseach so it’s nice to see someone do it and do it right.

Now, the question becomes, will the Indo let you subscribe to ‘just the Wednesday issue, thanks’?

Brian and the Bank Bosses

So now the €500,000 reduced payment will be his “base salary”????

Think we know what that means.

Stunningly effective way of making the Irish people feel just a little bit more like we’re being shafted by a select group of increasingly rich suit-wearers. Someone give that man a(nother) bonus…

 

The Hand of Gaulle

It’s incredibly difficult to take the positives out of last night’s match or to imagine how the Irish team can be consoled.

Having said that, there are positives there to see. For starters, they did us proud – they did us more than proud. They outplayed Goliath on their home turf and ran themselves ragged for two hours. More than that, they didn’t let us down with how they reacted to “the incident”. They talked about feeling sickened, they were honest about how gutted they were, but there was nothing for their mammies to be embarrassed about. Heads held high, as was deserved.

Johnny Giles and Ronnie Whelan both made comments to the effect that handballs happen all the time and that if one of our lads had done the same we wouldn’t be complaining. I’m not sure, but I like to hope we at least wouldn’t be proud of ourselves. As Liam Brady said, it’s a bad day for the sport of soccer, when not one French player has the honour or honesty to admit what has happened.

It’s not an inconsequential match, and maybe the stakes being high is how they will justify this to themselves. How do you justify that to the seven year old fans watching their hero cheat their way to the World Cup? And how do you stand straight-faced at your opening match of that tournament and pretend you deserve to be there?

May they never live it down.

The lads didn’t just behave well, they played brilliantly – they lived up to expectations we had long since stopped holding for them. It is soul destroying that they have to come home to this rainy day with such heavy hearts.

I hope they get the welcome they deserve.

The guy who knows where Obama’s light saber is

David Plouffe was on the Daily Show last night – or more accurately, the day before, but it was shown this side of the pond last night.

It has to have been one of the best Daily Show episodes in the last two years of my constant watching. The first half’s skit on the reporting of “Election Day 2009″ had me crying laughing, and then they matched it with an interview with Mr Plouffe.

I don’t care that his name sounds silly. I want to subscribe to this guy’s newsletter. In fact I want to volunteer to distribute it to a wide and varied audience. He didn’t just plug his book, or his candidate, or his president. He completely outflanked Jon Stewart. It was, as the man said, awesome.

The book was being bought anyway, but I may also need to find some way of be coming an official disciple.

And my plans to link to clips of the show just got killed. Stupid Irelandness. Go google it.