¡A Memorizar!
The next few hundred words will probably live up to the name of the blog it's published in pretty well. Random "musings" that, in a regular context, I doubt anyone would care to hear about. Sort of like Literacy, these thoughts just seemed particularly relevant to me the past week- so why not write them down?
For those of you who have somehow failed to notice, I am a total Spanish nut. It's a particular stage, a fad, if you will, I've been going through lately. Except by "lately," I mean for the past year and a half or two, and it hasn't let up for a moment. I like languages, and they tend to be a strong point of mine. I don't really understand why, though. It seems completely unlikely that they would be; I know nothing about grammar and suck at memorizing terms outside of the subject of foreign languages. Memorizing anything at all, for that matter. In any case, this past year and a half or two I've managed to become roughly fluent. As in, it's no tough job to put me in a situation where I have no foggy clue what's being said (one word: Mexicans. They mumble and talk really fast and use weird, random slang words that all seem to start with ch), but at this point I can read and write and speak and understand well enough for most common purposes.
I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Every year, my church does a mission trip to Tijuana, to build houses for the needy, and all that. This year, instead of building houses, I'm working VBS (Vacation Bible School, Christian day camp for kids). I'm definitely very excited to be doing VBS instead of building houses, because, frankly, I suck at that kind of raw manual labor, being a girl from Seattle... and if I'm going to be serving people, I actually want to be serving people, not being frustrated while trying to figure out how to use a saw or hammering my own fingers more often than the nail. Now just to hope and pray that the language barrier problem won't turn out too freakishly annoying: kids are particularly great mumblers, they cry, they whisper, they speak incoherently... and they're Mexican. Oh boy, I'm up for a challange.
We had a meeting to go over everything we'll be doing a month or so ago. There, I picked up the Bible verse the kids will be memorizing and put my mind to memorizing all four verses before leaving. Let me tell you, if those verses were in English, it would have easily taken me a few hours... but somehow, I had the words all committed to memory within five or ten minutes. I tried again with some more common, familiar verses, John 3:16 and Romans 5:3-4. Same story: memorized within five minutes.
I figure it's so much easier to memorize in Spanish partly because there are fewer words in my vocabulary with which to paraphrase. Because I can understand the meaning but can't think up a particularly large number of ways to repeat the message in different words, it's much easier to keep all the right words in the right order. But there's another factor: learning Bible verses in a different language makes them mean so much more, somehow.
It was the same story last year around this time. I had recently discovered the Spanish album by Hillsong United, and I found the Hillsong songs to be some of the less painful worship songs I knew, so I decided to listen through it. Even though I knew almost all the songs in the album and most of the translations were pretty close to the original versions, the simplest of words came alive when they were in Spanish. It was a whole new way of thinking about things. Because I hadn't heard the words overused in Christian settings my entire life, it was as if I wasn't quite as numb to the meaning. The simplest words, like "Señor" (Lord), "el ser," (one's being), "amar" (to love), or "dar" (to give) would make the tired, old songs come alive with a new meaning, a new importance. Saying old things not just in a different way, but in a completely different language resurrects clichés. It seems like an important fact that it's possible for "Jesús me ama" or "Jesus is lief vir my" to get the message through, even if "Jesus loves me" wouldn't do it in a million years.
I doubt I would be alone when I say that when I hear people say John 3:16, it flows into my head something like "f'go'solov'dth'worldth't'egave'isone'nonlysonthtwhoe'erbelievesin'imaynotperishbut'aveternalife.........". Coherent. But putting words like that into a language where you don't take the words for granted makes it slightly less smushy, I've found.
I came across this same truth a couple days ago when I looked up the Latin version of Romans 5:3-4 to put in a song of mine, entitled Catharsis. It says, "et gloriamur in tribulationibus scientes quod tribulatio patientiam operatur patientia autem probationem probatio vero spem." Now, I only had two years of Latin, and I didn't care about it much at the time and learned little, but with such strong etymological connections to English and Spanish, it doesn't prove to be absurdly difficult to read despite that. The word "operatur" is present, just as in Spanish, "entreza,", Afrikaans "beproeftheid," and the original Greek "δοκιμην" or "dokimen," all having to do with the tested, proved nature of the "character," as most English translations put it. I have no guess as to why all the English translations seem to replace "testedness" or "provedness" or something to that extent with "character" (perhaps because they're not words), but the idea's inclusion certainly gives an interesting spin on the passage. (I have happened to give a speech on this passage and have picked apart the Greek, so I know of the 'spin,' but I found it neat that other languages actually included the word.) Now, I've ranted for a hundred and fifty words on one single word, and I've barely gotten started. This is largely why I find languages so interesting: words carry so much meaning, and those many meanings alter slightly to create slightly different emphases in every single language. It's a terribly interesting study. An enlightening study. Because it doesn't merely translate its application into Bible Study. Regular, everyday expressions and linguistic quirks become fun food for thought: it expands horizons, enlightens on the topic of culture, deepens understanding... (y me ayuda a memorizar.)
For those of you who have somehow failed to notice, I am a total Spanish nut. It's a particular stage, a fad, if you will, I've been going through lately. Except by "lately," I mean for the past year and a half or two, and it hasn't let up for a moment. I like languages, and they tend to be a strong point of mine. I don't really understand why, though. It seems completely unlikely that they would be; I know nothing about grammar and suck at memorizing terms outside of the subject of foreign languages. Memorizing anything at all, for that matter. In any case, this past year and a half or two I've managed to become roughly fluent. As in, it's no tough job to put me in a situation where I have no foggy clue what's being said (one word: Mexicans. They mumble and talk really fast and use weird, random slang words that all seem to start with ch), but at this point I can read and write and speak and understand well enough for most common purposes.
I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Every year, my church does a mission trip to Tijuana, to build houses for the needy, and all that. This year, instead of building houses, I'm working VBS (Vacation Bible School, Christian day camp for kids). I'm definitely very excited to be doing VBS instead of building houses, because, frankly, I suck at that kind of raw manual labor, being a girl from Seattle... and if I'm going to be serving people, I actually want to be serving people, not being frustrated while trying to figure out how to use a saw or hammering my own fingers more often than the nail. Now just to hope and pray that the language barrier problem won't turn out too freakishly annoying: kids are particularly great mumblers, they cry, they whisper, they speak incoherently... and they're Mexican. Oh boy, I'm up for a challange.
We had a meeting to go over everything we'll be doing a month or so ago. There, I picked up the Bible verse the kids will be memorizing and put my mind to memorizing all four verses before leaving. Let me tell you, if those verses were in English, it would have easily taken me a few hours... but somehow, I had the words all committed to memory within five or ten minutes. I tried again with some more common, familiar verses, John 3:16 and Romans 5:3-4. Same story: memorized within five minutes.
I figure it's so much easier to memorize in Spanish partly because there are fewer words in my vocabulary with which to paraphrase. Because I can understand the meaning but can't think up a particularly large number of ways to repeat the message in different words, it's much easier to keep all the right words in the right order. But there's another factor: learning Bible verses in a different language makes them mean so much more, somehow.
It was the same story last year around this time. I had recently discovered the Spanish album by Hillsong United, and I found the Hillsong songs to be some of the less painful worship songs I knew, so I decided to listen through it. Even though I knew almost all the songs in the album and most of the translations were pretty close to the original versions, the simplest of words came alive when they were in Spanish. It was a whole new way of thinking about things. Because I hadn't heard the words overused in Christian settings my entire life, it was as if I wasn't quite as numb to the meaning. The simplest words, like "Señor" (Lord), "el ser," (one's being), "amar" (to love), or "dar" (to give) would make the tired, old songs come alive with a new meaning, a new importance. Saying old things not just in a different way, but in a completely different language resurrects clichés. It seems like an important fact that it's possible for "Jesús me ama" or "Jesus is lief vir my" to get the message through, even if "Jesus loves me" wouldn't do it in a million years.
I doubt I would be alone when I say that when I hear people say John 3:16, it flows into my head something like "f'go'solov'dth'worldth't'egave'isone'nonlysonthtwhoe'erbelievesin'imaynotperishbut'aveternalife.........". Coherent. But putting words like that into a language where you don't take the words for granted makes it slightly less smushy, I've found.
I came across this same truth a couple days ago when I looked up the Latin version of Romans 5:3-4 to put in a song of mine, entitled Catharsis. It says, "et gloriamur in tribulationibus scientes quod tribulatio patientiam operatur patientia autem probationem probatio vero spem." Now, I only had two years of Latin, and I didn't care about it much at the time and learned little, but with such strong etymological connections to English and Spanish, it doesn't prove to be absurdly difficult to read despite that. The word "operatur" is present, just as in Spanish, "entreza,", Afrikaans "beproeftheid," and the original Greek "δοκιμην" or "dokimen," all having to do with the tested, proved nature of the "character," as most English translations put it. I have no guess as to why all the English translations seem to replace "testedness" or "provedness" or something to that extent with "character" (perhaps because they're not words), but the idea's inclusion certainly gives an interesting spin on the passage. (I have happened to give a speech on this passage and have picked apart the Greek, so I know of the 'spin,' but I found it neat that other languages actually included the word.) Now, I've ranted for a hundred and fifty words on one single word, and I've barely gotten started. This is largely why I find languages so interesting: words carry so much meaning, and those many meanings alter slightly to create slightly different emphases in every single language. It's a terribly interesting study. An enlightening study. Because it doesn't merely translate its application into Bible Study. Regular, everyday expressions and linguistic quirks become fun food for thought: it expands horizons, enlightens on the topic of culture, deepens understanding... (y me ayuda a memorizar.)
I've always wondered why some people are so fanatic about world languages, so its great to finally get some insight! What a beautifull gift. I'm so jealous!
ReplyDeleteI apologize in advance for rambling. My focus right now is at zero, as I found out when I was trying to write something else and kept staring off into space.
ReplyDeleteAnd you need to rid yourself of your OWN mumbling before you dare to take an AP exam, Marie.
Anyway, I remember Mr. D saying something similar once. That when you're trying to memorize something written by someone else, it's easier than memorizing your own writing because you're not trying to correct it all the time.
I remember Mr. Daniels, my religion teacher last year, asked my Hindu (and extremely bookish....it's kind of an inside joke between us that we're both ALWAYS READING) friend Shriya what she thought of her first Catholic Mass at school, and she said we were all mumbling. But I wonder if it's like that for other people with English (although I've been raised bilingual and I STILL prefer Portuguese to English).
There was an ongoing joke first semester of Spanish class about why we should be doing our orals in Afrikaans instead of Spanish, and claim that it was "an accident". Never mind that there wasn't even a single South African in the class, and most of us had never even been to AFRICA. We're Ms. Muller's students.
I love studying languages because I love learning new things, and I love knowing that I can express myself in other languages. I love the words and songs and phrases that mean much more in a language that I don't hear every day. I love the challenge of reading a tough book in a language I don't know as well, and finally finishing it. I love the words that are unique to a specific language....like "saudade", which is basically the word in Portuguese, that I don't believe has a Spanish equivalent (although it'd be cool if it did), for how you feel when you miss someone and you're remembering all the fun you've had.
Nostalgic?
ReplyDelete