Langue or Parole?

May 2012 Solar Eclipse

2012-05-29T10:46:00.001-04:00

Blogging has been sparce around here lately, mainly because I have been in Japan on a missions trip for a while. But last week, while in Nagoya, I saw a full solar eclipse. It was Monday, May 21, and it was the first time in nearly a millenium that a solar eclipse had been visible from this area of the world.

So that raises the important linguistic question, which language has the more descriptive word for "solar eclipse"?

English: solar eclipse (literally, "failure to appear [on the part of the sun]")
Spanish: eclipse solar
French: éclipse solaire
Japanese: 日食 (literally, "sun eating" or "an eating of the sun")

Voting for Top Language Blogs

2012-05-15T05:15:00.000-04:00

Don't forget to vote over the next couple of weeks for your favorite language blogs (and Facebook and Twitter pages). Check out the lists over at Lexiophiles--and vote for Langue or Parole? (if you really think it's the best).

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2012-05-06T06:50:00.000-04:00

Evening devotions with our two-year-old, Jeremy, have come from a bilingual Japanese-English book titled Jesus and the Cross. It is a compilation of Scripture accompanied by illustrations.

Tonight's illustration was a slightly more graphic version than the one here of Jesus being beaten as he carries his cross. Jeremy understands that only Jesus is good in this story and that many bad men are around him. As we looked at the picture and read the passage tonight, he pointed to a Roman soldier flogging Jesus, and very quietly said, "It's Jeremy."

Top 100 Language Lovers 2012

2012-05-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

I was nominated again this year to be in the Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Lovers competition! I didn't exactly win (or even place) last year, but it's cool to be part of the competition. I was put in the Language Professionals' Blogs category. Cool. I'm a Language Professional.

Voting starts on May 15th, so if you like Langue or Parole?, feel free to vote for me then. Hey, I don't mind if you vote for me.

Caniculater

2012-04-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Look it up, it's not a word! I found out because I looked it up when my wife texted me the following: "CaniculaterAbaa."

I initially thought that she was using auto-completion and that the cell phone changed what she was texting to something else. Then I figured out that she was saying (without spaces) "Can I see/call [not sure which] you later?" asking me either where to find me or for me to wait to call her. I was trying to call her while she was in a meeting.

I'm still trying to figure out what she meant by "Abaa" (or what the cell phone changed her texting to). Mby it ws jst hr bsntmnddly pnchng xtr bttns.

Ah, the joys of texting.

Movie Review: A Better Life - Part 2

2012-04-25T17:14:00.000-04:00

This is the second part of a two-part review of A Better Life. The first part dealt more with the background issue of illegal immigration, whereas this part focuses more on the movie itself.

In the movie, neither the illegal (representative of all illegals, but particularly those with upright motives) nor the police (representative of the legal system, including courts, prisons, and immigration) is entirely at fault. Both are stuck in an imperfect, human system.

The viewer is led to sympathize with the illegal man, an honest landscaper who wants nothing but to work hard so that his one son can have a better life. He's away from home; his wife left him when his son was little; he has next to nothing; when he does acquire something (a lawn business and pickup with equipment) it gets stolen from him. And yet, the movie does not excuse what he does wrong nor does it try to show him as a man victimized and ruined by the consequences of his actions.

Apart from the social issue of the film and the plight of many illegals in the U.S., the movie also has simply great acting. The father-son dynamic is beautiful, a word one might usually use of a mother-daughter relationship in a film.

In addition to the acting, the setting and language are extremely fitting. It is set in urban Los Angeles, and the mix of Spanish and English (including street language in both) is pitch perfect. It is an English-language film, but it naturally switches to Spanish with English subtitles on occasion, yet this is never awkward or unnatural. The highest praise that can be given to all of these elements--language, setting, acting--is that they contribute to the storyline and never distract. I only thought about them when I tried to so that I could analyze the film.

Movie Review: A Better Life - Part 1

2012-04-21T08:48:00.015-04:00

This is the first part of a two-part review. This first part of the movie review focuses on the background issue. The second part focuses on the movie itself.
A Better Life is probably one of the better movies of 2011. It has excellent acting for an excellent story, covering the range of human emotion and experience without an unrealistically tragic or idealistic resolution. But above all, it handles a charged political issue (illegal immigration in the United States) from a decidedly apolitical perspective.

I am keenly interested in the illegal immigration issue because my wife is both Mexican and legal (and has always been legal and is now a citizen). Because of her nationality, and because we both speak Spanish, we have many Hispanic friends, a majority of whom are probably illegal. My issue with the illegal immigration issue, however, is that people on either side tend to be blind to valid arguments of the other.

On the one hand, many people tend to want to absolve illegals of all responsibility for having broken the law. These people tend to treat illegals as mere victims--victims of an uncaring American society and of a broken immigration system. I have even seen Hispanic periodicals that go so far as to try to compare the plight of illegal immigrants to the Holocaust. A massive fail, especially this week.

On the other hand, many other people tend to regard illegal immigrants as feckless criminals. These people may really look down on illegals, perhaps even with a trace of racism, and see no solution but to deport them or at least crack down on them as rigorously as possible under current immigration laws.

In reality, and to speak in generalities of a "typical" illegal: any illegal has broken the law. But it may have been an unwitting offense. But continuing to reside illegally is not an unwitting offense. But the illegal is not homicidal or criminal in any way. But the illegal does create a certain burden for society. But the illegal usually also contributes to society. But the illegal does not have any recognized rights. But the illegal is a human and should be treated humanely. But . . . what do we do?

The two key moral issues are rule of law and gravity of offense. In regard to the rule of law, any country needs to do its best to enforce laws (not look the other way when confronted with offenses). And any country should also revise its unjust, inefficient, or outdated laws.

In regard to the gravity of the offense, there is a qualitative difference between an offense that per se violates both human law and divine law (e.g., murder) and an offense that violates only human law (e.g., illegal immigration). The latter is still immoral because ultimately it violates God's moral law to obey human authorities. But the act per se is not evil.

This movie shows all of these tensions. No one is entirely right or wrong. Such is the result of imperfect human systems of government. And yet the movie never makes itself just about the plight of the illegals or the justice of the U.S. government. And for that, it is a success.

Pragmatics and a Pragmatic Apology

2012-04-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

Ozzie Guillén is a famous and successful baseball manager, currently helming the Miami Marlins baseball team--and he is a person who should probably just plan to be quiet when in public. His most recent loosening of the tongue got him in trouble because 1) he said that he loved and respected Fidel Castro (who should certainly be loved, though not in the way Guillén meant, but should certainly not be respected) and 2) he said this as the manager of the Miami Marlins, who have a huge new stadium in the middle of Little Havana in Miami, where thousands of people who have all but had their lives ruined by the evil of Castro live and work.

So Guillén apologized. He was right to, if it was sincere. I can't judge whether it was, but I can find fault with at least one thing he said in his apology, that makes me wonder slightly if it was a purely pragmatic apology. As quoted in the Los Angeles Times article, the manager said, "I was thinking in Spanish and I said it wrong in English."

Huh? Which word is he talking about? His "love" or his "respect" for Castro? Or something else? There's no way that could have come out wrong in English (nor am I anything less than highly skeptical that he was thinking in Spanish when he said it in English). Even someone with English skills way below Guillén's could be excused for failing to say the right word in English in that case. Those are not highly technical words.

The sad thing is, a lot of people will buy his argument of linguistic confusion without thinking about it. But it's bogus. Fortunately, the rest of his argument fully owns up to his guilt and the impropriety of what he said.

News Flash: Bilingualism Can Improve Brain Function

2012-04-03T15:09:00.001-04:00

Please note that I did not make a false claim or sensationalize the truth with my headline. The same could not be said for a recent opinion piece in the New York Times: "Why Bilinguals Are Smarter."

Nevertheless, the piece is a helpful overview of the well-established, and fairly well-known, benefits of bilingualism.

イエスと改善

2012-04-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

最近The Toyota Wayを読んでいて、大成功のトヨタ自動車株式会社の重要な。「改善」という考え方は何よりも中心な原理です。改善というのは、

改善は産業に大切な原理と限らなく、人間生活の前面に当てはまると言えるではないでしょうか。クリスチャンにとっては、

On Women, International Women's Day, and Comprehensive Exams

2012-03-29T19:30:00.000-04:00

This post is quite late. It was supposed to go up on March 8, because that is International Women's Day and, coincidentally, also my wife's birthday.

Any way, 21 days late, Happy International Women's Day, to my wife in particular, and Happy Birthday to her as well! The reason blogging has been such a slog around here at Langue or Parole? recently is that my woman has been preparing for her doctoral comps and just last Saturday completed them.

That means that I have been much more occupied with household work, although I like to think that I generally do a good bit of the chores and babysitting, being part of my generation's well-documented trend of having women more involved in work and men more involved in the home. But studying for doctoral exams is no mean task, and I was happy to help my wife out during that time. I am proud of and thankful for the wife God has given me.

2012 Presidential Elections: Senegal

2012-03-26T14:36:00.001-04:00

This is the third in a series of posts on the numerous presidential elections this year. The first two posts were on the election in Russia and Taiwan.

The Senegalese can be happy today for a peaceful presidential election that ended with the loss of the current president, Abdoulaye Wade, to Macky Sall.

Around the world this is being hailed as a victory for democracy in Africa, due both to the peaceful nature of the transition and also the fact that Wade stepped down after 12 years. His attempt at a third term had sparked violent protest.

Happy First Birthday!

2012-03-23T06:34:00.001-04:00

Langue or Parole? turns 1 today. I'm so proud. The March 23, 2011, entry provides an opportunity to reminisce.

An African-American South African?

2012-03-22T23:15:00.017-04:00

Recently I read a paper in which a student referred to a person in South Africa as an African American. Puzzled, I inquired whether the person was a South African or a black person from the U.S. It was a South African.

It's fine if people want to use the phrase "African American," but it can be used only of Americans who have black skin. Saying that a black South African is African American makes as much sense as saying a white South African is Caucasian American.

The source of the confusion is easily identifiable. A politically correct term (at one time) was transplanted to another country/culture where it is, in very technical linguistic terms, a contradiction or, even more technically, an oxymoron. And this was done to avoid the word "black," I assume. But whatever good intentions are behind politically correct vocabulary such as "African American," their correct use in context is even more important.

So what should have the student done? Well, he or she could have talked about an African South AFrican, which sounds, well, dumb. Or he or she could have said "black South African," but why is it necessary to highlight someone's skin color? Or he or she could have simply said "South African."

2012 Presidential Elections: Russia

2012-03-06T17:57:00.001-05:00

This is the second in a series of posts this year on the numerous presidential elections. The first post was on the election in Taiwan.

Vladimir Putin was elected this past Sunday to his third term as president. This comes after serving as prime minister for a term after two terms of president. He has essentially been the country's leader since he first became president.

This is good news for those who think Putin has been good for the country and particularly its stability and economy.

This is bad news for those who think Putin and his party are corrupt and control all of the important governmental and news agencies (including the election bureau and thereby most elections). For this growing opposition, Putin and United Russia (his party) are holding Russia back from true democracy.

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good" (Titus 3:1 NIV).

What He Wanted?

2012-03-04T22:57:00.001-05:00

In sports, Ron Artest's official name change to Metta World Peace is not one of the top ten stories of the 2011-2012 NBA season, but it is among the most bizarre.

In relation to that, the Los Angeles Lakers (World Peace's team) beat the Miami Heat tonight. And Greg Beacham of the Associated Press, had some fun with the new name.

I thought it was hoaky and dorky for Artest to change his name to something as odd as Metta World Peace, especially when he is known less for a meek, peaceful temperament than one of the biggest brawls in NBA history. But it does appear that tonight he tried to be a peacemaker, although the video shows other players besides just him trying to break up a potential scuffle. Beacham wrote of the incident:

When [Lebron] James slightly shoved Troy Murphy in frustration after missing a layup at the third-quarter buzzer, [Pau] Gasol stepped in to challenge James, earning matching technical fouls before officials and World Peace restored order.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/03/04/3791768/kobe-scores-33-lakers-beat-
wades.html#storylink=cpy

Different . . .

2012-03-02T16:47:00.001-05:00

Is Microsoft different from Apple, or different than Apple? Well, if we want to be pedantically and prescriptively correct (i.e., what the dictionaries and usage guides tend to tell us*), then we should only ever use the collocation "different from." In centuries of practice, however, this is one of those usages that people routinely disregard outside of the privileged circle of people who know the "rules," the way it "ought" to be.

I do say different from myself, simply because I know the logic behind it and I've been educated that way. But if you say different than, I won't protest.

What made me think of this recently, however, is a collocation that I had never heard: different with. Now, you could have those two words together, as in this sentence: Life is different with a spouse. But in that example with begins a prepositional phrase and does not form a comparative phrase with the word different.

What I heard recently was the latter. I don't remember the exact sentence, but it would have sounded like the first sentence of this post with the word with: Microsoft is different with Apple.

And the speaker said it twice, making me wonder if it was his normal collocation. Has anyone else ever heard different with? Or maybe I just heard wrong.

*Some say that in practice from usually introduces a phrase and than usually introduces a clause. I'm not sure about that.

What Is the Goal of Language Teaching?

2012-02-29T18:38:00.005-05:00

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, made a painful point in a 2004 lecture. The lecture is on the topic of theological education. In context, what he says about language acquisition is only a passing remark to help clarify how he would identify someone educated theologically. Yet it is an unfortunate fact for language teachers the world over, even the proverbial elephant in the room, I would argue:

We might say it would be very strange to learn a language without learning how to speak it – although that is as you all know the way many of us learn languages.

Williams' point is that in any type of education (musical, language, theological) has some practical goal, as it would be odd and rather purposeless to complete a course of study "in the absence of any acquisition of a skill – any capacity to do something in a particular way."

So why do so many students finish one, two, three, four (or more!) semesters of language study without the ability to speak the language? Why did you?

Read What You Want to Read, for Fun

2012-02-28T11:45:00.000-05:00

You're not designed for a steady diet of literary masterpieces any more than you would eat a seven-course French meal every day.

So said Alan Jacobs in an interview in Christianity Today that I just read. The interview is about reading and his new book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction that sounds like a great read.

Even the French Are Awesome

2012-02-23T18:56:00.001-05:00

We recently established here at Langue or Parole? that the French language is awesome. It was not my intent to argue for the awesomeness of France or the French people, given that the French language extends for beyond the Hexagon. Yet according to a recent book excerpt in the Wall Street Journal, French parents (and by extension can't we assume pretty much all French people?) rock.

Yes, this totally ignores many social problems in France. But there were two salient points to this article for me (as a parent).

1. We parents do not need to feel pressure to be constantly "present" with one's child (e.g., it's okay for my son to play alone sometimes; I don't have to be constantly entertaining him).
2. We parents should have definite, clear rules and parameters, but within those we should give a lot more liberty.

These two boil down to the "French" approach to parenting, distinct from the "American" approach (whatever those are): don't stress over every little thing. Will your children survive if you don't use a fence at the top of your stairs? Yes. What if you don't cover all of the electrical outlets in the house? Yes. Will they develop into normal human beings if we don't take them to weekly music and sports lessons from the age of 3? Yes. What we should really be concerned about (and here is where my agreement comes in as a Christian) is their development in regard to patience, self-control, and respect for authority.

Thus, even the French people are awesome.

Another Word on English as a Global Language

2012-02-21T23:52:00.002-05:00

I do not have a problem with a person not becoming fluent in a second language. I do think language is an essential part of any curriculum, regardless of grade level.

I do not "have it out" for Americans, however. There is a funny joke about Americans that people often share with me* and of which I certainly appreciate the humor. (Though I have no statistics, from my personal experience I think I can say that you could insert many, maybe any, other nationalities in the joke for American and it would still be funny.)

And yet, I am not all chagrined (even as a multilingual and language teacher) that a majority of Americans (quickly shrinking due to demographic shifts) do not speak a second language. To be quite honest, millions of Americans (and many others around the world) have no use for bilingualism.

*What is a trilingual? Someone who speaks three languages. What is a bilingual? Someone who speaks two languages. What is a monolingual? American!

A New Way to Read

2012-02-19T23:14:00.000-05:00

There is a kind of reading that can be called "preliminary reading" or "partial reading":

Given that one does not have the time to read everything he or she would like to read, and that many books are not worth reading in their entirety, and that from time to time one finds books that he or she did not intend to read but that seduce and distract him or her from his or her reading plan, I came up with a new method of reading that involves reading only the first sentence of each paragraph in some books.

This is not really a new method. I actually thought of trying it when I overheard someone else talking about a (history) professor of his that does that.

There are exceptions, of course, books to which one could not effectively apply this method. It would not work for reading a novel, for example. But for many academic books, whether history or science or theology or linguistics, this type of reading could very well highlight most of the important ideas while saving gobs of time by not getting lost in the details that one is going to forget later anyway. I think that reading is not complete but it highlights the main ideas can serve very well.

What do you think? Have you ever read a book this way? How else do you recommend a slow reader like me (in spite of a speed reading course) read more in less time?

Un nuevo método de leer

2012-02-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

Hay un tipo de lectura que se puede llamar "lectura preliminar":

Puesto que uno no tiene el tiempo para leer todo lo que quisiera, y que muchos libros no merecen una lectura completa, y que por lo menos yo encuentro de vez en cuando con libros que yo no tenía la intención de leer pero que me seducen y que me distraen del plan de lectura, decidí de tratar de leer sólo la primera frase de cada párrafo en algunos libros.

Hay excepciones, por supuesto. Este método no funciona con la lectura de una novela. Sin embargo, para los libros académicos, me parece que una lectura no completa pero que destaca las ideas principales puede servir muy bien. Se pierde mucho, es cierto, pero creo que también podría tener una visión general de muchos libros más, siguiendo este método de "lectura preliminar" o "lectura parcial."

Une nouvelle méthode de lecture

2012-02-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

Il y a une sorte de lecture que j'appelle "lecture préliminaire" :

Etant donné que je n'ai pas le temps de lire tout ce que je voudrais, et que beaucoup de livres ne mérite pas ma lecture complète, et que je tombe par hasard sur des livres que je n'avais aucune intention de lire mais qui me séduisent et distraient de mon plan de lecture, j'ai décidé d'essayer de lire seulement la première phrase de chaque paragraphe.

Il y a bien sûr des exceptions. Cette méthode de lecture ne marcherait pas avec un roman. Mais pour les livres académiques, il me semble que je pourrai me débrouiller bien. On en perd beaucoup, c'est vrai, mais je crois qu'on pourrait aussi avoir une vue d'ensemble de beaucoup plus de livres en suivant une telle méthode de "lecture préliminaire" ou "lecture partiale."

Today in Language: Charles Dickens

2012-02-07T06:31:00.002-05:00