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Thursday, March 31, 2005

haven't written in here for awhile. um. nothing really to report... queen's was really great - i neglected to do any work during the week, got to see all my beloved kingstonians, was reconciled with sodexho/caf food, shopped along princess, and spent too much money on food. but it was worth it! thanks for all the various people who let nomadic me stay at your places!

(my only regret is that i didn't get to see bun! *sniffle* )

antm update: who knew i'd ever hear the words "flesh-eating bacteria" on top model??

have been switching back and forth b/t books this month. i chose "notes from a small country" (by bill bryson) as my holiday reading material - there's only so long you can look through a teen vogue magazine... (shut up, i know i'm not a teen anymore...). and i read "the da vinci code" on tuesday - have you guys read it? it was a pretty fast and entertaining read, but it's pretty "out there"... or maybe that's what "they" want me to believe! ooooooh! conspiracy! (i honestly can't believe that some people think the book is completely true and not a piece of fiction!) i've now returned to "the mother tongue" (it's perfect for ttc reading) and i'm finishing this chapter on english as a world language, here's an excerpt:

"if we all spoke a common language things might work more smoothly, but there would be far less scope for amusement.... in 1977, president carter, on a trip to poland, wanted to tell the people, 'i wish to learn your opinion and understand your desires for the future,' but his interpreter made it come out as 'i desire the poles carnally.' the interpreter also had the president telling the poles that he had "abandoned" the united states that day, instead of leaving it. after a couple of hours of such gaffes, the president wisely abandoned the interpreter. all if this seems comical, but in fact it masks a serious deficiency... we in the english-speaking world have often been highly complacent in expecting other to learn english without our making anything like the same effort in return... there is evidence to suggest that some members of [the u.s.] congress aren't fully sympathetic with the necessity for a commercial nation to be multilingual. as one congressman quite seriously told dr. david edwards, head of the joint national committee on languages, 'if english was good enought for jesus christ, it's good enough for me.' "

posted @ 7:05:00 p.m.

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