Here are the rules:
Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write 10 words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.
I requested a letter from the lovely Socialpest, and she kindly chose 'G'. I have managed to avoid using the words 'good' or 'great' to complete this meme...because being able to list good food, good music, and so on wouldn't have been nearly as challenging.
1) Genre. Yes, I may not be doing my project (well, I have gotten some good work done on it today), but I'm sure as hell thinking about it! I'm definitely setting my view of blogging (and by extension, tagging) from the perspective of genre theory. So, that comes first.
2) Grammar. I love grammar, by which I mean syntax. It's like a gigantic puzzle. I like teaching it, I like knowing how it works in my foreign languages, I like it on a more theoretical level. I know, I'm a mutant.
3) Guernica. It started when a teacher in a James Joyce seminar in my undergraduate days gave out a photocopy of it to the class. Then to see the real thing, in the Reina Sofia, words cannot express. I cannot go to Madrid without spending a long time just staring at it from various angles. I have a small canvas poster of it, lovingly known as mini-Guernica, as the centerpiece in the room where I study (and blog), and stare at it a lot, too.
4) Grey. I'm not sure if this is my favorite color anymore, but it's one of them anyway. It was the undisputed king of colors for much of my teenage and post-teenage years. All shades of it, but preferably a bit darker.
5) Growing up. I'm still waiting to feel that I'm a grown up, though I probably am. But I feel keenly that the things I go through, and put myself through, put me in a pretty much continual state of growing up.
6) Getting out. I do tend to stay in the same place on the couch, doing stuff on my computer, rather than being out enjoying things. So, I should be getting out. All the same, it's a very comfortable couch.
7) Glottal Stop. Danish has a reputation for being difficult to pronounce. Half of this at least, or at least talking about the Copenhagen/Zealand dialect, is that there are glottal stops (in Danish, stød) in what at first appears to be really odd places. At my language school, which is pronunciation obsessed in general, students have been known to fail early levels for not pronouncing the stød, even though there are regional variations of Danish which don't have this feature. I got quite good at glottal stopping on demand, until I didn't need it anymore, and now I apparently speak without using a single stød.
8) Ginger. Or maybe Garlic. Along with vanilla, my personal holy trinity of food flavors. I will consider any recipe or menu item that features these ingredients prominently. And all three make good ice cream flavors. No, really.
9) Geek. Well, nerd is probably more appropriate...more academic, and not necessarily as deeply focused on one small area. But it doesn't start with 'G'. I have referred to myself as a grammar goddess, but maybe grammar geek? How about blogging geek?
10) Giants. I tend to ignore most of the baseball season, mainly because there is nothing in Europe to remind me of it, but it is (along with football...by which I mean soccer) my favorite team sport. And well, this is my favorite team. Root, root, root for the home team, right?
Image from http://history.sandiego.edu/cdr2/WW2Pics/55010.jpg
33 kommentarer:
Danish must be difficult to pronounce because I can figure it out on paper but it makes absolutely no sense when it's spoken.
I'd love to play. :)
I can readily subscribe to points 5 and 6 on your list.
I'd love to join in, but I've committed myself to only posting things about England - which would make it even more difficult - or maybe I could cheat (just once)? ;-)
I want a letter! :)
Have I told you about the ice-cream store we have in Portugal with the strangest flavours, like...bacalhau? And sardinha! Probably garlic, as well...
I love languages too and weird pronunciations, I just love it!
It's great that you don't feel like a grown-up because I wonder if I ever will...
Hey, Erin, it took me a long time to figure out Danish on paper...do you speak another Scandinavian or German language? And, congratulations on being the first player in this round...I bestow upon you the fine letter 'F'!
Marion, I think it would be cool if you could find 10 words with the chosen letter which are about England, especially in the North of England, as I've only lived in London, and don't know much of the rest of the country. And, I would say that anything you can think of, if you have done it, seen it, or thought of it in England, then it's about England! Your letter has been carefully selected, and it is 'R'!
Ms. Mood, sardinha ice cream? Yick! (I don't like sardinhas, can you tell?) Bacalhau could be cool. It is decided, I'm definitely coming up to Porto in July. On the agenda, Cafe Majestic, and weird ice cream store! And, your letter, especially picked according to your personal aura, is 'T'!
All right, T it is. Majestic is fine but the ice cream store is not in Porto, so maybe we can try some traditional ice creams :)
I know a bit of Norwegian and it looks pretty similar to Danish a lot of the time. They just don't sound very similar. :)
some ginger icecream sounds really good. do i get a letter? can it be C? C is for Cthulhu, and that's good enough for me. or V. V is for Vendetta, and i certainly have plenty of those (though my ex still has my V for Vendetta comic, which i will retrieve from her soon if i don't see that smiling guy fawkes mask in a timely manner). Chibithulhu isn't playing, as the comic is going off on another story-arc with panels and word-balloons and other things that generally make my end of things much, much harder, but allow me to get a lot more jokes in per week.
i want a letter too. hey there are so many of them, i am certainly entitled to a letter
xxx
Letter me up! (There'll be a delay before I do anything 'cause I'm busy as a cockroach in a room full of shit)
Now I've had ginger ice cram which is very delicious, but garlic ice cream? Really?
My mouth just gaped open at No. 7. I was lost for a bit haha.
Ginger and garlic ice-cream. Hmm.. Don't think I'll visit your icecream shop should you open one. Haha.
And I've never seen myself as lovely but thanks anyway! :D
I once saw Guernica in NYC. Seeing it here made me shiver, a small echo from when I first saw it. It's one of the most terrible sights in the art world and clearly demonstrates the Spaniard's almost superhuman genius. You're a brave one. I could never have it in my house on a wall. I'd be traumatized in a week. I sometimes feel I see all of humanity's past and future suffering encapsulated in that one canvas. There's no protection from it.
"Potet i halsen" is how, when I was living in Norway, we used to describe the sound of the Danish language!!! (No offence intended!) Although I could understand written Danish, it was always really hard for me to understand spoken Danish. Hmmm... perhaps I need to incorporate Denmark into my upcoming travel itinerary (which is now getting out of control) in order to master this language!
Anyhow, please, please give me a letter too!
Oh I like this! May I have a letter?
I've been reading your blog for a while, and thought I'd comment on it for once ;~).
I've enjoyed perusing the archives. Very cool blog.
I would love to play along.
whew, for a minute i thought your "about me" section said "goddess of castration," which made me utter a glottal stop. lol
Hmmm...I really should answer comments more regularly, shouldn't I? :-o
Hi Mr. American, I have seen that you've been lettered by Ms. Socialpest...I'll let you off the hook with just that one...but only this once! ;-)
Ms. Mood, it's a date...but where is this ice cream store, then? To have bacalhau ice cream (which I suppose would be bacalhau com natas?), I may have to travel a bit.
Erin, I feel the same way about Norwegian...easy to read, hard to understand when it's spoken.
Morose, would an 'L' work for you? I hope so, cause that's your letter! :-)
Chloe, you are totally entitled to a letter. How about...'C'?
Jack, I'm getting tired of handing out consonants. Help yourself to this here 'E', and do with it what you will.
Maddy, I'm glad you liked it, and of course you shall have a beautiful letter, 'B'.
Etchen, really. It was at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California ('the garlic capital of the world', and if you ever drive through it, you'll know it's true!) And, I don't know if you want a letter...but if you do, then please accept this lovely 'D'.
Ameera (cause it sounds strange to call you Ms. Pest, somehow), yeah, garlic ice cream is a bit odd, but ginger ice cream is delicious!
Hank, I know you didn't ask for a letter, but I can't resist needless stereotyping of all canines. Please accept this lovely 'P'. ;-)
K.mæcker, do I sense that your grandmother was maybe not a very fun woman? My grandmother and I used to play a mean game of double solitaire.
Catherine, no offense taken, but I don't quite see the 'kartoffel i halsen' thing myself...apparently the Swedes have the same idea. Otherwise, if you work a stop in DK on your trip, let me know! Oh, and your letter is...'H'.
Day, those are good things too! And did you want a letter? If so, please accept this fine crafted 'W'. Otherwise, feel free to skip it!
Leslie, you sure may, my dear. How about this carefully hand-picked 'J'?
James, hey, it's nice to see you! :-) But there's some pretty not-so-good stuff out there in the House of Fortune archives...you are a brave man. And, deserving of the equally brave letter 'V'.
Shane, thanks for visiting! Your misreading could be interesting...but I don't think I would ever get around to it (the procrastination getting in the way). And, did you want a letter? If you did, please accept this 'M'.
Estimate
Equine
Estuary
Elixir
Especially
Entero
Equinox
Euston
Ephemera
Esteem
Those are the words I am not going to do :-)
Out of curiosity, what are you going to do if more than 26 people ask you for a letter? Numbers, perhaps?
hand one to me. a letter, that is.
Gee, this is a fun post!
Hmmmm..I am still; unsure of the garlic ice cream, but if you like it, then I will promis to try it one day! ;-) Thanks for the letter- I will try to do it justice!
I could not live in a world without garlic. And with ginger, it's sublime - unless you're doing Italian. Then it's not so good.
Has your Danish school failed people because they can't...uhh..glottalize? Damn...I never would have made it. Luckily I went to Dnaish school in Århus. I'd like a letter. Please be kind.
Oh, but Jack, I'm sure you could great things with these words. Especially entero. ;-)
Leslie, I'd just start repeating letters. I may do that soon, anyway...some letters are nicer than others, and I couldn't bring myself to give anyone X.
Maddy, I'm so glad! :-)
Vesper, here you go...a special, spiritual 'S'.
Mary, thank you! If you would like a go, I'm reserving this amazing 'K' just for you! :-)
Etchen, I wouldn't say I liked it...but it was cool to have had it. It was pretty much vanilla with a bit of something extra, from what I remember. It was good, but not because of the garlic. And I look forward to seeing your words!
Brooke, yes, ginger and Italian...I can't picture it somehow. And you didn't ask, but if you'd like, please accept this 'C'. :-)
Kelly, I don't think it's because it's here in KBH. I think it was just my school (K.I.S.S.) And for a letter, please accept this lovely 'A'. :-)
May I have a letter too, please? (Not to the editor, but one from the alphabet..)
C is cool x
Scholiast, the voices in the ether tell that 'R' is a good letter for you. The voices are also telling me to get back to work on my project, but it's important to listen selectively to these things. ;-)
Maddy, yeah! :-)
Chloe, I'm glad you like it. :-)
Glad I stopped by...I love Ks - so K it is...hmmmmma fun letter. thanks K!
my K's are posted and I linked to your G.
I was totally amazed at the words that first were so hard to come, and then spilled out carrying all those memories along with them.
Cool.
Mary, they look great! And it was the same for me...I couldn't imagine I'd be able to think of 10 words with 'g', but now it seems so obvious. I can imagine it in general as a creativity exercise.
Guernica is quite an interesting piece, but it's also neat in its depiction of war. There are all these elements like the bull and the shattered pieces of the bodies that relate it to the explosions and the monstrosity of it all.
I heard that it was about the Spanish war?
I would like to like grammar and enjoy foreign languages but always get mixed up with syntax. It is my life-long battle. Ah well, you don't get success without hard work right?
That's the beauty of Guernica (which is about an incident in the Spanish Civil War, yes)...you can just stare at it forever, at all the elements which make it up, and then also at the overall painting. The colors, the textures, the things in the painting.
And I like grammar on a more abstract level...I didn't learn my two foreign languages by hard work (though I did study to a greater or lesser extent), but purely because I lived long periods in countries where the languages were spoken. I don't think I would ever have learned any other language if I hadn't become an ex-pat to non-English speaking lands. So maybe you just need a really long holiday in a country where the language you'd most like to learn is spoken?
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