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musings on language
Dec. 9th, 2007 12:26 amI watched Cinema Paradiso tonight for my film class, and yeah, it's a great film. But the more interesting aspect to me was the fact that it was all in Italian, and not just that, but - the fact that, even though I've never studied Italian in my life, I was able to read it. xD;; Though there wasn't a lot TO read. Still, just listening to the language was interesting: not only is it beautiful, but I was able to pick up a few Italian vocabulary just because of my knowledge of both French and Spanish.
It's strange, but I really feel like Italian is this mix between French and Spanish, which just doesn't make much sense to me with my limited linguistic knowledge, because that should only happen if Italy was in between Spain and France - but obviously, it's not. So now I'm extremely interested in the development of these languages, and namely, in how the FUCK did French turn out so differently? Because really, Italian is overall more similar to Spanish, from what I could catch. Quite fascinating.
And earlier today, I was out doing a few errands, and some required me to go to my college. Every Saturday there is a swap meet there, and it is run and attended mainly by Spanish speakers, though of course the vendors know English. But just because they know it, doesn't mean that I heard it that much - the only time I heard English was when I talked to them (I would've tried speaking in Spanish if I had any confidence in my ability just yet).
And just... I can't really describe the kind of contentment that I had as I walked down the rows, listening to the Spanish that I couldn't really understand around me, reading the Spanish signs... for once, I was the minority, with my white skin and the lack of language knowledge. It felt like, for those moments, that I wasn't in California, or the US, but rather another country, like Mexico, or maybe someplace more south.
The fact that that made me so happy is just a sign that... I really need to get the fuck out of here. LOL. No offense to my country, as it's a lovely place, and I'm proud to call California my home, but that just only fueled my fire for traveling. I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm going to make sure that it will.
It's strange, but I really feel like Italian is this mix between French and Spanish, which just doesn't make much sense to me with my limited linguistic knowledge, because that should only happen if Italy was in between Spain and France - but obviously, it's not. So now I'm extremely interested in the development of these languages, and namely, in how the FUCK did French turn out so differently? Because really, Italian is overall more similar to Spanish, from what I could catch. Quite fascinating.
And earlier today, I was out doing a few errands, and some required me to go to my college. Every Saturday there is a swap meet there, and it is run and attended mainly by Spanish speakers, though of course the vendors know English. But just because they know it, doesn't mean that I heard it that much - the only time I heard English was when I talked to them (I would've tried speaking in Spanish if I had any confidence in my ability just yet).
And just... I can't really describe the kind of contentment that I had as I walked down the rows, listening to the Spanish that I couldn't really understand around me, reading the Spanish signs... for once, I was the minority, with my white skin and the lack of language knowledge. It felt like, for those moments, that I wasn't in California, or the US, but rather another country, like Mexico, or maybe someplace more south.
The fact that that made me so happy is just a sign that... I really need to get the fuck out of here. LOL. No offense to my country, as it's a lovely place, and I'm proud to call California my home, but that just only fueled my fire for traveling. I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm going to make sure that it will.
