Welcome to Tuesday and my input for the day. Notice the 2 instead of the word to...yes...in many ways I’ll be going totally digital. I believe I told you all about the new phone I’ve gotten, which is the most kick-ass item I’ve had in a long time. Once I get Twitter loaded on it, I will start using it almost exclusively for those posts with very little time on this computer. And since I’ve learned to abbreviate things to the max, I might just use it here. LOL!
What does that mean for this blog? Not much. The blog and most everything will stay the same but what will happen is that I will be doing business here first thing in the morning and then go to a non-internet computer to do my writing. IMHO, I am on this machine way too much and it does take a lot away from my writing time. And right now, I’m behind on my personal word count. But mail always has to be answered from this very spot as this is where my Outlook resides, another program I just can’t do without.
True, August is a happening place around here with the DH being gone and me helping the youngest get ready for college. This is a first for me because the oldest took a totally different route since he really didn’t know what he wanted to do. He took one semester in college then decided it wasn’t for him. He continued to do roofing with my brother then one day woke up and decided he wanted to do something else. Freaked out me and my brother immensely but he knew himself. For a while, he did sales and then got the offer of a lifetime for him. The Surveyors union was looking for apprentices and one of his high school buddy’s Dad who owned a surveying company asked him to apply.
That one phone call took him on a journey he’s loved. The union paid for all his training resulting in a AA in Surveying and continues to pay for his classes. Even though the job market in the Las Vegas area is way down, he knows he’ll find work as he was the Apprentice of the Year as well as one of the two graduate surveyors to pass the national certification from his class. I think he hopes one day to teach the trade but doesn’t know when that will or can happen.
Now the younger one has a completely different path charted out for himself. Along the way through high school he discovered math then physics. Heaven help me but he wants to be a physicist. I hate physics but love Math where as my DH loves physics but could take or leave math. He has declared his major as Physics and we’ll find out on Thursday just what classes they are going to put him in for the first semester. I think he’s looking forward to the adventure with a lot of trepidation. He’s never been a real go-getter and tends to be very shy when with new people. College will be good for him but a bit traumatic at times I’m sure. We’ll see.
As for myself, I want to take some classes this year but have decided that the MFA at the local college isn’t the one for me. Unless I want to do a Gaelic translation of something. LOL! The interesting thing about the program is it has an international component to the offerings. Students can actually go into the Peace Corp and use that experience to get some class credit. But I’m a genre writer and will need to find a different program to actually look into before I commit.
The only class I know I’ll be taking so far is one for my phone. Yup, can you believe it? Verizon actually has a free class in regards to this phone I just purchased. The Droid is very cool and I hope to get really savvy at it so I can show off in a variety of places. LOL!
What all are you guys doing to prepare for the coming school year? Do any of you have children that need to get ready? And how about yourselves...any of you considering classes to take?
I’d be really interested in knowing what you all are thinking about during this very eventful part of the year. See you all tomorrow for Wednesday’s Classroom!
Lynn
As many of you know, I am thoroughly in love with Scotland. On any given day, one may find me perusing the reality for sale in some of my favorite spots in the country. This summer is very sad for me because I was supposed to spend the whole months of June and July on a farm near Stirling then join my husband in Vienna, Austria the middle of August.
Alas, this did not happen for a couple of reasons. Money being the main one. I started looking for cheap airline tickets almost eighteen...yup, that’s right...eighteen months ago so I could get the best deal. The unfortunate thing is there was no best deal. The cheapest deal I could get was roughly $1400 to cross the big pond.
Now I have never paid more than $500 for a ticket to Britain and I wasn’t about to start now. I was so certain something would come up that I didn’t panic. About six months ago, I started looking weekly and for the last three months, daily. There was nothing to be had. Nada. Zip. I was out of luck for my trip this year.
The other reason was closer to my heart. My two bundles of joy called Michael and Joseph made the pain a little less because I’ve gotten to spend more time with them. They are adorable and I’ve been having fun as have the rest of the family.
What does this have to do with Gaelic you ask? Well, last year in September I started taking a class in Gaelic and loved it. If I had actually gone to Scotland this year, I was going to do an immersion class on the Isle of Skye. Unfortunately, I had to drop out in November because I got really sick and couldn’t participate.
I bet you’re wondering just how I participated in a Gaelic class. Being the native language of Scotland, you could assume I would need to go there to enjoy such a class. Not anymore. I had looked for years into finding a Gaelic class near me to no avail. It just wasn’t going to happen. Then came a wonderful thing called Skype. The whole class was done with Skype. We had lectures, question sessions, practice sessions and everything in between.
Matter of fact, the first thing the instructor told us was that we would be taking the class again. Most people have to take every class at least twice because it is that difficult because of pronunciation. A person basically has to retrain their tongue to make the sounds needed in Gaelic. Some do it naturally but most have to take things slow. My instructor at the time said he had been speaking Gaelic for a fair portion of his life but had to take most of the classes twice himself.
Gaelic is like any foreign language and has a whole different set of grammatical rules to learn. The one I had to remember always was that there are male and feminine ways to say things. An example would be the Mac names like MacLeod, MacKenzie and so on. MacLeod is for a male and NicLeod is the female version. I had so many questions during that lesson it wasn’t even funny. LOL!
Again, I’m sure you’re still wondering just what this has to do with you. Well, as you know I am trying different things with the blog: Wednesday’s Classroom, This & That Friday...well...I thought that I would occasionally give you some Gaelic phrases to munch on for Thursdays. So here goes.
Now this is for all the tweeters out there:
English: Thanks for tweeting. Gaelic: Taing airson tweeting. Pronounce: Taheeng ersson tweeting.
Yes, I will use it...I promise...but if you’re not following me on Twitter, you’ll never know. LOL!
So, here’s one more for you:
English: Perhaps. Gaelic: 'S dòcha. Pronounce: Iss dohkha
When hearing Gaelic, I’m reminded of the Nordic languages. After all, many of the Scottish people did come from the Vikings. To me it sounds a lot like Swedish or Norwegian. There are even some sounds, which come across like Finnish to me. Believe it or not, if you saw Lord of the Rings, you’ve heard Finnish as the elven language is based upon it. I answered a question correctly in Scotland because I could identify what language a man doing a demonstration. I had to ask him to repeat the phrase but once I really listed to him, I knew right away what language it was. Gaelic has the same guttural flow. Sometimes it’s beautiful, sometimes it’s harsh.
All I know is that I have at least ten books where I use it. And if I have my way, I plan to use many, many more.
What languages have you studied in your life? Do using an authentic language puts more into a story or takes something away? Can’t wait to hear what you all say.
Have a great evening...see you all on Saturday...enjoy This & That Friday!
Lynn
