Random Bits Before Bed..

[shadowkat]

1. Socks.

J Scalzi states in Bluesky and on his blog: Socks! When did they become an awesome gift for you? And if they haven’t: Are you sure? Wouldn’t a nice pair of comfy socks just be the best thing right about now?

Me: I keep asking for them for Christmas, but everyone ignores me.

2. In the 1980s, I spent two months with a French Family in Bretagne or Brittany, just South of Mount St. Michele and north of the Normandy Beaches. I didn't see Normandy, although I did see the French Bunkers that were built during WWII and buried in sand and greenery in the 80s, even climbed over one. And visited Mount St. Michele (very touristy) along with a little island off the coast, with a town, that we rode bikes all over.

Anyhow, the French family had these comic books in my room - which were in French. And devoured them. (I was 16 at the time.) They were in hard cover and entitled Astrex and Oblex. I figured they were pretty obscure, and forgot about them...until I stumble upon an add for an upcoming animated film about them. Go figure.

Astrix and Oblex : The Big Fight.

Comments

[cactuswatcher]

I ran across Astrix while browsing through the library when I was in college. It must have been a collected English version with a short explanatory article in English. Thought it was interesting, but I was well beyond caring much for random comics, then. The article said the comic had been published in a Belgian publication and that the artists were Belgian. So I assumed it was a Belgian comic, but I see now the writer was in fact a Frenchman.

Oh well, the song in the ad was very popular about the time I started learning Spanish as a Freshman in high school. I could understand some of it knowing very little Spanish. Not knowing any better, I thought it was sung in Spanish. While there is a Spanish version, the original I was hearing back then was in Italian. (Foreshadowing!) I spent a couple months in Europe when I graduated from college. I happen to share a train compartment with an Italian man who knew no English. He spoke Italian, and I spoke my no-longer beginner Spanish and we understood each other pretty well.

[shadowkat]

Spanish, Italian and French (Latin languages) are incredibly similar languages, more so actually than the Germanic ones. The Germanic - which English sprouts from, aren't. It makes them harder to learn. The Slavic languages - I think may be similar as well? Polish seem to learn Russian easily and vice versa. As do the Serbian. Living in NYC has made it possible for me to distinguish between the Serbian, Russian and Polish over time, but I still get confused.
Bengali and Hindi seem to be, but I don't think they are similar.

I remember discussing languages with the Chinese accounting team that I worked with at Oberon (Video Game Developer) and they explained that there were over twenty different dialects. And the Mandarin and Cantonese were not similar at all, and it was almost impossible for the two to understand each other. Not helped by the various strands and different dialects and regional dialects.

I think most people rely on body language? I went to France, stayed with a family that barely knew any English and spoke Gaulish French (be like visiting Ireland or Scotland with an eighth grader's understanding of text book English). But somehow we understood each other without any issues. I learned something valuable that summer - that you can figure a lot out with body language. It's how I've survived living in NYC for over twenty years.

[cactuswatcher]

Yes, Slavic languages are very similar. I studied first Serbian and then Polish in grad school after learning Russian in college. It wasn't too bad dealing with Serbian and Russian at the same time, but I admit that adding Polish, did get confusing at times. It was hard to remember which small differences belonged in which language. The big differences are obvious, but the subtle ones can be tricky. Meaning - I can half-way follow a conversation between two people speaking Polish, but I'd sound like a fool trying to speak it myself.