Language as a national identity

IRELAND FRO THE POLISH PERSPECTIVE

While reading his entry I had another lesson about the Irish culture. This time about one of the Celtic language that was long ago spoken by the Irish, the Gaelic. We all know by now that what determines a culture is its language as well as history. Apropos history, Ireland seems to have had a turbulent one. Not only was Ireland invaded by the Vikings, Anglo-Normans, colonized by the English and Scottish but the population was also decimated because of famines and emigration to America. (It is important to mention that ever since the famine in 1840s emigration has been a significant feature of the Irish life.) As a result it was difficult to keep the Gaelic language that was under the constant threat of other language alive. It gradually petered out. So no wonder that the language that survived was a symbol of independence and as such became an official language in Ireland. In the 19th century many language, amongst whish was the Irish language, were brought alive and modernized. However, the question remains why the attempt to establish the Gaelic as the official Irish language failed.

This HE tries to find out. It seems that the excuse is the widely-spoken English language opposite to the Irish language that is not used. According to him, Irish behave reckless towards their language and you may draw a conclusion that they also behave irresponsible towards their nationality. If this is really so, I doubt. This topic reminds me of another question; can you learn a language without any knowledge of the related culture. Definitely not. Language is a part of culture. It is formed by the culture as the culture is formed by their anticipants. Take for example the saying IT’S NOT MY CUP OF TEA. I immediately associate it with the quaint custom of drinking tea at 5 o’clock.

Drug trafficking

In the entry I’ve just red Sean points out the connection between Australia and Asia. Although half of the kids he went to school with were of Asian descent, the ties to this continent (Asia) seemed for him to end at the airport. On the other hand, although Vancouver’s population seem to predominantly be Asian, Australia is by far more attached to Asia than Vancouver. Trading partners, defence partners and vacation spots. While for the people from Vancouver the popular escape is Mexico, Australians most favourite and besides cheap (“assuming you don’t enter or leave the country with bricks of heroin strapped to your chest”) getaway is Bali or Thailand.

The Bali Nine, Schapelle Corby, a 29-year-old former beauty student from Queensland, Australian model Michelle Leslie and finally Nguyen Tuong Van, a 26-year-old Vietnamese-Australian were all in possession of illegal drugs. The Bali nine is a group of nine young Australians whose barmy endeavour was to smuggle 8.3 kilos of heroin from Bali to Australia in April 2005. Not wanting to get their hands dirty, Australian government left the job up to Indonesian authorities, knowing well what the upshot of a conviction in Bali might be. They may face death penalty.

“These incidents only leave me filled with questions. Was the Australian government acting in the right by allowing nine citizens to be arrested in Bali to face the death penalty when they could have been arrested here and faced a more humane punishment? What possesses a young person to take such a risk?” These questions bother Sean. Some of them, for example the question of death penalty, upset me too. Who are we to decide over other people’s death? Is if death were a punishment. The death penalty is a complete nonsense, absolutely incongruous in these days. We should once and for all dispel the undercurrent idea that we are GODS. If we honestly want to swear vengeance, the best punishment for a convict would be to let them alive and make them suffer physically and psychically and not release them of pain. It all reminds me of Sad am Hussein. The medieval way to kill him was ludicrous. Not that I defend him. Not at all. But there must have been another way to castigate him. IT DOESN’T BEHOVES US TO DECIDE OVER OTHER PEOPLES LIFE/DEATH.

“It seems Australians aren’t as averse to ketchup as I thought”

Just to let you know. I’ve just read Sean’s blog where he pints out the main differences between Canada and Australia. Read his entry under: http://www.a-reminder.org/notes/?p=6.

THE WILD AUSTRALIA

The merits of being unemployed

Why the hell people relish the idea to go to Australia, the WILD Australia? The costs are colossal, the journey is endlessly long, prisoners were sent to Australia and after all it is treacherous and wild. (Yes, in the past prisoners were sent to Australia. In year 1787 the British began to colonize Australia. Since the unexplored land was harsh, much work was needed to turn this land into arable fields. Therefore, convicts were the first settlers of Australia, and a major number of those prisoners were Irish. The Irish became the first white minority in Australia. Read an interesting article about a famous escape from Australia under: http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/australia.htm). This question seems to bother Sean.

Sean considers himself lucky since he landed safely, wasn’t kicked over by an animal he had hold for the most dangerous, the kangaroo. A visit to Australian museum changed his mind.

The main reason for visiting the Australian Museum was to get primed for the worse, to see what did he let himself in for and to get to know what he will have to become inured to. Why inured to? Australia is home to the world’s most lethal insects, snakes (jus the thought of them makes me feel queasy) and is awash with the most “resplendent” spiders. Snakes creep around in the bush in water or fields, crocodiles (not at all amenable) are gigantic and can grow up to 7m and the famous spider is the Sydney funnel-web spider. Australian beauty is just a veneer that cracks down the moment you get to know it better. Australia = island of terror, so he things.

VOCAB:

§ pose an immediate threat
§ bewildering mass
§ venomous snakes
§ slither over
§ unnerving
§ not averse to

THE MOBILEPHONEMANIA

http://averyinrome.blogspot.com/

Since my intention is to learn Italian next year, it would be of a benefit to learn something about Italy in beforehand. After having searched the Internet for some special blogs, I found nothing that grabbed my attention. For this reason, I looked into the blogs of my fellow friends and finally found what I was looking for. The girl, whose name I have to find out, landed in a unique corner of the world, Italy, due to love.

It this entry she reports about the peculiar attraction for the most ubiquitous device in this day and age, THE MOBILE PHONE. As if this “machine” were handy for showing of. Of course it is, so they (Italian people) hold. While she was on a party with her friend, the thing she found odd was JUST how the Italians are enamored with this modern apparatus, how they pay homage to their pats. Barely can ONE mobile phone ring that a cacophonous symphony by thousands of other mobile phones fills a room. A venerable ritual follows! Showing photos of relatives, friends, friends of the friends and so on and so forth. Not to forget to listen to the ringtones. They all feel compelled to do it.

That nowadays people have more than one mobile phone is nothing unusual. I myself have two, one in Croatia and one her in Austria. But not that I am obsessed with them, no! This mobilephonemaina remembers me of a friend of mine who could hardly await a lesson to be over to write a few sms. Whit I find absurd is that children who even cannot utter words properly or are illiterate are in possession of this “machines”. I won’t go into details now but I hold that mobile phones should be banned in primary schools.

Mysteries Squared

Yuppie!
After some looong time of procrastination I finally started reading the other blogs. Honestly, I was torn between two of them and finally alea iacta est. Since I’m an avid but peculiar Australia fan (peculiar in the way that I don’t know much about it), I found a blog about a Canadian guy (Sean) living in Australia http://www.a-reminder.org/notes/. In this for me rather opaque entry he remarks on the Australian PM, John Howard and the shadow government.
To start with, we find out that Australia, one of the well-known and most exotic “islands” of the world, is nothing short of invisible in the North America media world, a tame affair. News about Australia seldom reach the other side of the world, Vancouver. Apropos news, when watching it on TV, the thing that astounds him (Sean) is the “incompetence” to understand it. This is an unadulterated testimony to the fact that knowing a language is just a drop in the ocean. Cultural background is what we need! General knowledge is what we should long for!

Now to the political part or better to say to John Howard, the ostensibly disreputable PM. Sean’s opinion of the Pm is no that positive. I’ll now sidestep this unsettling issue since I might be in jeopardy of misinterpreting his standpoint. You rally have to read his entry yourself, http://www.a-reminder.org/notes/?p=7. However, what I’ll do is to find something about the Australian political system to at least have a clue about it. Politic is not my thing, though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Australia
Having read two or three more entries of him (I’ll report about it some other time), I am of the opinion that they are a real page-turner or should I say mouse-clicker!? I am glad that I have finally found something attention-grabbing and I’m really looking forward to reading it.
VOCAB:
spine-tingling bore
sth is afoot
alcohol-invigorated men

Ireland from a Polish perspective

First of all, I have to stress that this Polish guy is nothing short of fabulous. He has an eagle eye for remarkable details about Irish culture, and although not being word-perfect in English, he manages to convey the message confidently.
I the following two entries: http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/2006/05/30/leaving-poland/ and http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/2006/05/28/irish-dream-my-way-to-ireland/, we find something about the time he was about to leave Poland. He is just one of the flocks of birds, who got enticed into exploring the emerald green island and its mysterious charm. Why did the Polish people spread their wings after all?

We find out that Poland has for long been “inflicted” by the Celtic Ireland, which has significantly modified the customary polish way of life. As swift rise in Irish music, Irish films… Speedy growing pubs cropped up on every corner seducing the Polish into indulging in the Irish beer. The aforementioned was for long the only way to derive pleasure from the Irish culture, for until becoming an EU-member, the opportunity to visit or work in Ireland was as rare a chance as water in a desert.

Since the labor market opened for the Polish, Ireland has been “inexorably” thronged with them, and at the present Polish community is the biggest minority. Alongside the peaceful invasion, Polish culture has begun to exert a slight influence on the Irish way of life in very many ways. These changes in the culture are, I hold, often hidden from its very own participants.

Another peculiar thing we find out according to him is that Irish people, alas, seldom answer an e-mail. He must have gotten crazy, for not knowing what to do exactly or what is at he root of the suddenly- ended connection.

I’m going back to Seattle!

http://www.nerdseyeview.com/blog/?p=160
February 23, 2005

In this entry Pam Mandel reports about her seasonal return to Seattle she is gong to take up on March 1, 2005. Having been working a lot the preceding days and weeks, she considers her return more or lass as a holiday, a weekend off. Even if it is for a month (if I am not mistaken), and eve if it is a place she is/should be used to, she has to physically and mentally prepare for it. Why is this so? It is due to the discrepancies between Austria and US. She compares them in terms of bread, yogurt, smoking, cars …

Yogurt in Seattle is to fat. A decent loaf of bread can in Austria be purchased for a song, whereas in US for the same expanses one would go hungry. If I compare Austria and Croatia, the prices of a loaf of bread in Austria are extortionate. A loaf of white bread costs in Croatia not even a Euro, and the price of other types of bread is up to E1.5.
Yogurt in Seattle is to fat.

Concerning smoking, she is looking forward to the day when no-smoking sections are going to be put into practice, since she loads to feel like a walking cigarette whenever she gets out of a pub, pizzeria or whatsoever. I personally don’t smoke and don’t mind if one smokes next - we live in a democratic world after all. However, there are people who cannot stand when one smokes next to them, which is why I am a proponent of the banning thing in public places.

Next thing she hates about Austria, in particular about Aigen, are the “far-flung” grocery stores. The one within a walking distance does not live up to her expectations. I hold that this is the charm of small towns. Either you want to live in a bustling, dreary city, or embrace such towns with their merits and demerits, allurements and “repulsions”.

There is a thing that Pam Mandel and I have in common. We both miss our friends at home. Nevertheless, these days it is actually impossible not to stay in contact with your friends due to the ubiquitous spread of mobile phones and internet. Another thing is that you are never alone. Even in a foreign country you can make friends, although it is sometimes pretty tough. All you have to do is try hard and be determined. Te opposite of the aforementioned reminds me of my boyfriend, pardon, of my ex boyfriend. He was always grumbling that we have no friends to go out with. It is patently obvious that you won’t find friends staying at home most of the weekends and glued to the TV.

INTERESTING VOCAB:

dawdle: a) be bored
b) hang around
c) work hard
confinement: a) satisfaction
b) mood
c) imprisonment

Snowshoeing perhaps?

Nerd’s eye view
http://www.nerdseyeview.com/blog/?p=127

Finally, here I am reporting about the blog I’m reading. It is not that I haven’t read some entries written by Pam Mandel yet. I did, but it sounded somehow off-putting to me, which is why I couldn’t sit down and report about it. Since I’m a bit bored now, I thought it is high time I did something useful. How about spending a day in the alm? Snowshoeing perhaps?
Do you know that Austrians are zealous hikers? And do you know that Austrians have no preference for snowshoeing? First of all, what is snowshoeing? I don’t know either! So let us have a look at our beloved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshoe.

Just don’t ask me if I am a hiker, snowshuer, skier or whatsoever. Unfortunately, I’m not. For this reasons I haven’t been aware that there are different routs to hike an alm. How should I know it? I have just once in my life “climbed” a mini mountain in Croatia and this was some long long time ago. I’m not that old, though. However, I am not a skier either, which is why I don’t know what a XC skier is. When I was a child I tried it hear to become acquainted with the skiing paraphernalia, as did I try hard to become friends with the skis. Unfortunately, despite my strenuous efforts, they (the skis) didn’t want my company. They rebelled against me whenever I wanted to ski in a particular direction. That was cheeky of them!

Honestly, I have to admit that I quite like Austrians for their sporty disposition. As far as I’ve noticed, there is always a sporty soul on the streets jogging or riding a bike, which is, in comparison to where I come from, an infrequent occurrence.

VOCAB
high altitude - We are flying at an altitude of 6 000 metres.
a finger-numbing minus 15 degrees - numbing cold / fear • Watching television had a numbing effect on his mind.
balmy minus 4 degrees - warm and pleasant: a balmy summer evening