Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hebrew

. . . is such an interesting language -- quite like nothing I've ever heard. I've always been interested in foreign languages, so this is a very interesting challenge.

I learned Japanese. Got that down pat. With a Japanese person who also speaks English, it's usually a give-and-take, a mishmash. Usually they want to use their English, which is understandable, but also regrettable. And for sure, I can't hold, say, a political or even remotely complicated conversation, but as far as day-to-day stuff -- "Yes, I'd like to reserve a room. Can I use my credit card? Yes, I'd like these dates blah blah blah and I'd like a non-smoking room" -- hey, it's easy-breezy-cheesy-squeezy.

But when I hear Brigitte talk -- to someone who speaks Hebrew -- it's incredible. I listen in,trying to figure out what the conversation is all about. It's like listening to Mongolian. I have absolutely not a clue what most of the words are all about. There's no "European" clue, unlike Spanish, Portuguese or German, which I can, say, KIND OF get a sense of.

But in any language, humans seem to say the same old things . . . "What? Yes, I know . . . no, I don't think so . . . yes, I'm fine . . . what?" so that's what I'm gleaning from listening to Brigitte, who is completely, and I mean completely trilingual. She switches effortlessly between Hebrew, English and French, frequently peppering her speech with either English or French, so that's when I have a clue of what she's saying.

Well, there's a project. I'm trilingual but now I want to be quadrilingual. Wish me luck.

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