Comments | amw: do i have covid, confusion and creole

amw

do i have covid, confusion and creole

Dec 30, 2021 17:07

The past day or two have been consumed by me worrying if i have COVID. The odds are that i don't, because most recent numbers only show a few thousand active cases in the entire country, and anyway my lifestyle is relatively safe... Or, at least, i think it is ( Read more... )

panama, my boring life, sick

Comments 17

carriea31 December 30 2021, 23:09:03 UTC

How many people are in your class? I hope you feel better soon.

amw December 30 2021, 23:18:32 UTC

Just me! I booked private classes so that i could advance more quickly. I only ever see other students occasionally in the break room, and most of them aren't doing 4 hours a day intensive sessions like me.

carriea31 December 30 2021, 23:24:28 UTC

Ah, that's super nice...seems for sure a faster way to go.

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anais_pf December 30 2021, 23:42:38 UTC

I can relate! It may have been a mistake for me to re-add Dutch to my daily rotation of Czech, French and Spanish on Duolingo. I kept the languages separated fairly easily until I decided I should try Dutch again. Now my pronouns are all mishmashed. At least Dutch seems easier now that I've attempted Czech (which I am sure I will never really nail).

I also have a cold for the first time in two years, that I am pretty sure is not Covid because I am sure I caught it from three of the people I was living with over the Christmas holiday, and they got tested for Covid before arriving and tested negative. I hope you also have a cold.

terminal_ennui December 31 2021, 00:41:21 UTC

I mean…. In addition to creoles- Is this not the story of English? Invaders and colonizers and a language coming out of that mix?

My dad has said that he must put all other languages from his mind when speaking one (he is also a substantial polyglot with two mother tongues) or he’ll just start interjecting Spanish into Italian.

king_of_apathy December 31 2021, 13:27:42 UTC

I just finished a book called 'Globish', tracing the history of English from when it was spoken by a handful of Germanic tribes to how it became the language of international communications worldwide. And yeah it's totally a mix of many other languages that got added to the pot along the way!

amw January 4 2022, 19:26:41 UTC

I think there is still debate between linguists about whether English is a creole or just a language that was more open to external modifications and improvements than other languages. I do wonder how much of that is a property of the flexibility of English per se and how much is because the British Empire ended up making English a more globally relevant language in the first place. Like, are there other languages which adopted a lot from other languages too but because they died off or got marginalized we just don't talk about them any more? It's interesting.

jenndolari December 31 2021, 01:51:37 UTC

Tamales dulces! I haven't seen those since I left San Antonio. The ones I got tended to just be masa, fruit and nuts, and the masa was colored red. A few of those and a mug of champurrado and you were all full and warm for the evening. And likely spiking the crap out of your blood sugar and clogging the hell out of your arteries. :)

amw January 4 2022, 19:37:18 UTC

I'm not sure i'd classify the hallaca as a tamal dulce! It definitely had some aspect of sweetness in there - notably the raisin - but with olives and capers and bell peppers and meat, it was more like a rich, many-flavored stew. Maybe something a bit more like those Malaysian curries with pineapple in them? Either way, it was a pretty lovely treat, and a lot nicer than the fairly dry and bland everyday tamales you find around the place. I have yet to try some of the Panamanian tamales they have at some of the fondas for breakfast, but now i think i will try one tomorrow just to compare.