ऍम ई टैपिंग इन हिंदी? :)

when i open this blog, i keep getting the invitation and the unexplained privilege of typing in hindi...perhaps this is because i just came from a nepali site...which, if they're writing in hindi there, it is translating nicely to english on my part. most of them speak better english, at least phonetically, than many native-born english speakers.

i have not, nor am not likely to ever, write in hindi. while i'm looking forward to teaching a spanish-only-speaking second grader next week, that's about the extent of foreign language training. my main statements in spanish are, "Yo no se" y "mas larga, por favor."

two years of college spanish did little for me except to enable me to communicate with my cat, whose name was pato. pato el gato. duck the cat. you had to be there to appreciate this in all its depth of meaning. but when i spoke spanish to him, he gave me the most rapt attention. even when being dive-bombed by angry mockingbirds, i could shout, "venga! andele!" and he'd hustle right into the house. so my education was not a complete loss.

english in all its messy glory is probably more than most of us native english speakers can handle, let alone those who learn it secondhand. with our inexact meanings, our campy overblowing of words until they mean the opposite of what they meant originally, it's a wonder that anyone who speaks english as a second language has the moxie to stick with it. the word "love" itself is so frightening in its inexactitude, so misused in the culture, it might seem to an ESL learner that we are intentionally laying verbal depth charges under what seem to be the glassy seas of verbal navigation. no wonder people new to our culture stick with their heart language and the matchmakers of the old country more often than not. what on earth are those crazy americans peddling with that word, "love"?

sadly, even native speakers have trouble with that one. witness a lovely woman, smart and competent, pretty and thin, who coming off one bad marriage finds herself now in the midst of knowing that she doesn't love the current lover (get those dichotomous terms!?). however, she thinks that with all his good qualities, she might grow to love him. while they're "making love."

in the first case, "love" for her means she's willing to commit to this man exclusively, cooking, cleaning, etc. however, our culture gives to the word "lover" the connotation of "sexual partner" which thereby makes it clear that whatever else is going on, whatever words are exchanged, "making love" or sexual conjoining is the actual lingua franca of this relationship. without that, it's quite likely that all of this current lover's good qualities would rapidly devolve into wheedling, whining and starting that "let's just be friends" chat which ends in his leaving in his nice car to find the next available piece of flesh.

simply from that example alone, one who speaks english as a second language is wise to buy the newspapers, go on the websites, contact the matchmakers from the old country, whatever country that may be. at least these merchants of relationship know what it is they are selling and don't muck it up with those lame labels so touted by our culture's magazine fronts. "Sex in ways you've never imagined"! splashes across the front of one, with another banner reading just bleow it, "find out what he means when he says he loves you!"

our cultural icons quite simply scream that self-respect, clarity, courage and desire for anything bigger than the next high, the next orgasm, the next party or meal or shopping spree, must be somehow suspect. is it any wonder so many people who speak our language as their second despise us? थेय'वे गोट अ प्वाइंट। !!! which to you nonhindi speakers would be...they've got a point.