I’ll try to get a picture of it. It’s an Emperor One Japanese Maple, a nice tall one, pretty red leaves. There’s a little worry about sun exposure with this tree—they don’t like it hot or bright, but we have those tall evergreens and some other trees about it, and a dwarf Japanese Maple about 4 feet away from it that’s done very well.
We have a new tree.
by CJ | Apr 29, 2017 | Journal | 8 comments
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Nihon desu ka! Ii ne!
Yay for the tree!
I had a very pretty Japanese Maple that I planted over Ruthie’s grave when I lived at the farm. When I moved out, I didn’t take the tree with me (now I wish I had), and I found out that the landlady’s husband, not knowing what it was, ran over it with the lawn mower…..it was NOT an inexpensive tree, and when I planted it, I notified the landLADY what it was, and that it was a fairly expensive tree. I guess she either didn’t tell him or he forgot, or whatever, but I haven’t had another one. I liked the ones at the Japanese Garden in Spokane. I had hoped that the one I planted would have gotten as big as they had…..:(
Aw heck, Joe, I’m sorry.
Something nand’ Bren would appreciate; adventures in language and culture immersion, or when humans are slightly more alien than expected, and yet not.
Case 1: When the maintenance guy came to see about the leak in my new apt. closet, his English was worse than my rusty Spanish, which I’m still reviewing, and hope to get back up to my previous fluency as fast as possible. I figured out (somehow) that mojado means wet or damp, in context. (The verb inf. is mojar.) But another word, I could not guess. It sounded like he was saying weh-beh, but this was not huevos (eggs) or jueves (Thursday), and he was using it as a verb in the sentence. After he left, I looked it up as best I could online. (Most of my reference books are still in storage and I’ve broken down and ordered paper and Kindle copies of key Spanish ones.) But uebe or ueve or hueve or huebe, all did not produce anything, or final e-accento, or other verb forms, such as an expected o or u instead of -ue-, a common thing in Spanish from short E in Latin. When I asked friends, they couldn’t guess it either, though I cautioned, maybe I’d misheard it and there was another consonant or two, or a sound at the start, as sure as I was that that was what I’d heard. Nope, they could not guess and said if I see him again, get him to write it down and they’ll see.
Tonight, I think I have an idea, but it’s a stretch based on someone trying to use basic approximates to talk with someone not fluent. I think he might have been saying llueve, which is the present tense form for “it rains, it is raining, it does rain,” as a way to talk about either leaks inside from pipes or overflow, or leaks caused by rainfall. The LL in Spanish is a y- consonant or semi-vowel in Spanish (like y- in yellow). In Castilian Spanish, LL is the older -ly- sound (like in millions) and in some dialects, it’s a zh or djh sound (like treasure or else like judge). The past preterite, though, switches to llovió and the infinitive is llover. Llover and llorer are cognate to French pleuvoir and pleurer, like lluvia and lágrimas are cognate to pluie and larmes (rain and tears/crying), making these poetic puns in both languages. I’m going to run this by my friends, but it seems the most likely. I need to look up the other forms in Spanish and French to make sure I have not forgotten a stem vowel change or other irregular transforms they have.
Case 2: ¡Qué vo…! — This is a Spanish exclamation. I’m pretty sure I have the spelling right. It’s a very informal thing, slang or a short form. We never got this in class in Spanish I or II in school or in the textbook. It’s one of those things that gets skipped or glossed over. But in this case, I don’t think it’s a cuss word. My best guess is, that “vo” is a form of ir, to go, which is very irregular, forms like voy, va, ibas, irámos, three different stems depending on verb tense and mood. (French does almost the same with aller, which Whovian fans should know from “Allons-y!” let’s go there.) — So qué vo… is an expression of surprise or disbelief or an exhortation, something like, ‘Aw, go on then!” or “You go there!” if I have this right. I am sure I’m going to amuse friends when I ask about something so basic. — But this also reminds me that yes, even cuss words are valid and need translations between languages. Just because they seem indelicate or improper for a classroom or for minors doesn’t mean they aren’t vital to expression or understanding. One needs to know what is being said from whom to whom and why. Hey, it might be very good and welcome instead of not. But either way, you want to know which way to go next.
Case 3: A cultural thing, human behavior. It was after 10:00pm tonight and raining lightly, mild to cool outside. I’d gone to bed very early to nap. (My sleep cycle is out of whack as always; it varies between mostly on track enough to get by and completely wacky and difficult with the real world.) — And so I wake up to hear, outside in the patio / pool / plaza area of the apartment complex, a group of kids playing, younger kids to older teens. This is not totally uncommon, and it’s the weekend, and hey, I don’t mind, but after 10 or 11, it is unusual. (The adults are often out there on weekends too. The kids were lucky to have the place to themselves.)
So I wake up, hear this, and don’t hear adults with them. I don’t think the pool’s open for use yet; it might be. But they were all having a good time, enough voices to know they didn’t need anyone coming out to see what was going on.
But then I think, well, why are kids out at 10 or 11 at night, and this can happen often enough, it’s common here?
The answer was pretty obvious after some thought. I could just as easily have it wrong, but I’d guess this is why: The parents’ work schedules and maybe visitation rights or relatives and friends coming over. See, I also know at least two neighbors regularly go to and from here at midnight, 2:00am, and 5:00am. That has to be for work, most likely. Most of the other residents speak Spanish primarily or exclusively, up to completely bilingual people who code-switch in mid-sentence between Spanish and English. So many have jobs at night, shift workers, health care or janitorial or factories or service industries.
Well, if one or both parents or other adults in the family are working at night, their time to be with their kids is topsy-turvy. And it can vary, especially in health care or other emergency services, double watches, 24 on and 24 off, and other things. This means both that my insomnia is hindered or fits right in fine with everyone else; and that hey, families need time with their kids and the kids need time to let off steam and play when they can. So being outside playing at 10 or 11 at night, which was not how I grew up throughout even my teens, family rules, until late teens — those kids are OK, that’s normal for their lives.
But it says also that there can be special and regular, habitual reasons why things might be off-schedule from most people’s expectations. It also says there may be some extra leniency, a different attitude towards work, play, and sleep, and towards family rules, than many people, or at I, am used to.
Many weekends and some nights, there are adults partying outside. It is mostly down to a dull roar, with some occasional expressions, and mostly safe for families with kids, though not always, if someone’s drinking too much. There’s usually music going from multiple sources. It’s mildly rowdy, yet it’s also not too bad. People sometimes have their kids and teens out too. This also says things about social expectations of what’s allowed and not. (I have not yet ventured out in the evenings or at nights when this is going on. Why? I don’t know. IAt first, I was tired, but then lately, I think I’ve been making excuses. I need to test the waters and meet people, even if I don’t regularly socialize and go for that. And who knows, I might have a lot of fun and make new friends with the neighbors. One personal issue: my night vision is worse lately, and this affects my spatial perception and navigating and other things way more than it used to. After cataract surgery, when/if that happens, I should be good again at night.)
My impression, though, is this is a pretty good, pretty safe overall place to be, since there are families with kids and the kids are allowed to participate and welcomed, and since it seems like people mostly self-regulate so those kids can be included and safe and enjoy being with people. — What I think after I’ve been out there during the day or at night, may change, but I’ve been here long enough, I think my impressions are pretty well founded.
But wow, I would not have been allowed to stay out that late on a school night until past 15 or 16 or so, late teens, and not past 10 as a younger teen or pre-teen…and practically never without adults around whom my parents knew, even in my late teens. But my parents were too controlling and strict and overprotective, and that was exascerbated by my low vision / legal blindness, way too much, I now know. (I suspect it would have been only somewhat better if I’d had normal vision.) (I did not usually get how strict or unusual this was as a kid, because I was too sheltered. Once I got older, I did begin to see it, but it wasn’t until adult and on my own that I have really come to see just how off-key this was. The thing is, I know they thought they were doing what was right, but it hindered me and still affects me. I really didn’t know how much until I started seeing how most other people really live, even fairly conservative or moderate people, family life or on their own, as kids or adults. Hmm…hadn’t intended to go on a rant, but that’s a cultural aspect too, isn’t it? Hmm.
It seemed worth passing this along as observations on language and cultural differences.
So — from a language and culture standpoint, this is all very exciting, a new adventure, a real learning experience.
This coming Friday is Cinco de Mayo. Oh, it could get *very* interesting around here this coming weekend, haha!
I’m mostly loving this. Occasionally weird or annoying, but mostly very good.
The experiences trying to speak to someone when neither of us knew enough of the other’s language, and the brief immersion learning are fantastic, if puzzling or frustrating, and there’s a lot of humor to it, in the right situations. Great stuff.
Good grief, I have written an epistle….
@BlueCatShip — Do I recall correctly that you are in the Houston area? Spanish and TexMex are horses of two completely different colors, ya know . . . I’d go with “llueve” as what he was saying (you-AY-vay). The Spanish spoken by various Spanish speaking nations varies as greatly as the English spoken by the various English speaking nations. Calling a baby “mono” in some Spanish speaking countries complements its cuteness, but in others compares it (unfavorably) to a monkey. Just as England and America are two countries separated by the same language, so too are Mexico and Spain (or any other two Spanish-speaking countries). My Spanish “accent” was unremarkable in Barcelona, but in Juarez I was told I spoke “pretty” (i.e., “Spanish” from Spain) Spanish. In Barcelona, they thought I was German (blue eyes, blond hair). In Mexico, they knew I was Anglo, but if I’d been more fluent, and lisped, they’d have thought me from Madrid.
My Father, who was born in Argentina, once told me that as you came north from Argentina, the Spanish became more corrupt as opposed to Argentina where the Spanish was closest to Spain.
This would make an interesting linguistic study.
Jonathan up in New Hampshire
You always have that interesting language phenomenon when a language is superimposed by conquerors onto an “indigenous” population where the conquering language acquires the names for the plants, animals, and things it has not encountered before. (American English is full of loan words from Indian languages for such — squirrel, tomahawk, wigwam, maize, tomato, potato, pumpkin, chipmunk –). In Australia, English picked up loan words from aboriginal languages, and in New Zeeland English picked up Maori loan words, etc. Just being in a different country, with speakers who are in different situations than those of the “mother country” changes the language. American picked up words not just from the Native American languages, but from French, Dutch, German, Yiddish, Swedish, Norwegian and Italian, to name but a few. Accents change, too, responding not just to the source accents of those who imported the language, but to climate as well.
Slather Spanish over 3/4ths of a continent and let it soak into a wide variety of indigenous populations and a wide variety of flora, fauna, cultures, climates and geography and it too becomes as wide and diverse and dialectized as English has.
Off topic: the books just arrived safely, thank you very much!