penn

Learning a new language?

Here's a great method I read about on JMPP:

Take a regular 8 1/2 x 11 piece of blank paper and hold it horizontally. Fold it in half so that you now have an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 surface. Then fold it again (same direction) so that it is in quarters, then again so that it is in eights, and then unfold it. You will have a piece of paper with 8 narrow columns. Across the top of the first column write "English," across the top of the second write "Spanish," then "English" atop the third, and so on.

Take about 25 vocab words (depending on how big you write) that you want to learn, and write them down the side of the first column in English. Then write their Spanish translations alongside them in the second column.

Now fold the 1st column (English) underneath the rest of the page so you can't see it. You will be left with a column of 25 Spanish words and a blank column in which you are to write their corresponding English translations (you'll also have five other blank columns). When done, check your work and make corrections as needed. Then fold the two left-hand columns (already written in) underneath the paper so that you have an English list for which you need to write the Spanish translations. Repeat this until you get to the last column and I'll bet you have all 25 memorized.

Heck, it may even work for memorizing vocab from chem, bio, etc. Seriously good idea. I'll have to try this sometime.

Is this irony?

The other day, I heard (on NPR, where else?) a debate over dental fillings. Specifically, the issue regarded the use of amalgam fillings, which contain some amount of mercury. On the program, it said that the group Consumers for Dental Choice want to ban amalgam fillings. Perhaps it's just me, but is it choice if you ban options?

I'm all for eliminating mercury being put into the human body (let's not misconstrue my intentions in posting this), but I just got a little chuckle out of consumers for choice wanting to ban something.

Pique

If something has your interest, it has piqued your interest. It has not peaked it.

One of my major pet peeves . . .

Latin Lawn

Tonight, in my outdoor recreation class (yes, credit for going kayaking and backpacking), we learned about map and compass skills. I learned a ton of stuff. Notably:

1. Topographic maps have lines on them that indicate elevation.
2. The closer together the lines, the steeper up/down the grade is.
3. You can tell if the slope is going up or down by looking at where water crosses the elevation lines. The open part of the "v" this makes points downward and the point of the "v" points upward.
4. Maps are great, and I'm pretty sure I can use a compass now. We have a scavenger hunt next week, so I'll get a chance to practice then.

For part of the class, we discussed GPS. I understood everything except how GPS is figured: by latin lawn. Took me quite awhile to realize he was really saying "lat and long" for "latitude and longitude." English speakers definitely have a penchant for shortening everything they say.

A linguistic difference

I'd forgotten this until I checked out Sweety's blog today, but the Dutch have some beautiful turns-of-phrase that I love.

My absolute favorite? "make a picture." When I heard that, I feel like photography is truly treated like the art it is in their culture.

When I was applying to colleges, I was really into photography (not that I'm not now, but I was considering a photography major/minor). At my interview with Grinnell, I asked whether or not there was a darkroom on campus.

him: "Um, maybe in the physics department."
me: "why not in the art department? You'd think they would have a darkroom."
him: "Oh, our art department doesn't consider photography a true art."

But the Dutch obviously do, and this is why I love the Dutch and didn't go to Grinnell.

Happiness for the day

My writing professor just intracampus mailed me an article I wrote in the student newspaper about iTunes. The only thing on the page was written in red ink at the top:

"I see structures! - DWW"

ahh, bliss. There is nothing better than a compliment on your sentence structures from the professor who reinvented your concept of how to write an excellent sentence.

Often

I often read
with a dictionary on my lap.

These days,
how can you not?

antediluvian: before the flood; extremely old; antiquated

The most popular euphemism in Cosmo?

"Do the deed."

honestly, it's like being back in junior high. Cosmo is good as a brain numbing time-waster . . . but I'm glad it's my roommate that subscribed to it and not me.

The definition is what matters

Coitus, in my American Heritage College Dictionary, is defined as the "heterosexual union involving insertion of the penis into the vagina."

Sex, however, is just defined as "sexual intercourse."

See, Mr. President? Heterosexual couples do have something reserved for them that homosexuals can never have.

Happy Birthday . . .

to Stephen Dunn! The following poem is his, it's reprinted without permission, and I hope he doesn't mind spreading Dunn love all over the internet. If you love poetry, this is a man to read and enjoy. Hell, even if you don't love poetry, you might just like his works. All of his books are wonderful, so you'd be safe in buying anything with his name on it, especially if it's poetry.