3 of the 4 missionaries are on either furlow or vacation.
Since the missionaries dont regularly go in on fridays it ws left up to moi to open the church building. Not a problem.
I was due to open the church any time before 9 am. So I woke up at 7 am got ready, hung out and was out the door by 809. I decided to take the bus, which takes 30 minuets. Today it happened to take 40. So I arrive to the church building unlock the door and the alarm starts to beep. Which is normal its just a sound to signal the motion detectors. Once the code is entered a single beep sounds to signify the alarm has been deactivated.
So i enter the code. Wait a moment and nothing........... I enter it again. Wait another moment and nothing.......I enter it one more time and again no beep and a few seconds later the THE LOUD ALARM GOES OFF!!!
I jump up and down as i beg BEG the alarm to stop sounding. PLEASE STOP! PLEASE STOP!! I beg and plead. Then i decided to change the last digit on the code and the alarm ceases to sound.
Then i realized i had been pressing in the ACTIVATION code instead of the DE-ACTIVATION code. The alarm stops and i look our the glass doors to see if police cars swarm the church. Nothing....I listen for the phone to ring as the security alarm people call. Nothing....
I breathe a sigh of relief and head back to the office. Not to long after that Mirta, the secretary, arrives. I told her what happened and we had a hardy little chuckle. Then all of a sudden a police officer walks in. Im stunded. As he removes his sunglasses he asks "Whos in charge here?" I say in the nicest softest voice I can and "I am :)" and he says "You??" I nod my head. He then asks "Are you the one who deactivated the alarm?" "Yes." "Cual es tu numero de cedula?" Whats your ID number? Since i dont have a "cedula." I proceed with giving him my passport number. "13...." and before i can get to the next set of numbers he exclaims "13!?!?!?" Cedula numbers start with only numbers 1-6. So when i said 13. He thought i was crazy or something. I then said "Soy Estado Unidense. Le puedo darle mi numero de pasaporte." I am from the United States and i can give you my passport number." So i give him all 9 numbers. "Como es tu nombre?" "Rocio Esquivel." He writes them down. So as hes waiting for the voice on the other side of the walk-e talk-e to respond he says "Americana. eh?" "Si. Estado Unidense" So about 5 more minuets pass and we both just kinda stand there. He let me know he was waiting for conformation. Then he says " ALRight! Thats it! Thank you and have yourself a good day." "Igualmente" I replied. He turned and walked out the glass doors.
I thought, he must have thought "What a strange occurance. A young girl in charge of a church building from the United States with a name like "Rocio Esquivel."
You dont see that everyday.
Awesome.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
The Greek Eye
So I am pretty sure most of us do not analize every single word we say in our mother tounge.
Its so natural for us to just speak communicate joke defend encourage correct in the language we've grown up without looking at borrowed words, analizing idioms and disconecting conjoined words.
Even when youve grow up with 2 or more languages you often dont see things until people who are learning that language bring it to your attention.
Or when you teach someone a language you often dont know how to respond when you dont know WHY certain words mean certain things and why they are used in that certain way.
So the other day Brittnea and I went to Luque. Luque is known for the silver they sell. There is this one principle street that has like 20 jewlery stores. Beautiful expensive artisental cheap silver with some gold is what you will find. And so I was looking for something small but profoundfully meaningful. So I started looking for the letter "Y" to add as a charm to my necklace.
Y is the initial for "Ysapy" which is my name in Guarani. Which is just one of the many indeginous languages spoken in Paraguay. Its the most prodominant one. Pronounced "UHsapbUH."(from my phonetic understanding) For those of you who don't yet know, Rocio is the spanish word for morning dew.
There are many designs of letters you can find in all the different stores. Everytime I went in a store I would ask "Ustedes tienen el inicia 'y griega'?" "Do yall have the letter 'y'?" I said it so many times that all of a sudden I turned to Brittnea and said/asked in a half rhetorical kind of way "Do you think the 'y griega' is the 'greek i'?"
Of course when you WRITE it, there's no question. But how many of us have written out phonetically and or the actual spelling of each letter of the alphabet? So I started thinking "Well spanish and english, amongst other languages, use Roman letters." Parts of the Bible is written in Greek and Jesus lived in the Roman Emire. So thats basic evidence that Roman and Greek writings/script are related.
Books have been written about these conncections. Im going to go look for one to read. Its just an observation.
BUT so thats an example of how the smallest things, down to the writing and pronounciation of a letter, makes you look into the world of words and why things are written they way they are, why words are used the way they are, why words mean the things they mean. And or why certain words mean one thing but depending on context it can mean something different. And how is it that that particular word can transendend its own original meaning. Does it depend at all WHO the person is thats saying it? Could that word mean different things in different parts of the country? Or different meaning in same language but different country? ie the US of A and England. All this is speaking soley of one language.
What about translation of one word in different languages. Every language can have its own use of that one word. OR same word same meaning but different cultural context.
And you can go into subcultures and "third cultures."
As to keep my brain from exploding I will give another example.
Another example is listening to spanish speakers speak english and when they say something grammatically wrong and what not. If you translate liternally into spanish what they just said, it makes perfect sense and vice versa.
And so I've been playing/learning German and Guarani. For example there is no "Thank you" in Guarani. I've asked a lot of Guarani speakers and they say "Eeeeeeeeehhhmmmmm....." and then I was learning phrases in German and I asked "How do you say 'Nice to meet you?'in German?" And there really isnt a translation or form to say/translate that. And in Japanese there are 2 phrases you say when you meet someone and one of them translates to "Please be nice to me"
Its all SOOO interesting!
Heres a joke.
Im sure many of you have heard this one but I want to share it since were talking about languages.
What do you call someone that speaks 2 languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone that speaks 3 languages? Trilingual
What do you call someone that speaks 4 or more languages? Polyglot
What do you call someone that speaks 1 language? American.
This is in no offense to those who don't happen to speak more than one language. Learning a language is not the easiest thing in the world. Instead be encouraged in being open to different cultures and ways and walks of life. And be encouraged to support your local missionary!
Thanks for reading!
Its so natural for us to just speak communicate joke defend encourage correct in the language we've grown up without looking at borrowed words, analizing idioms and disconecting conjoined words.
Even when youve grow up with 2 or more languages you often dont see things until people who are learning that language bring it to your attention.
Or when you teach someone a language you often dont know how to respond when you dont know WHY certain words mean certain things and why they are used in that certain way.
So the other day Brittnea and I went to Luque. Luque is known for the silver they sell. There is this one principle street that has like 20 jewlery stores. Beautiful expensive artisental cheap silver with some gold is what you will find. And so I was looking for something small but profoundfully meaningful. So I started looking for the letter "Y" to add as a charm to my necklace.
Y is the initial for "Ysapy" which is my name in Guarani. Which is just one of the many indeginous languages spoken in Paraguay. Its the most prodominant one. Pronounced "UHsapbUH."(from my phonetic understanding) For those of you who don't yet know, Rocio is the spanish word for morning dew.
There are many designs of letters you can find in all the different stores. Everytime I went in a store I would ask "Ustedes tienen el inicia 'y griega'?" "Do yall have the letter 'y'?" I said it so many times that all of a sudden I turned to Brittnea and said/asked in a half rhetorical kind of way "Do you think the 'y griega' is the 'greek i'?"
Of course when you WRITE it, there's no question. But how many of us have written out phonetically and or the actual spelling of each letter of the alphabet? So I started thinking "Well spanish and english, amongst other languages, use Roman letters." Parts of the Bible is written in Greek and Jesus lived in the Roman Emire. So thats basic evidence that Roman and Greek writings/script are related.
Books have been written about these conncections. Im going to go look for one to read. Its just an observation.
BUT so thats an example of how the smallest things, down to the writing and pronounciation of a letter, makes you look into the world of words and why things are written they way they are, why words are used the way they are, why words mean the things they mean. And or why certain words mean one thing but depending on context it can mean something different. And how is it that that particular word can transendend its own original meaning. Does it depend at all WHO the person is thats saying it? Could that word mean different things in different parts of the country? Or different meaning in same language but different country? ie the US of A and England. All this is speaking soley of one language.
What about translation of one word in different languages. Every language can have its own use of that one word. OR same word same meaning but different cultural context.
And you can go into subcultures and "third cultures."
As to keep my brain from exploding I will give another example.
Another example is listening to spanish speakers speak english and when they say something grammatically wrong and what not. If you translate liternally into spanish what they just said, it makes perfect sense and vice versa.
And so I've been playing/learning German and Guarani. For example there is no "Thank you" in Guarani. I've asked a lot of Guarani speakers and they say "Eeeeeeeeehhhmmmmm....." and then I was learning phrases in German and I asked "How do you say 'Nice to meet you?'in German?" And there really isnt a translation or form to say/translate that. And in Japanese there are 2 phrases you say when you meet someone and one of them translates to "Please be nice to me"
Its all SOOO interesting!
Heres a joke.
Im sure many of you have heard this one but I want to share it since were talking about languages.
What do you call someone that speaks 2 languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone that speaks 3 languages? Trilingual
What do you call someone that speaks 4 or more languages? Polyglot
What do you call someone that speaks 1 language? American.
This is in no offense to those who don't happen to speak more than one language. Learning a language is not the easiest thing in the world. Instead be encouraged in being open to different cultures and ways and walks of life. And be encouraged to support your local missionary!
Thanks for reading!
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