Faoiseamh

Aidan, the Japanese Way

2009-12-18T13:12:00.003+01:00

As I am going to Japan again in January I have picked up the pace of my Japanese studies in earnest. One thing that I am trying to do before this trip is to learn the Katakana because this script is used for the words imported from other languages. The ability to read Katakana will mean that I can work out what some things are on cocktail menus or advertisements.
However, Japanese is a language that chews imported words around, cuts and pastes them at will, contracts them at leisure and extends them at a whim. Just because something may be written in Katakana and of English origin.
I was reading the very interesting book " Kana, the Manga Way" when I came across a very nice example of what you are up against. The word ツーショット (tsushotto) derives from the English words two and shot. What would a ' two shot' be? Well, I guess that you would logically think that it referred to having a double shot of alcohol but you'd be wrong. A tsushotto is a photo with two people in it particularly popular with teenage lovebirds who like to mark their affection by getting twoshot done in a photo booth. The photo booths where you get them done are called プリクラ, (purikura). That sounds nice and Japanese until you find out that it is a contraction of purinto kurabu (プリント倶楽部) which derives from the English print club.
I think that Katakana will help me to understand a lot but I am fully aware of the limitations of that thinking. At a dinner a few weeks ago I told a couple of Japanese colleagues in jest that I didn't like the honorific -san because it made me feel old and that I preferred to be called -chan as in Aidan-chan. That is an honorific that you use for kids so it really would not be used in an adult setting. Very quickly may Japanese colleagues had taken the joke and baptized me あいちゃん (Ai-chan), I had gone from Aidan-san to Aidan-chan to Ai-chan in a matter of seconds. That is the way Japanese seems to work, the language is a dynamic linguistic factory constantly experimenting and churning out new words to amaze us with.

Managing your home like a business

2009-12-16T11:59:00.001+01:00

It is said that you should manage your home as though it were a business. In terms of managing our finances I like to think that I apply this advice. I have read more insurance policies than I would care to and I have had more bank accounts than I have had birthdays.
At this time of year I tend to review things like loans, taxes, maintenance costs and insurance policies. Many people don't consider switching their suppliers of services or products because there is an administrative burden associated with it and there is always a risk that something might go wrong in the transition. In Holland many of the switching processes are regulated to prevent suppliers making mistakes. Examples of regulated switching processes are those for your energy supplier(s) and health insurance. Despite that many people still take the lazy option of staying put.
The general inertia is a real boon to the minority who are actively looking for the best deal. Energy suppliers almost all give welcome bonuses and you only have to commit to one year contracts so switching every year is actually the best strategy to save money. I look at changing every couple of years and I am in the process of switching now.
Insurance policies are another thing most people do not care to read too carefully. In Holland there is a tendency to have insurance for everything and the insurers are laughing all the way to the bank. Many types of insurance are unnecessary as long as you take care to have enough savings to self-insure. Where I do have insurance policies I try to get the best quote for the coverage I need by using comparison sites like Independer. This year I looked at our health coverage and I came to the conclusion that it would be much more cost efficient to switch and increase my own risk. I am moving to an insurer that gives a big discount for increasing your own risk and another one if you pay one time per year rather than every month. We get a year end bonus so it make sense to just use some of that rather than pay per month.
Another area I look at regularly is whether it makes sense to switch mortgages. Right now though the decision of the ECB to maintain very low interest rates has worked out for me because I have a Euribor tracker so it couldn't get any cheaper than it is now.
A really good business would also be looking at ways to increase their income. On that front I am waiting patiently for a promotion but it is a long game. It's not something I can demand so for now it is a case of managing my current income as efficiently as possible.

Language Health Check

2009-12-09T11:52:00.000+01:00

This is what I am doing right now to acquire various languages.

i) Japanese
What I am doing - Almost every day I listen to a JapanesePod101.com podcast on my way to or from work. When I arrive at work I write a Kanji on the whiteboard with a few examples of its usage. I see the Kanji every time I come into my office. Every now and gain I flip through Japanese text books at home.
Result - My ability to speak Japanese is limited but I understand more and more.

ii) Italian
What I am doing - One or two days per week I listen to Italian podcasts. Every Tuesday I have a class in Leiden. I have a subscription to Adesso, a monthly magazine for Italian learners which I flick through intermittently.
Result - My Italian is basic but I can speak it okay by using Spanish words. I understand it much better than I can speak it. Italian speakers have told me I have improved rapidly since starting my class.

iii) French
What I am doing - I watch French television irregularly. I have a subscription to the French weekly Le Point of which I read about half every week. I have read seven French novels this year and I am quite proud of that fact.
Result - My French comprehension is excellent and reading novels in French has really helped my range and my understanding of very specific expressions and idioms. My spoken French is okay but I would need a bit of practice to get back to a decent level.

iv) Spanish
What I am doing - I listen to Spanish pop music all the time and I regularly watch television or internet clips in Spanish. I have a subscription to Punto y Coma, a monthly magazine for Spanish learners which I really love.
Result - My Spanish is quite good though I make lots of mistakes. One big thing is that I truly love speaking Spanish. With any language that is a major driver for improvement.

v) Irish
What I am doing - I read blog feeds in Irish every day. I watch TG4 on the net once or twice a month. I have a subscription to Nós, a monthly magazine for Irish speakers. I have three Irish books on my shelf just waiting to be read.
Result - My Irish is coming back. I can remember an awful lot and I am continually picking up new words so that is good progress.

As for other languages, I use Dutch and Polish every day, I don't do anything in particular to learn any more, it just happens naturally. I use German sporadically and I really want to get back to improving that some day. I have limited interactions in Swedish with a colleague, again that needs work but I have no time for it. I did start Teach Yourself Turkish a few months back but I lost momentum.
Overall I am quite happy with the way things are going. It is a lot of work maintaining multiple languages but the way my life is organized right now things are working out okay for me.

Love Signs

2009-12-07T15:25:00.000+01:00

There is a quite beautiful ad showing on Dutch television at the moment for the Senseo coffee machine featuring two actors who speak to each other in a type of sign language. I am not sure if they are both deaf, I have read that the man is. Evidently they are not using Dutch sign language. Indeed I read that the ad was produced in the UK. I can't find any definitive information on it but internet commenters say that it is some kind of pictorial sign language since they wanted the ad to be accessible internationally and sign languages (just like spoken languages) differ from country to country.

As somebody who doesn't understand sign language I watched this ad and wished I did. The symbolism of language terms is very prominent in my mind these days because of my efforts to learn Japanese Kanji characters. The simpler Kanji often have a pictorial basis (e.g. river 川, mountain 山, fire 火 , tree 木). I can imagine that sign languages would provide you a very interesting way of expressing yourself, to an outsider they are fascinating.

Cultural Pick 'n Mix

2009-12-06T15:57:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we celebrated Sinterklaas in traditional Dutch fashion. Sint and his Black Pete helpers delivered their presents, the children sang Sint songs and I realized something important about what is happening to our family.
Where three cultures meet it is just not possible for all three cultures to prevail. Although both the Polish and Irish cultures celebrate Santa Claus at Christmas we already see how pointless it is trying to keep that as the main tradition and trying to minimize the impact of the Dutch Sinterklaas. Instead we see how it is not only easier but also nicer to join in with the Dutch way of doing things.
The Irish Christmas is a curious mix of religion, family and Americana (in the form of turkey and the man in red with his reindeers). For Christians the religious aspect should ideally be to the fore and even the most atheist person would surely feel a spiritual inkling on hearing Christmas carols like "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him". For the non-religious the spirit of Christmas embodied in the spirit of giving, eating together and trying to have peace in the world is surely worthwhile.
Santa Claus was never anything more for me than the figure that brought gifts to children on his sleigh. Although I heard that the tradition originated in Germany I think that the Irish Santy was a pretty superficial figure and my fascination with him was based around what he could do for me.
In our cultural pick 'n mix I can see that the Dutch Sinterklaas is far more attractive. For one, he doesn't clash with Christmas and confuse the family and religious aspects of Christmas. More than that the tradition here has far more depth and is based very much on Saint Nicholas and what he represents. The children learn countless songs which have very clear moral messages and school uses the Sinterklaas tradition as a vehicle to teach the children about those who are less well off. Each class was busy filling Sint boxes with unused toys which would be sent to less advantaged.
There were many other activities at school based around Sint and the Black Petes.
To be honest I don't think that you can ignore Sinterklaas if your kids go to a Dutch school. Now that I can compare it to the Santa Claus tradition I certainly don't regret the 'loss' of my tradition. If you realize that the Santa Claus we have in Ireland is a shallow derivation of the exact same tradition it is hardly worth crying over.
The cultural pick 'n mix inevitably involves the loss of parts of the Polish and Irish cultures but there is a lot to be said for taking the abest of all three cultures in our efforts to give our girls the best start.

POD Thoughts From Abroad

2009-12-04T10:38:00.001+01:00

I had a friend when I was younger who went to college in Dublin. We would meet whenever we were both back home during breaks in our university schedules. I am sure that the affectations I was bringing back from northern England were equally as foreign to him as his Dublinisms were to me but he seemed to change very quickly at that time, becoming citified in a way that I was not quite expecting.
At that time northern England was gripped by Madchester and indie music (Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, James, Happy Mondays etc.) but my friends back home had little interest in hearing about the concerts I had been to. Instead my friend based in Dublin tended to take the lead in muso type discussions and I soon learned that the bands he was into were useful currency for me to use in my English incarnation. Teenage boys into music love onemanupship. There is nothing better than 'discovering' new bands, being the first to see them before they become the next big things (fyi - it still hurts that I turned down a ticket to see Nirvana at Sheffield Uni in '91). My friend in Dublin was telling me about the hottest Irish bands just before they crossed the water.
So that period of my life was a combination of English indie music interspersed with music from the bands that he introduced me to - An Emotional Fish, The Fat Lady Sings, Something Happens, The Four of Us, The Stunning and, most notably of all, the Power of Dreams. Like thousands of others "Immigrants, Emigrants and Me" was an album that appeared serendipitous, a soundtrack for an Irish generation that had grown up through a dirty, bleak recession in the dark shadow of the Catholic church. The follow-up album "2 Hell with Common Sense" is rarely quite so acclaimed but, if anything, that was the album I played more often through the 1990s. Some of my English friends were also sold on POD and one of the highlights of my university days was seeing them in concert at Sheffield Uni in 1992. POD never made it really big. Real talent is not always rewarded as everybody knows. The band released a few albums but met with less and less success besides the incongruity of being big in Japan for a time.
And why am I telling you this? Well, you know that feeling when you open up an old wallet and find a long forgotten 50 note or when your partner decides they are in the mood when you were actually just preparing to bed down for the night. If you are following me you will know how delighted I am at the news that POD are getting back together for reunion dates in March next year and re-releasing "Immigrants, Emigrants and Me" as a special edition 20 years on. My flight is booked and March 13 will see me in The Pavilion in Cork rolling back the years with some old (and hopefully new) POD fans.
Real dreams never die.

Where am I?

2009-11-19T16:48:00.000+01:00

I hate November. I just thought today about how apt the No is in the name of the month. My body refuses to do what I want it to do. My mind even more so. I am a fragile soul at this time of year. I don't push myself lest I break. I struggle to Italian class once a week but the rest of the time I am holed up at home watching the box with my dearly beloved. I keep reading and studying but only what I feel like doing, no more, not now.

Family Genetics

2009-11-03T09:26:00.001+01:00

Having children makes you think a lot about genetics. You see the way your children look and wonder at the whys and wherefores of how they came to be as they are and indeed how you came to be genetic yourself. Our third daughter is quite an exception genetically as she has passed on the brown eyes and dark hair of both her parents and is a blond-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian looking girl. Our first daughter is left-handed, though both of us are right-handed, and it looks very like our third daughter is also left-handed. Given that there is a one in ten chance of two right-handers having a left-handed child these two daughters have beaten the odds. My own family's dominant characteristic is attached earlobes but my wife has free earlobes. Attached earlobes are a recessive gene so I guess that I must be ee and my wife must also be a carrier with Ee because all three of my daughters have the Walsh earlobes.

Ryanair Fitness

2009-11-02T10:11:00.001+01:00

After seven years I decided that the time had come to change gym. The gym I was a member of has great facilities like childcare, sunbeds, saunas and squash courts. The thing is though that I only ever really used the fitness machines so all of the nice to haves were just that. In terms of price I was paying 37 Euro a month which is at the top of the market now.
In the last two years several new gyms have opened around Leiden mostly serving the budget market. I picked one that is very close to home and not far from work. With no entry costs and a monthly charge of 15 Euro it is very good value. What do I get for my bucks? Well, the equipment is excellent, better than at my old gym. What you do not have is lots of instructors going around to give you advice. That is not something that I miss because the instructors at my old gym always seemed to advise the ladies far more than the men. There is a water cooler to fill your bottle which is handy. There are also a limited amount of classes like Spinning and Pilates available.
The overall feeling though is one of a production-like facility. You get the feeling that this is about keeping in shape and not about posing and preening. If you want to secure the locker in the changing room you need to bring your own padlock. If you want a shower you need to being a 50 ct coin to get a five minute shower. The gym is obviously very concerned about variable costs. I like that. It is the Ryanair model being applied to fitness. Why pay for what you don't use?
The biggest plus in the new gym is that it opens at 7 a.m. That means that I will be able to train before work whenever I want but I don't expect to want to do this until it gets warm again.

A Proud Son

2009-10-23T15:55:00.001+02:00

When it comes to family I normally post about my children and not so often about my parents or siblings. Today however I want to write about something my father is doing to make me a very proud son. Last year the community school in my home town got in touch with him because they had heard via via that he spoke some Russian. They had a Latvian girl at the school who wanted to take Russian in the Leaving Certificate examination but they had nobody to guide her. Would Mr.Walsh be able to make some time to help the girl with her studies?
Well, my father is retired from work but is in no way retiring when it comes to challenges. Of course he could help so he set about getting Leaving Certificate past papers and other learning materials for Russian students. He set up weekly sessions where he went through the past papers with the Latvian girl and did the best he could with his own limited Russian to guide her.
Now, the funny thing was that he told me about this girl and what he was doing. It turns out that her mother is a Russian speaker and her father a Latvian speaker but for Leaving Certificate purposes she is not classed as a native Russian speaker. Her goal was to get some extra grades in her exams so I told my father about an EU law that he was not aware of. Every EU citizen has the right to sit a school exam in their mother tongue when residing in another EU state. I printed out some information from the Irish Department of Education website and gave it to my dad. The school checked it out and soon confirmed that his Latvian student could sit Leaving Certificate exams in both Latvian and Russian! The results of the Leaving Certificate came out in August and, along with some other good grades, his Latvian protégé scored an A1 in Russian and a B1 in Latvian (which was a harder exam because it was designed for native speakers)! What a great result and hats off to my dad for his work.
It doesn't end there. Two weeks ago he got another call from the school.
- "We've got another one for you."
- "Go on."
- "He's a Dutch kid who wants to improve his French."
Enough said, my father has already started his sessions. The boy can really speak French too but just doesn't get the practice needed. My father is happy to oblige and hopefully help this guy on his way to a better grade.
I am so proud when I think of what he is doing. In this case I hope that the apple will not fall far from the tree.

Emigration

2009-10-20T10:17:00.000+02:00

When I was a teenager emigration was regarded as the most natural thing in the world. There was not one family in our town without relatives in England and America. We didn't speak about whether we would emigrate we spoke about where and when we would emigrate. I don't remember anybody considering loneliness or homesickness; making an issue of things like that was as ridiculous an idea as staying home from school because you had a cold. Life was a series of stations along a railway line and there were no return tickets. Nobody came back.
When I first went to England I suffered from crippling depression and I even went to counselling for some time. I was very far gone and I can barely believe now how strangely I behaved. I regularly went to sleep at seven or eight o'clock because sleeping was the only escape from the dark hole. Amazingly I did manage to make a few friends who were all a few years older. One guy in particular took me under his wing. When you're on top you often don't appreciate just how many guardian angels there are out there to break your fall if you start to sink.
Boarding school had prepared me for emigration. One term that I came across recently to describe boarding school end-products is ‘emotionally amputated’. I can relate to this very well. Boarding school made me very hard coated and unable to embrace extreme happiness or sadness. I put that down to a kind of shutdown mechanism that kicked in when I found myself cut off from everything I knew from the age of 12. Essentially I came from a very Irish/GAA background and then I found myself away from my family out on a rugby pitch nearly every day and surrounded by people who watched English television and whose holy grail was McDonalds on Grafton Street.
I was well prepared for being cut off from kith and kin but ill prepared for the feelings of complete alienation that overcame me in that awful period as the bleak 80s eased into the 90s.
I have read many books about the Irish and the experience of emigration. The Irish have historically sought each other out in churches and parish halls and Irish clubs. To be with your own they call it. For me those places were never a comfort because I didn't feel like those Irish and I didn't feel like the English either. I didn't feel anything except my head pulsing, the pressure cooker making me implode. I didn't want to feel, I wanted to let go.
I hauled myself out of the deep, dark well thanks to those guardian angels and the odd smile from a real angel. I guess that very many Irish people have gone through the same emotions; the consequence of dislocation, of uprooting yourself and planting your being on other soil, be that fertile or hostile. Emigration shouldn't come as naturally as it seems to to us.
But maybe it doesn't come so easy, we just lack the emotional honesty to say so. We hate leaving but a lot of us don't do staying very well either. It looks like less and less Irish people will have the option of staying now that the recession is biting hard. The Irish are hitting the road again, I just hope that they meet their guardian angels should hard times befall them.

Robert de Niro's Waiting

2009-10-14T09:07:00.001+02:00

So far I have taken four Italian classes and with each class I get more and more pleasure from this language of Gods. Every language I learn helps me find new parts of myself, as if the act of saying the same things in another tongue releases a new iteration of me. Up until now I always felt more happy using Spanish than any other language so it may not be such a surprise that Italian lends me that same exuberance and makes me far more extrovert than I am in my own language or indeed in its northern cousins.
My enjoyment of Italian is no doubt influenced by the fact that it is also very easy to understand given the fact that almost every word has a cognate in Spanish, French or English. It makes it almost easier to learn the autochthonous Italian vocabulary (e.g. l'immondizia = the garbage sounds a bit like lemonade ) as those words are the exception rather than the rule. Since I can understand so much I can concentrate on the hard part which is speaking Italian with the right pronunciation. There are very many curve balls to deal with even at the basic level ( e.g. abito = I live is pronounced with an emphasis on the a so it sounds like ah-bitto). Another big issue for me is to stop looking for Spanish equivalents everywhere, it is useful in understanding but not so good when you are trying to express yourself, not every Spanish phrase has an Italian cousin.
Still I am very much in an extended honeymoon period with Italian. Never before have I loved a language so passionately from the start of really learning it. I hope that the flame keeps burning, there is a long way to go.

Forget the Commonwealth, let's join the Francophonie

2009-10-09T11:09:00.002+02:00

Every now and again some bright spark (normally writing in The Irish Times) comes up with the suggestion of Ireland rejoining the British Commonwealth. This is seen as a some kind of bridge-building measure towards unionism. I have never read any particularly warm response from unionists on this matter. Most unionist comments I have read on this see it as being a pretty meaningless gesture.
I wish the nations of the Commonwealth all the best of luck but my personal feeling is that Ireland is better off out of it. Sure there may be a missed chance to score a medal at the Commonwealth Games but that is the only advantage I can see in it. The signal Ireland would be giving off by rejoining would be that the country just can't get over the colonial thing. Ireland already has good relations with Britain so there really is nothing to be gained from this exercise.
Where I think that Ireland could well gain is by joining the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie which is a kind of Commonwealth of French speaking countries. France is a traditional ally of Ireland which is remarkable in the fact that it does not automatically follow the foreign policy of the USA and the UK (like Ireland). Joining the Francophonie is not as far fetched as it sounds. Ireland has far more French speakers than many of the countries that are members (e.g. Romania, Greece). Considering the fact that over 70% of Irish school children learn French as a second language, so many Irish towns have twin towns in Brittany in particular and France is such a popular holiday destination there is a strong case for joining up. The benefit would be improved relations with France and clearly marking Ireland out as a country which is not only part of Anglo-Saxon alliance.
Ireland has nothing to gain being a peripheral proxy of the USA/UK alliance. It needs to stay on friendly terms with these powers but that does not mean that it cannot position itself differently on the world stage.

Where is Europe?

2009-10-07T09:53:00.002+02:00

As any regular reader will know I work in an international company. We have three main entities - one Japanese, one American and one European. As you probably guessed I work for the European one but I am involved in many global projects so I tend to meet colleagues from the two other entities quite regularly.
As the elocution teacher at school once told me to generalize is odious but there are some conclusions one tends to draw after spending time in such mixed company. One of them is that Ireland barely exists for many people outside of Europe and for a good many within it. Another is that the Irish language is basically unknown except to a small minority of linguisticos. Yet another is that the amount of energy expended on giving lessons in Irish history, geography and culture is inversely proportional to the amount of enjoyment one gets out of a social event thus it tends to be better just to let things be.
One thing that does really grate on me though is the tendency of many Americans (though not all naturally) to speak about Europe as though it were equivalent to the USA or Japan. I hear no end of generalizations about Europe this and Europe that or in America we say this or that but you do yadda yadda. The reason this perturbs me so much is that Ireland is geographically part of Europe but it is has far more cultural commonality with the USA than with many other European cultures. This European cultural entity that they want to use as their comparator just does not exist. It's simple really. Ireland, Australia, NZ, the USA etc. were all British colonies so no wonder we have a lot in common. Equally it should be no surprise if Quebec feels more French than Poland does.
When an American meets an Irish (or British etc.) person they share the bond of a common language. I am at a loss as to why I meet so many Americans who seem not to realize that this means a lot more than the fictional United States of Europe they seem to be looking for.

Eating, Drinking

2009-10-06T14:48:00.001+02:00

"The family that eats together stays together."
When my youngest daughter Nadia has eaten her fill she has taken to jumping up and down frantically and signaling that she wants me to take her right hand in my left one. Next she holds her left hand out to my wife who takes it in her right hand and in turn gives her left hand to Daisy while I give my right hand to Luna. Being 4 and 5 year olds the two older girls sometimes resist but invariably our hands end up joined around the table in a family circle.
If there is one thing I have taken from my own upbringing it is the importance of the family eating together. Whatever else was happening my brothers and sisters always made their way home to sit together for dinner at a regular time every day. TV dinners were unheard of. You ate what was prepared and were thankful for the meal. Luckily my mother is a very good cook so we were rarely complaining.I hope that my children will develop the same appreciation I have for the family meal and take this forward to the next generations. The world may change but some values should not be lost along the way.
"The family that drinks together sinks together."
I have a problem with drink though maybe not a drink problem. I am not able to enjoy one or two drinks, if I drink I generally get drunk. To put that in quantities I will drink 1 litre of wine or 4 or 5 half litre cans of beer at a sitting. Sometimes I enjoy the process of getting drunk. Sometimes it is like a chore, like some kind of dialysis needed to numb depressive thoughts and blur the world away. That is when I am at home though.
When I am in company I am somewhat different. I probably drink more overall but I am normally eating as well so the effects are less potent. What makes a big difference to how I feel is the company. If things go wrong I lose contact with the group and then it is only a question of time before I go home. I am old enough and wise enough to know that the evening does not recover. If things go right I find good company and I can enjoy drinking in a social way though I inevitably will end up quite drunk.
The thing is though that I hate drinking because I am not in control. I think that drink is great but just not for people like me. This awareness means that I avoid situations where I am bound to make an idiot of myself. The periods of total sobriety in my life get longer and longer and maybe there will be a time in the future when I will only drink on the occasions when the company almost guarantees that I will enjoy it.
From my youngest years I remember going to pubs because that was a normal part of life in the west of Ireland. My parents always had a drinks cabinet and we regularly had wine with meals. I don't blame my upbringing for my problem with drink because not everybody in my family or with a similar background has my issues. However, if there is one thing that is different for my children compared to my upbringing it is the relative absence of drink. We have no drinks cabinet, we only have wine with meals when we have guests and the children have never been to a pub. The children have seen us drinking, especially on holidays, but they could not possibly regard drink as a regular part of life.
When I consider moving back to Ireland the one big thing that always comes up as an issue for both myself and my wife is the general Irish attitude to drink. It might be okay for most Irish people but it's not okay for me so I am happier to think of my children growing up here in Holland "waar alles mag maar niks hoeft." ("where everything is allowed but nothing is mandatory.")

Cheap and Cheerful

2009-09-30T10:58:00.000+02:00

There was a nice article in Irish Times written by a journalist testing out life in a €27.99 Lidl suit. His conclusion at the end was that the suit was not good value for money and at that price it would seem to be a bargain that is too good to be true. However, the reporter did point out that his gangly frame did not lend itself to standard sizes.
At Munich airport on Friday I was looking at shoes in a shop window and I saw a pair selling for €250 that looked a lot like a pair of Italian leather shoes that I bought last year for €50 (in Aldi as a matter of fact). I have quite a few suits myself ranging in price from €100 to €600. For work suits I would normally pay from €100 to €200 but I know that my colleagues regard €500 as a reasonable price for a suit. My most expensive suit never drew a compliment while my cheapest suit, sized 48 and bought on an Internet site, has often drawn positive remarks.
I think that there are very few people who can judge the price of clothes. Clothes rarely make the man, it is the other way around. The wearer determines to a massive extent how clothes look and the clothing selection and accessories are equally important. Of course some people recognize and even look for logos and features that reveal a particular brand but that says nothing about how the clothes themselves actually look.
I remember a while back that my wife was at a party with the kids. Somebody asked her where she had got the three beautiful tops they were wearing. My wife was ashamed to admit in such a public forum that she had got them in Zeeman which is the cheapest of the cheap in Dutch retail terms. Those that believe that designer clothes, shoes and prices say a lot about one's appearance are mistaken to my mind.
I wouldn't purchase a suit at the €27.99 price point because that would just seem too good to be true. However, good prices and good value can, and do, go together just as high prices can often offer little value. I think that the marketing premium is the key, strip that away and you may not always have a better product even at a multiple of the price.

What I've Been Reading

2009-09-29T13:05:00.001+02:00

In the past while my reading habits have changed somewhat because I subscribed once again to the French weekly Le Point so I try to read what I find interesting in that magazine. I have had a subscription to the Elsevier for ten years which is a leading Dutch news and views publication. That takes up quite a lot of my reading time so I have less time than before for books.
I finished the novel "The Septembers of Shiraz" by Dalia Sofa which is set in Iran shortly after the revolution. I found it quite enjoyable but the book was somewhat incomplete. The story was just a little bit too flat and predictable, I felt no empathy for the main character and the horrors he encountered. Maybe I am becoming too cynical but I was not as touched by this novel as many reviewers seem to have been.
Yesterday I read the last story in the short story collection "The Thing Around My Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I was blown away by her marvelous stories. Once again she left me convinced that she is one of the greatest writers the English language has ever known. There were no weak stories in the collection but the two outstanding ones were the Chinua Achebe influenced ""The Headstrong Historian" and "On Monday of Last Week" which beautifully illustrates how we can all be deceived the power of projection and fantasy in our private minds.
In parallel I have been reading a really entertaining French novel called "Un Couple Ordinaire" by Isabelle Manière about a married couple on the edge of breakdown. Perhaps reading in another language magnifies the feeling but almost everything I have read in French lately is much more quirky and off-beat than what I have read in English. I wish that I could read French a bit more quickly though because I have a lot more French books waiting to be consumed.
Next on the list is a book of short stories in Irish called "Canary Wharf" by Orna Ni Choileáin and one in English called "The Silence Room" by Sean O'Brien. I also have the novel "The Rights of Desire" by André Brink staring at me from the bookshelf. Following all the reviews and interviews I have read about "Nude" by Nuala Ni Chonchúir I have ordered a copy so that book should arrive pretty soon too to add to my waitlist.

Flags & Emblems & Costumes & Lives

2009-09-28T11:40:00.000+02:00

I was in Munich last week for a meeting and I made intensive use of the excellent public transport system. I found it very rewarding to journey around Munich during Oktoberfest as every second group of passengers was wearing the traditional costumes of Dirndl and Lederhosen. There were also many foreigners around so I enjoyed listening to the different languages and opinions being expressed about Oktoberfest.
There was a warning on all of the trains in the main tourist languages of about the fines that would be imposed for travelling without a valid ticket. For all of the languages except English a flag was used to indicate what language the text was written in (e.g. a Spanish flag for Spanish, a Russian flag for Russian etc.). English was marked by two flags - the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. I was a bit baffled by this to say the least. There are over 50 countries which have English as an official language so there is no one to one relationship between language and flag. Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries but they use the Spanish flag to represent the Spanish language, French and Russian are treated the same. Generally the flag of the colonial power who spread the language to other countries is used to represent the language. Putting the American flag above English along with the British one would seem to be some kind of token effort to appeal to American tourists. However, in language terms it normally would mean that the text is written in American English and this text was written in British style English to my eyes.
On one of the mornings I stood beside a group of Italian teenagers in the train. They were talking to a man in his thirties whom they had just met who lived locally. What was fascinating was to watch how the Italians spoke to each other. Even when they were not speaking almost all of the group was smiling and looking at the speaker. The teenagers showed respect to the older man and asked him questions in a way that reassured me. I am always suspicious that teenagers have a hidden agenda, they often communicate with non-verbal gestures that you can't necessarily grasp but that translate into some in joke. What I observed in that conversation was a group of people unencumbered by the barrier of age making an effort to enjoy each other's company. Of course hearing Italian spoken was also a shot in the arm for me since it is so wonderful to listen to.
On the way to the airport I picked up on a slightly older woman speaking in German to a stranger. She was travelling with her German husband. I noticed an inflection in her accent and that made me realize that she was actually American. On my train journey she recounted her story concerning how she had fallen in love with the study of languages and had come to live in Europe, firstly in Italy and then moving to Germany in later years. It was like reading a book or listening to the radio as I eavesdropped half-listening to the story meant for other ears.
Although I spent no more than a few hours in total on the trains of Munich the experience was very life-affirming and confirmed the old maxim that it's never the destination but the journey that counts most in life.

Where is the Irish speaking university?

2009-09-23T14:13:00.000+02:00

I wrote before on what Ireland might learn from the experience of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland. Something I have thought about recently after reading Irish language internet forums is that the lack of an Irish speaking university is a critical flaw in the educational system in Ireland and something which retards the development of the Irish language as a vernacular outside of the Gaeltachtaí.
One of the issues for those who want to speak Irish is that they cannot automatically recognize those who are willing to speak the language. In the past Irish speaking enthusiasts used to wear a pin called a Fáinne and I understand that some people still do wear them. However, some people have problems with wearing symbols. Unless everybody is aware of what a symbol actually means it can be subject to unwelcome misinterpretation.
An idea I have seen floated on Irish language websites is that staff at service points such as in hotels and shops would wear badges indicating what languages they speak. That would be very handy indeed and you see that everywhere in Finland. Besides the potential issue of confusing the Irish flag with the Italian one (done this myself more than once depending on red/orange discoloration) I really cannot see why you would not do this.
However, that does not address the big issue which is that Irish speakers need to be in spaces where they will meet people who are willing to speak the language. I watched some of the clips from Manchán Magan's "No Béarla" and he clearly demonstrated how unfeasible it is to go up to the average person and address them in Irish. The solution is not necessarily to having segregated social environments for Irish speakers (though some organizations like the People's Republic of Cork do organize Irish language club nights).
I see the solution in allowing those who want to to live a life through Irish in as far as possible in urban environments. In this regard the experience of the Swedish speakers in Finland is interesting. Just as in Ireland the minority language speakers on the Finnish are only in the majority in a limited number of coastal regions. There is a major difference in the fact that there is a large country next door that speaks the minority language but that does not take from the fact that Swedish speakers in mainland Finland swim in a sea of Finnish.
The Swedish speaking community can access Swedish language education at all levels. (Potential) Irish speaking children now have access to Gaelscoileanna in many areas at the primary level and with follow-on provision at secondary level in many cases. The Irish government should support the further expansion of this sector by ensuring qualified Irish speaking teachers and investment in new Gaelscoileanna. However, the provision of Irish language education at the third level is still lacking. Besides course in the Irish language the Fiontar institute at Dublin City University is the only body providing substantial higher education through Irish. If you compare this to the Swedish language provision in Finland there is quite a gap. In Finland higher education is provided by two Swedish-language universities (Åbo Akademi and the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration) and there are also bilingual offerings at other universities.
I visited the Åbo Akademi in the past and it is very interesting to see how it functions as an oasis of Swedish in the largely Finnish speaking city of Turku. The point is not that the Swedish speakers separate themselves completely from Finnish society, they all can and do speak Finnish. However, the fact that you can spend your educational life in Swedish medium institutions ensures that you deal with fellow speakers of your language regularly and you would recognize other Swedish speakers in environments outside of the Swedish speaking microcosm.
Creating Irish speaking environments works in two ways. Firstly you allow those who want to speak Irish to find a place to express that wish. Secondly those on the outside may well become intrigued to see what is going on inside the microcosm as the language space grows. You see the same effect with gay culture where straight people become attracted to the zone once it has something alternative to offer. For all the boasts about how valuable being an English speaking nation is to Ireland few give thought to the benefits that being an Irish speaking Ireland might bring.

Leon

2009-09-21T14:14:00.003+02:00

Bhí sé ar intinn agam le tamall anuas a thosnú á scríobh níos minic as Ghaeilge. Sna seachtaine deireanacha tá go leor léite agam sa teanga sin agus ait go leor tháinig a lán focail ar ais im aigne cé go raibh dearmad déanta agam orthu. Is dócha nach mbeidh cruinneas na teanga agam arís gan cleachtadh, mar sin scríobhfaidh mé oiread agus is féidir.
Im obair anois tá roinnt mór daoine as Éirinn agus tá a fhios agam go bhfuil an teanga ag an cuid is mó acu. Áfach ní féidir liom focal Gaeilge a labhairt leo. B'fhéidir gur náire nó faitíos é atá i gceist. Ar aon nós leanaim ar aghaidh leis an mBéarla. Níl Gaeilge líofa agam ach, gan amhras, tá mé in ann freastal ar comhrá agus furmhór na gnáthfocail a thuiscint. Tá sé níos fearr agam ná an Spáinnis mar shampla ach ní bhíonn eagla orm é sin a labhairt in aon chor. An seachtain seo chaite bhí mé a labhairt le chomh-oibrí as Spáinn gan fadhb ar bith.
Cén fáth mar sin nach bhfuil mé in ann an Gaeilge a labhairt sa slí céanna? Tá caint faoi grúpa comhrá as Ghaeilge im obair. Ní raibh an céad teacht le chéile againn fós ach tá mé ar súil leis. Chomh súil leis an leon sa "Wizard of Oz" caithfidh mé mo mhisneach a (ath)fháil. Ní go leor é caint nó scríobh faoin nGaeilge, is mór dom caint as Ghaeilge freisin!

Word Power

2009-09-21T10:46:00.001+02:00

In my opinion the key to word power in any language is reading. The more one reads the more one is exposed to new vocabulary. When I read novels in English I regularly come across words and expressions that I do not know. Although it is also possible to hear new words in everyday conversation or in the media the chance that you will pause to consider the meaning of the word or take the time to look it up in a dictionary is clearly somewhat less. Although many of the words I look up in my dictionary are soon forgotten I know from experience that, on happening across a word again, I tend to remember not only the meaning of the word but also the place in which I came across it previously.
If reading is the key to word power in your mother tongue then it is disproportionately more important in learning other languages. The ideal way to learn any language is to be fully immersed in the language, living in an environment where it is the only language spoken and you are effectively forced into using the language in every situation where you would normally use your own language. That is the ideal but most people do not have the opportunity to learn foreign languages in this way. Most people rely on language classes and/or self-learning techniques which give the learner some exposure to the target language. In my experience you can reach a basic level in many languages in this way which will allow you to converse with native speakers about topics of your choosing. However, there is a massive gap between this and real-life situations. The individual is rarely in control of what is being said around him, language fluency comes from understanding the noise.
As an adult learner of a foreign language you clearly need to have some grasp of the language grammar and the ability to 'hear' the language properly is also a vital skill. At the basic level that is what you have but what you are missing are the thousands of words of vocabulary that native speakers use in everyday life. It makes no sense to learn lists of words in rote format because then you learn the language out of context.
The question is how to get this context without living in an immersion situation? Watching television or movies in the target language helps but I would argue that this is more useful in fine-tuning your ability to 'hear' the language properly. Reading gives you the target language in context but crucially with the ability to pause and look up words and expressions you do not know. You can read, look up and reread until the target language flows as naturally as if the sentence were written in your mother tongue.
For me the importance of emphasizing reading in the target language seems to be a crucial deficiency in language education at secondary level in English speaking countries. I have discussed this with various people from Ireland, the UK, Australia and the USA. The languages people learned were normally French, German or Spanish (also Irish in the case of Irish people). Nobody I spoke to had ever been actively encouraged to read a book in the target language other than what was on the curriculum. Knowing what I know now this astonishes me but is totally in line with my own experience. Although I scored the highest grades in Irish and French in the Leaving Certificate I had never read anything substantial in either of these languages of own volition before finishing school. In fact I did not finish reading any novel in French until about seven years ago. Last year was the first time I ever read a short novel in Irish outside of school.
What changed my perspective on things was the observation that Dutch people read books written in English even when there is a translation available. They do this because they can and because this is what their educational system presents as a natural outcome of learning a language to an advanced level at school. The same is less noticeable for other languages but only because of the omnipresence of English as a second language. Nobody finds it strange to read in a language you have studies whereas I have rarely if ever noticed an English speaker doing the same unless they actually studied languages.
In my mind I have the concept of 'home' languages. A home language is a language which I can more or less use as my mother tongue. Right now English and Dutch are my home languages because it took me so long to realize that reading was the ultimate key to word power. Since I have started to read so much in French I can feel my confidence growing because I am gradually getting to the stage where I need to look up less and less words as I read novels and magazines. I believe that French will finally become a home language after speaking it for so many years. I may not have the perfect accent but that can always be improved, you can do very little without word power. Equally I have begun to read more books in Irish and I am again struggling with looking words up in the dictionary but I know it will get easier. Taming a language is like breaking a horse, persevere, read, suffer, be disillusioned but remember that nobody can steal your word power. When you have it nothing can stop you.

Grand Tour

2009-09-18T11:50:00.002+02:00

If I had a year free of commitments without needing to take into account the wishes of my wife or children I think that I would spend it collecting minority languages. I use the word collecting as opposed to learning because sometimes I think of languages as precious gemstones. Each has its own unique qualities. Each can be crafted into creations of great beauty.
I tend to learn dominant languages with large populations of speakers. The reasons for this are obvious. There are far more learning materials available for dominant languages. They have large bodies of literature and a wealth of popular music, television and film. Moreover, you are far more likely to meet a major language speaker in your everyday life and having the chance to speak a language is a major driver to learn it in the first place.
And yet I have a real attraction to minority languages. When I fantasize about what I would do if I just had the time then my thoughts turn to smaller languages and not the giants. For years on end I have checked on when the yearly Icelandic course will be run at the University of Iceland. I visit the AFUK website to check on courses in Frisian for Dutch speakers. I cruise Spanish university websites to check out course in the Basque or Catalan languages. I could go and on, name a European minority language and there is a good chance that I have checked out how I might take a course in it.
When it comes to learning minority languages on my own I have rarely even tried beyond a few pages of Teach Yourself Icelandic. The fantasy is not just about learning about the language but about going to the place and actually immersing myself in an unknown and strange tongue. In many ways it is a purely escapist fantasy built on the false premise that minority languages are also containers holding a totally different culture. In my mind it is as if a rare language will provide a portal to a parallel universe where I can become a whole new me.
Of course experience with countless languages has taught me that people in a given place tend to live much the same life regardless of the language they are speaking. Language is often a link to different cultural behaviors but an Irish speaker living in the Gaeltacht will not live a life essentially different from that of an English speaker. Basque people are Basques whether they speak Spanish or Basque. Speaking Afrikaans does not make you an Afrikaner just as speaking English obviously has nothing to do with being English.
Still, if I dream, I dream of a year long Grand Tour of European minority languages taking me to places I have only ever read about to learn about languages I only know by name. I guess it's the same as the wish list many people have of places they want to visit only for me its the people and their language that count more than the place.

The Friday Weigh-in

2009-09-11T11:51:00.000+02:00

This week I am weighing in at a steady 78kg. In line with my (ouch!) operation recovery plan I am not allowed to go to the gym, swim or cycle. The only exercise I can do is to walk to and from work. Since I am still watching my diet my weight is holding steady. Today is Day 37 without alcohol. I do miss getting smashed on cider but I don't miss a lot of the bad feelings drink gives me so I think that there is no threat to my 120 Day challenge except for my work visit to Oktoberfest. After my operation I was allowed to have a lot of rest so last Saturday and Sunday I managed to watch a few Spanish language films. "La Lengua de Las Mariposas" ("Butterfly's Tongue") about a boy's coming of age at the start of the Spanish Civil War. "Historias Minimas" was another wonderful Argentinian road movie (along the lines of "Bombón El Perro"). "Whisky" is a very funny Uruguayan movie about a man who pretends to be married to his employee just to impress his flash brother. I have a few more Spanish language movies to watch which I am really looking forward to. Spanish really is a big enough language to offer a parallel universe of choice equal to English.
I discovered the music site Rockola which is a Spanish version of Jango or LastFM. It is amazing. You can choose to listen to songs only in Spanish or in every language. You can choose songs by mood or by Artist. Thanks to Rockola I have heard Conchita's beautiful voice for the first time. I was so bowled over that I have already ordered her two CDs from Spain. Another great artist I have been listening to is Bebé. The Spanish language world is incredibly rich with talent in every sphere it would appear.
I finished the novel "Je l'aimais" by Anna Gavalda which I really enjoyed. She writes in quite simple French so the dictionary is only need on occasion. I have two more French novels waiting to be read so I am going to keep it up. I also subscribed again to "Le Point" so that I will get my weekly dose of French news and views. The internet is great but a magazine is just nicer to read.
I have been busy reading a lot more websites in Irish lately. I finally took out a yearly subscription to Nós (nd I have ordered three books from the Litríocht website including Manchán Magan's novel "Bí i ngrá". The other thing is that a work colleague is setting up an Irish language group so I will actually start speaking it more regularly too.
Japanese remains with me in podcast form on my daily walks and my Turkish colleagues are keeping up the daily greetings so really I am giving as much as I can to almost all of the languages I know right now.
Besides that I have started reading "The Septembers of Shiraz"by Dalia Sofa (as recommended by Nick). I myself can recommend "Snowleg" by Nicholas Shakespeare which I finished last week, a really beautiful novel about love and memory.

The Final Cut

2009-09-07T10:36:00.000+02:00

I wrote before on the sensitive issue of the 'snip'. After a year of humming and hawing I finally picked up the courage to talk to my GP about it last month. Our country is nothing if not efficient and no sooner had I said the word than I found myself with a referral letter in my greasy paws. I called up the Urology department of the local hospital on the Tuesday and the lady asked me if the coming Friday would suit.
Now that was all a bit too much. I mean the decision was made and everything but I do like a little time to prepare myself mentally. I made the appointment for three weeks later and so last Friday ended up being the big day. I won't go in to the details of the operation but suffice to say that it is a lot more straightforward than the vast majority of surgical procedures and after a couple of days rest and recuperation I am basically back to normal. I am not allowed to do any sport for ten days and, as you might expect, other than sleeping bedroom activities are also disallowed.
The decision itself to have the operation was interesting. Of course you agree this with your partner as it is a joint decision not to have any more children and this is the most effective form of contraception. On the other hand, this is not a joint choice. The fact is that many marriages end in divorce, that many men end up in subsequent relationships and often with women who may still want children. I know one man who had his vasectomy reversed for precisely this reason.
For me the decision is based on a number of things beyond the fact that my wife and I are not planning more children now. We have been blessed with three healthy children so I think that now is the time to stop and count our blessings and not risk another pregnancy. Another very big factor is that I am happy not to have had a son as that would have led to many emotions that having daughters does not bring. I was never somebody who envisaged having a son who would be like me. I have had a good enough life but I don't think that I am a good male role model. If the truth be told I think that I have far more to offer the girls. That's the way it will be now.

Language is my religion

2009-09-03T11:34:00.001+02:00

As any reader of this blog knows language is my passion and if I have any personal goal it is surely to maximize my knowledge of other languages and cultures and absorb as much as I possibly can before I reach the end of the road. Some would say that my interest is pointless and results in nothing tangible. I prefer to think of it in terms of the oft cited Czech proverb - "Learn a new language and get a new soul."
As strange as it sounds I can never remember regarding English as my real language despite it being my mother tongue. I think that I absorbed the Irish nationalist ideology from a young age where Irish was positioned as the first language of the country despite only being used in a nominal sense. I spent summers in Irish college and joined the Irish debating teams at school. I can't say that Irish ever gave me a new soul though. I was always annoyed about the fact that English was so dominant and that made me resent the Irish language for being so weak. Of course the language was not the problem but you don't tend to want to slag off your own people so it was easier to blame the language.
French did free me. From the start I loved the fact that I could learn a language that was as strong as English and spoken in a big country that did not constantly compare itself to the UK. It took me some years to gain a fourth language. I dabbled in Esperanto, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian but never really got anywhere. I listened too much to those who would tell me that you can only learn so many languages. I did not realize that the world was mine until I was in my twenties and started to think for myself.
In Dublin I started learning German at the Goethe Institut and they were very happy times. I really liked my classmates and I made great progress. I was taking French courses again too. I was so inspired by my progress that I signed up for a month long course in Dutch at the University of Amsterdam. The next year I got a job in Holland but I was transferred immediately to Germany for a year. My German improved and I kept studying Dutch too. The old ideas about limits flew away, I started to realize that I could become as many people as I wanted to by speaking in new tongues. Every new language gave me the chance to be a showman, my insecurities in English did not show up as easily in foreign languages.
I moved to Holland and Dutch quickly became my second language. I met my wife and started learning Polish. Inspired by the open culture of this country and by some of the multilingual Dutch people I met I started learning Spanish. In 2004 I managed to find time to spend two weeks in Madrid just to learn more Spanish at the Don Quijote school, easily the best language learning experience I have ever had. I remembered the Swedish I had studied before and I enrolled on a course locally so that I could gain a quick win with a language that is none too different to Dutch.
In the last few years I have had less time for courses because of having small children. Luckily the world has changed with me and information is now everywhere so I can learn as much as time allows for. Japanese has been the very big passion of the last year or so and podcasts keep my appetite satiated. On a busy day I might learn some Japanese and Turkish, read French or Spanish, watch Dutch and Polish television and speak up to four languages.
From the outside, it might seem somewhat pointless but it brings me joy to learn, hear and speak other languages in the same way that some people are inspired by God. That's why the world is a well that can never run dry for me. There are always more words and sounds waiting for me.