When you order a pizza delivery in the United States, and you ask how long it will take, you get an answer. This answer is almost *always* "30 minutes." Is it really ever 30 minutes? Not in my experience. After a while, you don't believe that answer. So, you either figure it will take what it takes, or you get angry each time the pizza is late (and if it's also cold, well, look out!).
The pizza maker's pat answer is an estimate. You could say it is what it would take if all went well. It reflects a *desire* to provide your pizza in a reasonable amount of time.
We don't really have a way to quickly and easily express that concept in English. You can surround the "it will be ready in 30 minutes" with other phrases, but that would probably frustrate the United States customer even more.
The Spanish language, used where I live in Costa Rica, *does* have a mechanism to express this uncertainty. And, because the pace of life is so uncertain, it is used often. If the pizza is hoped to be there in 30 minutes, the speaker will use the subjunctive. You, the pizza consumer will (basically subconsciously) hear this uncertainty, and will not "count on" seeing that pizza in the near future. You will relax with a glass of Chianti. If, however, you are really hungry, and don't care for wine (whaaa?!?!?), you could then ask the pizza guy, using the indicative, "so, will the pizza be here in 30 minutes?" At this point, the pizza guy will probably answer in the indicative as well - what people from the United States would call "the truth." Pizza guy will think about all the other pizzas in the queue, the traffic situation, the state of the delivery guy's moto, and tell you that ahhh, well, the pizza "will be there in 45 minutes." He might also think about the fact that you seem *really* hungry, and tell you "3o minutes" - but he will also bump your pizza up the queue to make a little more certain you get it then.
If you are fairly new to the language, you aren't as likely to catch that nuance. You will probably be angry a lot.
Interestingly, if you are a native Spanish speaker, you also aren't likely to realize what is happening. You simply absorb what is conveyed via the subjunctive and the indicative. Both answers are "the truth," but mean quite different things - you have different expectations from each answer.
08 June 2010
Language and Culture
There is something about travelling and living abroad that opens your eyes. You "see" the world in general in a different way. Certainly, you learn more about the country you are visiting, but an interesting aspect to me is how much you learn about your *own* country.
My home country is the United States. I have been slow travelin' and living in Costa Rica for over 4 years. I am planning a long trip to France. A big part of my journey has been learning Spanish, and now French. The Spanish language has nuances that, when understood, can help you understand the Costa Rican culture better. I expect that as I learn more French, I will understand more about the French culture as well. When you first see the mental flash that a particular nuance provides in another language, you compare that aspect of the culture to your home culture (and to other cultures that you have learned about). You really think about a part of your culture that you never even noticed before.
Some of these discoveries are pleasing, some are disappointing, but all are interesting.
My home country is the United States. I have been slow travelin' and living in Costa Rica for over 4 years. I am planning a long trip to France. A big part of my journey has been learning Spanish, and now French. The Spanish language has nuances that, when understood, can help you understand the Costa Rican culture better. I expect that as I learn more French, I will understand more about the French culture as well. When you first see the mental flash that a particular nuance provides in another language, you compare that aspect of the culture to your home culture (and to other cultures that you have learned about). You really think about a part of your culture that you never even noticed before.
Some of these discoveries are pleasing, some are disappointing, but all are interesting.
14 February 2010
More Than a Toe...
Well, it has been more than a *year* since I dipped my toe in the "French" water (now known by me as "l'eau"). In that time, I've been collecting books and movies set in France - I have even read a few of the books, and have seen some of the movies :-|
The biggest step however, is that I am taking French language classes at the Alliance Francaise! I just finished a Level One intensive class - it was 4 days per week, 4 hrs per day, for 4 weeks. Whew! The great news is that I passed!!!! I was worried about this - the classes are in Costa Rica, where I now live, and so any explanations that couldn't be done in French were done in Spanish. My Spanish is sufficient for living here, but not always up to snuff for understanding "concepts" - especially French concepts. Luckily, the professors also knew English, and when I got into jams, I could clarify (fortunately this only happened a couple of times). Perhaps the funniest situation (but frustrating) was when a fellow classmate noticed my confusion, and explained something in Spanish - I couldn't say "yes, I understand, but how do you say it in French?" (well, I could have, but I only understood what he was doing after the fact).
Learning my second "foreign" language is opening my eyes about how I learn. All my training and schooling up until now has been focused more on knowing how to figure out something, and knowing where to find the information needed to do that. Memorization has been *very* low on the "importance" scale. Well, guess what! Now I need to memorize - a *lot!* I've also come to realize that a lot of my personal enjoyment of books and movies comes from seeing nuances - I like to (almost need to) know every word that was said in a movie, and often re-read passages in books. I like to think about alternate meanings for sentences, and look for subtleties. That can be a *huge* drawback for learning a new language! At least in the beginning stages - it may be that it will help later, but for now, I need to consciously stop that hamster on its wheel in my brain.
One thing I am curious about, and expect to see - how much Spanish will I temporarily lose as I learn French? There were so many funny things that I couldn't remember in English when I was intensively studying Spanish - like my brain couldn't think of "baking something" - it was suddenly "ovening something." Well, I start my level 2 French class this week - but only 2 days per week, for 2 hrs per day. So, vamos a ver...
The biggest step however, is that I am taking French language classes at the Alliance Francaise! I just finished a Level One intensive class - it was 4 days per week, 4 hrs per day, for 4 weeks. Whew! The great news is that I passed!!!! I was worried about this - the classes are in Costa Rica, where I now live, and so any explanations that couldn't be done in French were done in Spanish. My Spanish is sufficient for living here, but not always up to snuff for understanding "concepts" - especially French concepts. Luckily, the professors also knew English, and when I got into jams, I could clarify (fortunately this only happened a couple of times). Perhaps the funniest situation (but frustrating) was when a fellow classmate noticed my confusion, and explained something in Spanish - I couldn't say "yes, I understand, but how do you say it in French?" (well, I could have, but I only understood what he was doing after the fact).
Learning my second "foreign" language is opening my eyes about how I learn. All my training and schooling up until now has been focused more on knowing how to figure out something, and knowing where to find the information needed to do that. Memorization has been *very* low on the "importance" scale. Well, guess what! Now I need to memorize - a *lot!* I've also come to realize that a lot of my personal enjoyment of books and movies comes from seeing nuances - I like to (almost need to) know every word that was said in a movie, and often re-read passages in books. I like to think about alternate meanings for sentences, and look for subtleties. That can be a *huge* drawback for learning a new language! At least in the beginning stages - it may be that it will help later, but for now, I need to consciously stop that hamster on its wheel in my brain.
One thing I am curious about, and expect to see - how much Spanish will I temporarily lose as I learn French? There were so many funny things that I couldn't remember in English when I was intensively studying Spanish - like my brain couldn't think of "baking something" - it was suddenly "ovening something." Well, I start my level 2 French class this week - but only 2 days per week, for 2 hrs per day. So, vamos a ver...
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