Yearly Archives: 2015

(get over the) hump day inspiration: Rumi

Posted in inspiration & encouragement by

Rumi quote

I made a decision this week that felt like a huge risk, moving me from a place of relative safety with no future, to a transitional (and incredible) next step without any security or commitment. Even though I feel 100% certain that I did the right thing, I’m still hugely anxious about opening the door to a world of unknowns.

It was in this context that, walking home last night, I stopped short at the sight of two humongous lines of text painted on a brownstone’s living room wall, which I spied through the curtain-less bay window (almost as though it were staged as a message for passersby). In bright white lettering against a dark blue background were the words:

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

It spoke to me in a visceral way – I was not exactly sure what it meant to me but my body responded immediately. I let out a noise halfway between a sob and an exclamation. I may have cocked my head to one side and nodded vehemently to no one in particular. I guess I just needed that affirmation that it’s okay to choose the less clear option when it nevertheless feels right. It’s empowering to think you can be confused and correct at the same time.

When I got home I looked up the line and found that the whole quote is even more apropos to my current situation:

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.

I love everything about that. It may just become my mantra for the next few months.

that’s a lot of words

Posted in French by

words

I recently read: “There are seven times more words in English than in French (500,000 versus 70,000), which suggests that French relies on contextual clues to resolve semantic ambiguities to a greater extent than English. Many words in French have multiple possible meanings… which means that the listener is responsible for discerning the intention of the speaker.”*

I suppose I could be heartened by the fact that there are only 60-some-thousand words I don’t know in French. Apparently it could have been much worse.

I’ve always found it strange that a country known for romance has the same word for like and love – that you have to figure out the meaning of aimer based on context clues. But now a correlation between romance and multi-meaning words occurs to me. Fewer words + more interpretation = greater opportunity for happy accidents in which one person misunderstands the other’s semantical intentions, believes that love is being declared, and is inspired to respond in kind. Perhaps France is brimming with l’amour because everyone’s living out their own version of a screwball romantic comedy.

As a related tidbit, this little quiz estimates that I know 30,900 English words. I will try to keep this in mind the next time I’m feeling dumb as a brick while attempting to make simple statements in Spanish or not-so-simple ones in French.

P.S. For English learners (and speakers who want to boost their vocab), here’s an aptly named site.

* I read this quote from Erin Meyer’s “The Culture Map” here.

[Photo: Martin Latter]

May your heart be free whatever the weather may be

Posted in travel by

Brooklyn weather

Rather than deleting the cities I’ve programmed into my Weather Channel app while traveling, upon my return I like to periodically set them as my current location – to remind myself how lucky I have been to visit these places, to feel a little bit closer to them digitally if not geographically, and to torture myself with how much better it is everywhere outside of New York.

Case in point: here is the week’s forecast for the cities I have been to within the past year and a half:

Buenos Aires weatherTokyo weatherParis weather

Alright, I admit that Paris is the weak link. But what it lacks in weather it amply makes up for in ridiculously good food. And the other two cities have NYC beaten by a long shot.

So, when it’s barely fifty degrees out after months of frigid temperatures, talk foreign weather to me! During the slow ascent out of winter, the Buenos Aires forecast reads like erotica.

not my best work

Posted in Spanish by

Spanish quiz

So we had a quiz in Spanish class tonight. I didn’t have time to study for it. That’s my shoddy excuse for the train wreck above. No soy la estrella estudiante del clase. Obviamente.

my favorite items from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list

Posted in music, travel by

human towers in Spain

When I fell down the rabbit hole of the UNESCO cultural heritage list last week, these were my favorite gems. Make sure to check out the slideshows and videos!

Polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa

Albanian folk iso-polyphony

Isukuti celebratory dance of Western Kenya

Traditional Mauritian Sega

Human towers of Spain

Czech dances (from the land of my father)

Cambodian ballet

Nicaragua’s El Güegüense 

Humanity is incredible.

[Photo: Santi Terraza]

starting the weekend with a grumble

Posted in foreign food festival, le week-end by

la duree macarons

Today was Macaron Day 2015, apparently a grand Parisian tradition brought stateside by an NYC-based French chef. I would have written this post earlier to encourage you all to go out and get yourself your right and due of a free macaroon. But… I stopped by the Macaron Cafe for mine around 2:45pm and they told me they were “sold out” of all their free macaroons. Which is 1. an oxymoron and 2. annoying when all you see in front of you is a sea of macaroons every color of the rainbow. Even though I really, really wanted one, I refused to fall for what now seemed like a cheap marketing ploy aimed at suckers, walked out in a huff, and have been regretting my stubbornness ever since. I was counting on a macaroon today. (I actually sighed while writing that.)

Instead I am going into the weekend with my still-lingering cold and a plan to play bingo with old people in Park Slope (and friends my own age!). Before I head out the door for that Friday night delight, which I know you will never believe is more joyous than even the most delicious macaroon, but which I assure you nevertheless it is indeed, I leave you with some weekend reads from around the Web:

He spoke only French. She spoke only English. Google to the rescue. (An adorable love story.)

That $15 transatlantic fare was indeed too good to be true.

Is France ready to stop being so uptight about protecting the language?

Museums get multicultural and multilingual

Ten ways learning French would be much easier

Eight European towns to put on your wanderlust wish-list

Happy weekend!

 

verveine

Posted in foreign food festival, French by

Harney and Sons vervaine

Speaking of delightful French gastronomy… while I was in France in January my after-dinner drink was always verveine, which I had never heard of before but which seems quite popular there as a non-alcoholic digestif. I had no idea what I was drinking until I got back to New York. Continue reading →

(get over the) hump day inspiration: questionable attribution edition

Posted in inspiration & encouragement by

"“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further.”

I feel bad about crediting this quote to JP Morgan when it may in fact have been Thomas Carlyle or someone else entirely who said it. The Internet is undecided on that score, which is ironic considering that the nature of the quote is about seeing clearly.

Continue reading →

why learn French

Posted in foreign food festival, French by

French bistro Cafe GourmandeBecause French meals are on the UNESCO Heritage list. I didn’t even know food could be on the list! But think about it – aren’t crepes as valuable to humanity as the pyramids?

Continue reading →

talk pancakes to me

Posted in foreign food festival by

This has absolutely nothing to do with language learning or wanderlust but I’m just too proud of my culinary masterworks to keep them a secret. Look at these beauties! I made these.

berry buckwheat pancakes

raspberry buckwheat pancakes

Here is the recipe, if you’d like to try it. (I altered it slightly, using 1/4 cup gluten-free all purpose flour and 3/4 cup buckwheat flour.) These pancakes turned out 100 times tastier than my ill-fated galettes experiment. I would venture so far as to say that even a wheat-eater would find them delicious.

The syrup comes care of my brother-in-law and is so easy to make that I wouldn’t even call it a recipe: in a saucepan, warm equal parts maple syrup and berries until they meld together into a compote.

Bonus: your pancakes will be Talk Foreign to Me approved if you daydream about your next travel adventure while eating them.