Attention RLB Gypsies

[PARA45]

Vers, please don't criticize my bad spelling and bad grammar, sometime I get confused between Spanish & English. Then J1 writes to me in Spanish, and oh heck, I forgot what I was writing about....LMAO!!!!!

[versifier]

My job is to encourage and try to set a good example. No one speaks in formal English, mostly no one writes in it anymore either. How do you get a point across when the concept doesn't exist in English? We reach out to other languages to gain understanding and we bring back what we learn and find our own words for it, until that new idea becomes accepted into our common speech. That is the way all languages evolve over time, importing and exporting new ways of looking at things. Me, I wish I understood Spanish better. Or, more accurately I wish I could understand it (and French and Italian and German) when it is spoken at normal hyperfast(to me) speed. I can get most of it when spoken in slomo, or when written. Central American poet Pablo Flores is a friend, when he is reciting I can understand him perfectly, in conversation he speaks Spanish so fast all I can catch is an occasional word. Both my Italian and Irish ancestors gave up their languages when they came here as did most immigrants then, figuring the kids needed to learn English to integrate and succeed here. Three generations later, the scope of that loss is staggering for the way it has so severely limited the average monolingual American's view of the rest of the world. Heritage abandoned. To me, words are tools, and the more tools I have, the better bridges of communication I can build with them.

[RiverRider]

Those are some interesting thoughts, vers.

There was a fellow named Tom Lea who was from El Paso. He was a gifted artist. He was also a writer of some note. He wrote a novel called The Wonderful Country which was about a young boy who ends up fleeing across the Rio Grande into Mexico because he thinks he has become an outlaw. He quickly leans Spanish and manages to find work and survive and eventually makes his way back into the US as a young man and learns that he never was a fugitive in the first place. Anyway, what's interesting is the style in which the book is written which I think is using speech and thought patterns of a Spanish speaker, but directly translated into English. Besides being a great story it is an interesting read just for the style employed. It goes along with what you are saying to some extent.

I had the pleasure of a very brief conversation with Tom Lea back in the early 90s. He was appreciative of my appreciation of that book.

[j1]

V I am impressed at your accomplishments. From reloading to writing. You are a true rennaisance man.

I love language because it is interesting and different than english. The subtle uses of the subjunctive in spanish is one example. It is used when expressing doubt. Often when the word "if" is used in english. If we were in spain we would speak spanish better. This is why I B S with Oscar all of the time. Gotta meet that man someday.

He and his wife did the safari to Africa. I would not have thought of bringing my wife, but I never said that I was smart.

[j1]

The mods on the high road. Who wants them? What are the rules? Who needs them? Not I. Good board otherwise.

[j1]

I read and post on several sites.

[j1]

V I got ejected from a site but cannot for the life of me remember which site it was. I stated that if anyone really felt that they needed a fully automatic rifle so badly they should join the army. I was warned that I was "trolling" whatever that is. I will not be muzzled like an animal so I repeated the post and sure enough I was thrown off the board. Anyplace I cannot state my opinions I do not want to be.

[j1]

V do you know Picklehead from the other site. He has mentioned you several times.