R.a.n.t. of week 03/03/13
This weekend I was asked by a young Karen girl when I'm going to start learning the Karen language. You see, in our area, we have a lot of Karen speaking people. What is Karen? Wikipedia explains:
The Karen languages are tonal languages spoken by some three million 'Karen People'. They are of unclear affiliation within the Tibeto-Burman languages. The Karen languages are written using the Burmese script.
It was a cute, but valid question. However, in this case I have several reasons why I'm not learning the Karen language. Keep in mind, that's not to suggest I don't want to. I've had a long history of wanting to learn foreign languages. In grade school, I had several class mates who spoke Spanish and I was always asking them how to say various things. I even had a sign language friend who I tried to glean whatever I could from him. A few things I still remember, but certainly not enough to speak fluently in either language. By the time High School rolled around, I was into German. Not only did I take German as a foreign language course, I bought an English/German dictionary for home so I could continue to study outside of school. But this was during a time in my life where I was going through a lot of family problems (parents divorce) and I spent less and less time concentrating on my studies. Everything suffered, including my German, to a point I was so lost from the class, I had no idea what anyone was saying a few weeks in. From then till today I have made small attempts at trying to learn German again, but to no avail. Sometimes I think my brain is just not wired to learn a new language. That and finding an adequate amount of time for the studies.
When I was younger, I used to dream of having a 'super power' which enabled me to understand every language known to man. How awesome would that be? You could literally speak to anyone! Additionally, there would be the added bonus of listening in on people speaking foreign languages, when they mistakenly think no one can understand them.
Mucho Dank, Mon Ami
Ta èe a kaw pa nyaw di lèh. (What does that mean)? - Karen
To anyone unaware of what the title of this article says I'll spell it out for you.
Mucho (Much) - Spanish
Dank (Thanks) - German
Mon Ami (My Friend) - French
It's a phrase I created to be funny whenever the subject of foreign languages comes up, and/or I want to confuse the person.