08:00 Lois and I stay in bed and drink our morning tea.
We have decided to shift down a gear and relax a little for once. But Lois squints
at the house across the road through the bedroom window: we know that our neighbour opposite, Matt, who
has a young family, is planning to have an extension constructed in his
backyard. We suspect it will be a mini-gym and / or office, but we are not 100%
sure.
Just inside her field of vision, Lois can see that a
concrete mixer has appeared, and the construction workers are moving newly
mixed concrete into the backyard to pour it on the ground, as the foundation for
the planned extension. There is a lot of noise, which is a bit of a shame, to
put it mildly, so after another 10 minutes we decide to get up. My goodness,
what a crazy world we live in !!!!
In her field of view,
Lois can see through the bedroom window
a concrete mixer appearing on the other side
of the road,
which quickly puts an end to our idyll -
damn!
My goodness - what a crazy world we live in
!!!!
08:30 We go in the shower to escape the noise.
After breakfast I prepare for my regular
"Hungarian" hour with my friend, "Magyar" Mike. I work out
a Hungarian vocabulary test for him and print it out.
10:00 "Magyar" Mike rings at the door and we study
Hungarian for an hour. We exchange vocabulary tests and read lesson 8 in our
current textbook. Mike has been ageing daily in the past 12 months, no doubt
about that, and he has forgotten some basic Hungarian words, for example, the
names of the days of the week - good grief! But I think he is determined to get
back to his previous level, if at all possible, which is encouraging.
Flashback to 2014: "Magyar" Mike (right) in happier times -
in Hungary with our Hungarian friend István
We talk a little about the idea that he could buy the CDs
for Rosetta Stone's new Hungarian language course, but I tell Mike about a
recent news story that appeared on mine and Lois's go-to news site, Onion News.
ARLINGTON, VA -
software developer company Rosetta Stone has announced the launch of a new
three-CD-ROM Hungarian language program, with the first disk dedicated to
encouraging users to rethink their decision to learn Hungarian.
"Think really
hard for a second: do you really want to
do this? Hungarian? Really?" asks the instructional software, which
subsequently reminds users that the Hungarian language contains an alphabet of
44 letters, and is a language in which each noun takes 17 different forms.
"Seriously,
it's not too late to learn Spanish, French or even German, which are all much
more useful languages in virtually any context. Why are you doing this?"
The second disk of the program begins with an audible sigh, followed by the
words "Okay, fine. It's your funeral."
I discuss the Rosetta Stone course with Mike, and on
reflection, we regretfully decide he should not try to tackle the course in the
foreseeable future - later maybe, when he has studied a little harder for a
while. We will have to see.
11:00 Mike goes off, and Lois and I go into the village
to buy meat and bread at Waghorne's, the local butcher’s shop, now that our freezer
is working again - hurrah! On our way home we pop into the local convenience
store, the former Bakery Stores, to buy fruit and vegetables. Finally, we swing
by the local post office and its affiliated newsagent’s to buy a Peter Rabbit
children's magazine for Lily and Jessie, our 5-year-old twin children in Perth,
Australia.
Peter Rabbit children's magazine
The magazine is not available in Australia, which is a
bit of a shame to put it mildly. It has the most amazing free gifts on the
cover - no doubt about that. I'm really jealous of those twins ha ha ha!
We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa.
12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a
biscuit on the sofa.
16:00 I glance at my current book, "The Languages of
Scandinavia - The Seven Sisters of the
North" by Ruth H. Sanders, Miami University of Ohio, and in particular at a
chapter about the Finnish language.
Ruth H. Sanders, author of the book
The Finnish language is actually not related to the principal
Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, etc.). Rather,
it is a member of a completely different language family that also contains
Estonian, Hungarian and the Sami language.
It is a little surprising that the members of this language family are
so widely dispersed and relatively isolated from each other, in some cases
thousands of kilometres apart. The experts assume that this situation is the
result of a complex sequence of migrations, but there is no evidence for this
theory, except for the linguistic situation itself. My goodness, what a crazy
world we live in !!!
It is well known that "those crazy Swedes" are
currently trying to popularise a new gender-neutral personal pronoun that has
to be able to replace both "he" and "she" and to refer either
to a man or to a woman.
But in many ways the Finnish, Hungarian, etc. languages
are ahead of their time, because all their personal pronouns are already
gender neutral. And there are no female suffixes, such as "-ess" in
the English words "actress" and "temptress".
Ruth H. Sanders, author of the book, comments, however,
that the word "actress" is dying out in English, partly as the result
of feminist pressure in the profession, although she adds that the country's "temptresses” seem to be satisfied with the status quo, for some reason – my
god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
a typical temptress: but how long
before the word "temptress" also becomes
extinct in English,
after feminist pressure ??? Good grief -
what madness !!!!
The Finnish language itself is considered
"crazy" by many linguistic experts: it is the world's only language
where, in an average text, there are more vowels than consonants (100: 96 on
average). Hungarian is more typical of the world's main languages: 141
consonants for every 100 vowels.
The Finns claim that when the Hungarians and Finns
separated from each other in prehistoric times ("Hexit" or
"Fexit", depending on your vantage point), the Finns travelled north
with most of the vowels, while the Hungarians travelled south with most of the
consonants. It would perhaps have been fairer to share them 50-50 in my humble
opinion, but I’m going to let that one slide.
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
listening to the radio, firstly, an interesting programme that questions whether
people really are more distracted than ever before. Has the same problem hit
previous generations, and if so, how did they fight it? The programme’s host is
the charming historian, Rhys Jones.
Are we slaves of the social media? Rhys uses even stronger
language - he says we are in serfdom, and the technical giants are our masters.
But there have been similar crises in the past, he says.
Today, reading novels is considered a wholesome hobby, but in the 18th century
it was considered a terrible danger that threatened the moral health of young
people, especially young women, who got in the habit of shutting themselves
away in their rooms in the evenings with gothic and/or erotic novels, Defoe’s
"Moll Flanders" for example.
Concerned parents began insisting that their young
daughters sit in the living room with the rest of the family so that they could
all read a novel together: they took turns to read a chapter at a time, and
naughty or scary novels were forbidden. Good grief, what madness !!!
Rhys says worried parents do the same today, or the like,
if they insist that the whole family sit down in the living room in the evening
and look at the latest episode of Doctor Who together, for example.
a typical young 19th/18th
century woman, alone in her room, reading
one of the latest Gothic naughty novels and
/ or horror stories
In the 19th century in both the United Kingdom and the
United States, the rise of the so-called "Penny Press" was considered
the latest threat - cheap newspapers and magazines displaying saucy and
sensational mini-articles and news digests. And in the 20th century, first
radio and shortly afterwards television appeared as the latest threats to the
moral health of people, young and old.
But these previous "threats" are insignificant
compared to the addictive aspects of the Internet, Rhys says. He mentions the
famous psychologist BF Skinner's research with a group of pigeons – the pigeons
discovered that if they pressed a button, food sometimes appeared (but not
always). The pressing of the button was more addictive if there was uncertainty
as to whether or not the food appeared. Likewise, people are addicted to checking
out their smartphones just in case there is something new on them. My god, what
madness !!!
a typical young woman checking her
smartphone
All that addiction is, of course, something the well-known "technical
giants" are very happy about, needless to say, but is it possible for
ordinary people to regain their lives from the technical giants and corporations?,
asks Rhys.
There have been periodic "rebellions" against
the "system", for example Timothy Leary and the so-called
"counter-culture" of the 1960's and 1970's. But big business always
fights back, says Rhys, and he gives the example of Pepsi, eagerly embracing
the counter culture in its television commercials.
Pepsi and the counter culture
Rhys comes to the conclusion that it is unrealistic to
expect the technical giants to make their apps more "ethical" or less
addictive. It is our own responsibility to limit and combat our addiction:
(1) If we use our smartphones as a form of escapism, we
can try to find out exactly what we are trying to escape from.
(2) We can fix on a limited period, for example, from
6:30 to 8:30 pm in the evenings to look at the social media
(3) We can turn off our notifications
(4) We can use technical apps to discover how much time
we spend online every day
Sounds reasonable!
21:00 We continue to listen to the radio, an interesting episode
in the series "Inside Health". The host of the programme is the
charming Dr. Mark Porter.
An interesting episode. Mark talks about the recent
discovery that aspirins can reduce by 20% mortality rates among patients
suffering from cancer: i.e. among patients taking aspirins, at any given time,
20% fewer have died than is the case among patients who are not taking them.
A sensational result, but Mark commented that it is
strange that the world's press chose to concentrate on the risks of taking
aspirins - in other words, the risk of bleeding, which he and the programme's experts say is both unlikely and quite trivial in comparison to the risks of
dying from cancer.
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!! [That’s once too often you’ve said that. You’re
fired – Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!!!
Danish translation
08:00 Lois og
jeg ligger inden i sengen og drikker vores morgenté. Vi har besluttet at gå en
gear ned og slappe lidt af for engangs skyld. Men Lois skeler til huset over
vejen gennem soveværelsesvinduet: vores genbo Matt, der har en ung familie, har
planlagt at få en tilbygning konstrueret i sin baghave. Vi mistænker, det vil
være et mini-motionscenter og/eller kontor, men det er vi ikke ret sikre på.
I sit synsfelt
kan Lois se, at en betonblander er dukket op, og byggearbejderne er igang med
at transportere den nyblandte beton ind i baghaven for at hælde det på jorden,
et fundament til den planlagte tilbygning. Der er meget lydt, hvilket er lidt
af en skam, så derfor efter endnu 10-minutter vi beslutter at stå op. Du
godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
I sit synsfelt kan Lois se gennem
soveværelsesvinduet
en
betonblander dukker op på den anden side af vejen,
hvilket
hurtigt sætter en stopper for vores idyl – pokkers!
Du
godeste – sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
08:30 Vi går i
bad for at slippe for støjen, og efter morgenmad forbereder jeg mig på min
regelmæssige ”ungarske” time med min ven, ”Magyar” Mike. Jeg udarbejder en
ungarske ordforrådtest til ham og udprinter den.
10:00 ”Magyar”
Mike ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Vi udveksler
ordforrådtest og læser lektion 8 i vores nuværende lærebog. Mike ældes dag for
dag i de seneste 12 måneder, ingen tvivl om det, og han har glemt nogle
grundlæggende ungarske ord, for eksempel, navnene af ugedagerne - du godeste!
Men jeg synes, han er fast besluttet på at vende tilbage til sit foregående
niveau, hvis muligt, hvilket er opmuntrende.
Tilbageblik
til 2014: ”Magyar” Mike i lykkeligere tider –
i
Ungarn sammen med vores ungarske ven, István
Vi snakker
lidt om idéen af at han køber cd’er til Rosetta Stones nye ungarske
sprogkursus, men jeg fortæller Mike om en nylige historie på Lois’ og mit go-to
nyhedswebsted, Onion News.
ARLINGTON, VA – softwareudviklerselskabet Rosetta Stone har meddelt lanceringen af et
nyt tre-cd-rom-ungarsk sprogprogram, hvor den første disk er dedikeret til at
opfordre brugerne til at genoverveje deres besluting at lære ungarsk.
"Tænk virkelig hårdt i et sekund: Har du
virkelig lyst til at gøre dette? Ungarsk? Virkelig?" spørger
instruktionssoftwaren, som efterfølgende minder brugerne om, at det ungarske
sprog indeholder et alfabet på 44 bogstaver, og er et sprog, hvor hver
substantiv har 17 forskellige former.
"Alvorligt er det ikke for sent at lære
spansk, fransk eller endda tysk, som alle er meget mere nyttige sprog i stort
set enhver sammenhæng. Hvorfor laver du det her?" Programmets anden disk
begynder med et lydeligt sug, efterfulgt af ordene "Okay, fine. Det er din
begravelse."
Jeg diskuterer
Rosetta Stones kursus med Mike, og på nærmere eftertanke beslutter vi med
beklagelse at gå glip af kurset i overskuelig fremtid – senere måske, når han
har studeret lidt hårdere i et stykke tid. Vi får se.
11:00 Mike
skal af sted, og Lois og jeg går hen ind i landsbyen for at købe kød og brød
hos Waghornes, den lokale slagterforretning, nu hvor vores fryser virker igen –
hurra! På vej hjem smutter vi ind i den lokale nærbutik, den tidligere Bakery
Stores, for at købe frugt og grøntsager. Til sidst kigger vi ind i det lokale
postkontor og den samhængende bladhandlerforretning for at købe en Peter
Rabbit-børnemagasin til Lily og Jessie, vores 5-årige tvillingebørnebørn i
Perth, Australien.
Peter
Rabbit-børnemagasinet
Magasinet kan
ikke fås i Australien, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt. Det har
de mest fantastiske gratis-gaver på omslaget – ingen tvivl om det. Jeg er meget
jaloux på dem ha ha ha!
Vi kommer hjem
og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.
12:30 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og vi slapper af med en kop te og en kiks i
sofaen.
16:00 Jeg
kigger lidt på min nuværende bog, ”Skandinaviens sprog – nordens syv søstre” af
Ruth H. Sanders, Miami University af Ohio, en kapitel, der handler om det
finske sprog.
Ruth
H. Sanders, bogens forfatter
Det finske
sprog er faktisk ikke beslægtet til de hovedsagelige skandinaviske sprog
(norsk, dansk, svensk, islandsk osv). Det er snarere et medlem af en helt
anderledes sprogfamilie, der indeholder estisk, ungarsk og det samiske sprog.
Det er lidt
overraskende, men denne sprogfamilies medlemmer er så vidt udspredte og
forholdsvis isolerede fra hinanden, i nogle tilfælde af afstander af tusindvis
af kilometer. Eksperterne formoder, at denne situation er resultatet af en kompleks
sekvens af migrationer, men der er ikke nogle beviser på denne teori, bortset
fra selve sproglige situation. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!
Det er
velkendt, at ”de der vanvittige svensker” forsøger for tiden at popularisere et nyt kønsneutralt personligt
pronomen, der skal kunne udskifte både ”han” og ”hun”, og kunne referere både
til en mand eller en kvinde.
Men på mange
måder er de finske, ungarske osv sprog forud for sin tid, fordi alle deres
personlige pronominer allerede er kønsneutrale. Og der er ingen kvindelige
suffikser, såsom "-ess" i de engelske ord ”actress” og
”temptress”.
Ruth H.
Sanders, bogens forfatter, kommenterer imidlertid, at ordet ”actress” er ved at
uddø på engelsk, delvis som resultatet af feministisk pres i professionen,
selvom hun tilføjer, at verdens ”temptresses” (fristerinder) synes at være
tilfredse med status quo, af en eller anden grund – du godeste, sikke en skør
verden vi lever i !!!!
en
typisk fristerinde: men hvor lang tid skal gå,
før
ordet ”temptress” også uddør på engelsk,
efter
feministisk pres ??? Du godeste – sikke et vanvid!!!!
Det finske
sprog bliver betragtet som ”skørt” af mange sproglige eksperter: det er verdens
eneste sprog, hvor der er, i en gennemsnitlig tekst, flere vokaler end
konsonanter (100:96 i gennemsnit). Ungarsk er mere typisk af verdens
hovedsagelige sprog: 141 konsonanter til hver 100 vokaler.
Finnerne
påstår, at da ungarerne og finnerne adskilte sig fra hinanden i forhistoriske
tider (”Hexit” eller ”Fexit”, afhængigt af dit udsigtspunkt), rejste finnerne
nordpå med alle de vokaler, mens ungarerne rejste sydpå med alle de
konsonanter. Det ville have været retfærdigere at dele dem 50-50 efter min ydmyge
mening, men det springer jeg over.
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio, for det første et interessant
program, der stiller spørgsmålet om, om folk virkelig er mere distraherede, end
nogensinde før. Har problemet ramt
forrige generationer, og hvis ja, hvordan bekæmpede de det? Programmets vært er
den charmerende historiker, Rhys Jones.
Er vi slaver af
de sociale medier? Rhys bruger endnu stærkere sprog – han siger vi lever i
livegenskab, og de tekniske giganter er vores herremænd.
Men der var
lignende kriser i fortiden, siger han. I dag er dét, at læse romaner, betragtet
som en sund hobby men i 1700-tallet var det betragtet som en frygtelig fare,
der truede den moralske sundhed af unge mennesker, i sær unge kvinder, der kom
i vane med at lukke sig ind på sine værelser om aftenen med gotiske og erotiske
romaner, Defoes ”Moll Flanders” for eksempel.
Bekymrede
forældre begyndte at insistere på at deres unge døtre bliver siddene i stuen
med resten af familien, så de alle kunne læse en roman sammen: de skiftedes til at læse en kapitel, og frække
eller skræmmende romaner var forbudte. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!
Rhys siger, at
bekymrede forældre gør det samme i dag, eller lignende, hvis de insisterer, at
hele familien sætter sig i stuen om aftenen og ser på det seneste afsnit af
Doctor Who, for eksempel.
en
typisk ung kvinde, alene inde i sit værelse, i gang med at læse
en
af de seneste gotiske, frække romaner og/eller rædselhistorier
I 1800-tallet
i både Storbritannien og USA var stigningen af den såkaldte ”Penny Press”
betragtet som den seneste trussel – billige aviser og tidsskrifter, der
fremviste frække og sensationelle mini-artikler og nyhedsstrømme. Og i
1900-tallet dukkede for det første radio og kort efter tv, som de seneste
trusler om unge og gamle menneskers moralske sundhed.
Men disse
forrige ”trusler” går i ubetydelighed i sammenligning med de vanedannede
aspekter af internettet, siger Rhys. Han nævner den berømte psycholog BF
Skinners forskning med en gruppe duer, der opdagede at hvis de trykkede på en
knap, dukkede nogle gange mad op (men ikke altid). Dét, at trykke på knappen,
var mere vanedannende, hvis der var usikkerhed om, hvorvidt maden dukker op
eller ej. På samme måde bliver mennesker forfaldne til at tjekke deres
smartphones for det tilfælde af, at der er noget nyt på dem. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!
en
typisk ung kvinde i gang med at tjekke sin smartphone
Alt det der er
de velkendte ”tekniske giganter”meget glade for, unødvendig at sige, men er det
muligt for almindelige mennesker at genvinde deres liv fra tekniske giganter og
almigtige korporationer, spørger Rhys. Der har været periodiske ”oprør” mod
”systemet”, for eksempel Timothy Leary og den såkaldte ”kontrakultur” af
1960’erne og 1970’erne. Men storforretning kæmper altid imod, siger Rhys, og
han giver eksemplet af Pepsi, der ivrigt begyndte at tage fat på kontrakulturen
i sine tv-reklamer.
Pepsi
og kontrakulturen
Rhys kommer
til den konklusion , at det er urealistisk at forvente, at de tekniske giganter
gør deres apper mere ”etiske” eller mindre vanedannende. Det er vores eget ansvar
at begrænse og bekæmpe vores afhængighed:
(1) hvis vi bruger vores smartphones som en
form for eskapisme, kan vi forsøge at finde frem til, præcis hvad vi prøver at unddrage
os.
(2) vi kan fastsætte en begrænset periode, for
eksempel 18:30 til 20:30 om aftenen for at kigge på de sociale medier
(3) vi kan slukker for vores notifikationer
(4) vi kan bruge tekniske apper for at opdage,
hvor meget tid vi tilbringer på nettet hver dag
Lyder
fornuftigt!
21:00 Vi
fortsætter med at lytte til radio, et interessant afsnit af serien ”Inside
Health”. Programmets vært er den charmerende dr. Mark Porter.
Et interessant
afsnit. Mark taler om den nylige opdagelse, at aspiriner kan mindske ved 20%
dødeligheden blandt patienter, der lider af kræft: dvs, blandt patienterne, der
tager aspiriner, er der på hvilket som helst givent tidspunkt 20% mindre der er
død, end blandt patienter, der ikke tager dem.
Et
sensationelt resultat, men Mark kommenterer, at det er underligt, at verdens
presse valgte at koncentrere sig om risikoerne med at tage aspiriner – med
andre ord, risikoen for blødning, hvilket han og programmets eksperter siger er
både usandsynlig og helt trivial i sammenligning med risikoerne for at dø af
kræft.
Du godeste,
sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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