Sunday, December 28, 2008

The sound of silence

At what point does a comfortable silence turn into an awkward pause?

And what does that mean for us?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Mother Tongue

"We tend to regard other people's languages as we regard their cultures – with ill-hidden disdain. In Japanese, the word for foreigner means 'stinking of foreign hair'. To the Czechs a Hungarian is a 'pimple'. Germans call cockroaches 'Frenchman', while the French call lice 'Spaniards'. We in the English-speaking world take French leave, but Italians and Norwegians talk about departing like an Englishman, and Germans talk of running like a Dutchman. Italians call syphilis 'the French disease', while both French and Italians call con games 'American swindle'. Belgian taxi drivers call a poor tipper 'un Anglais'. To be bored to death in French is 'ĂȘtre de Birmingham', literally 'to be from Birmingham' (which is actually about right).

Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson