Monday: The Good-byes Within

The Frame:

The program "America" is on. The setting is a beautiful house on a tree - lined
street in Chicago, Illinois. Coffee is brewing.

I am trying to get settled in one room where I want to view the show.

The cat is battling me for the chair.

I am going up and down the hallways and rooms to check on the coffee
and watch the program in many rooms of the house.

I almost feel as if I am in a mansion.

Today, all the minor characters are given the limelight. The protagonists all
seem to have minor story - lines today.

I did watch the next to last episode, because I ventured out!

Yes, just once, for now! I ended up in strange towns that day (Friday), but it
was nice to connect to those places again. Sometimes, traveling through other
places assures the continuity to life, or to the pace of life.

Okay, so now the main characters have just entered the scene.
Her child is now walking, so that shows the passage of time.
He is with the daddy. I think they are going to coerce her to return to Brazil.
The baby is to stay with the dad, possibly. This is tough, because of the
bond she has to the baby and to the dad. She is illegal, so that's why.

If she stays in jail, then she can still visit. If she is forced to return
to South America, then she can only stay in touch through letters or (how about?)
skype. That would be the new alternate ways to keep families together.
If only, she had married someone who was a citizen, but then again, she couldn't have had the child and all. Well, more on this as the show ends...

It ends today. If they leave us all hanging, that would be weird. Unless of course, there is the chance that there will be a sequel out someday. Maybe even on Fan - Fiction or other such addendum - oriented page?

"!Loco por ti America, Loco por tus amores!" That's how the theme plays between commercials. I wonder if they will play a fuller length at the end or even another song entirely.

The cat is following me everywhere. Up,down, all the way around, around, and around.
He still wants the chair.

(SPOILER: I do know from somewhere on the internet that the main characters are going to meet at the end, but only as friends. I guess this show had previously, and so is a re - run.)

That is an unreal ending in most other telenovelas, because it is almost always a fairy-tale ending. In this case,...wait, it looks like the new guy & the father of the child is leaving for Brazil is going too...so that resolves that matter.

At least, I know what the ending is...whew! Now I know that I won't have to find an obscure telenovela board to see what the ending was.

Like that one time when I was watching the Mujer en el espejo and I missed two weeks of it, including the ending...and I asked...

Wait! Tiao and Sol are talking now...they met..but they are only saying goodbye, see you later..."buena suerte" and all that....

...and so I asked like every "Grandma" and kid in town and everyone I met....and no one had ever heard about "La Mujer en el Espejo." It feels like you have part of the story in your memory, but not all of it....

Credits and ending rolling now...well, a little bit more of the song...

I blame the town of Chicago (certain people) for not being able to follow the story as a result of lies about me. I do see recap boards once in a while, but I still haven't seen any written entries on L.M.E.E.E.

At least, I got to watch one ending...just one...although I have missed many endings due to work and family viewing habits.

It's like someone takes away a library book from you right as you are supposed to find out about an ending...how rude, right?!

After a while, it does traumatize you!!!

Bye "America"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Today, I created a new page for Dr. Who fans. This is to compensate for having to say good - bye to previous doctors from the past.

The cat is now on my lap...a happy compromise to the fight over the chair. I think that he thinks that he doesn't stay with me, I will disappear.

Sound Immersion Practice

Fans of Miley Cyrus will love this!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXHcj85VuA&feature=related


Listen to the interview once. If you followed this, then you
have a good memory of Spanish and a good understanding. I was
able to follow it, but that is because I have acquainted myself with
the sounds.

If it is difficult for you to follow the Spanish, then you need
more sound immersion in Spanish.

Listen to the interview a couple of times.

If you don't speak Spanish, this is not going to enable you to speak
it, but the video will equip you with the speed, more or less, that
Spanish is spoken. The first time, you may feel at a loss. Listening to
it several times will enable you to feel more comfortable the next time
you hear it.

It will take time, but you can get yourself to a point where Spanish
is at a pace that you can follow.




Try finding Spanish on You Tube or other sites where Spanish is spoken.
Do this according to your convenience. Don't rush yourself, or force yourself
to go too fast that you give up trying.

You can also try listening to music, if you like, once in a while.

Eventually, your ears will start to discriminate the individual words and phrases.

Next, you may even want to practice saying some of the words.


Activity:

Listen to the interviewer's pronunciation of Miley Cyrus' name.
Say it like the interviewer is pronouncing it.
Say it how we would say it in American English.
Note the difference in pronunciation.
Listen to the speed in which the interviewer says the name.

You can do the same activity with other words as well.
Listen and repeat until you get it right.

Spanish Retention

Watching telenovelas is always a good way to retain Spanish.

Most are in Spanish, so that is beneficial to me. Since I do like
reading and writing fiction as well, the frame of a telenovela is
a creative way to keep it up. This time around, instead of a Venezuelan
novela, I chose a Brazilian one. As a result, I became acquainted with Portuguese
as used in the language, culture, setting, and the program was dubbed
in Spanish.

The story lines and plots are presented differently based
on where it is from, so they are always unique. Some plots seem
to be universal themes that have to do with love,tragedy,survival,and having
strength to carry on. It is good that it is a story for television, so I can
watch it as that, and it has no bearing on any real people or situations
that I know.

Sometimes, the real world inspires the telling of the story, so
you walk away with a portrayal of trials that humans suffer universally. So, I view
it that way, and I can't worry about people telling me that it is too dramatic or melodramatic or whatever they have against the genre. Mostly, the immersion that you find in it is crucial for retention. When a novela ends, you have mixed feelings, because you had a regular time slot to follow it, or you got into the story of it,
but the channels always have something new to add for their viewers.

The radio is great, also, but there is not that "regular" routine you find as to a program that I want to follow, and so I forget to tune in, or I just listen randomly on any given station. I like the stations that play Spanish pop music or contemporary music. There are two I hear advertised a lot.

The Calle and The Ley

So I will give you the call letters on those soon, if you like music more
than drama. Acquainting your ears to the language you are learning is of
utmost importance.


SOUND IMMERSION ACTIVITY: Try to listen to words on television or the radio
and see how many you can understand. Jot them
down and look up later all at once. Pick a few.


Tonight, I will try to watch "Corazon Salvaje" again. They are already at the
scene where Juan's brother marries Aimee. So, it is a suspensful part. The
wedding scene was beautiful. The wedding garb was exiquisite, for those of you
who love following period fashion. Even the minor characters are dressed to the
tee.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Note: For followers of the Brazilian telenovela: "America"

This is the last full week for the program. Monday is the last day.
So, make sure you see the end.

I found this link (paper) on the Brazilian genre for your research.

http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/sp03/gmj-sp03-rego.htm

I found another site where there is comparison and contrast of stories from
all over the world. So, if you want to study the research on novelas, this is a
great topic in which to immerse yourself.

Contact me on the comments page below, if you want to see that link.

Listening to Spanish!

Today, I accomplished the goal of continuing to listen to Spanish.
I watched "America." Then later tonight, I want to watch "Corazon Salvaje."
My ears will thank me someday for the exposure.

Yesterday, I almost did a back flip when I saw the word, "chevre."
It was here at this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsBgDO4ivpA

What a beautiful song! I believe it is called a balada.
Well, under the video box, I saw the word.

That certainly brought back memories! So, each time, I get another clue.

I also like that, in the link above to the video, they translate the song!
It must have been from a telenovela, but I am not sure. It reminds me
of the book, GREEN MANSIONS, because the characters dress like lost people.
Or maybe it reminds me of "Lost." (ABC)

I had an inkling to search for "espejo azul" yesterday, and then
I found this cancion. (stress/accent mark over the o)

The song is also sung by a teenager, or someone who used to be a teenager, I suppose.
I'll have to do some research on this, because the song is beautiful.

Then I did a search for "miro" and "pasar" and came up with a lot of songs that are popular right now. An old song by Nydia Caro once had that line. So I was curious about that phrase. Any way, she was featured on You Tube under the word,
"trajectory." So I was impressed. She sang the theme song for "Tanairi," if my memory serves me correctly.

I seem to be learning Spanish through music currently.

I want to motivate myself to speaking it soon.

I think I have to sing first.

!Hasta luego, blog!

Have a super weekend!

Spanish Over the Weekend!

Well, my wish came true about hearing more Spanish on tape.
It was actually online. I had been reading an online newspaper online
from Europe, and something flashed on the page:

Learn Spanish!

That was easy enough.

So I took a chance and tried it out. Basic Level first...

It was extraordinary. I actually felt that I was learning.
I had had a previous experience with learning through CDs
and although, I liked hearing the voices speaking, I wanted
a book in that language in front of me. I was unable to repeat
and pronounce the sounds, because it was the very first experience
hearing them. In my mind, I could not see what the words looked
like or even visualize how they were spelled. So, for that language, I
would try audiotapes with a text.

Spanish, however, seemed familiar to me. We had enough exposure to it
in the schools with classes or by having classmates who spoke Spanish.
I also associated the sounds and words in Spanish to other languages I knew (English)
or had known (Hindi). I was not afraid to try its vowels and consonant sounds.

At first, Spanish, had been difficult, because I had previously not had any
experience or exposure to it. My high school teacher acclimated us to the language by speaking to us in Spanish often. On the first day of school, he started speaking in Spanish very, very rapidly, and although we were a small group, everyone looked at each other,frightened. We had to inquire whether he knew we were basic learners and not at the advanced level. He told us that he just wanted us to know what it sounded like for a reason. Whew! We were so relieved.

That was always a problem to me. I could not follow anyone who spoke in Spanish.
Even when I first turned on the television to improve listening to Spanish, I found that I could not follow the speed or rapidity with which the speakers spoke.
Over time, it became easier. So now, I can follow Spanish, because I gave my ears
a chance to discriminate the sounds over time. I also realized at the time that my Spanish vocabulary needed more work. Telenovelas were great in that they would use
casual or informal language,and you would learn a new word or two.

Phrases were fun to practice. Depending on where the telenovela was from, I would try all sorts of colloquial phrases. Most of the time, words like "love" and phrases
expressing love are the same everywhere. It was when they used words for "money" or words for names, settings, places, or words that expressed "cool!" things started to vary.

The first year, I learned a lot of phrases that I thought were common in basic Spanish. I still remember going to my teacher at school to ask what sounded to me like *"que chevre" meant. He said that I must have been watching a program that was coming from Venezuela. I had asked kids at school, and even Spanish people around my neighborhood. No one knew! I figured I must be saying it or spelling it wrong.
*(used in the program, "Cristal" almost every day)

I still remember Zoraida(sounded like "Soraya" to me) saying "chevre" every day. I gave up and thought it must have been recently coined. (New Spanish)

I guess my first Spanish via television was Venezuelan. The Spanish I learned from books was from Mexico, or some standard version. We had to practice basic conversation in class. Our teacher wasn't too critical. When we first practiced our Spanish with our history teacher, she smiled weakly. She had lived abroad in Peru before as a Peace Corps volunteer and had more exposure to Spanish elsewhere.

She said,"I know you guys are just learning Spanish, but try speaking it a little faster. Instead of making it sound so choppy like, Co + mo + es + ta + Us+ ted,try saying it faster and make the sounds flow together a little more."


More like:

"Comosta"
"Comostas"

What a difference that tip made to us! We all sing-songed "Como esta" for at least 10 minutes after that. We didn't sound like robots speaking "chopped-up" syllables anymore.

Nowadays, I love it when I hear Spanish that is not within a telenovela. Finding it in different settings or contexts is how I can learn more of it. This past weekend, there was a Saturday Night Live skit that used a fusion of English/Spanish. JLo was on!

**************************

Other news: I tried to sing the theme song of Corazon Salvaje now that I was more familiar with the words. Then I stopped to listen. Chayanne's voice
shouldn't be drowned out by mine, I decided.

I think I will write the words out and then follow the song that way!

Ciao! (learned that on the UK site...casual Spanish)

Translation!

My Method: (as a former tri-lingual child), if you count ("British English), then it was quadrilingual.

***Immersion through a parallel-learning exposure:

I remember when I first started to really thoroughly learn the (American) English language here in the states. Places where I had resided in the past had been speaking and writing in English, so I developed an appreciation for it early on. Since English was not my first language initially, I think I was very curious to learn it and accepted it more readily than the mother tongue of the regions to which I moved. Unlike learning English and Spanish,which are dominant in the areas due to colonization, I had to try to learn a language in each new state where I traveled. I was only a child, so no one forced me to learn more than two languages at a time. Although there was an international crowd as well, and for that reason, we had to turn to the two major ("official") languages that were used for communication. There was no way to speak each and every dialect or tongue at that time. I rememember people speaking Hindi, English, Marathi, Malayalam,Urdu, Punjabi, and vague dialects to me. If I didn't understand them, I would tell them that. They didn't always connect that I was a new immigrant to their region, and they would say, "Shame! You don't speak Marathi...etc.!" They just assumed that I knew it. A lot of them would ask my parents if I had a speech impediment, because my accent was always off initially as I began to learn a particular language. They always wondered why I was quiet also.

So I call my first experience not a bilingual one, but more of a parallel language learning experience. I was generally being taught two languages at once that were not my own language. This was true in school also. My own language was only spoken in regions below the equator and minimally within the United States. When I came to the USA, I gravitated toward English, because it was the only thing I recognized and related to, and it did make me feel as I fit in somehow. I lost the other "official" tongue(s) that I was starting to learn, because there was no one with which to practice. I had only a seven-year-old's knowledge of it, so I am not surprised. I basically recognize a few words here and there, but I never heard it spoken or even written out. Besides, my parents never did what other new immigrants do, live within their own communities when they first arrive. I think they live like missionaries do, always parallel to other communities. So I never gained ground in any one language. At the time, that was a huge loss for me, because in India, I would only hear or use Hindi outside of school. It was my (first) primary language of fluency.

The day before yesterday, I watched a film in the mother tongue of India and found that I only recognized words and not phrases. It helped that it had subtitles in English. I recognized words such as greetings and informal constructs such as "you" and "your." A recent film in a Southern dialect also pointed out satirically:
"An Indian that doesn't speak Hindi! Why, that's so totally unheard of!" ("The Notebook" with the actress,"Roma") I guess I don't fit in with that particular colonization schema.

I think I feel discriminated against, because people here want me to be a "tiger" and know Tamil. For me, tamil is way too foreign!!!
No exposure to it whatsoever! I AM in AMERICA!!!!!!!

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

("Stop the world! I want to get off! This is too weird for me! I just want to find a planet that is interested in sanity!") An old contemporary Christian song!

So this is what I meant when I said that you can lose Spanish if you don't practice it, or are around people who do not speak it. I don't have pen pals to practice Spanish with, either, so I have to retain it in the ways that are currently available to me. I have to investigate chat boards to write in Spanish. So that is yet another project.

I like an interactional approach to learning Spanish. I like to hear it on television or on the radio, especially meaningful dialogue. I love to see it in print, and to try to practice reading it. I have not really been practicing to write in the language, because this area has a majority of English speakers, and there is never an opportunity to write it. So ,that's why this blog is necessary to me. Right now, I feel a discrimination around me toward Spanish, so it is not being readily accepted here.

I have followed the English Only debates, and have tried to understand both perspectives, but I find that it is only normal for people to use their original (or first) language(s). I am an exception in that I had to choose the language of colonization, because we had to move so much when I was a child, and it was the most common medium found wherever I went, even in print media.

I have to take small steps to begin to write in Spanish again. I miss trying to write essays in Spanish. We had a foreign-language requirement to satisfy in the states during high school and college, so I was happy to choose Spanish and work with it. My friends all told me to take French, because they wanted to, but I knew myself. I would never have been ready to learn French at fourteen years of age. For some reason, I felt that Spanish would be around as a language of exposure, and I would run into it more in the USA. I needed that immersion experience that I craved, and I feared losing my French, because I would never use it. (The irony is that my people had lived in French-colonized areas, so French and (some Irish) is already within our language ,and I do have an affection or predilection for French and Irish.) I think my people might have been that of an ancient Celtic background.
Our language is not so fused with Indo-European words, except when we borrow from Hindi or Sanskrit. That is normal, because when groups live side by side, they pick up words from other languages, and borrow constantly.

I also like that the consonant/vowel sounds in Spanish are very similar to the ones I used to hear in Hindi. That's why I can pronounce the "r" a little better than most others.

English is more or less a conglomerate of foreign languages from all around the world. Just go to a cafe sometime. You'll see what I mean. We owe a great deal to Romance languages as well. So I am surprised when people resist Spanish
(a Romance language) when they hear it.

So at this time, my Spanish is all heard or seen. I hope to change this soon through writing practice and posting on blogs. I found a Peruan Telenovela board recently, and I asked for pen pals. I was so nervous to write in Spanish, because I am so out of practice, so I chickened out and wrote in English.

The internet does blend all of these elements,the seeing, the reading, and even the listening, and so I want to work with this medium more so than I do.

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TRANSLATION

The theme song to the telenovela, "Corazon Salvaje":

In the past, I would have looked up every single word in the dictionary.

There's nothing wrong with that, and I would recommend using one and keeping it handy. Since I am a little advanced in the comprehension of Spanish than a beginner or someone at the basic literacy levels, I wanted to test my comprehension of the lyrics.

I am also a person that does not shy away from poetry in language.

My quandary was to decide if I should paraphrase it in a general sense or translate it literally out on paper, line by line. I decided to choose the former option.

For a new beginner, I would suggest reading it over until the words seem familiar. For each person, it will vary as to how many times he or she will need to review.

I got the basic gist of the song in one reading and actually listening to the words as they played on television. (Look at previous posts for a You Tube link of the song.)

So, obviously, one would have to acknowledge that the theme has to do with love and romance. The words are suggestive of poetry and the euphoria that one experiences in a total love of a person. The passion the singer feels is evidenced almost as if he is breathing in his beloved and cannot live without her.

The problem, however, was that since I did not have the words in front of me, and because I did not write the words out, I couldn't recall the words. I wanted to sing along to the words.

So I found a weakness in that I haven't exposed it to my ears as many times as I needed and not looked at the words often enough to learn them. Since memory is necessary, I suffered from a lack of hearing and reading. That clued me into my nervousness of speaking the language, too.

The frustration, however, does not deter me. I like the project enough to continue. I am interested in translating it nonetheless. Here's my take on the first stanza.


I Fell in Love With You (paraphrased version)

When I think of you, when I am with you, my hope grows
My soul is nourished by your(this) love
and unawares, time stole this love from me
What am I going to do without you?
If we're not together, I can't live,
I have nothing
I can only breathe if I am in your arms or by your side
There is nothing to do and nothing to say (there's no need to even explain)
Without you, I would have nothing, feel cold and frozen (feel alone and empty)
If I can't be with you, I would lose my mind (lose my senses)
There's so much to say, there's nothing to lose
I fell in love with you

So this has the connotations of songs we have grown up with.
You are the air that I breathe. I am all out of love...etc.(Air Supply - esque)
Or if you like Spanish, "Mi vida eres tu, y solamente tu" (Rudy la Scala)from the telenovela (CRISTAL)--- a huge hit!

"I Surrender All" (church hymn), and it reminds me of symbiosis also.

So, the basic gist and any other associations or connections I can make aids
me in the comprehension of the song. I was thinking about the time it took
to get the words out. I do know song writers, so I reserve the right to appreciate
the artistry.

I don't want to stop there, however.
I would actually like to go within the song,
translate it word for word and literally as well.
That way, I feel I actually own the words, and understand them at a deeper level
and not just at the surface level.

This feels like double the work, but I am going to do it anyway.
Anyway, this is not for a class, so there is no rush.

I don't have a printer right now, so I can't print the words out to carry around.
I can always save it on the computer, I suppose.


MORE TRANSLATION!

SECOND STANZA:

You're what I always wanted, what I've always wanted
You're my (ray of) sunshine.
And unawares, love was stolen from me (time stole it)
what's going to become of me?
if I can't be with you?

The last three stanzas are all a repetition of the refrain, and song writers
repeat refrains for effect. So that part is not going to be difficult to translate.
The refrain is the part that states:

"Si no estas conmigo..."
and it ends with
"me enamore de ti."

THE SONG!

Overall, it is not a new concept in terms of songs or even themes, but the romantic way that Chayanne sings does it justice. It is so different from Miyares' strong delivery of the previous "Corazon Salvaje" serial, but this softness expresses the love the writer is trying to convey. The only thing is that the volume is a bit muted on the station I view the program, (CANAL 6),so Chayanne's voice is not projected. On You Tube, however, I can hear him better.

Chayanne has the softness of voice like Carlos Mata, and the tenderness of Rudy La Scala in "Cristal," and Michael Jackson's poignant lilt. He can probably write or sing songs for children like Rafi, too, someday, if he chooses to do so. I did purchase the record for the last series, so I may go to buy the new soundtrack also.

(Maybe JB RECORDS in Chicago?) They used to carry EVERYTHING!!!!!!

If you are so inclined to follow this series on television, tune in.

I am also following the costume work and fashion of that time period. I tend to be a secretive socialite of the fashion scene on the net right now. And the Spanish indulge in fashion!

Translation is fun, but it can be tedious and pain-staking work.
My eyes are smarting against the computer screen and feeling bugged out in front of the lights. I would recommend taking a break if this happens.

Doing work at leisure does not hurt, trust me! I know of people who lost their eyesight and gained migraine headaches as a result of overdoing it on the computer.

I feel as if I am vicariously watching someone write a poem instead of translating, so that part, I like! (LOL!)


LYRICS BELOW!

http://www.fulltono.org/videos-1/chayanne/53T3yStovu0?chayanne-me-enamore-de-ti-with-lyrics

You Tube Video with lyrics!