Wednesday, September 5, 2007

If I was a real Linguistics Nerd…

I’d tell you all about how delighted I was to find a minimal pair for the retroflex and regular lateral in Mangarrayi.

I’d join the Facebook group ‘So, you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’

I’d tell stories in eight languages with all my linguist nerd friends.

I’d make the punniest jokes.

Oh boy, if only I was a linguistics nerd….

Hang on a minute…… !!!



So anyway, what have I been doing in this fine Katherine Region since last we spoke?

Well, we had a staff meeting in Ngukurr and got to check out Wamut’s language centre. We were all blown away at the amazing work going on there. The journey was 4.5hrs each way. And we managed to get addicted to a card game called Liggretto which Betti, our German work experience girl, brought from OS. Here is the road we travelled:


Fathers’ Day passed fairly quietly with txt messages from Mum, Ned and Imo. Hope you guys are all doing well, miss you, love you etc. A cool thing Ned discovered through predictive txt was that ‘David’ and ‘Father’ share the same letters (well, up to the e anyway). So all our Farthers’ Day messages were unwitting txts of memorandum. Kind of cool.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have become addicted to Facebook. In fact, we three housemates sit in the house and, rather than talk to each other, we all sit at our computers and ‘poke’, ‘superpoke’ and ‘pokepro’ each other (not to mention, the bumperstickers, pirate/zombie games, and the newly discovered ‘Scrabulous’ – online
Scrabble). A quite (what I think) strange phenomenon to come from this FB experience, is that it seems to be taking over real life as well. Every time I go to a party, or sometimes in other casual conversations, FB comes up and we all start talking about the online events that have taken place. I am glad for the opportunity to join the groups ‘So you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’ and ‘When I was your age, Pluto was a planet’. Much fun and tongue in cheek to be had, but one must escape back into reality sometimes. This is the place where things like Work and Social Life take place; I must convince myself!

In other, more exciting and more real news: I am getting a Piano (yes, that’s right AJ, a capital P and everything!) delivered on Thursday. Hazzah! (Although I do not relish the thought of discovering just how much technique I have lost since last I tickled the ivories.)

Well, I seem to have rabbited on quite enough. Please update me with all your news. Even if it’s in the comments, or a two line email. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of you in my trip down South next month – Erica, let me know if you’re in Adelaide when I am.

In the words of AJ,

Ciao for niao.

See you on FB! :P

6 comments:

Dan said...

Germany is a world leader in games production or so my German linguist housemate tells me. They produce a lot of games (like Settlers of Catan) which are cult here but mainstream over there apparently.

I am resisting the Facebook Fenomemon. With both Blogger (for general essays to the world) and LiveJournal (for keeping tabs on choristers) and FlikR (for photos) and YahooGroups (for 'One Fun Thing A Month') and OKCupid (for test writing) I feel well webicised as is. But I suppose it is all fine as long as you do remember you are a part of the (rest of) the world.

I hope that your piano delivery is free from silent-era slapstick mishaps.

ilkfin said...

Hi Pi, luvmumx

Anonymous said...

Hey Eug,

Was great to speak with you the other day - don't know if your phone or mine cut out the first time and then mine battery went dead. Was good to catch for a short 20 mins anyway.

Kim's b'day was good on Sat night - was great to catch up with Kim, AJ and Simon who I haven't seen in a while. Was also godo to see how Kim's house is coming along - looks great!

Only a few more weeks then you'll be down. Was discussing breakie by the river with AJ and Sim on the weekend - we all consider it a must!

Love Kel xxx

AJ said...

Hey Eug,
How ya doin'?
Apols for not checking this for so long... my bad.

I love this post! Not only for its wit and humour and also cos it felt like you were 'talking' to me. Yes, talking not writing...

A few comments:

I would have lost marks in German if I had have written "If I *was* a real linguistics nerd".

For your info/interest, I, and the German-speaking population at large I should think, would say "If I *were* a real linguistics nerd".

Ahhh, that tricky conjunctive! :)

I TOTALLY get the Facebook addiction / taking over your life. I know more about what colleagues/friends are up to by reading their Status Updates then by speaking with them in person!

That Google Map was ace! What a journey...

A Capital P for Piano! How excellent! How is it? Hopefully you're enjoying playing the Piano and haven't lost that much of your Technique. :)

Am VERY much looking forward to seeing you when you're in Melbourne. Let's chat over Facebook regarding other possibilities of catching up (in addition to 6 Oct of course)!

In... err... MY words: "Ciao for niao" :)

Love AJ xoxo

Hooch said...

Dear all,
After AJ's comment on my shockingly ungrammatical title, I feel compelled to respond to all.

Daniel: Funny that you should mention silent-era slapstick mishaps, because, apart from sounding cool, that's actually nearly what happened: details to come in the next post. FYI, there's a MonUCS group on FB which I have recently joined (come.... come to the dark side...)

Mum: that was an infuriatingly short comment. grrr. but love you all the same.

Kel: It was great to talk. Frustrating about the phone, but at least we got to touch base. I will be writing up an itinerary of my trip to Melb, will let you know. Can't wait to see you.

AJ: I have often wondered about was/were - it always seemed to me an anomaly. I never investigated it. But now, with your comment about a 'tricky conjunctive' I am lead to the phenomenon of 'subjunctive' (which, I'm sure is what you meant), and to the discovery that English has a subjunctive case - something I had previously only associated with Latin, Ancient Greek and other LOTEs. Ahh, the ignorant linguist reluctantly reveals herself. Thanks for enjoying my post :) See you soon (on Facebook :P).

Hooch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.