Robert (gurdonark) wrote,
Robert
gurdonark

speaking many languages

I spent my morning in a business meeting with a fellow from another country. His English was imperfectly accented, but his understanding of American idiom was impeccable. I'm always amazed at how much English people from other places speak, since my schoolbook German stops a little way beyond all the basic phrases--"Where is the train?", and the like, and in both French and Spanish I know pretty much "where is the hotel", some basic menu items, "how much does it cost, please", "thank you", "hello" and "goodbye". My wife speaks rather good French, which makes our limited Euro travel a bit easier, but I am the proverbial Philistine (who cannot, for that matter, speak the language of the Philistines) when it comes to language.

When I returned to my office, the most wonderful thing was in my e mail. kenmora sent me the first draft for the cover for my novel, "Lonely Distance". He did an amazing job. It's far better than I ever imagined it would be. My book is a simple first person narrative about cyberspace "aloneness", disguised as a science fiction novel. Ken "got" exactly where I was going with it, and drew something right on point.

I thank those who participated in my first poll very much. Lately, I've had the feeling that my journal is getting a bit entrenched in the same themes. The poll responses gave me a set of new places to go, content-wise, and I intend to write an entry on each topic suggested in the coming weeks.

I liked doing a poll. I'll do another one in the near future, but for that one, I will make the answers available to all. This weekend I have many more holiday cards to send, and a few gifts to acquire. I may also have to work, and I definitely want to take a long walk in this rapturously warm winter weather.
Subscribe

Recent Posts from This Journal

  • Al Stewart Friday

    Friday night we drove to Dallas to see the Al Stewart concert. We arrived early enough to be able to park in its 8 dollar parking lot. The Grenada…

  • Change of Weather

    After a day or two of record high temperatures, we got some chilly, breezy and wet weather. Tonight after work we go to the Grenada Theater. I hope…

  • Paging Spencer Atwill

    I had a dream in which I was driving on a superhighway in the American South. I stopped when I saw some boxes off the road. They turned out to be…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 4 comments