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Showing posts with the label Notes and Queries

Language in culture

The sheriff is shot. But the music is great. [Précis. Language is embedded in culture also. Serious students of a language need to dig deeper to get it, or have the benefit of some help.] I have taught English as a foreign language for over twenty years. This has been both a secondary occupation and sometimes a first. In any event there are two teaching/learning opportunities I do not practice, which in fact weakens my effectiveness. I don't play games and I don't (often) listen to music. Thus, my efforts to help students learn are reduced, for both of these ways of learning a language are proven successful techniques. Recently I asked a student who is passionate about music about the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." He said, "Oh, we all know that. It is the first song I learned to play on the guitar." I then asked him what the song was about. He said he didn't know, but that it was something about being dead. I asked dead or dying. He d...

Women's work--chceš facku?

A note about this phrase. . . You can use it to describe work that women do. You can say this without it being negative or critical. You can also say this when your partner is the person doing all the cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Try it and see what happens. Chceš facku? It is possible she will look at you as if you are a caveman living in the distant past. Be careful, she can give you a good slap in the face.

Biographical note

My father was born in Shanghai. He was part Chinese. My father and cousin with their Ama (like an au pair). The name Mactavish, sometimes spelled with a capital T, means son of Thomas. My father's biological father was Irish and had the last name of Murphy. My father's mother was Chinese and Scottish, and her last name, maiden name, was Mactavish. Why didn't my father have the name of Murphy? Murphy left my grandmother after one year of marriage. She had my father's last name changed to her maiden name. And that makes me a Mactavish with Irish, Scottish, and Chinese roots, and probably something else. Confused? That's America. My mother? My mother was born in California. She had an Irish background. So that makes me more Irish, but I don't know how much. Now, when people say that real Americans are white and came from Europe, remember that some came from Asia! You know, the USA has a left coast and a right one. I come from the left coast, California. And ...