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1st language lesson and other musings
Sep. 25th, 2003 05:34 pmSo I just finished with my 1st Uzbek lesson. It was somewhat humbling to realize that not only has my Uzbek functionality shrunk to almost nil, but my Russian has gotten crappy enough that it is difficult to study Uzbek off of it. ARGH. But my comprehension of Uzbek is slowly coming back to me, it's interesting to feel my brain starting to parse the language again. It has me thinking about how we hear languages that we don't understand as more consonant dense. WHen I first turned on the TV when I arrived it sounded like a stream of consonants, much like people talk about with the way Russian sounds, much like the non-english speakers I know talk about the sound of english. Now after 2 days immersion I can here vowels again - its very odd.
And the power of language, especially foreign languages for signifying specific things....The graffiti here is odd, it doesn't have the artistry that graffiti culture in LA and NY and most of the US does, but it does use a lot of English words. I noticed the last time I was here that the word RAP (in all caps like that) was scribbled all over places by people, and that there were clothing items with it on it - an odd phenomenon. I think this is because RAP has become synonymous with the trendiness and the rebellion of hip hop culture here in Uzbekistan - by marking something with that word, the writer is signifying a push to modernization, rebellion, american culture, and counter culture - an interesting mix of concepts. The other thing that is common in the grafitti here is to write names of English bands and artists - Sepultura is what is scribbled on the shed near my apartment block, once again cashing in on the ideas of rebellion and stuff. The oddest thing I've seen so far grafitti-wise was scribbled on the dumpster outside the ACCELS office - it was "Chris De Burgh." Now as far as I remember, Chris De Burgh was the guy who sang the song "Lady in Red" ages ago - what exactly that is trying to do besides just be an english word that can be written is kind of beyond me. I'm reminded of the trade value that English words and phrases have here for business, so much that many will pick an English word, any English word, and attach it to the business - my favorite was the "Elephant" restaurant.
And the power of language, especially foreign languages for signifying specific things....The graffiti here is odd, it doesn't have the artistry that graffiti culture in LA and NY and most of the US does, but it does use a lot of English words. I noticed the last time I was here that the word RAP (in all caps like that) was scribbled all over places by people, and that there were clothing items with it on it - an odd phenomenon. I think this is because RAP has become synonymous with the trendiness and the rebellion of hip hop culture here in Uzbekistan - by marking something with that word, the writer is signifying a push to modernization, rebellion, american culture, and counter culture - an interesting mix of concepts. The other thing that is common in the grafitti here is to write names of English bands and artists - Sepultura is what is scribbled on the shed near my apartment block, once again cashing in on the ideas of rebellion and stuff. The oddest thing I've seen so far grafitti-wise was scribbled on the dumpster outside the ACCELS office - it was "Chris De Burgh." Now as far as I remember, Chris De Burgh was the guy who sang the song "Lady in Red" ages ago - what exactly that is trying to do besides just be an english word that can be written is kind of beyond me. I'm reminded of the trade value that English words and phrases have here for business, so much that many will pick an English word, any English word, and attach it to the business - my favorite was the "Elephant" restaurant.
