ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Observations category.

Accents in the Country

I ran into a few new accents during my visit to Joplin at the weekend. Some more than others I had to listen to three or more times before being able to understand at all. “You said what?” And, as always, it was as hard as ever to ask people to repeat what they’ve said without feeling guilty. My accent also became the subject of a few random stares, and eventual conversation starting prompts: “You speak good English” and a few more variants of the same compliment/curiosity. That was Lauren, the beautiful American from Tulsa who was excited to meet people from different parts of the world – especially from the faraway places like Nigeria and Benin where Mafoya and I come from. She thought that our accents sounded “different” but “cool”. Tulsa Oklahoma is about a hour and half from Joplin. And now, we have a standing invitation to visit there whenever we find ourselves again in that part of the country.

Who has seen Justified, the tv series featuring Timothy Olyphant? The accent that the preacher at the church service on Sunday  spoke was similar to what I heard a lot from watching the series. Musical, a little slurry, and definitely pleasant to the ears, a distinct Kentucky-like flavour that delights a stranger’s hearing perhaps more than anyone else. Maybe a style of dressing too, but that’s beyond my specialty. But it is more understandable that those who live in rural, farm areas dress in a particular way, especially in the summer. And what do I know. I’m the guy who wore chinos rather than jeans to a work site.

Tulsa (Oklahoma), Topeka (Kansas), and Fayetteville (Arkansas) were some of the famous little towns from which the people we met came from, bearing gifts of the different ways of speaking and, no doubt, looking at the world. (PS: The writing on the garage door in the photo above reads U loot, we shoot. Click to enlarge. I won’t count that as just a kind of Joplin humour.)

 

 

Accents in the Country was published on June 22nd, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Observations category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

Touchdown, Joplin

Pictures of some of the most heartbreaking of the sites. These are the mild ones. The worst ones featured wrecked, torpedoed cars and total levellings of several huge buildings, and homes.

The pictures were taken around Range Line Road where most of the damage took place over a large expanse of land area.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but none of these appropriately captures just how bad it is.

Touchdown, Joplin was published on June 21st, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Observations, Travelling category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Giving a Hand

Sleepy-eyed after a long day, here are a few shots of the day’s work. The site is a private house/ranch, one of the ones that were ravaged by the storm down to the ground. The owner – present to meet with us – is a man of about seventy-five years old.

The task was to demolish what could be demolished, separate planks of wood from roofing sheets that have been crumbled into a pile, and make the compound at least more navigable until the fire department comes around to burn what could be burnt.

Through the hot morning until the eventually cool evening, we moved sheets, broke wood, threw debris, heaved crowbars at dead joints and leveled the initially formidable pile of debris onto the ground. Two torn shirts, one dead pair of gloves, a dirty pair of pants and ten hurting toes later, here I am. We’ve done what we came here for although there is plenty, plenty more to do elsewhere around the town. The work would not end in one day, or even in a year. But for today, one house is set for re-building, almost.

Giving a Hand was published on June 18th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the adventures, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Storm Chaser in Joplin

We arrived in Joplin, a town at the southernmost part of Missouri a few miles from the state line, a few hours ago. Here it was where over 200 people were declared dead or lost from the EF-5 tornado of a few weeks ago. I’m in company of two friends, and we have come to join the volunteer efforts of a non-profit organization ServiceInternational.org along with several other volunteers from around the country.

The ride from school to this place took four hours and thirty-five minutes, and it took us virtually through the state itself, covering about 300 miles. We will be here till Sunday helping move debris, giving a hand to US Marine Corps helping with reconstruction, and generally being of help to the numerous folks on the ground helping to get this community back on its feet. It promises to be a satisfying, and learning experience.

I’ll try to post pictures as often as I can, but won’t promise. I will however tweet short observations through my phone as much as I can, so follow me on twitter.Tomorrow will be a long day in the field.

 

Storm Chaser in Joplin was published on June 18th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the adventures, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Research

I want to be able to talk about the field of Second Language Acquisition, my encounter with it last semester, and how much the questions it raises are more than the answers it provides. I am back into reading extensive materials in the field many of which didn’t make as much of a dent as they should have during that first encounter. I won’t now, not just because my knowledge is not yet as comprehensive as it should, and that a carry-over from a daunting first encounter is unhelpful in allowing me open up more to its possibilities, but also because I’m afraid of misrepresenting the extent and influence of what I already know. My MA thesis will have very much to do with SLA and I need all the concentration I can get.

But talking about what I’m doing always helps, as I have found out. Having less time to travel around the country discovering places now like I did before, all I have now is my research and the hard work of creating relevance in a field that gives me the freedom to think, and the tools to make a difference.  This time, I’m looking at tonal acquisition. The fact that not much has been done in the area so far is also as positive as it is challenging. So while the research process begins to take shape, let’s see what Krashen and Chomsky have to say again.

Research was published on June 12th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , , under the Academic, Observations, Soliloquy, Uncategorized category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.