ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Opinion category.

Reacciones

I do not read nor speak Spanish much, so these don’t really count as vanity. Or maybe they do. They’re responses from students of an intermediate Spanish class who attended my talk two weeks ago. Culled from the class Facebook group, thanks to Professor Cuervo.

  • Fui a la presentación oral de Kola. La población de Nigeria es más que 50 millón. El tiempo en Nigeria es muy muy caliente. Kola dijo que la gente de Yoruba mira muchas películas de los estados unidos. Aprendí que cuando Kola llegó en los estados unidos él fue muy frío pero Kola llegó en agosto. También aprendí que hay poetas y cantantes en los estados unidos que son de Yoruba. – K. Mraz
  • Me encanta la presentación de Kola sobre la cultura de Yoruba. Fue muy interesante. Aprendí que el país de Nigeria tiene más que 500 idiomas. El idioma de Yoruba es el segundo popular de todos los idiomas en el país. Tambíen, aprendí que los raíces “ola” y “ayo” son muy popular en los nombres de la gente de Yoruba. Los raíces “ola” y “ayo” significan riqueza. – A. DeLuca
  • Yo fui a el evento, Cultura de Yoruba, y pense que son fue muy interesante. Aprendí que “ola” significa “riqueza” en Yoruba. Kola es el nombre del hombre de Yoruba, y su nombre significa riqueza también. Kola hablas cinco lenguas! Yoruba es en Africa y hay 15,000,000 personas que habla la lengua,Yoruba. Kola él lleva un sombrero llamó un “fila”. El dijo que el clima es muy diferente aquí. La presentación fue muy de información. – J.M. Ritter
  • Me gusta mucho la cultura de Yoruba. Las comidas que tuvieron para tratar fueron deliciosas. El hombre de Yoruba fue muy cómico con su presentación. Habló de cerveza y fiestas para unos minutos. También habló de la clima mucho. Dijo que el tiempo es muy diferente aquí en los estados unidos. Una amiga de él (ella vive en África) llamó por teléfono y dijo que fue muy fría en África ayer. Él dijo, “¿Que fue el tiempo?” y ella respondió, “Fue 82 grados”. Pienso que esto es muy cómico porque ella fue seria. El hombre Yoruba nos dijo que tiene miedo porque muchas personas le dicen que tiempos más frías están llegando antes de la primavera. En totalidad, su presentación fue muy interesante. – T. Dent
  • Fui a la presentación sobre la cultura de la Yoruba. El hombre (no recuerdo su nombre) tiene veinte y ocho años, y sabe seis lenguas, pero en su cultura hay quinientas lenguas. Hay muchas personas famosas de Yoruba como Seal, Sade Adu, Hakeem Olajuwon, y Wole Soyinka que ganó el Premio Nobel en 1986. En nombres, la palabra “riqueza” es mencionada muchos tiempos. Nosotros podemos tratar el jugo de arándanos y galletas de plátano. – L. Murphy

Reacciones was published on February 17th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Academic, Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 29 comments on this article so far.

Old Man’s Winter Guide To Beating The Snowpocalypse Blues

This is a guest-post by the blogger Rayo from Washington DC. All I know about her is that she is Yoruba, from Nigeria, and that she once attended Howard University. She also takes some very nice pictures. You can check her blog here. I’m featuring this post because for the first time in a long time according to the news, there was snow in all the states of the United States, except Hawaii. The people in the Washington DC and East Coast area were the worst hit with many feet of snow. Rayo has humorously captured her reaction to the season in twelve short informative nuggets. Enjoy.

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In the wake of the current record-breaking winter weather in the Washington, DC, area, I decided to explore my neighborhood and assess the damages that this record-breaking snowfall has caused.  Boy was I surprised when I came across Old Man Winter! This little guy hasn’t been sighted in over 110 years—since the “Snowmageddon of 1899”—so it caught me by surprise when I saw him just chilling by the side of the road a few days ago.  After much coaxing (he’s camera shy), my friend and I were able to convince him to pose for some photographs as well as give us some Do’s and Don’ts for surviving the Snowpocalypse.  It’s a pretty good guide, especially for those that aren’t used to so much snow.

1.       DO go grocery shopping before the snowfall gets too heavy.  If you don’t, you might find that when you get hungry and realize that there’s nothing in the fridge, the grocery store will be closed.

2.       DO take caution when “ice-walking” more than two miles under white-out conditions to your favorite Chinese food carryout because the grocery store is closed and the carryout is the only place crazy enough to stay open.  Remember that, since the sidewalks will become mountains of snow, you will have to walk on the road. Make sure you’re walking in the opposite direction of traffic.  This way, you’ll know when to jump when a car is sliding towards you.

3.       DO buy thick gloves and a ski mask (or thick scarf) in order to prevent your hands and face from freezing and falling off while walking in hurricane-like winter conditions.

4.       DO make sure you have at least two back-up means of transportation.  You might wake up and find (or not find) your car in this type of situation.  Not good. You might also find that the Metro buses are either out of service or are only running on “special routes,” or that only underground train stations are open and even those stations have special delays. In short, be prepared to walk.

5.       DO be patient with the public transit employees. Remember that even though you don’t have to work and you’re only on your way to a snowball fight, they have to work. Plus, there’s nothing like the comfort of feeling like you’re in a meatpacking factory.

6.       DO try to make it into work at least one day during the Snowpocalypse. Although you might be annoyed to discover how many people are actually going to come into your office with complaints, do try to smile as much as possible.

7.       DO NOT WEAR HEELS!!! You WILL fall! Safety before vanity. If you must wear heels or open shoes, put them in a bag and change into them when you arrive safely at your destination.

8.       It’s sad that I have to say this but I just saw someone wearing a pair.…DO NOT WEAR FLIP FLOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9.   DO invest in snow boots or shoes with good traction. There’s nothing funnier than seeing someone fall face-first in 50-something inches of snow…unless the person falling is you.  Although the snow might cushion your fall, it’s still better to have not fallen at all.

10.   DO attend mass snowball fights—they’re a great way to get your daily exercise; practice your war-game skills; have fun in the snow; and they also help to prevent the dreaded cabin fever.

11.   DO go to the movies…FOR FREE!!! There are many websites out there that allow people to attend movie premieres for free (i.e. www.eventful.com). This way, you can get a first-hand look at new movies even before they start playing in theaters. You might have to trek though the snow to get there but if the movie is good enough (and hopefully it will be good), it’ll be worth the trek.

12.   DO pay homage to your fallen comrades. Here’s to the trees and umbrellas and power lines and even cars that did not survive the hurricane-like winds and heavy snow.

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Thank you Rayo for this wonderful post.

Old Man’s Winter Guide To Beating The Snowpocalypse Blues was published on February 16th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the Fun, Opinion category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

What In The World

“Twenty-five years ago, we recorded We Are the World to help Africa. Now it’s time to help Haiti”

Thus begins the introduction to this remake by legendary trumpeter and producer Quincy Jones, and Grammy Award winner Lionel Ritchie of the classic We Are The World song first recorded in 1985 to aid relief efforts in parts of Africa (not all of Africa). From the first chords in this new track to the first shot on the screen, be prepared to be re-introduced to the same magical emotions that defined the first version of the song. There are more participants, the vocals are wide in range, and very endearing; and for good reason, the writers have removed and re-written the utterly useless phrase from the first version of the song that read “As God has shown us/by turning stone to bread” – since God never turned stone to bread in any known text of the scriptures anyway.

But here’s the caveat: Please, I beg of you, when you watch the video, do NOT see it beyond the 5.50 time mark. Much of everything else from there falls downhill into the category of “What in the World!”. For me it was such a disappointing buzz-kill, and for a long time after seeing it, I was in a burning rage that dominated my first series of tweets in response to the video. It was from a kind of shock, I guess, that I could not immediately place. How could a song with so much resources and potential at eliciting genuine empathy bungle such a great chance on conformity to popular culture. Now I’ve realized that it was from too much expectation, on my part, and perhaps from too much holding on to the solemn standard of the 1985 version. I shouldn’t spoil it for you then, so maybe you should watch it and make up your mind. But beside that, and beside the quite abrupt ending, everything else seems fine, and much of the video quite enjoyable.

Look out for great vocals from Jenifer Hudson, Celine Dion, Lil Wayne, Wyclef Jean, Mary J. Blige, Barbra Streisand, Toni Braxton, and (of course) Michael Jackson. I especially liked the parts sung in Haitian creole, and I wished that part was longer. It is also doubly memorable for having been recorded in the exact same studio where the first version was recorded in 1985.

PS: In spite of my rants above, I still do love the song, very much. So to download the video and the song, the proceeds of which goes towards the relief efforts in Haiti, go to www.world25.org

What In The World was published on February 13th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the Academic, Art, Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Culture Shock

This is a guest-post by my cool and brilliant colleague Professor of Spanish language and literature who also blogs as Clarissa on issues of feminism, literature, journalism , immigration, politics, and her love for the Kindle. 🙂 Originally from Ukraine, she migrated to Canada, and she got her PhD at Yale University in the United States. She has recently taught at Cornell University before coming over to our prestigious SI University. Hers is the first in a series of guest blogposts coming on this blog in the coming weeks. Thank you Clarissa for the post. Find her blog here.

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When I was 22, I emigrated from Ukraine to Canada. I was fully prepared to experience a massive culture shock but none came. Sure, it took some time to get used to the idea of a credit card and a check-book, realize that a bus driver doesn’t give out change and there is no need to negotiate the price of a ride with the cab-driver before getting into the cab, and figure out why maple syrup can be poured on bacon and eggs. The process of learning these small things was really fun and caused me no shock whatsoever.
Five years later I decided to go to graduate school in the United States. Having lived in North America for a while, watching American TV and reading American books and newspapers, I expected even less of a culture shock on this change of residence. I was only moving to Connecticut, where the climate and the way of life were supposed to be pretty similar to what I had gotten used to in Canada.

Boy, was I ever wrong. A massive culture shock hit me immediately after crossing the US border and remained with me for years to come. It took time and effort to understand this new reality, learn to like, and eventually even love it.

I the US I discovered a deeply divided society. Glaring class inequalities, the likes of which I never saw back in Canada, racism, religious fanaticism, gender inequalities, economically devastated areas with the kind of poverty I never saw even back in Ukraine, crime, violence, inept governmental strcutures. All this was very different from the US I had seen in movies and TV shows.

But soon I also discovered that yet another US exists. The country of intellectuals, thinkers, artists. The country of hard-working, kind, generous people, who have not abandoned the struggle for the perfect society they inherited from their founders. The country of intellectually curious people. The country of people who hate injustice and inequality. The country that deserves better than the corrupt structures governing them.

When people read the very critical things I write about the US on my blog, they sometimes ask me, “Why do you live in this country if you dislike it so much?”. But I ask, does hating injustice and inequality mean hating America? Or is it just the opposite?

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I love Clarissa’s blog because of the way she looks at the world. Even though she hasn’t called it that, her blog is a travelogue of sorts as well – a response to the American society from the viewpoint of an immigrant. And as expected of someone of her level of brilliance, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and she says what’s in her mind no matter whose ox is gored. I particularly like the way she responds to the people who make foolish or hateful comments on her blog. I wish I could be that quick-witted sometimes. 🙂

Culture Shock was published on February 10th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the Academic, adventures, Opinion category. There are currently 11 comments on this article so far.

Barking In A Foreign Language

This post was first published on Clarissa’s Blog today as part of a guest-writing project. Clarissa a cool Professor of Spanish language and literature at my department will also be a guest-blogger on KTravula.com in the coming days. Watch out.

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Prompted by two related observations in my mind at the moment…

One was the search term in my blog statistics today. Some random person had apparently been directed to my blog by searching for the term “barking in a foreign language”. This is not so strange when I realize that I had once made a blog post about the cartoon that I found on the glass entrance to my department.

The second was this very comprehensive article, and discussion, in the New York times about why, or whether Americans will really, learn Chinese. I enjoyed reading it and picked up a few nuggets, one of which was the fact that the interest of many Americans in learning foreign languages came from political and economic expediencies: They learnt Russian during the Cold War, Arabic after 9/11, Spanish because of their neighbours, and now Chinese in the wake of China’s global economic uprising. Thus said the writers of the article. Not me, even though I have learnt also from a few  interactions on the matter that many American students now study Chinese for the purpose of gaining leverage in the emerging economic world.

The article doesn’t mention Yoruba, Swahili, or any of the other minority world languages being learnt in Universities all over America, but that is not the point – I guess. As much as this point in the article could be seen as a generalization of perhaps a genuine interest of students in expanding their worldviews, I believe that there’s something interesting about the said American foreign language fad. For a fact, the govenment of the United States has shown more interest in languages spoken in parts of the world with some economic, political or cultural relevance to its own survival. At the Fulbright conference in December, I had made friends with a guy called Osama from Yemen, a Fulbrighter on a similar programme. That was before the Christmas Day bombing attempt, and its subsequent link to Yemen. After the terror attempt, I asked a friend if she thought that Yemen will now get a lesser slot in subsequent Fulbright programmes because of the terrorism incendent, and she said NO. Quite the opposite, she said. If this all rings true, then Hausa will also soon become another language of interest for Americans in the coming years, because of the failed bombing attempt of Christmas day. This creed can then be summarized somewhat thusly:

“If he has tried to kick your ass, kick his ass too, and then learn his language. You might understand him more, and thus prevent any further aggression.”

Whether this is true, or whether it ever works as planned in the long term, is of course subject to debate.


Barking In A Foreign Language was published on February 9th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , under the Academic, Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.