PATTERN DRILLS

Not long ago, structural pattern drills became the core of foreign-language teaching, only to fade into oblivion when the don't-memorize trend took over. The conceit behind pattern drills is simple: Given a language structure known to be grammatically correct, a variety of sentences, based on the original one, can be made made. For example: the simple Spanish structure voy a dormir, I am going to sleep, can result in voy a comer, vamos a bailar, van a estudiar, I am going to eat, we are going to dance, they are going to study. The pattern ir a, going to, is correct, ergo the resulting new sentences must also be correct. Possibly, this is what children observe when acquiring their own language. They detect patterns and build upon them. If me gustaría acompañarte is correct, me gustaría hablarte, me gustaría explicarte, me gustaría decirte, must also be correct. The structure is the same, only the verb differs. ¿Qué vas a hacer, escribir, cantar, explicar, cocinar, must be correct also. A simple concept that has been displaced by the "speaking method" and "aprender jugando."  

yes, yea, aye, yeah, yep

 

AYE (pronunciado ai) es voto afirmativo, especialmente en el Parlamento Británico. 

YEA (pronunciado yei) es afirmación, especialmente en el voto afirmativo en el Congreso de los EE.UU. The yeas have it! 

YEAH es el yes informal.

AYE AYE, SIR! empleado en las marinas británica y estadounidense equivale al "a la órden" en español. Oiremos la expresión en películas.

YEP y YEAP son formas de "yes" que nosotros evitaremos. 

Para causar una buena impresión, podemos decir "Yes, sir" o "Yes, madam." 

NAMES / NOMBRES

What's in a name? asked the poet. According to Dale Carnegie, it is the sound most people love to hear and that's why he advises us to repeat our interlocutor's name often while we talk to her. When we are born, our relatives give us a name, a given name. My given name is Delfín, after my father. As my family was Christian of sorts, that given name was also a Christian name. St. Delfín was a Christian martyr and his festivity is celebrated on the 24th of December. I was baptized, it seems, at the age of 3 or 4 in a church and near a Font, and that is why it is also called a font name, or nombre de pila, in Spanish. Of the three names I have, the first, Delfín, is my first name. Using the first name among English-speaking people signifies cordiality and friendliness."Call me Delfín", I will say to someone, waving Dr. Carbonell we started with. Luckily in Spanish, we tuteamos people, more and more, I may add.    

LOS LÍMITES DE NUESTRO IDIOMA

 

El mayor enemigo de cualquier idioma es la creencia de que lo que sabemos del nuestro es todo lo que hay que saber de él. Lo que ignoramos, no existe. Y así nos va, porque dejamos en manos de los que todavía están aprendiéndolo el oficio, escribir en público y traducir de otros idiomas. Así oigo en el mercado que "al perro viejo no se le puede enseñar trucos" que es una traducción del inglés ajena al castellano, "you cannot teach an old dog new tricks." La creencia de que los viejos no pueden aprender se refleja en la expresión "loro viejo no aprende a hablar." No me cansaré de repetir que antes de traducir expresiones a la ligera, convendría rebuscar y hacer algo de investigación por si en nuestro propio idioma ya tenemos frase similar, que normalmente "habelas, hailas."

--"Loro viejo no aprende a hablar." Tomás Carrasquilla, La marquesa de Yolombó, 1928. Colombia.

--"Como decía mi madre: loro viejo no aprende lengua." Luis Landero, Juegos de la edad tardía, 1989. España.

PHRASEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY ENGLISH-SPANISH

In 1994 Ediciones del Serbal published my Phraseological Dictionary, English-Spanish after signing a five-year contract, which I did not renew because I wanted to rewrite, update, and make it definitive. Four years ago I finally rolled up my sleeves, spit on my hands, and tackled the much-postponed revision. Four years at an average of 5 hours daily have resulted in 30,700 phrases, and idioms, in both languages. The ms is made up of 766,000 words and 1430 screen pages. While looking for a publisher, I am still revising and editing it, and I believe it is the definitive work on bilingual phraseology that trumps all the existing dictionaries. Una y no más, Santo Tomás, estar al pie del cañón, darle cien vueltas a alguien, a ojo de buen cubero or, in English, a horseback opinion, give someone a leg up, be up to scratch, cut to the chase... are included here, of course. The burning question is: Will I be able to publish it?

A POUND OF CARE AND PESADUMBRES

Today is one of those days, you know. I am usually cheerful, but I also have days of doom, gloom, and darkness. Still, the show must go on and so I have worked on the Phraseological Dictionary and have found this bit of wisdom in both languages: 

Pesadumbres no pagan deudas A pound of care will not pay a pound of debt

No te preocupes, recuerda que pesadumbres no pagan deudas Worry not, remember that a pound of care will not pay a pound of debt

 

DAVID HUME, MY HERO

Today I needed reason, objectiveness, clear thinking, rationality... ideas I could hold on to to make it through the week. I rushed to dust off my two-volume edition of David Hume´s A Treatise of Human Nature, (Everyman's, 1974) which I bought in 1976, 48 years ago! Although the edition is in pretty good shape, I must be getting on in years. You have no idea the amount of underlining, highlighting, and marginalia I have found. I don´t have to reread the whole work again. The notes I took 48 years ago will keep me in good stead now. I am glad I was a prolific glosser of the books I read. I will now extract and offer some of his philosophical pearls in time. The study of philosophy and the study of language go hand in hand.