Languages

I need to brush up on my Spanish now, since I need it at work. One of the daily groups is a Spanish class, and while I'm not in charge of it (usually), I often end up helping with it. It's great to have an opportunity to try to use my Spanish, but it's frustrating that I ought to be doing better with it than I am. Spanish was my minor in college, and I lived in Spain for two years, afterall! But I am remembering more and more with the limited exposure I am getting.

It really is a good idea to study one language at a time until you learn it fairly well, before moving on to another one. There might be less interference that way. There are words that are in common, or similar, between English, Spanish, and Norwegian. Sometimes I can't think of a word in either Spanish or Norwegian, only to find out that the word is the same in both, so I had it but didn't know it. That's fairly rare though. More frequently I try to think of a word in one language, but my brain accesses that word more easily in the other, and makes a substitution. That's not good. Neither is applying usage rules from one language to the other. And then there are things that are just plain the opposite. Opposites are much more confusing than being entirely different, since being opposite is more of a similarity than a random difference. Here are some examples:

• Plurals in Spanish are similar to plurals in English (they end in 's.') - Possessives in Norwegian are similar to possessives in English (they end in 's.)
• Infinitives in Spanish end in 'r' (example: 'cantar' to sing). - Verbs in the present tense in Norwegian end in 'r' (example: 'synger' I/you/we/whoever sings).
• All the little words that sound the same but mean something entirely different, and also the ones that sound close and mean the same, such as in/i/en; the/en/el or la; but/eller/pero; you/du/tu; I/jeg/jo; cat/kat/gato.

I could think of a lot more if it were not past midnight, after I have worked a 15 hour day, and have another one tomorrow.

Knitting

I finally got a project started! The Clapotis scarf from the current issue of Knitty. I would provide a link, but it's too late at night and I don't feel like it, so you can use the button for Knitty in the left margin and find it. I'm using a fuzzy yarn. Pictures on Monday, ok?

Pictures

Here's the view from my backyard. Aren't those mountains pretty? This was taken when it was still summer, after the summer rain had quit, and before the fall rain started. It's currently a bit flooded out there. I took some pics with the animals too after they got here, but I don't have them processed yet, so you have something to look forward to.

Suzie is enjoying the new house now. Lots of cozy places to put herself into, as well as windowsills to sit in, and occasionally fall out of.