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It’s been a few weeks since I got back from Rome now. Living Latin in Rome was definitely unlike any other language learning experience that I’ve had. We visited almost all of the usual touristy sites (and some not as well known ones), but I think we got so much more out of every place we went than many of the other people there by using the sites and the entire city as a classroom. The spoken Latin helped me learn Latin faster than I ever have before. I had doubts about the merits of the spoken Latin movement beforehand, but I’ve been converted. With that said, I wish we had had more opportunities for it each day. Once we left the classroom, we often had to focus on learning more Italian so that we could get by in the grocery store each day and around Rome. Having to split my focus and attention between two languages was definitely not ideal, but there wasn’t much that could be done about that.

I met all three of my goals that I set for myself before I left. I can definitely hold an informal conversation in Latin now. I could always use some more practice, but I can follow a conversation pretty well now. At the beginning of the program, I was completely lost. I can also read more fluently now with much fewer pauses for parsing and looking up definitions. Having to navigate my own way around the city each day also forced me to learn the geography of the city pretty well, and I feel fairly confident in my knowledge of where the different historical sites are relative to each other.

I think the biggest change in my perspectives caused by my summer abroad is my view on the modern spoken Latin movement. I was skeptical before of its merits and usefulness, but after experiencing how quickly it improved even my reading speed and comprehension, I’m completely on board with it.

My advice for someone else applying for an SLA grant or studying languages abroad in the summer would be to immerse yourself as much as possible each day in the language. Speaking it with your roommates at home and just when you’re hanging out is extremely helpful. Any extra practice you can get helps a ton. Take every advantage of the immersive environment you can while you’re there.

I plan to continue taking Latin classes throughout college, including some non-Notre Dame classes through telepaideia. They offer online spoken Latin courses for fairly cheap throughout the school year. I won’t earn credit for it, but it will help me with my Latin. Some of the my roommates and I also talked about getting dinner once a week during the school year and speaking Latin then to keep up our practice.

A strong knowledge of Latin will be extremely helpful going forward with my interests in philosophy and theology. I even have a class this coming semester that includes Thomas Aquinas much of whose nuance and argument is easier to understand in the original Latin. I like being able to refer to the Latin when I have a question about what the author exactly means. That was helpful last semester when we got to St. Anselm’s Proslogion. I also enjoy being able to read Church documents and the writings of the Church fathers in the original Latin. I gained more reading comprehension through the SLA grant than I ever have with any other single class. The exposure I gained to different authors and eras of Latin also showed me new material that I had never heard of before. I especially liked the Renaissance Latin. This exposure showed me an abundance of Latin reading material that I never knew existed. Having gotten a small taste of so many different authors’ writing styles will definitely help decide which Latin classes to take in the future and which Latin I’ll enjoy reading just for fun in my free time.

During the spring semester in my Conversational French class, Professor Reaves introduced our class to Verlan, the common French slang that is very popular amongst the younger French generations. Due to this initial exposure, I anticipated not being able to understand some locals. However, it was not until I started taking my French classes that I truly realized how present verlan is in the everyday life of young locals. The slang words of verlan have found their way into textbooks and are being taught by professors in an effort to prepare students like me to be as conversational as possible. Verlan is not very complicated; it is simply the inversion of syllables in a word that became popular from hip hop and rap music. It has been adopted by young French people and plays a part in the “langue de métro,” a phrase used to describe informal and solely oral French. Some examples of verlan include cimer which is the inversion of mer-ci, meuf for femme (woman), mec for homme (man), and teuf for fête (party). 

Last week, a few friends and I went to the Parc du Champ-de-Mars for a picnic to say goodbye to a classmate. While there, I met some new French friends who joined us for the celebration, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to ask about verlan. Once I mentioned my tiny bit of experience with verlan, they practically jumped with excitement. They mentioned that it is very rare for foreigners to be familiar with this slang but it is very prevalent with teens and people in their early 20s in France. They said they use verlan when talking to people of the same age or younger but try to avoid it when talking to parents or people of the older French generations. They explained that the older generations are very loyal to the strict grammar rules of the French language and that older French people see the French language as an art that must be protected. These new friends made a point to say that verlan is used frequently in conversation but it does not reflect one’s lack of education.

While walking around Paris, I carry a cloth sack for my books, as many French women do, that says Washington D.C. I was standing in line at the Arc de Triomphe when an older couple touring with friends behind me struck up a conversation with me and asked what it was like living in the DC area with our current president. I offered my opinion and then asked for their opinion on verlan, a question for a question type of exchange. They explained that they do not use verlan because it still bears a sort of negative connotation due to where it came from. The couple explained that they know some words of verlan but not all, and they assumed it was a similar situation for most people their age. If you are not familiar with the person you are talking to, they said to avoid verlan. According to this friendly couple, young people are disrespecting their mother tongue by using this slang but added that older generations are going to have to adapt because verlan is not going anywhere.

View from the Arc de Triomphe

From all these conversations, I have gathered that verlan plays an important role in connecting with locals. Before I leave, my goal is to identify as much verlan vocabulary as possible.

Hello from the US! I am happy to be back in the states, but I miss my friends and the city of Tours. I came to love all of my teachers, and I miss my classes very much already. Immediately after coming back, I went straight to California for an SSLP. Since I have been in California, I have spent so much time thinking about all I learned during my time in Tours.

I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity because of all I have been able to learn, and the ways in which my perspective has changed. After this experience, I have a far deeper understanding of and appreciation for French culture. I have been particularly struck by the importance of culture to the French people. It is difficult to equate or even compare the culture of France to that of the United States. Of course, this distinction exists between the US and most nations because of the brutal ways in which our country was founded. The values of our founders and the time at which they arrived has meant that our country ascribes neither to an indigenous culture nor to any singular European one.

There is, however, a value placed on culture that is seemingly unique to France. In our last week of classes, we focused on the French school system, and analyzed differences between the ways in which children learn in France and the rest of the world. I was surprised by many of the methods by it was most difficult for me to imagine a school in which there is such an emphasis placed on culture. It is necessary that all students express an interest in the history and contemporary events of France.

Our professor spoke about the fear of nationalism among French people, and I had learned about this and read about this idea for many years, but I was finally able to understand it. It was interesting to consider the distinction between love for one’s nation and pride and nationalism.

 

One of the most popular topics of discussion in class was the subject of immigration and the refugee crisis, specifically the crisis facing the European Union. When we spoke about this in our class of people from across Europe, the discussion quickly developed into an intense debate. Students from Spain all agreed that their nation had taken more than its fair share of refugees, and that other European nations needed to accept more migrants. The larger problem, they argued, was not finding a place for these people to go, but that their home nations needed to arrive at a state at which masses of people did not flee from them. This was not a very popular opinion, as the other European students argued that solving the political problems at the source of the conflicts in countries like Libya and Syria would take years and likely generations and the current inhabitants needed immediate aid.

I know that these conversations were so meaningful because I was able to have them in such a unique setting. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to have learned at the Institute of Touraine and to have formed such amazing relationships. My time in Tours has proven to me that I want to go to back to France very soon, and hopefully develop my French well enough to be able to work in France after school.

 

I have seen immense growth in my ability to express myself in French and to understand spoken and written French. I am most excited about the improvements in my ability to understand recordings in French, as this was the area with which I have struggled most in the past. I am also very pleased with the changes that I have seen in my written work, as my essays have become more complex and sophisticated. Since I have been home, I have been watching as many videos in French as I could. As I go back to campus, I am excited about my French course for this semester.

Differences between Germany and the United States

After my last week of classes, my mom and my sister flew to Germany to visit me and our German family and to travel a bit of Europe for vacation. As I previously mentioned, my “German parents” speak almost no English and my sister and mother speak almost no German. Even with this barrier, we are able to relate to each other like almost any other family, and, for me, this is really beautiful. Just as any American family would do during a reunion, we spent the weekend eating delicious food and talking. Throughout these conversations, I was inevitably posed the question, “Wie hast du Deutschland gefunden?” “What did you think of Germany?” While my first response was to share my enthusiasm for how many ways Germany had offered me to experience and learn new things, this question also prompted me to consider how my experiences of Germany and the United States compare. After taking time to really think about this question, I have created a list of five ways the United States and Germany differ.

1. Language

I know what you’re thinking – duh, obviously they speak different languages. However, I think the nuances of the ways in which both of these languages are spoken may explain a lot of the differences between the ways in which Germans and Americans behave. Throughout high school, and especially in college, Americans students are taught not to use the passive voice. Rather, professors prefer students to write their papers in the active voice. However, in Germany, it is the opposite. In writing and in conversation, Germans use the passive voice very often. In my opinion, this choice of active versus passive voice is quite telling. Of course, this characterization does not fit every American or every German, but I think it explains a general attitude that many people in each of these nations embody. At least the stereotypical American lifestyle or attitude is that of non-stop work and actively defying expectations to build success. However, in Germany, the obsession with success found in the U.S. is much more tame. Having a happy life and being satisfied with one’s career is important, but having free-time to relax and spend time with family is just as important if not more so. In my opinion, it is a lot less of an aggressive “dog-eat-dog” society. 

2. Small Talk

At the supermarket, with work colleagues, acquaintances, and in countless other situations, small talk dominates. Whether or not you enjoy this form of conversation, small talk plays a large role in our daily lives as Americans and as English speakers. This fact is obvious even in our form of greeting – “Hi. How are you?” We use this greeting at least once every day, but, in most cases, we really don’t care about the answer. So, why have such a pointless conversation? In Germany, most people just don’t. When I went to the grocery store during my first week in Dresden, I instinctively greeted the cashier with “Hallo. Wie geht’s?” – “Hi. How are you?” Of course, she sort of looked at me strangely and didn’t respond, so I quickly learned that this is not part of the normal interaction between cashier and customer. 

3. Rule-Following

How many times have you jay-walked or crossed the street at a crosswalk even when the sign 

was red? Even though it’s illegal, most people in the United States think nothing of this. However in Germany, it’s the opposite – especially with older generation individuals. Almost no one in Germany crosses at a crosswalk until the walk sign is shown. For me this was somewhat annoying – if there are no cars in sight, why should I wait? I have places to be! But in Germany, rules are not made to be broken, rather they help society to function, and by not following these rules, one brings disorder. 

4. Recycling

Recycling in the United States is pretty irregular. Most people have the proper bin in order to 

recycle, but not everyone chooses to separate their trash, even though we have only one category for this material. Unlike this common American attitude towards recycling, for Germans, recycling is very important. They take recycling so seriously that there is not only one separate bin for recyclable waste but three – glass, plastic, and biodegradable material. As number 3 suggests, these recycling rules are not negotiable, and everyone just does it. 

5. Sundays

Despite the fact that the level of religiosity in Germany is decreasing and has been decreasing for a while, Sunday has kept its status as a day of rest for most businesses and individuals. In the United States, only religious-affiliated restaurants and stores, such as Chick-fil-a, are closed on Sunday. However, in Germany, almost all restaurants and shops are closed on Sundays – especially those outside of tourist locations. Though in my family, Sunday after church has always been a time for grocery shopping, during my two months in Germany I made Monday my shopping day because no stores were open near where I was staying.

Despite these differences, I am so grateful for the time I got to spend and for the learning I was able to do throughout my summer in Germany. I hope that I will find my way back to my second home soon!

Hello! I am sorry I have not posted in a while, I have been quite busy. My Korean class has been going really well and I recently presented a newspaper article for my class. It was pretty difficult because I could not understand most of the article. I took a lot of time translating words I didn’t know and summarizing the story because it was difficult for me to understand, which would mean it would be difficult for the class to understand. I presented about the new bullying law that was created for the workplace in South Korea. South Korea still has pretty severe hierarchal views so bullying in the workplace is still prevalent by the higher ups. Nurses, in fact, have one of the highest bullying rate in South Korea. Thankfully, my presentation went well and the class was very helpful in answering my questions.

I was also able to go to a lot of places with people from my class. We went to a pork place which was very good. I really like the eating culture in Seoul. Everyone is always trying to go to good food places, which I really appreciate. It is really fun to eat good food with your friends and talk about your days. I think the fact that Seoul has so many good food places (맛집) is what really attracts me. I love food and I love hanging out with friends so eating good food with good people is really relaxing and fun.

 

I was also able to go to Ihwa Mural Village with a friend. It kind of reminds me of a European/South Korean fusion type of area. The cafes are very European styled whereas the road and the houses are pretty traditional Korean. The murals were quite beautiful and because it is at the top of a hill we got to see the view. Because I am staying in Seoul, a city, it is quite difficult to find a place that is peaceful. Ihwa Mural Village, although still in the city, is a pretty secluded area surrounded by nature and residents, so it was quiet and very pleasant to walk around.

 

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that SLA has given me and I am so sad that my time in Seoul is coming to an end. Thank you for reading!

The last night of the program was the culmination of many of the cultural activities we’d been participating in since day 1; the acadamh at NUIG liked to ensure that we had a full experience of traditional life in the Gaeltacht. Thus we had lessons in singing traditional songs (it was labelled as sean-nos singing, but it really wasn’t), sean-nos dancing, and ceili dancing.

There was a great deal of all of that on the last night. I’m not terribly coordinated so I didn’t participate in the dancing, but I do enjoy singing. We did rousing renditions of “Peigín Leitir Móir,” “An Cailín Álainn,” and “Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta.” I particularly like “Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta,” though it’s the saddest of the group. I think we all found singing to be particularly useful for pronunciation practice.

At varying points some of the other students performed; a good many of us played traditional music, though it was only a small handful that volunteered to play in front of everyone else, rather than with everyone else as was more usual. I myself play tinwhistle and grew up playing with the Groton Session in Massachusetts, but I didn’t volunteer to go up. It was more than enough to watch and listen and have this room filled with Irish speaking where it had been English on that first morning.

The first slang term that I learned when in Jordan was telling someone “أنا عمك” which means I am your uncle. My host brothers used it all the time when joking around with each other and I didn’t get it at first, but  I eventually caught along that it was just a way to roast someone. However, I brought it up in class to my teacher, and to my host parents multiple times and they had absolutely no clue why I would say that. So for younger people, this term is a good joke amongst your friends, but you would never say it to someone older.

The second slang word I remember using was “زلمتي” which loosely translats to my man (but it can be used for girls too (or at least my host brothers did)). This is something that we would just all use around the house to yell at each other, so we used it quite a bit. This is something that both my host parents and teacher understood when I asked them about it, but they said that they themselves wouldn’t use it. So once again this seems to be a pretty youth based word.

Generally Arabic is an interesting language because everyone speaks in what could technically be referred to as “slang.” There’s modern standard Arabic (MSA), which is what is primarily taught to non-native learners because every Arabic speaker usually has at least some base knowledge with (it it is called “فصحى” in Arabic which means “eloquent.” But in day to day conversation everyone uses عامية which is the regional dialect that varies depending on which part of the Arab world you’re in. People in the levant use different words than people in Egypt, who use different words than the people in the former French colonies, who use different words than the Gulf countries, etc. My host brothers even told me that when they’ve talked with people from Morocco or Algeria they often can’t understand them unless they both switch to MSA because the regional dialects are so different. This also adds an extra challenge to being an Arabic student because having a textbook knowledge of the language doesn’t do you a whole lot of good when they use entirely different words for things depending on what region you’re in. For example, when with my host family or if i was talking to someone on the street I’d use the words “ليش (laiish (why?))”, شو (shoo(what?)), and وين (weyn(where?)). However, in the classroom where we have to use MSA, you would get scolded for using those words instead of “لماذا (limaadha (why?))”, “ماذا/ما (maadha/maa (what?))”, and “أين(ayna (where?))”. So really everytime you have a normal conversation you’re technically using slang because the regional Arabic dialects differ so greatly, to the point that it sometimes becomes a problem for native speakers.

While I was preparing to leave Ireland, I decided to give myself some time to decompress and process my experience before I sat down to write my final blog/reflection. I wanted the opportunity to readjust myself to my regular schedule, so I could hopefully see my trip in a new light. I feel it has been a good idea, as now I can see how much my abilities have improved and how much I learned in a more overall sense. The chance to live with a native speaker, engage with the language on a daily basis, and utilize the language in a more natural setting than the classroom has greatly benefitted me. I feel much more at ease talking in Irish, and on occasion, even find myself thinking in Irish. The value of studying a language by living where it is used on a day-to-day basis in indescribable. It seems to me the only way to truly understand and learn a language is to live it, as much as that is possible. By the end of my trip, I could speak with and understand native/proficient speakers at a much higher level than when I first arrived. Additionally, I do feel that I have learned many natural Irish phrases to use; it was great to not just attempt to directly translate my English thoughts into Irish, but to try and use more organic, natural Irish ones. While I am unsure of my ability to read and write as of now, since both my course and interactions were almost exclusively verbal, I was able to understand a lot of the signage throughout the Gaeltacht areas I was in. Because this was essentially my first extended trip outside the US, it was an eye-opening experience. This was my first look at how people from other countries view both the US and the world. I got an interesting perspective on both recent history and the current political situation here and abroad. But despite the many differences I noticed, there were similarities as well. Many of us at Oideas Gael had watched the tv show Derry Girls. Since we were all in Ireland to learn Irish, it is perhaps not extremely surprising, but it was cool to see that we all enjoyed the same show. An SLA experience is definitely worthwhile, and certainly beneficial for anyone learning a language. If you can go in with an open mind and willingness to try new things, the experience will not disappoint. I will enjoy continuing to improve my Irish throughout the next two years, and while I do not yet know what I will do post-graduation, I plan to keep up with my study of Irish. The skills and confidence I have acquired will benefit in many areas in the coming years, not least during my semester abroad in Rome this coming spring. There, I will be able to utilize my skills and prioritize my experiences as to maximize my language progression with Italian. Seeing the world through a different lens will not only be an academic benefit, but also a general one. It is always good to be informed and to learn as much as one can about a given situation, so I’m excited to continue expanding my worldview.

Since Paris is so gastronomically diverse, I decided to set out and find the unique dish of a different region of France. While on a day trip to Strasbourg, an Alsacien town bordering France and Germany, I started seeing signs for “Tarte Flambée” on every block and street corner. I explored the canals and the famous church in town before sitting down to taste this Alsacien dish. I asked the waitress what tarte flambée was and what it was made of. She explained that this regional dish is similar to a thin crust pizza but is traditionally topped with thin pieces of bacon, onions, and white cheese sauce instead of tomato sauce. She said there are many variations but the most important part is the texture and thinness of the crust. You can separate the good from the bad if the crust can crunch while still remaining extremely thin. 

Tarte Flambée-Banana and Chocolate variation 

I looked around and saw that pretty much the whole restaurant was eating the tarte flambée whether there was one person at a table or six. The waitress explained that because of the beer and wine drinking culture of the Alsacien region this pizza type dish was very popular for sharing and socializing. Many people will enjoy local beer or a glass of wine after work with colleagues while they pick at a tarte flambée before getting on the train home. She said this dish is the quintessential dish of Strasbourg because it represents the history of how French and German culture have combined over the years in this tiny town due to exchanges of power.

Cathédral Notre Dame de Strasbourg 

“Tabhair dom an pis thalún, le do thoil,” was something one of the older ladies in my household was wont to say at breakfast every morning.* It made me wince– she was using “pis thalún” to refer to the peanut butter (though it really only means peanut), insisting that that was what peanut butter was called. Yet our hosts usually called it peanut butter. Pádraig particularly was not thrilled with that sort of thing, like using anann instead of “pineapple.”

If it wasn’t something native to Ireland, generally you use the English/ other language equivalent. Whenever we asked Pádraig how to say things of that nature in Irish, he’d usually counter with “Cad é iógart i mBéarla?” (what is yoghurt in English?) to illustrate that Irish had every right to use loanwords just as English does.

I’m not sure that that lady ever really got the point that Pádraig was making, as she continued to insistent on the correctness of the dictionary over what the actual native usage of the language is. That sort of thing drives me crazy in any language really, as linguistic prescriptivism generally only serves to create a hierarchy of language usage that generally disadvantages speakers of a certain socio-economic status. Language is a living organism whose life is dictated by its speakers, as I referred to in an earlier post; there’s a point where you need to abandon the dictionary and let the community you’re in really dictate what you’re doing.

*Side note: they generally did our housing by age, so we had four people in their 60s/70s, two men in their forties, then myself at 27, and three 22 year olds; it was an interesting combination, and I genuinely mean that.