Mark — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:14:15 +0000

Oh, how I love to savour foreign words in my mouth: they have a special “wordiness” in them.

Foreignly speaking

Mark — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:59:29 +0000

Yes, that’s right: this is the beginning of a foreign-language blog. That is to say, my mother tongue is not English. So, why don’t I write my blog in the language I use everyday? Many reasons: first of all, no one has only one language in their thoughts. I, particularly, think in a strange and delicious amalgam of different languages. But more: I think we should all try to get out of ourselves for a while. By this I mean we should speak another languages, even when we use our mother tongue. Scientists should speak like literati for a while, literature men should try read technical books, liberals should listen to conservative radio shows, conservatives should read “liberal ramblings” more often. Not because we must try to defuse our own convictions: but because beliefs should be something we have, not the other way around. I, for myself, we’ll write in English to get out of myself and, at the same time, see me in another light. A kind of egotistical exercise, I guess.

If the fact that I write in a foreign language makes me use peculiar expressions and even make mistakes (that I should try to avoid, but they are, in a way, unavoidable), please take that as a way of expression, not a symptom of my “foreignness”. Because, in the end, we all speak foreign tongues (we had to learn our own languages, remember?).

So, see you around!

Beginnings

Mark — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:51:46 +0000

“By now the other warriors, those that had escaped headlong ruin by sea or in battle, were safely home.”

The Odyssey, Homer, trans. T. E. Lawrence

Now the adventure begins.

Foreign Tongue

Foreignly speaking

Beginnings