Blog

July 07, 2013 20:51 +0000  |  Communism Economy Food Language Travel Urban Design 1

The Centre for Science and Culture
The Centre for Science and Culture
Warsaw's Old City
Warsaw's Old City
Kraków's St. Mary's Cathedral
Kraków's St. Mary's Cathedral
Kraków's Old Market
Kraków's Old Market
Shoes belonging to the victims of Auschwitz
Shoes belonging to the victims of Auschwitz

I went on two rather big trips over the past few months, and with the exception of my recounting of Auschwitz, I haven't written about either yet. I'll start with Poland, and if I have time tonight or tomorrow, I'll try to fit Greece in here too.

For 2013, DjangoCon was held in Warsaw, Poland, and for the first time in my life, I was working for company willing to fund the trip. I bookended the conference with a few vacation days, and squeaked out a little over a week of time to explore the most Eastern place in Europe I've been able to see so far.

Urban Landscape

To say Warsaw is beautiful would be a little too generous, but it's not nearly as ugly as I had expected. World War II saw nearly 85% of the city demolished, and then the Soviets took over, littering the landscape with those 60s/70s era square, concrete monstrosities. Like most things communist, the architecture is efficient, and ugly as hell. Despite this though, Warsaw has managed to renew itself in this post-communist era. Big people-friendly parks with fountains dot the landscape, surrounding the historical landmarks around the city. There's an epic building at the centre of everything called "The Centre for Science and Culture" -- a gift from the Soviets to the people of Warsaw. It's an interesting to comprehend the communist view of society: what was exalted, what was suppressed.

The suburbs of Warsaw are pretty depressing. The Soviet architecture is unrelenting, and unlike the core, there hasn't been a lot of money invested here. Wide roads with no sidewalks frame collections of square concrete towers entrenched in overgrown and unmanicured grass. Sidewalks, where they exist are cracked and unmaintained, and graffiti is everywhere. Still, while I don't paint a very pretty picture, the area I was in felt quite safe: playgrounds and families with children, people walking their dogs or just sitting enjoying the sound of kids playing. While it's immediately apparent that there isn't much money here, the people seem content, even happy.

Language

Polish is a rough language. I know I've bitched about Greek here, but let me tell you Polish is no picnic either. I managed to learn how to pronounce key words like "please", "thank you", "yes" and "no", but outside of that, I found it really difficult even to get the sound of the words to process in my brain. Thankfully, I had my phone doing a lot of the heavy lifting, using Google Translate like a boss everywhere I go. I even had it talk for me in a few tight situations. For the most part the older generation speaks no English at all, while the younger crowd, like people their age all over the world, is working hard at learning. Hollywood movies are subtitled and not dubbed as they are in Germany, which apparently helps out a lot. Still, if you're a unilingual anglophone like myself, having a semi-universal translator in your pocket is a really good idea if you're visiting here.

Culture

When the war ended and the Soviets occupied Poland, they offered to rebuild Warsaw's Old City but did so with a catch: they would rebuild the entire town, but not the Royal Castle. Not stupid, the Varsovians took the Soviets up on their offer, but rebuilt the castle after they were driven from Poland decades later. This Soviet policy of dismantling the monarchy in the hearts of minds of the Poles extended well beyond this offer, occupied Warsaw saw the Soviets deface national monuments everywhere, burning the crowns off of the Polish coat of Arms everywhere they could find it. Much like the castle, the crowns were re-attached after the Soviets left.

The monarchy wasn't the only thing the Soviets wanted to destroy and religion was high on their list, but even they weren't crazy enough to try to outlaw the church in Poland. Catholicism was, and still is, very strong in Poland, bolstered considerably by the actions of John Paul II, a Pole himself who is credited (at least in part) with the defeat of communism. There are still churches all over Warsaw and Kraków, and many of them display his likeness on the outside in paintings and sculpture.

One last note on the culture: from what I could tell, "socialism" here is an even dirtier word than it is in the US. The cab driver who took me home one night kept asking me questions about Canada (his English was pretty good) and toward the end he said something to the effect of "it must be nice to have such strong capitalism there". I tried to explain that many of us aspire to a more socialist state, but he seemed to think I was pulling his leg or something. It would seem that Poland's experience with communism has tainted the whole concept for a few generations.

Economy

Poland is one of the poorer European nations, still recovering from decades of occupation and neglect. The currency there is called the złoty (pronounced zlottee) and you can buy one for about $0.33CAD or €0.23. In real world terms, this means that a Twix chocolate bar will run you about $0.40CAD or €0.30. So long as you stay out of the tourist-targetted places (read: Hard Rock Café), you can easily get by on about €10/day.

My hostel was in the suburbs, one of those aforementioned concrete monstrosities that had been gutted and heavily renovated on the inside. My private room had a big comfortable bed, free wifi, a private bathroom and it was super-clean. I stayed there for 10days for about 1200zł or €278. This was so affordable that I just abandoned my hostel for one night and left for Kraków by high speed train (60zł) where I splurged on a 4star hotel for 232zł so I could visit Auschwitz. Honestly, if you're looking for a low-cost holiday in a country where the food is decent, and the history fascinating, Poland is the place.

Food

Apparently, Poland is the land of pierogis, so I sampled a bunch while I was in Warsaw. Honestly, I don't see the appeal, but they weren't terrible. I'd like to experiment with making them on my own sometime though. They're pretty simple, and might be more to my liking with some bacon and feta...

They also have this ridiculous ice cream (not my photo) there that, while saturated in sugar is really fun to eat. The soups all have a flavour similar to other Eastern European styles, and the diet in general is very "meat and potatoes" friendly. Generally, my stomach had a good time in Poland.

Conclusion

Poland is pretty awesome. It's the birthplace of both Marie Curie and Copernicus, the seat of Auschwitz and and archive of 20th century cold war history. If you've got t the opportunity, I recommend a visit.

Photos from the trip can be found in my image gallery

June 21, 2013 09:20 +0000  |  Greece Language 0

This is what happens when you date a Greek girl: she takes you to Greece and she tries to help you learn Greek.

On the face of it, it sounds exciting and as simple as any other language. I picked up the basics of the Korean alphabet years ago, how tough could the Greek one possibly be? If I only knew.

The first thing you learn about the Greek alphabet is the profound overlap it has with our own Latin character set. The second thing you learn is that it's all lies and betrayal.

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω

There's also ς, but we're not going there today.

As in tree

That's the Greek alphabet in its own order. You know the whole biblical thing of "I am the alpha and the omega"? This is where that comes from. Now, where were we? Oh yes, the betrayal and lies in the Greek alphabet. First you should note that the whole list is actually longer than it has to be. The letters ι, η, and υ are all the same sound: ee as in tree. There's also two vowel combinations that make the same sound: ει and οι. This makes it easy to guess what sound a character makes, but it's all the more frustrating when you guess wrong.

I thought I was going to end up with Bait but...

So we've covered the ee thing, now the really terrible part: the bait and switch. You may have noticed that there are a number of familiar characters in the alphabet, but that they don't seem to line up with their appropriate pair. For example, ν is not a lower-case V, but rather a lower-case Ν, which sounds like "N" as in "November". The η on the other hand sounds nothing like November but rather ee as in tree. Its upper-case? It's an Η. Ρ and ρ look an awful lot like our "P" and "p", but they are in fact prounced like an "R" rolled, like roll up the rim to win. The μ sounds like an m as in Mike, which is obvious to an English speaker from it's upper-case, but not so much from the lower, and then there's γ, which doesn't sound like a y at all, but is more of a gutteral thing, like loch in the Loch Ness Monster. The upper-case for γ is Γ, so at least there's no confusion there, save for the fact that the upper-case υ looks like Υ and is called an "Ipsilon" (Yψιλον), while the character you might think is called that, ι/Ι is called "Iota" (ιοτα), pronounced yota. It's also easy to confuse Γ/γ with Χ/χ, as they sound really similar. Honestly, I can only tell the difference when I hear them side by side. Lastly, there's two "o" sounds: Ο/ο and Ω/ω. A lowercase Omega (Ωμεγα) looks like a w though, so sometimes it's tricky.

There's also a couple brand new freaks in there: Φ/φ, and Ψ/ψ which I won't go into. Just trust me, it's scary.

It's not so bad

The truth is, Greek is actually kinda fun to learn, but oh boy is it hard on my brain. Christina has me reading this book written by this guy who fancies himself a comedian. He isn't funny at all, but his take on the language is much like my own, and you get the sense that he understands your frustration. At the moment I'm at about a four-year-old reading level. That is to say: I can sound out words very slowly but have no idea what they mean unless Christina helps me. The speed at which I'm able to comprehend a word or sentence makes it hard to read signs on the road as we drive by too. I get to the third character and the sign is already behind us.

I'm getting better though, and I'm sure Christina will keep working on me to get it all right.

April 27, 2011 08:21 +0000  |  Friends Language Moving 5

A series of good things have been happening lately, and I just wanted to share them:
  • I have an apartment in Bussum, The Netherlands. It's mine. I live there. You can now start mailing me things :-)
  • I have a bank account, and a residency card, and a residency number. I am an official person in the Netherlands. Next up is the cell phone and home internet.
  • I have a couch! And a friend who helped me put it together!
  • My computer has finally arrived at my job, so I'm no longer working on my tiny laptop. This new machine has SIX CORES and EIGHT GIGS OF RAM.
  • I made a new friend last night at my Dutch class. That makes *three* people whom I can call if I want company for a movie or something.
  • American movies here are in English with Dutch subtitles.
  • The Canucks won game 7. How is that not awesome?
  • My new apartment is a 10minute walk to work. I can now sleep in.
  • In less than 3 days, I'll be in Yeosu, Korea to watch a dear friend get married in a traditional Korean ceremony.
  • I'm learning Dutch (albeit slowly), but just the other day I actually understood a 100% Dutch conversation and joined in, (albeit in English).
  • It got distcc working on my laptop & supercomputer here at work so I can compile stuff way faster.
  • I talked to my family via Skype while they were all around the dinner table at my grandparent's place.
  • I got my tax returns from the past 5 years in, to the tune of about $7000! That'll help pay off my credit card.

In a blog that's usually plagued with negativity, I wanted to share some happy thoughts.

April 19, 2011 20:15 +0000  |  Language Netherlands 2

I'm learning Dutch! And I suck at it. Strangely enough there are days when I feel as though Korean is easier, though I know considerably less about their language than Dutch. I often feel as though Korean just came easier to me than Dutch does... but I'm getting it, ever so slowly.

The title of this post, literally translated means "one large fries please", something I've had to say a few times here. The sticky bit though is that all four of these words are pronounced differently from how a Canadian might read them. Try to sound it out in your head, and when you think you've got it, read on.

It's pronounced: ayne kchroat freets al-stew-blayeft, and the kch in there is that phlegmy sound you hear common in languages like Hebrew and Arabic. Pretty brutal eh? The stickiest part I've found so far has been the combined vowel sounds. For example, the region of Amsterdam I currently live in is called Zuidoost which is not pronounced zoo-ee-doost, but rather a subtle mangling of the sound ah, oh, and oo to make a sort of Zauydohst, not to be confused with zout which is Dutch for salt.

Let me tell you, it's rough, and it makes my brain hurt, but that's part of the reason I came out here right? I like this feeling of my brain learning how to learn again, there's nothing quite like it. Dutch may not have been my first choice (or even my tenth really), but I think that at this point in my life it's more the experience than the function that matters.

And in unrelated news, I thought that I might share this lovely quote I found the other day with you all:

Your journey has molded you for the greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be.  Don't think that you've lost time.  It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now.  And now is right on time. -- Asha Tyson

March 20, 2011 21:04 +0000  |  Language 2

This post is for my unilingual anglophone readers... which is nearly all of you. I thought I might describe what it's like to learn a language, since it's something I'm actively observing about myself these days.

But first I'll start with a nerdy analogy because this is how I've been thinking about it. First I have to explain symlinks.

In a Unix file system, a symlink is a sort of shortcut to a file. Say you have a file called "résumé.odt" and it lives under "/documents/work stuff/résumé.odt". Now let's assume that you need to access that file a lot. Navigating to that folder is a pain in the ass if you're doing it all the time, so instead you create a symlink from your desktop to that file. From now on, click the new "résumé-link.odt" on your desktop, and the computer treats that file just like it would the original.

Now here's how this applies to language. Think of the original file as a concept, like "coffee". This concept in your brain carries all kinds of data with it, such as the smell, or a craving, or taste, but it's just a concept, not a word.

When we learn our first language, we tie words to these concepts in the form of symlinks in the brain. The word "coffee" points to the idea of coffee, and so we can talk about it with a shared understanding.

When you learn a new language, the temptation is to tie these new words to the old words, essentially linking to a link that points to a concept. This obviously leads to slow lookup times, as you first have to know that "klanten" means "customer" before you can understand the meaning of "klanten service". As the complexity of a statement grows, this double-linking becomes overwhelming.

The usual response to this, is that you have to learn to think in the language you intend to use. I'm not sure that's correct. Rather I think it's important to think about what you want to say in terms of the concepts and ideas without language and then frame it in the language requested. At least, that's what I've been trying to do with my own brain. I'll let you know how that works out.

February 28, 2011 06:15 +0000  |  Amsterdam Language Learning Transit 9

I think that I'll make this part of a series, though if I'm right, the number of parts will be in the hundreds before I'm through here.

After the brunt of my jet lag had passed, I took a day to do some exploring. I needed some raw materials for some Grandma Soup, an needed to get my bearings in the city, especially with the transit system. In my day out, here's a list of what I learnt:

  • Language:
    • klanten-service == customer service
    • Hele kip == whole chicken
    • trekken == pull and duwen == push (of course, I learnt these the hard way
  • The area of town referred to as Niewmarkt is an actual farmer's market where they sell all kinds of fresh fruits & veggies. I bought what I thought was a parsnip, and though it was tasty, I'm not convinced that it was one.
  • The transit system here is multi-tiered, managed by multiple companies, but unified under one payment system by way of the OV-Chipkart I mentioned in a previous post:
    • Busses serve routes from the outskirts of the city into the core and around the suburbs.
    • Trams run throughout the downtown and into the suburbs.
    • The Metro is mostly above ground and serves much of the suburban space.
    • There are also inter-urban trains that run from metro hub stations into the more independent suburbs like Naarden (where I start tomorrow).
  • Google Transit is available here, which is awesome, but the directions appear to be broken when it comes to the Metro lines. While it maps the correct route, it gives you the wrong terminus station, so navigation can be tricky.
  • Dutch Pepsi tastes like Canadian Coca Cola, and the grade of aluminum used is higher than back home.
  • They have carbonated iced tea here. It tastes like Canadian iced tea (not like American, ew)... it's alright.
  • I'm passively learning basic numbers in Dutch. When people ask me for €5, I don't have to translate it.
    • The language-learning process is strange to behold. Like an outsider, I can feel my brain learning a word, and consciously working to translate it into English, even though, I've already comprehended the meaning. As an example, in the push/pull case above, I figured out that "trekken" meant "pull" when I saw it above the handle and I couldn't push the door open. At that point I understood what it meant, but still made the mental note "ah, trekken == pull". It's very odd.