Speaking Something Other than American English

It's Time to Become Bilingual

Lately I've been challenging myself by learning French from an app called "Duolingo". To any of you wishing to study a different language, I highly recommend it. It provides photos and audio, and even tests your pronunciation. I've veered a bit off-course however. 

My new teacher's name is Tommy Xu. My new language is Mandarin. Since the beginning of the year, Tommy has been inviting Laura and me to China to visit his heavenly home. Since then, I've had conversations over the phone with his uncle and mother, and well… they can't understand me. I want to change that!

Our style of learning reminds me very much of the play/musical "The Color Purple", where Celie learns to write English by having everything in her kitchen labeled. Tommy and I have begun our learning in the kitchen, where we spend the most time together. I've learned the four tones, and am now practicing everyday.

Fēng Mì. Honey.

Hēi Hú Jiaō. Black Pepper.

Bái Hú Jiaō. White Pepper.

Teacher Extraordinaire!

Dialects

It is known that I am terrible at accents. I have tried desperately to sound Australian. To Australians, I sound posh, to UKians, I sound cockney. Today we began RP, Received Pronunciation, which was created so that people from all over the UK (with their many different dialects) could understand radio broadcasts. 

Well, well, well,… Sally didn't do too poorly! All I had to do was get inspiration from ol' Mrs. Haddad, and viola! It was much more tangible than I imagined. My teacher said, "you've got an RP that sounds as though you're from the WWII era." 

I'll take that, thank you.

Music

It has been discussed on many occasion: music is just another type of communication, another language. The experience is so surreal, when you're listening to something and you just want to cry, or dance, or sit still. In this degree, I've been so keen on learning new pieces, trying to find the unique, intricate, difficult songs.

I am now faced with the greatest challenge of all:  this piece.

Once is a muso-musical; in other words, the actors play along on their instruments while singing. It has a folk influence, and the music itself is still and predictable. For me, the challenge lies not in learning the notes; there are hardly any to learn! The challenge is finding the emotion within simplicity. For a girl who admires Sondheim because of his difficult passages and cluster chords, performing something so simple is such a change.

An exposing and scary change.

We'll be performing for a small audience here at the college, and having the most subdued piece is daunting. I wish I could have a dance break, or a comedy song, or something … perky. But hey, some of the most beautiful things are serene and peaceful.

The end.