Posts Tagged ‘language’
Turn to the left, turn to the Right: Get your Marxists right right right
Okay, people. I really don’t want to go here more than once. (And I haven’t, on the blog, but I have this conversation with people.) Let’s get the record straight: Fascists and Marxists…not the same. Both, in the eyes of some people like Republican Rep. (GA) Paul Broun, evil…but in [...]
On torture, from around the blogosphere
It is a topic of distraction, in part because of the news, and in part because of my most recent piece.
Here’s an insightful look at what the bureacratization of language does to experience, from William’s Dispatches
The danger of bullshit euphemisms is that they actively obscure meaning. Common usage can’t afford to beat around the [...]
Maybe Kinyarwanda is actually the universal language
I was sitting in the bus station in Butare and four Asian men walked in. A tall guy in an Indian-style tunic went to the counter and said, “Mwiriwe, amakuru?” Good afternoon, how are you? He proceeded to try to get bus tickets in Kinyarwanda, but the prices tripped him up.
For the [...]
If I had been there at creation…
I would have lobbied that languages be easier to learn; that we can all choose 12 to store in our brains at birth, and we can pull them out whenever in life we find we need them. It can’t be that hard, if neurons are connecting one by one to make our mother tongues, [...]
Language Lessons II
Our gardener sought me out today–and before I go any further, yes, I feel strange and a little queasy saying “our gardener”–because he wanted to be paid just a few days early. I said, Nta kibazo, which is “No problem” in Kinyarwanda and one of my three best phrases.
But then I wanted to wish [...]
That is, literally, not what I meant
I was having a meal with a Rwandan friend earlier today, and in the process learned that “Dufugurua” means both “We am eating a meal” (as in, meeting to eat and enjoy each other’s company, I believe is the implication, not just “We’re putting food in our mouths”) and “We are open” (as in a [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [