Happy Vernal Equinox!

fresh snow in the yard

Greeting spring appropriately in Pennsylvania.

Unlike most of the continent, the East Coast had a cold and snowy winter. It seems to want to do the same for spring.

And yes, the children are being dismissed from school early today. I got them off to school, then ran my errands so I could get home and do some actual work before they get back.

In other news, I’ve been rather neglecting real content for the blog here, doing my gratitude posts on Monday and my serial posts on Tuesday, but rarely doing much else. So I’m going to try starting a few things going, on a rotation:

  • The “You ask, I answer” went fairly well last year, but I only received a handful of questions. If people have more questions (anything from “How do you decide what to make for dinner?” to “What genre are you least likely to write and why?”), drop them in the comments, e-mail me, or send me a message via the Contact page.
  • I’d like to get back to the “Defining the genres” posts that I used to do, and there are still a few from the last time I asked for suggestions that I need to write up. But if you’re curious about something, let me know.
  • Off and on through my life, I’ve dabbled at learning new languages. Spent a summer learning basic Japanese (including the kana) in college because of this boy at the fast food place where I worked. No, I remember none of it. I’ve also tried to learn Irish from a book, picked up some German with my husband (then fiancé) because he needed to pass a foreign-language test for his doctorate, and took a semester of Hebrew in grad school (I remember some of the letters and a few words). I suppose an alternate version of me might have become a linguist and actually become fluent in multiple languages. I’m not that person, but I do have a little list of languages I’d like to learn, starting with Italian*, and I’ll talk about that here on the blog.

So that’s what’s on tap for me as the seasons turn once again. What’s new or renewed in your life?

*I have some previous experience of Italian because I used to help my mom with her flash cards, and I have sufficient grounding in French that picking up another Romance language shouldn’t be terribly difficult, even at my age. (They say it’s easier to learn new languages when younger.) My first line of learning is going to be using the Mango languages app, which the local library provides free access to. Expect my first post on this new adventure to go up next week.

P.S. I posted yesterday on the Sara Penhallow blog about my latest knitting project, a scarf for my daughter.

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8 Comments

  1. We had fun learning Italian for our trip when David was in high school. We learned enough to get around but we found few opportunities to practice because we ran into so many people who wanted to practice their American with us 😛

  2. Interesting on the languages. I had a friend who found a series on Gaelic on iTunes designed by a linguist who didn’t want the language to die out.

    As to the weather, it’s just Mother Nature trying to give your daughter more chances to wear her styling new scarf :).

    • There are a lot of resources for languages. For example, the BBC set up a language page that’s no longer being updated but is still rather useful.

      You might be right on the scarf. 😉

  3. After 20 years in the AF with most of them spent in Europe, we learned early that it was best to learn some words and phrases. We never really learned any language but after a month or two, in Germany, Italy and visits to France, we learned several hundred words/phrases to help us along. Note: I also took Spanish in high school for 4 years. Those were incredibly helpful in understanding how those foreign languages work. I also became somewhat adept at interpreting the signage in museums because I had some familiarity with the languages. I had (it’s been decades now) words/phrases for: please, thank you, yes, no, where is the bathroom, how much does it cost, the names of all of the monetary denominations, Where is.., How do I get to…, all of the numbers, and if I had the time in country, a few other words like the names of the vegetables in the market, and so on.

    • Yes, no, please, thank you — I know those in several languages, and can probably get vegetables at a market and make a stab at menu items, even where I don’t speak the language, at least in Western Europe. 🙂

  4. I don’t think Spring knows what it’s doing.

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