I’m in the throes of thesis juries these days, so thought I’d share a few gems I’ve read recently. These are amusing, but I have to say much better than anything I could produce in French or Hassiniya Arabic.
On the civil rights movement: After their enslavement, they obtained their legal rights but their unassimilated skin prevented them from becoming totally Americans.
On Poe: The murders like to make their victims suffer and kill them in an inexpressibly Gothic way.
And this one isn’t from a thesis, but from a description of a desert trip to the writer’s home village, but I thought it might brighten your day: …there is no paved road. The cars don’t move there. The only element of transportation is the donkeys. It is the first time for me to ride a donkey. The fear of falling is savingly reduced by the softness of the land constructed by sands and dunes which made obstacles reduced the donkeys from rushing faster. But I fall three times…My friends laughed everytime I fell. The caravan included some countryside people who glaring even me; they could not trust that anyone could fall from a donkey’s back…We arrived at the village. It is a long tired traveling, but it was a touristic one I ever did in my life.
4 comments
May 25, 2006 at 1:46 am
owlhaven
This was great! Too funny!!
Reminds me of the time I tried adding a few words of Korean to an album I made to go to Korea for one of my babies before he came home. It induced huge grins and chuckles from native Koreans– I’d still like to know what I accidentally said that was so funny.
Mary, mom to many
May 25, 2006 at 2:26 am
TXMommy
I just found you, thanks to Mary, and have enjoyed looking at your blog so much. Thanks for sharing!
May 25, 2006 at 3:37 am
Shannon @ Rocks in my Dryer
So, since I’m always peppering you with questions about your culture, and since you brought up the subject of language…
I’m assuming you must be able to speak the native language (which is what, exactly?) How hard has that been?
May 25, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Carrie Nasset
Love the english grammar-abuse–it always cracks me up! The best phrase i ever heard in NKC, though, was a man introducing his wife to me, in French, saying the equivalent of “She is my wife; she is my cousin.” A completely normal idea for Mauritania, but a rather suprising statement for an American to hear!