language barrier

I've been a little intense and deep with my blog lately, so much so that a close family member said reading my blog is akin to reading my diary. I guess that's somewhat true, this is a little like my diary, and that comment doesn't bother me in the least. Anyway, onto some lighter material for the night.

I was thinking about how often I come upon something that I want to express that just doesn't work right in English. I speak so much Spanish during the day that there are lots of colloquial phrases that I use that just work better for certain situations. Obviously, there are many times that I also don't know how to translate an English expression into Spanish, but I always find it interesting when I find someting that I can't express as well or at all in English.

I had the same experience when I was studying Chinese. After a while living there with some other Americans, we had our own mix of language that we used to communicate, English peppered with key Chinese expressions that just couldn't be translated. It was great, and when I came back I had a hard time expressing those things purely in English with everyone here (who obviously didn't speak Chinese).



In other news, I got an iPod tonight - so exciting. I love everything about it -- the tiny, efficient packaging, the size, the look of it, the simple usage, everything. The only thing I don't love is that I got six error messages in a row when I tried to download the software onto my computer, confirming the fact that there is something seriously wrong with my computer. A virus? Almost every time I try to download or install anything I get error messages and lately about every other time I shut down or start up the computer I either get an error message or it needs to be forced to shut down. My record with pieces of technology is not good. Anyway, I'll have to call Apple tech support in the morning, and hopefully they can help me get the software loaded. It's too bad, because I could have had half my cds downloaded by now. Oh well, tomorrow is another day off, and for that, I am happy.

By the way, Mary has a really great post on her blog right now, if any of you have not seen it yet, check it out. I couldn't have written these thoughts and frustrations (which I share) better myself.