Language - good, bad and foreign

The bliss of a weekend and a change of routine.

Today - some offspring delivery, and an early visit to the gym (always amazes me that they don't have paramedics on standby for spin-classes - looks like a short-cut to Heart Attack City). Since then, some music, some snooker and a bit of reading. Maybe a little potter down to the town in a few minutes, and then dinner and either more of a book, or a film. Nice and relaxing.

I'm reading a rather odd, and in places downright filthy novel called Pompey, by Jonathan Meades. He of the arty shots, acerbic wit and architectural pronouncements. A man with a fabulous vocabulary (and I love to learn new words) - and if there isn't an appropriate word he invents it. Words for today - "kine" - an archaic for cows - and for a car creeping round a corner a new verb to "tiptyre". The vocabulary, and indeed the sentence structure means this is a book I have to concentrate to read, but it is repaying the effort right now.  I'm rather pleased that whilst I have needed a dictionary for quite a lot of the English, I am so far coping fine with the French.

Which leads me to today's thought - I want to do more with languages. We Brits tend to assume we don't need them (usually correctly) and I suspect within my lifetime that computers will provide translation of 95% of what we need on the fly. But the understanding of another culture relies on its language - A friend of mine who has more languages than -  well than I do anyway - says that when he thinks in English it works differently to thinking in German - and I'd like to experience that. I haven't really spoken French since O Level - German since a couple of years later. I can manage pretty reasonable Welsh (yes, really) and "two beers" level Spanish. So, I am going to see what I can get in the way of free learning stuff on the I-Pad, and see if this can be another thing to enliven train journeys.

I will let you know how I get on. Right - walk time!