Deafblogs

Finding blogs in English is as easy as pie, but what about our second languages? Are there blogs written in Spanish, Russian, Croation etc. Certainly there are, but as you already know, my second language is Sign language. So, not too assured of success, I started to google the words “deaf” and “blog”. Surprisingly, I found a host of entries, waiting to be explored.

I browsed a bit through several blogs, but I haven’t found one about a deaf expat yet. However, there was one blog I really liked, since one can learn about deaf people’s every day problems. It’s written by Joseph Rainmound from New York, a young man who's -in my opinion- a very entertaining writer. Tip: The entry “served with hot milk”, for example, is about finding quickly a qualified interpreter.

Practice

(grammar: 10 min)
At this site you can test your grammar skills (advanced level). It takes about 10 minutes and you'll need paper and pen (or a new word document, if you prefer to work on the computer), since you can't paste your answers in. It's a great page to check which tenses you still need to work on.

Letters instead of names?!

Yesterday my friends and I watched the movie „Walk the Line“, a biography of Jonny Cash. Interested in the life of the famous American singer I did a little research and found out that Mr. Cash’s real first name is actually not John, but J R. And here’s the fascinating thing: J R stands for nothing. No kidding! His parents couldn’t agree on a name, so they just chose initials.

That seems ridiculous to Austrians, but in fact Cash is not an individual case, especially at his time (1940s). Sometimes it’s also the middle name that consisted of initials only. The probably most well-known example is Harry S Truman. Today this practice isn’t so common anymore, except for the Amish. They’d make the first letter of their mother’s maiden name their children’s middle name.

Since those letter-names are no abbreviations, it’s wrong to use a period after them.

Regards,
B Leonhardsberger

Prohibition in America

I’ve watched a video clip about prohibition in America. Unfortunately, the videos at this site are of poor quality, since they are very old. That’s why I also did a little research on the topic of prohibition.
http://www.history.com/media.do?action=listing&sortBy=1&sortOrder=A&topic=U.S.%20HISTORY


In January 1920 the 18th Amendment went into force, forbidding the trade, transport and possession of alcohol. This step was meant to create better people, but in fact it encouraged bootlegging, smuggling and the legendary Speakeasies, where liquors were sold illegally. Al Capone got mixed up in these activities and soon got the best known gangster in America. Soon it was clear that the so-called “Nobel Experiment” didn’t work and polls revealed that the Americans wanted back their right to drink whatever they chose. As a result, in 1933 the 21st Amendment went into effect and annulled the Prohibition law.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech2.htm

Here you can find more information on Al Capone, or play Al Capone Jeopardy:
http://www.alcaponemuseum.com/

If you are interested in further information on prohibition, there is a whole book about it which is appropriately named: “The Long Thirst” http://www.amazon.com/Long-Thirst-Prohibition-America-1920-1933/dp/0393055574

Plan for this week

Grammar tenses 1.5 h

Reading jaywalking and two NYT articles 3 h

Listening euronews 15 min

Vocabulary collocations in use 1.5 h

Writing blog about expat blog 1 h

The Catcher in the Rye

I’ve just finished this classical book by J.D Salinger.
It's about a wayward teenager who retells some weeks of his life.

Holden Caufield is a 16-year-old boy, who obviously has serious problems adapting to his environment. More than once he has been thrown out of school, but he doesn’t seem to learn anything from it. He keeps blaming the school itself, the teachers and his –in his opinion phoney- classmates.

Holden has mixed feelings about nearly everything in his life. On the one hand, he wants to have a normal life, including family, friends and school education. But on the other hand, every time he is not successful he gives up and even stops trying. That leads to constant moaning, the way teenagers probably tend to do.

What I liked about the book is that Salinger captured the very picture of a frightened teenager. The lingo he uses makes this image even more complete and makes one think about teenagers, their feelings and needs.

Here we go...