When I need a little pick-me-up, I like logging in to WordPress and looking on my dashboard to see my “Top Searches”. Today, for example, my top searches were: animals binocular vision; nudists; brigitte bardot fat; paperkite bike.
Brigitte Bardot comes up frequently, as does binocular vision, (interestingly enough, so does nudists). Each time, the context is slightly different. Today I wonder if the person looking for “paperboy bike” was actually looking for The Paper Kites ...
…I am, often beyond reason, detail oriented. Not just any details though. …Totally (or almost totally) inconsequential ones. (I could see you were starting to wondering what the point was).
To date, I have met very few people who I feel I can truly relate to in this way: the majority of the people who love me just smile and tell me what a weirdo I am. …If I am ever caught laughing at my “top searches” – and I believe it’s only a matter of time – I would wager that most of my friends would smile fondly and shake their heads.
My affinity for and delight in inconsequential details is, I think, something of a cardinal idiosyncrasy. (On the flip-side, so too would be my perseverance and obstinate attitude vis-a-vis many other inconsequential details).
Quant à language learning… there are many details. There are grammatical details… and vocabulary details… and pronunciation details. I spend six hours a day in a Portuguese language class here: too many details. Something had to give. In my case, grammar continues to eat it.
…In the past week or so, I have had a number of fantastic language-learning-related compliments: (I am, naturally, going to itemize them here below):
(1) at the beach… somebody spoke to me in Spanish and asked if I was Argentinian; (2) at the grocery store… the clerk laughed and said [in portuguese] that “everybody must think I am from Portugual, right?”; (3) at the botanical gardens… a Brazilian person asked me if I was Brazilian.
Guys. Ladies. (Mans. Womans): Do you know what this means?! (My work here is done) (…Kidding).
This means that… (as long as I don’t do anything beyond: exchange niceties & talk about what I study), I don’t just sound like another anglophone! or another francophone! I sound… not from here but not from anywhere in particular. (Fact…I am equally flattered when people ask me where I am from: it tells me they can’t tell from my accent).
(Wait, I need to say it again: A BRAZILIAN PERSON ASKED ME IF I WAS BRAZILIAN. I CAN’T EVEN CONJUGATE VERBS PROPERLY, but DANG IF I CAN’T FAKE A GREAT ACCENT).
(I already knew this, and you may not care, but, since you’ve already seen my nerd show once or twice before:…My long-lasting elation from these compliments serves to confirm that my interests continue to remain more heavily invested in the phon[ology][etics] side of things, rather than the syntax side of things).
I am trying to remember that however nice it is to have a passable accent, the foundation starts with grammar and understanding vocabulary. (Case in point, this “English” version of a Sertanejo hit).
If the accent is the accessories, I am all decked out. Unfortunately, I’m also wearing the world’s ugliest runners. (With skinny jeans.) (At a chique lounge.) (The runners may or may not have a platform heel and may or may not also have a hole in the toe with duct tape on it (I digress that this can be cool, maybe, if I was being outdoorsy))…
(…I may or may not (also) be trying to convince myself to memorize verb conjugations by evoking feelings of embarrassment generally reserved for times of fashion faux-pas. Let me spell shallow for you…)
ENFIM. …I am busy learning a lot of Portuguese (the language), and a lot of Brazilian (the culture). My head is so stuffed with details I don’t even know where to begin. There are about 100 details that I want to share with you every single day. Some day, they’ll make their way from my brain to my tongue…
{Detail: I met this and several other monkey friends while “hiking” on Sugar Loaf. I loved their hairy ears – just like Mo! …If only Mo was as expressive as a monkey…}
elizabethfrances 
Mo is a bit of a monkey minus the stealth and intelligence. As W said “Scrambles…you may not be as cute as Mo but you sure are smarter!”
But seriously…SO jealous of your accent aptitude. I don’t know where in my suzuki training I went wrong, but I hate my Anglo accent when I speak french. I will never sound like I belong anywhere french, and I will never sound articulate. Perhaps if I go back to france and pretend to be mute and start smoking then they will on occasion mistake me for their own.
Congrats!! Keep it up with the grammar, it will come with time and patience and most importantly effort.
Love ewe!!
I am so jealous of you. I’m sitting here still trying to learn basic qui, que, dont, ou and will never, EVER be mistaken for anyone other than Alberta Liz. However, I do remember names of every actor I’ve ever seen in a film since childhood. Choose your own details…? Perhaps you need to plan a two week trip to Montreal next and set me up with a crash course in French….we have an air mattressssss…..!