Belatedly bilingual

                                                                        [Fern tongue*]

Like many immigrants and translators, I became bilingual as a result of life, not education. In the latter case, people learn two or more languages in school and use them at home or in the street, creating a strong base of both languages in the mind. On the other hand, those who acquired this skill later in life moved to another country, spoke the second language at home with a partner, maybe raising children in that language, and, most importantly, worked and socialized with people in that second language. Thus, the adopted language was superimposed on the mother tongue.

I can claim at least three generations of wandering Jews in my family, all who became bilingual. My maternal grandmother immigrated from Poland to France, then to Canada and finally to the United States. She spoke French, Yiddish and English, all quite well. My mother immigrated to the United States in the early 1950’s from France with no English at all. Some 70 years later, her English is quite good. I moved to Israel 30 years ago and fully function in Hebrew. Thus, on this subjective and limited sample, I can make several generalizations on the war of the words between L1 and L2.

                                                                        

It is clear that the acquired language never reaches the level of the mother tongue. First, certain syntactical errors never disappear, especially with prepositions, which vary by language and defy logic. See the Ziva effect in NCIS.  For certain words, pronunciation is problematical either because it involves a difficult sound, such the English th or Hebrew and Arabic voiced ch, or the word in both languages is so close but not quite the same either in terms of a letter or accented syllable. Finally and most annoying, it becomes frustratingly difficult to form a sentence or remember a word when tired or under stress. Suddenly, it becomes impossible to say what you want to mean even though normally there would be no problem because the brain is not functioning properly at a given moment. The second language almost never becomes as accurate and natural as the mother tongue.

This deficiency has several annoying results. First, people often believe that your accent and apparent language deficiency means that you are stupid and treat you as such. The reality may be that your knowledge of their language may be far superior to theirs but rien à faire, as they French would say, i.e., there is nothing to be done about it. Also, due to the fact that adult emigres never studied in school, their writing skills are probably below the level of other language skills. This means that there is a tendency to ask native speakers to handle important writing tasks. Thirdly, depending on options, other family members tend to handle the administrative telephone tasks that are so part of daily life, including discussions with the various utilities, municipal functions and tradespeople. These “blind” conversations are simply less stressful for them. Also, curiously, phrasing from the acquired language start entering the mother tongue over time, creating the unpleasant situation that a person speaks neither of the language completely properly. As my grandmother and mother would say, in terms of perfect language, you are nisht ahin, nisht aherr, neither here nor there.

In fact, despite the ridicule from friends and family, being bilingual is an enriching experience. Learning and applying any new language opens the world to more people in terms of millions. Knowing Spanish alone allows direct communication with almost 500 million people. The language also opens up a new culture, which includes tastes, ceremonies and beliefs. It is amazing how different weddings can be. Most importantly, it opens the eyes to different and maybe better ways of living life. Just as people do not have to live exactly how their parents lived, nor do people have to live as the society in which they were born defines as normal. People have choice in almost all aspects of their lives. They often only need to be exposed to the options. Learning a second language at any age is the window to those opportunities. The world expands as we learn languages and gain access to cultures.

Thus, for those who have forgotten the foreign language they studied but still dream of moving abroad, it is never too late. People, especially children, may laugh at your mistakes but that is a small price for immersion in a completely different world several hours away by plane. If that is the dream, better late than never.

*For the sake of the blind, add picture captions. Picture care of pixabay: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/adege-4994132/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=5133721">adege</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=5133721">Pixabay</a>

The Generation Gap –Social media and business mentality

                                                         [Old-style clock with pendulum*]

On a recent episode of Kobi and Lital, a docucomedy series in Israel examining various life issues, the two comedians, each around the age of 40, were given expert advice how to increase the number of their followers on Instagram. These experts were half their age or less. It was quite striking and entertaining to see not only how unfamiliar and incompetent the hosts were with new media forms such as TikTok and Instagram, but also note the gap in mentality between the two generations. This difference is also increasingly evident in the business world.

“Facebook is for old people” was a phrase repeated several times during the show. It is apparent that many younger people consider raising and responding to an issue in a written text, even a single picture, passé. The under-20 group values 30-second clips. For those that, to paraphrase the Genesis song, can’t dance and can’t sing and can’t invent a story every day, these media forms are very uncomfortable and almost inaccessible. Posting a daily story with trivial pictures with captions seems much ado about nothing for older people. The generation gap is clearly evident in the use of media.

This discrepancy in technology is partly a reflection of a difference in worldview. Almost 60, I grew up in a United States where the “I” was subordinated to the “we”. While children had individual needs, they were part of a class, family or team. This distancing from the ego was even reflected in writing where the use of the first-person singular form was discouraged, even forbidden in formal writing. As adults, it was generally we or the company that sold the product or provided a service even if it was a sole proprietorship. Even in autobiographies for conference program, it was accepted practice to use the 3^rd person singular form: John Doe has more than 30 years’ experience. By contrast, at least in Israel in 2020, children and young adults are encouraged to promote themselves. What is more shocking than the number of people that film themselves doing banal tasks is the number of people that watch them, to the tune of the hundreds of thousands, if not more. What my generation considered egocentric, even crass, is now proper self-esteem.

This change has already affected the business world. First, younger executives tend to feel less need to learn the ropes from older workers and wish to become entrepreneurs at an early age. Moreover, these business people under the age of 25 are native to most if not all of the current mass media forms and therefore comfortable with their use. By contrast, employees aged 40+ often struggle with the how and why of these same forms. Furthermore, many older workers find the blatant personal approach a bit too much and beyond their personal comfort zone. Age is becoming like East and West as Kipling would say.

The clock keeps on ticking, creating natural generation gaps. One omnipresent form of this change involves media use, not only in the technical details but also the raison d’etre of their use. In this sense, the world, including the business world, belongs to the youth.

* Always add a caption to pictures to allow full access to blind people. Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/hrohmann-848687/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=700874">Hans Rohmann</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=700874">Pixabay</a>

The Artful Dodger – From no-win to win-win on offers you can refuse

                                                                  [Black pebbles]

Freelancers live by projects, long-term and short-term, which almost always involve providing a price proposal. Unfortunately, many of these requests are irrelevant due to the task, scope, price, deadline or nature of the job. On the surface, it appears that these situations provide no real opportunity and are simply a waste of time and energy. However, with some lateral thinking and proper communication, any request for a proposal becomes a real opportunity.

The most objective reason for not being able to take on a project is the lack of appropriate skills. Professionals know that discretion is the better part of valor, i.e., if you cannot do it right, don’t do it. So, freelancers faced with requests beyond their skill set tend to write polite refusal notes, hopefully explaining that the task is not in their realm of skill. However, since the requesting party has your undivided attention, it is a great opportunity to market your actual specialty. It is quite possible that the people reading it or any of their friends and acquaintances may need those services now or in the future. This request, however irrelevant, is an ideal opportunity to market as it is requested, does not cost a penny and allows freelancers to express their uniqueness to an attentive audience. Not only that, if you can refer another freelancer with the required skills, the reference will create a wave of goodwill for all parties, which may bear fruits in the future both from the prospective customer and the other professional. Thus, the presented opportunity for future business is just as important as the actual proposal.

In other cases, the requested proposals involve some elements that are beyond the scale or scope of the freelancer. In this case, an opportunity is still present. First, freelancers need to explain simply and clearly which aspects of the project are relevant to them. In regards to the other elements, a freelancer can offer to manage the project or have the potential customer handle the management. Again, if you can provide any referrals, it saves time for the customer and creates a future referral to you. Therefore, it is always good to be aware of professionals with complementary businesses. If the customer should opt for you to manage the project, the management fee provides supplementary income even if it does sometimes complicate life. With or without the management aspect, the freelancer creates a positive and professional impression.

The most common reason to dismiss a request for a bid, at least in translation, is the budget limits. It is often clear, explicitly or implicitly, that each of the parties is on a different planet in terms of price. There is a natural tendency to laugh or scowl and then ignore the request. Even this bottom-fisher type of request is a marketing opportunity. It is worth answering and even preparing a template that states your rate, justifies it in terms of the quality of your work, suggests that it may be possible to collaborate on a small project in the future where the price difference may be less meaningful, and plants in the mind of the customer the idea that you are the person if they need your special set of skills in the future and have an appropriate budget. It is quite probable that no immediate project will arise but business success is a matter of both the quantity and quality of marketing exposure.

In many projects, the major problem is the deadline.  As too many businesses do not or cannot plan ahead, they find themselves needing to outsource a task at the last minute. Here, the freelaner faces a dilemma. This request for a bid is an actual, even quite profitable opportunity. On the other hand, it carried great potential for short-term and long-term disaster in terms of work effort and poor quality. To avoid the danger, it is necessary to carefully consider whether the project can be properly executed within the allotted time. If so, the freelancer can and should add a hefty rush fee to justify the extreme effort. If not, the reply should include a realistic deadline that reflects the time required to provide a professional result. Curiously enough, the deadline is frequently not as firm as it was stated. Therefore, either the potential clients adjust their deadline or refuse the offer this time. The freelancer wins in all cases as maintaining a reputation is as important as gaining a project. Furthermore, the professional approach may bear fruit in the future.

An emotional reason to avoid a project is the unpleasant nature of the work itself. Just because a given task is part of the job description and within the skill set does not make it attractive and tempting. Every profession has its “dark side” of time-consuming and boring tasks. At certain times, freelancers simply “don’t feel like” doing them. In terms of business, this is often a poor choice but even freelancers are human. One way to alter the situation is to offer a price that takes the drudgery into account, i.e., provide a high quote. In such a case, freelancers win regardless of the result as if the bid is refused, a better job will come soon, while, if accepted, a handful of sugar (money) makes the medicine (job) go down, to paraphrase Mary Poppins. Just ask plumbers how much money they take to handle blocked piping from the toilet. Thus, unpleasant work creates an opportunity for higher pay.

In the famous story about lateral thinking, a girl facing the choice of two black pebbles changes a no-win situation to 100% probability of a positive result. Likewise, even faced with completely irrelevant project proposals, it is possible and desirable to answer and gain from them. As Mr. Buffet has often explained, opportunity comes to those who seek it.

*Label all images in order to allow blind people to access your blog.  All pictures via the pixiebay site.

Up and Engagė in Paris and Washington

                                                             [person facing a heavy wind*]

Words often taken on a wide variety of meanings and applications. Thus, their actual usage and frequency generally varies from language to langauge. For example, the verb to engage is a powerful verb both in English and French but is more common in French due to its importance in the political culture.

The dictionary definitions mainly mention its financial or mechanical aspects. Webster’s English Dictionary defines engage as the actions of offering, supporting, entangling, securing a financial instrument and operating with the past participle referring to the announcement of a future wedding. Little Bob (Le Petit Robert) mentions pawning, promising, activating and securing. The idea is that to engage is take an active step, whether in terms of money or action.

Beyond those technical acts, the French have a long tradition of being engagé, i.e., their cultural leaders being actively involved in ideological or political matters. The tradition dates from the time writers achieved independence from the Church. Voltaire advocated enlightenment ideas and vegetarianism (no connection), albeit from the safety of Prussia. Later, Emile Zola wrote J’accuse to protest the actions of the French military in the Dreyfus affair and Jean Paul Sartre actively challenged proper bourgeois thought. The right has had its share of active ideologs, including Louis Ferdinand Céline and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Some were even elected to the Academie Francaise, the elite club of French writers, both before and after World War II. Of course, singers have also expressed their opinion, generally anti-war, such as  Jacques Brel, who sang La Columbe (the Dove) against the War in Algeria, and Jean Ferrat, Un air de liberté, against the Vietnam War, not to mention Miss Maggie by Renaut Even if many people disagreed with their stance, their political activism added to their status as they were perceived as contributing to society and acting as leaders. An “unengaged” artist is in some way not fully contributing.

By contrast, being politically involved in the United States, the English equivalent of the French engagé, is a risky path to take. For example, Mohammed Ali and Colin Kaepernick paid heavy prices, the loss of freedom and career respectively, for their courage in standing up to the establishment. Many dispurged the Woody Guthrie as a communist due to his politcally pungent songs about the effects of the great depression of the 1930's Certain radio stations did not play the songs of anti-war singers such as Bob Dylan, famous for the answer is blowing in the wind, and Joni Mitchell, who sang Fiddlesand drums. Not only are American celebrities cautious about expressing their political opinions, in retrospect they are not especially appreciated for candor. The actors George C. Scott and Marlon Brando are not any more esteemed today for having refused their Oscars as a political statement. It is no wonder that James Lebron is very cautious in his support of Black Lives Matter. To paraphrase the French term for a dumb blond, play a sport or sing songs but shut up.

England has a long tradition of writers with strong political opinions. Rudyard Kipling was a staunch imperialist to the bitter end of the empire while George Orwell was a critical socialist. Musicians have taken stances. Even the Beatles criticized American involvement in the Vietnam War. Yet, they neither lost nor benefited from their activism. Their opinions are mere side notes to their achievements much like Dostoevsky’s rabid antisemitism does not distract from his reputation as a writer.

Curiously, in some Arab countries, such as Egypt, political expression by intellectuals tends to be of the nationalist variety. The reason is historical. When the Turks started to allow Arabic language teaching and publications, the right to speak Arabic and be a nation were radical thoughts. This nationalistic tendency is still evident and even encouraged by governments. So, many other countries also have a tradition, albeit limited in numbers and direction, of political engagement by its intellectuals.

Worldwide, drivers engage their gears while financiers engage their money without fear of their political future. However, most of the world, cultural leaders become engagé in political causes at great immediate and long-term risk, especially in the United States. However, in France, going against the wind is almost an obligation for any cultural icon that wants to be considered serious.

*Always add a caption to pictures to allow blind people to enjoy posts.

Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/Anemone123-2637160/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3322112">Anemone123</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3322112">Pixabay</a>

Writer’s block

                                                                              [hat*]

At the college where I teach, the Braude School of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel, we have changed the curriculum of the required English classes to include writing of paragraphs. The students are high achievers as getting accepted to engineering school requires high grades. Ranging in age from 18 – 28, they are highly motivated to learn. They are required to take two or three English courses, depending on the department but may have to take more if their starting English level is too low. In terms of vocabulary and comprehension, they have little problem handing general and even specialized texts but often initially struggle in writing a simple sentence properly. Yet, in practice, the main challenge in teaching them writing stems not from transmitting the technical aspects of the art but in overcoming the varying degrees of starting ignorance suffered by the students.

One serious deficiency created by the Israeli educational system is the lack of ability to organize ideas and thoughts.  In order to be efficient with the limited class time and the collective need of the students, teachers and school administration to achieve high scores on the Bagrut exam, the Israeli national high school matriculation exam, similar to the French Bac, teachers tend to feed summaries of the material to the students. As a result, most students get little practice in identifying and organizing main ideas. Therefore, when we request a student to write a paragraph with a topic sentence including three subtopics, many find it difficult to hit the nail on the head, i.e., write a topic sentence without any distracting elements. The issue is not their English, which is generally quite good, but instead the lack of skill in identifying the essential elements and expressing them. It requires significant work by both the student and teacher to overcome this obstacle.

Engineering students often are victims of the European academic distinctions in high school. It appears that science track students are supposed to be expert with numbers and formulas but don’t need to know how to communicate while humanity track students must know how to express themselves but are not required to understand science. Both assumptions are entirely false but so are many other assumptions of traditional education systems, frequently based on 19^th century ideas. One of the results of this tracking is that many science students seem unaware that spoken and written language differ. It is necessary to reiterate several times that written text is expected to strictly comply with the rules of grammar, syntax and flow as well as employ a wider and higher variety of vocabulary. These students tend to write as they speak and often fail to understand why that is not acceptable. For example, they suffer from the ubiquitous use of the word and as a connector, a major no-no in written English. Students whose native language is Russia and Arabic have an increased tendency to insert the period at the end of the idea regardless of how many subject-verb combinations precede it. Again, only frequent feedback can create the awareness of the singularity of written communication.

Lastly, as most Israeli high school students write so few compositions in their own language, they have no awareness of the writing process.  Granted, it is more difficult to write a nice sounding sentence in English because it is a non-homogenous language, i.e., its roots are derived from many languages. Yet, as I tell my students many times and create long deadline to reflect, there is no such things as good writing, only good rewriting. Under extreme pressure from the heavy load of the first-year engineering program, they initially tend to write a first draft of a paragraph and believe they have completed the assignment. Only after several “bloody” paragraph feedbacks (from my corrections) do they start to apply the various QA techniques I suggest for polishing. Once again, these intelligent students lack understanding of the writing process and must be taught it.

Thus, writing, a new “can-do” task mandated by the Ministry of Education and Council of Higher Education in Israel, involves more than teaching English as a language, whose level varies significantly. Just as significantly, it requires an increase in the students’ understanding of the whole writing process, regardless of language, in terms of logic, form of expression and process. The key to achieving this goal is, fortunately, practice and feedback, which involve hard work by all parties. I personally de-emphasize grades in the practice stage in order to encourage students to go beyond their comfort zone. Strong feedback, including praise for successful elements, is the engine for change and improvement, however painful that may be. Furthermore, the rod should not be spared as students need to grasp and internalize that negligent (not poor) work will result in harsh but constructive criticism. In other words, the teacher must explain the rules and guidelines thoroughly but expect students to apply them. The reward for everybody’s hard work is a good grade on a final project in the short term and attainment of an important life skill in the long term.

The basic difficulties faced by these engineering students are not a result of a lack of intelligence but instead lack of training. As such, it is possible to overcome their lack of background and instill an understanding of organization, language and process through practice and caring. I am proud of the progress made by my students in the last 13 weeks despite (or maybe because of) the Zoom teaching. They worked hard and learned how to communicate a developed idea in English clearly and succinctly despite their initial writing blocks. Chapeau to them.

* Always include a picture caption to allow the blind to enjoy. Picture - Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/OpenClipart-Vectors-30363/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=157581">OpenClipart-Vectors</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=157581">Pixabay</a>

Cultural variety

                                          (Japanese picture of man in boiling water*)

As a continuation to two previous posts about words and cultures, culture is relative to a specific society not only in form but also in connotation. Formally speaking culture includes the artistic achievements of a group but also the mechanisms of daily interaction. So, the type of music loved by people is an example of culture but so is the manner of saying hello, whether that is by shaking hands, bowing, kissing cheeks, or using words alone. Thus, it is clear that all human languages must include some way to express culture.

For a linguist, an additional distinction is the attached connotation. For example, the word “culture” when applied in the United States, France, Israel and Russia can imply very different purposes. Modern America was settled by immigrants that were poor and quite often uneducated, even illiterate... Thus, a reference to culture is a way of distinguishing one person from another, generally negatively. Describing a lover of opera as cultured can either be praise or derogatory, i.e., elitist, depending on the point of few. Not only that, its multiethnic society has espoused a vision of blending as compared to maintaining traditions. Thus, the expression “they come from another culture” is an alternative phrase for “they don’t behave like Americans”. The American ethea of anti-intellectualism and melting pot, notwithstanding the existence of exceptions to these tendencies, adds a connotation of different to the term culture.

By contrast, France glories in its Culture. French people are proud of its artistic icons, whether in literature or the visual arts.  The country even has a special institution for them, the Pantheon. The average French person mentions Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Claude Monet and Edith Piaf with pride. Even those that would never read any of their books beyond what is required for the Bac or go to a museum would think twice before stating so. France is the cultural leader of Europe, at minimum, in terms of literature, art and food. Unlike the United States, culture in France, or at least its appreciation, is a unifying factor.

Israel too was founded by immigrants but they came from many communities, each with its own Culture and culture. The dogma of wiping out the diaspora and imposing the new Israeli stamp on all of its citizens, applied for its first 25 or so years, is slowly but surely disappearing. Today, Israelis talk about culture to explain differences in food, music and wedding arrangements. In practice, most couples reflect mixed ethnic background except for the ultra-orthodox. This requires negotiation of cultural issues such as which foods to eat on holidays, the level of spiciness and frequency of family visits, to name just a few matters. Culture in Israel is of part of the dialogue of everyday life.

The Russian use refers to both the high-brow and, more commonly, the communal aspect of culture. As the French, Russians are proud of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, to name a few. However, the most common use of the word culture is the negative term некультурный человек  [nekulturni cheleovek], meaning an uncultured person, better translated by the term barbarian. To clarify, this expression does not refer to the lack of familiarity with Shostakovich’s music. Instead, it describes crude (by Russian standards) behavior, a lack of social savior faire and open greed. It is hard for a foreigner to decode this term as it encompasses so many unspoken rules.  For example, to the best of my knowledge, Ivan the Terrible was a некультурный человек but Stalin and Putin are okay.  It is possible to be unbelievable cruel but remain cultured. So, when a Russian accuses you of being uncultured, you have apparently crossed some (ultraviolet) red line.

Dictionaries may agree upon the definition of culture but people stamp their own opinions and perspectives on the term. There is a wonderful scene in Shogun in which several Japanese calmly discuss how they are so much civilized than the shipwrecked English sailors, which are being boiled alive at the time. One person’s culture is another person’s primitivism.

*Insert captions under pictures to allow access to the blind. Picture from wikipedia.

My father – an old newspaper man

My father died this evening. He lived until the age of 95 and some three months, the last 3 months much less so. My mother lives in Los Angeles while I live in Israel. Due to the travel and quarantine limits, I am unable to travel to participate in the funeral and necessary mourning. It leaves a strange and uncomfortable feeling that hopefully will be rectified in the not so distant future. Yet, this non-social distancing is unavoidable and no one’s fault.

On my last visit in January, my father dictated his obituary to me to type. I can therefore tell you how he saw his life. 

Melvyn S. Rifkind was born on March 8, 1925 in the Bronx to the late Joseph and Rebecca Rifkind, née Spector. He served in World War II in the 10^th Armor Division, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and Metz and was wounded twice. After the end of the war, he attended the University of Georgia school of Journalism and then worked for the AP in the South. He entered the field of financial and corporate public relations and eventually founded of the largest independent firms on the west coast. He is survived by his wife, Gabrielle, and two children, Jacques and Stephen, as well as two grandchildren.

Those may be facts but children view a different but no less true reality. My father was man of example, not words. He would listen carefully to what I had to say, carefully choose his words and mean them, and then respect my right not to follow his advice. Only as an adult did I appreciate that he would the suggest the way of the mensch in any situation as he applied it to his own life. More amazing, after I had done it my way yet again, like move to Israel, he held no grudges and starting the next day anew. It took great effort to get on my dad’s “shit list”.

As we share many of the same traits, my dad and I never talked much even when we spent time together as adults. This silence was not out of hostility or indifference but the result of unspoken communication. It was a quiet of comfort. As I have no longer “needed” him for many years, we were able to appreciate each other.

As I am unable to sit a proper shiva, I would like to share three of our moments together.  I will never forget the image of my father, at the age of 70, sheepishly eating his first oyster (of the many to come) as we all were devouring a huge plate of fruits de mer in their house in Beg Meil, a village in Brittany in France. I also retain a picture of Sunday evenings struggling through the LA Times crossword puzzle, experiencing satisfaction or frustration depending on the result. Finally, after he completely retired, we would watch NY Yankee games on TV. He never failed to praise Didi Gregorius, whether for his hitting or his name. These typify our moments together.

I was lucky to enjoy my father for many years. I wish he had had as much luck dying, as my great grandmother would say, as he had living but we don’t control either. In a certain sense, he would appreciate receiving a written eulogy from his son as, after all, he was an old newspaper man. He would probably do some redlining for the same reason. May his memory be blessed. He will be missed.