Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Day My Dreams Came True, My Life Found Meaning, and Hespan Became a Real Language

Eso fue la experiencia más מגניב de mi חיים עד ahora.  Asistí a una קבוצת שיחה para practicar mi ספרדית, y todos los חברים היו ישראלים.  Entonces, מה זאת אומרת?  Eso significó que todas las clarificaciones--של משמעויות, למשל--fueron en עברית.  También los נושאים היו conectados a la vida israelí cotidiana.  האמת היא שהייתי הכי confundida linguísticamente que he estado אף פעם en mi vida, pero היה שווה completamente.  בעצם, encontré la משמעות של mi חיים.  Fue מ–ד–ה–י–ם.
I came home on such a language high that I'm ready to propose double language classes as the healthy and legal solution to the world's drug problems.  Seriously, Whoever Will Listen--the U.N., the National Guard, the President, Mexico, The Slums--send your drug addicts and drug lords to Diburimos.  Drug trafficking will stop, violence in the cities and across the borders will meet its end, there will be no more crack babies.  The world will be a better place!
Now is the time for all of you to ask two questions: 1. What the hell does that thing (aka Paragraph One) mean? 2. What on this dear earth of Mother's is "Diburimos"?
To answer question 1, see the translation below:
That was the coolest experience of my life so far.  I went to a conversation group to practice my Spanish, and all of the group members were Israeli.  So, what does (did) that mean?  It meant that all of the clarifications--of definitions, for instance--were in Hebrew.  The topics (under discussion) were also connected to daily Israeli life.  The truth is that I was the most linguistically confused that I have ever been in my life, but it was totally worth it.  Basically, I found the meaning of my life.  It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
(Redundant?  Sorry.  The redundancy disappears when you alternate languages each time you have to write the word "life.")
To answer question 2: "Diburimos" is the Spanish conversation group program run by המכון לידידות אמריקה, the American Alliance Institute.  They have multiple Diburimos levels (I went to "Superiores" :) ), and you can join the group without being enrolled in any of the Institute's classes.  I spoke/listened in a group made of myself, two elderly women, two middle-aged-elderly men and one late-twenty-something muchacha, under the elocutionary (what??) guidance of Estér, our lively Diburimos guide from México.  My Spanish speaking skills are definitely not what they once were (I think they peaked in high school under the meticulous instruction of Señor Leven), but the fact that I could understand la gran mayoría of what the Superiores said--and chime in every few minutes myself--means that I might still get it all back.  Fingers crossed!

"Diburimos," by the way, is a marvelous invention of Hespan that even I--an experienced Hespan speaker, just ask mi Abba--never thought to compose: it combines the Hebrew word דיבור (speaking) with the Spanish "we" verb ending -imos in a single word.  Give or take--since technically דיבור is a noun, "the act of speaking"--"Diburimos" is Hespan for "We speak"/"We are speaking."
Genius.

2 comments:

  1. Ariel, your brain must be doing jumping jacks...seriously, the adaptability, the dexterity, the sheer nimbleness of your brain as it leaves your native English and enters the realm of two foreign languages - one conversational, the other to translate - is incomprehensible to mortals like me.

    Mi corazon es completa. I'm sure that's improper Spanish, but you know what I mean.

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  2. Ariel, that's a genious post actually. :) I really enjoyed reading it. keep it up!

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