Context Is Everything

What a funny!  I have been laughing over and over this morning about a Spanish language mix-up.  Actually, it could have happened in either English or Spanish if you think about it.

As some of you know, I have been working quite diligently to plan a successful week of campaigning for my boss, Aelea Christofferson, who is running for a seat in the US House of Representatives.  She is traveling across part of I-84 here in Oregon, making a stop in about six cities by Friday.  My job has been to make contacts in each city, set up interviews with the local media, radio and newspaper, arrange meetings with the mayors, influential community groups and individuals, unions, as well as an Indian tribe and to find someone to host an open house or reception which is open to the public for a meet and greet.  All of this is to set the stage for her return visits and also to inspire people to get out and vote in the Primary Election and certainly in the General Election.

One of the radio interviews I had scheduled for this morning was with La Ley, the Hispanic radio station in Hermiston.  Yesterday, I spoke with the CEO of the station, in Spanish, to introduce Aelea and arrange this interview.

This morning, I was out with the animals, pulling carts and rushing around to get my chores done before heading to an early dentist appointment.  My phone rang.

It was Martín, one of the political news reporters from La Ley who would be joining the interview and who wanted to ask a few questions to fill himself in on the campaign.  There I was, pulling a cart full of hay and being pressed for time, continuing to fill feed buckets and bags, redirecting two bad boy goats who wanted to cut me off so they could stop the cart and eat, meanwhile keeping an eye on Pinkie who was attempting to break into the dry lot to nip at the roaming horses, all the while holding the phone with one gloved hand attempting to refocus my thoughts on the campaign to keep up with the conversation, in Spanish, in a very winded breath.

Me preguntó Martín:  "Está corriendo?"
Yo le contesté:  "No, no, estoy afuera con mis animales."

Pausa.

Question mark lingering in the air.

Oh how I laughed!  I shall add this to my list of language learning humor along with:

"Why do they keep saying thank you good bye?" and "Oh!  You mean tresmedialunas is actually the number of media lunas I can order and not the name of a very big breakfast?"

I love language.  I love how forgiving we can be when speaking with someone in another language.  I love that laughter is universal.

Translation:
Martin asked me, "Are you running?"
I said, "No, no, I'm outside with my animals."

Strengthening the Arab Voice

It's horse fever, I'm certain.

When you read the title of this post, what did you think?

I was perusing a back issue of my Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly magazine and saw an article with this title.  I flipped directly to page three.  There I found a photograph of a man standing beside a horse in a web halter.

I looked at the horse's face first, naturally, and didn't see the typical Arab characteristics, such as the dish.  The nostrils and eyes didn't look very Arab like and the body seemed larger than most Arabs.

Curious, I proceeded to the text, after all this was an article.  The article was about Mohammed Jiyad, a senior lecturer in Arabic language and literature at MHC, and how he has seen the interest in Arabic studies change over the 25 years he has been at the college.

When he first started teaching, he had about six students in his class.  This past year he had 30.  He talks about the need for Arabic speakers in government, banking and business and mentions students studying overseas.

Mohammed grew up with horses in Iraq and has several Arab horses of his own.   Aside from this brief mention of his horses, no more than those few words, there was no discussion or question about horses in this article.

Here I am thinking the article was about strengthening the interest in Arabian horses somehow by showing a man with a Quarter Horse, when it was about the Arab language and its role in global affairs.

The piece was interesting.  I prefer my interpretation of the title.