How Ham Can Be Beautiful and Star Wars Can Stick in Your Head

Hello, it's been awhile!


In case you didn't know, I LOVE FOREIGN LANGUAGES.


I dunno what it is, but there's just something utterly thrilling about being able to speak in a different language. I've been taking German since I was twelve, and while it's not the most beautiful language out there, it's a ton of fun to speak.


Have you ever gotten phrases or even just words stuck in your head? Try learning a foreign language.


I remember way back when I was a little 11-year-old in seventh grade taking my Intro to Foreign Language class, and one of the very first things I remember learning in German was the following:


"Du hast meinen Vater getötet!"
"Nein, Luke. Ich bin dein Vater."
"Neeeeeeiiiiiiiinnnnnn!!!!!"


Etc.


In case you didn't catch it, the above is the most famous scene from Star Wars, the one where Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father. Kalie Walker and I asked Mr. Dean how to say "you killed my father". It was something we just memorized, because it was past-tense with all sorts of words we didn't know, and was therefore the type of speech that was far above our fledgling abilities. "Du hast meinen Vater getötet" (you killed my father) is not the level of grammar one has when one has been learning German for a week or so, but we walked around all semester saying it anyway.


That's what I mean when I talk about phrases getting stuck in your head. Sometimes it's because you've memorized it and you've been quoting it to your best friend for ages and ages. Sometimes it's just because of the way it sounds.


My Italian professor is constantly saying three things (well, he says more than three, but these are the things he says most often): "Esatto", "Perfetto", and "Va bene?", which mean respectively, "exactly", "perfect", and "okay?" or "all good?". Just the type of things any good teacher says to their students, praising us when we do well and asking if we understand. Fairly normal, right? Wrong.


Every single time my professor says any of these words, he says them with exactly the same rise and fall of voice. And I mean, he's obviously putting the accent on the right syllable like he should, but he does it the same way every time, so they sort of get stuck in my head, and all in order like that, because he often says them all together in that order.


"Esatto! Perfetto! Va bene?"


It's almost like a weird little Italian song that plays through my head all day.....Esatto, perfetto, va bene? Esatto.....perfetto.....va bene? ....................esatto............perfetto.................


You get the idea.


Other Italian words/phrases that get stuck in my head:


ti ringraziamo (tee reen-grahts-ee-AH-mo) - "we thank you". Comes from saying the prayer in Italian in class every day.


prosciutto (pro-SHUTE-toh) - "ham". Why does "ham" get to be such a pretty word??? Try it. Out loud. Roll those R's!! Prosciutto. Prosciutto. Prosciuuuuuttttooooo......Ham is beautiful.


niente di speziale (NYEN-teh dee spet-si-AL-eh) - "nothing special". When people ask what I'm up to or what I did over the weekend, I LOVE saying this one, even if I did do special stuff. Niente is such a fun word to say!!


potuto (poh-TU-toh) - "could". Why is this word so awesome? Why, because it sounds like "potato", and I get to use it very regularly in a normal conversation. It's so amusing to me...I get the giggles every time someone says it. Which, this morning in class, garnered me quite a few odd looks from my classmates and professor. What can I say? It's funny, alright? ;)


So, as of a year or two ago, it's been a major goal of mine to become at least quadrilingual. Which isn't, in fact, a word, but that is neither here nor there. At this point, I have 7 languages on my list of languages to be fluent in by the time I die. In order of importance to me, they are the following: Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Swahili, Portuguese, and French. All beautiful languages, and all useful.


My biggest problem is this: once we all die and are resurrected, will any of us be speaking different languages? Or will we all remember the language we all spoke in the premortal life as soon as the veil is lifted? In which case, will I need any of the knowledge I have about languages in the eternal perspective? My heart tells me it's worth it to learn them, but I still haven't quite come up with an answer to the afterlife thing....


Anyway, I guess the point is that I love foreign languages, and by gum, I am going to learn as many as I can before I die!!


That is all.