A narrative: I will!
English, a language that is used in many parts of the world.
English, a language that is not my motherlanguage.
English, a language most used on chess blogs.
English, a language i must master so that i can express myself fluently and coherent in my entries on my blog.
English, a language in which my vocabulary isn’t big enough to express myself the way i want.
English, a language … .
I love to write. I love chess. I wish i could say the same about writing about chess. It makes me pick my brain so that i dont forget the thiniest points. I want to tell the story correct, not missing any details.
Is what i write understood by those that read it? Do they learn something from it? Do they find it good enough to return when another entry is posted? Does it make their grey mass work? Does it answer their questions?
This to say that i find it hard to come up with entries. Entries that are understandable and meaningfull to you as well as myself. It’s not that i dont want to. My brain sometimes explodes with all the material i want to tell, put on my blog. But when i begin with the translation from dutch, my motherlanguage, to english sweat starts dripping of my forehead. My hands, usually steady marching over the keys of my keyboard, start to tremble of unknown nervousity.
I will not stop blogging. The love is just to great, i would miss it if i decided to stop. I will keep my best to come up with intresting chess blog entries. Or must i say ramblings? I will do my best to find the correct english words to express myself. Trust me.
I will!
October 17, 2008 at 4:09 am
You’ve already written more in English then I’ll ever write in Dutch. I’m always amazed at how well tempo, phaedrus and you can express yourself in another language.
October 17, 2008 at 7:04 am
I cant speak for tempo and phaedrus since they are from the netherlands but here in belgium we dont have not one national language but three namely dutch (or flemish if you want to call it that way), french and german. So in school we get to learn already another language.
English we learn while watching movies, well atleast the basics. So hip hip hooray Hollywood.
and in highschool you get some english (one or two hours a week) depending in which direction you choose to study in. I choose for biochemistry which means i only had one hour english due to the fact that i had plenty of practise lessons of laboratorium.
I dont know for sure but i think that in america one only learns another language if one chooses to do so. I doubt that in school and highschool a second language is offered if you dont choose for it voluntarily. Or am i mistaken? This makes that in europe we are ahead of america because of our multilanguistical skills.
October 17, 2008 at 7:50 am
You are doing great so far. Don’t worry, we can understand you fine. If we can understand what Tempo is saying, we can understand anyone!
October 17, 2008 at 7:51 am
Also, if you don’t care, you will do it better. When in Mexico I always am most fluent in Spanish when I am most relaxed (e.g., a couple of drinks in me
)
October 17, 2008 at 9:29 am
@ BDK
“Hips” ‘Burps’ Another beer please! “Peeing against the bar”
Well i read Tempo’s blog entries and had to put a dictionary beside me because he usses so much big words, well atleast in my eyes, i thought i was reading an essay of a professor.
What Tempo says is intresting but sometimes i wonder if he couldn’t have said it in an easier way. But then again it wouldn’t be Tempo anymore.
October 17, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hi CT,
In general, the state of foreign language education in the US is deplorable.
There are exceptions, however. A lot depends on the school district –how well it’s funded, and what the commitment to foreign language education in that locale is.
Because there is no national educational system in the US, every school district gets to make its own decisions on what curriculum to use, what programs it will fund, and how much of its resources it will allocate to any given program. Schools in affluent areas can provide just about any level of funding for any program that they want. I’ve heard of a few schools in enlightened districts that have actually implemented foreign language immersion programs at the elementary school level. Of course, those are very exceptional cases. But schools in poor or depressed areas work with more limited budgets, and foreign language education is one of the first programs that is usually deemed expendable and cut.
Then there are the elite private preparatory schools, which typically have a greater emphasis on foreign languages.
Anyway, the number of students who graduate from HS each year who can communicate in a foreign language is rather low. Other factors include the fact that few American kids have any opportunity to use a foreign language outside of class in their real lives.
Then, there is also a negative attitude toward learning foreign languages in some quarters. A couple of months ago, Barack Obama said that our country should educate more of its people to be able to speak another language, and that he regretted not having learned one. The Republicans immediately jumped on that and said “Obama wants to make everyone speak Spanish!!!” It was part of their strategy to paint him as different from most Americans, as “other,” as foreign. They did the same thing four years ago, when they used the fact that John Kerry was fluent in French to help them make the case that he was an “elitist,” out of touch with ‘mainstream America.’
Sigh
October 18, 2008 at 5:58 am
English is not my mother tongue too. By the way, reading/writing a lot of emails at work a while ago helped me to improve it, so the more you write here, the better your English will be
.
October 19, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I’ve taught English (literature really) and writing intensive history, so I’ve spent countless hours grading written work by American college students. Your English is better than many for whom English is the first (and only) language. Although your blog has a few characteristic ESL (English as Second Language) errors, you do a great job!
Your English is far better than my German, and all I know of Dutch is that is shares an affinity with German. But so does English.
I would suggest one correction, though: strength is misspelled in your banner. This is the first thing visitors to your blog see.
Keep writing.
October 19, 2008 at 10:38 pm
@ es_trick
What you descrive i call class education. By this i mean that who has money (may) get decent education others dont. With other words, those that are poor stay poor and those that are rich stay rich and in a class higher then the rest.
What i find strange is that America is so big in saying that everyone is equal for the law but this school system that you descrive is once again the proof that in America nobody is equal for the law and the difference starts already by the kids.
What happened to Obama and Kerry i dont find even strange coming from America. The land where they even win lawsuits against Mcdonalds because on the package of the fast food wasn’t printed that one would become fat if eating it to much.
Thanks for the lenghty comment!
@ Rolling Pawns
You are not from a country where english is the first language? Gosh, never would have guessed. May i ask from which country you are?
@ James Stripes
Not to denigrated americains but i have the feeling that before the bank crisis they had a feeling that they were standing on top of the world and due to that thought that they could do what they wanted without even doing an effort for it. Now, with the financial crisis going on they fell from their pedestal. Hopefully change is coming.
Thanks for your compliment about my english, much appreciated.
The mistake in my banner is fixed, now i can only hope it gives me the strength to remember how to write the word strength correctly.
October 20, 2008 at 4:44 am
I am from the former USSR, left it just before it became Russia and a bunch of others.
October 20, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I see. Dont you have pity you didn’t start sooner with chess then? Afterall chess education was very good in the former USSR. Who knows what could have been GM Rolling Pawns.
October 20, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I remember being university student and getting lessons/playing in tournaments ( all free ) with 11-12-year boys. I played well and beat them quite a few times. Then, a few years later, I met them once, they all became Candidate Masters. When later I finally got my 1st category, I don’t know at which level they were at that point
.
October 21, 2008 at 12:10 am
1ste category in the USSR isn’t that bad. You must have been a real decent player back then. I wonder how long you have stopped with chess before you started again. I also wonder how it comes you lost all the chess knowlegde you had. It cant all be gone.
October 21, 2008 at 3:25 am
I didn’t play seriously for about 20 years, just occasionally with computer.
I didn’t lose my chess knowledge, actually all strategic ideas, positional stuff like weak pawns/ isolated d4 pawn/hanging pawns, different types of combinations, almost all openings, etc. I got at that time, not now. In the past my practical side was always quite behind of the theoretical one. After winning 1st place at the 2nd category tournament and getting the first one I didn’t play anymore. I knew essentially more than average 1st category guy did, but probably that guy would overplay me at least in the first 1st category tournaments.
Now I am trying somehow reconcile theory and practice, though I actually play more, than study. Sometimes I think I play better than in the past, but when I perform like yesterday ( losing to 250 lower rated guy in 28 moves ) I don’t know what to think.
Being in the top few percent at the chess.com probably doesn’t mean much, since there is a lot of patzers there.
October 21, 2008 at 7:00 am
If i am not mistaken Dan Heisman wrote that practise and study must be 50% versus 50%. Which i find a good percentage average to go for. If the knowlegde was there in the past i guess all it needs is a good refresher to unlock it from your subconsious.
Maybe you must play at chesscube.com or fics (freechess.org) if you want more thougher competition to play against. But chess servers i find good.
October 21, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Yeah, 50/50 is right. I play on FICS, yes, you can find strong players there and on chess.com now I am getting good opponents too. Chess servers are too good
, chesscube – OK, here is another one 
.
October 21, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I did play on FICS aswell. I even was TM, SR and admin on that chess server. Ok, i agree that i was for a long time adicted to FICS.
Chesscube is a little chess server but the players strength is as mixed as on the bigger chess servers. I like it since there is less chat and obnoxious players around.