Some of you, the Europeans for certain, speak a handful of languages. I know you’ll agree with me when I say the following: You know you’re getting a good grip on a language when you start thinking in that language.
The first time I travelled to France (I’ve been thrice) I was on an exchange and I stayed with a lovely family in the Tours region. My French was mauvais, compared to some, but by the end of my stay I found that I was starting to think in the language thanks to the effect of language immersion on my mind and tongue.
In the same way, I’ve noticed lately that I’m starting to see the world in frames. I’m starting to think in camera! Can you believe it? My brief history with photography began in high school where I took 8 semesters, back to back, of graphic arts — including photography theory, as well as film and image developing. I loved it. It’s like the scent of developing chemicals was a perfume and I was drawn in like a luna month heady with the effect of pheromones. I continued taking photos up until this very day but it’s not until recently that I have starting seeing the world as a jumble of chopped up images waiting to be captured like butterflies in a net. It’s quite a thrill.
Anyway, it got me to pondering about other languages we can speak besides French or Camera. What’s your language (besides the one you speak) and how is it affecting your life?
What do you speak and how does it affect the view of your environments?
I’ll tell you how speaking Camera is further affecting my life, I’ve got a sore shoulder all the time from carrying my rig all over the place…it must weigh four pounds….(???) Things are getting crazy. I rarely leave home without my gun and usually take a minimum of 100 photos a day. That’s a bit obsessive, but I know I’ll regret it if I miss even one opportunity to make an image.
In other news,
Winona says, “What’s up?”
It’s Friday here. I can feel it in the air. Everyone is charging up for the weekend. The sky seems thick with storms. Last night, while at a barbecue, a glorious thunder bumper rolled into the valley and the air was crackling with green light and rainbows and when golden hour struck, I nearly fell right out of my cowboy boots. I thought I’d go blind from the pool of beauty I was sitting in but I’m still seeing the world frame by frame today. Thank goodness.
I was going to try to do a shop update this afternoon but I’m feeling too hurried so I’m postponing it until Monday, August 9.
In the meanwhile, please try to behave yourselves.
xx
P
Just thought I'd mention that the 8th is Sunday. I didn't want anyone to miss the shop update!
Pfffft!!!
GUFFAW!!!!!
Thanks Firepan!
x
My most fluent languages are: English, Spanish and Vietnamese, with secondary languages including: French and Italian.
It's so funny what you said about thinking in a language, because that very thing happened to me years ago whilst I was a young gal visiting Vietnam. I was taking Spanish lessons at the time, so when I was visiting and speaking in Vietnamese, I would hear what someone said to me in my head in Vietnamese, then translate it to Spanish and then to English. It was crazy how fast it all happened and how it came to be nearly an after thought.
Then when I traveled to Europe, I started doing the same with French to Spanish and then to English or Italian to French, then to English and to Spanish. My head was just a jumble of delectable foreign phrases and conjunctions.
I'm afraid I'm terribly out of practice nowadays, as I have no one to speak Vietnamese, French or Italian to, and therefore no reason to think in such languages.
But when I do travel I enjoy nothing better than shedding my American coat and disappearing into the city and culture, trying to soak up every syllable, phrase, conjunction, gesture, though I know I'll never quite pass as a native. Something charming about roaming about in a city where you know not a single soul, but manage to get along just the same.
xoxo,
Cathy
i speak in painting.
framed compostion, color break down, lights and darks.
and then this underlying itch to get a canvas..
Mmm, I think I definitely speak "camera" (you know, in addition to French and English and what not). Maybe I also speak "mama" and "partner", or perhaps "woman".
Good languages, indeed.
I speak glass or fire and am often asked to translate into English for others. And I speak Camera now. I love mine and it goes everywhere with me. I'm planning on buying a second one that's at the lower end so I can teach my kids how to speak Camera and shoot in manual mode. I can't wait!
I often think in poetry, that is, the most surprising things present themselves in almost complete phrases. I carry a notebook to take them down, but as often as not, the magic is gone when I find the time to actually sit down to work on them.
I also think in jewelry, which is somewhat awkward, because I don't have the skills or training to make any… Beautiful stuff (nature's wonders mostly) cry out to me to be poured out to silver and gems. Sometimes I try to convey my ideas to a jewelrymaker. I've considered getting trained myself, but life's too busy right now. Perhaps when I'm retired someday.
Lachesis aka Elli, for the Plume 🙂
i shall make jewelry in the language of "chicken butt"
bwahhh hahahahah!
cute chicken butts!
Hee!…I speak camera for a lot of the day – seeing frames, color and most especially light.
When not speaking camera, I speak C# (programming language)…or maybe computer programmer is more accurate – but it is A language as when 3 on my programming team work together (via the internet), it is a language that we all get but family members just shake their heads and roll their eyes…
And I do speak a bit of dog and cat as well, although Karl (dog) and Bob (cat) say I have an abominable accent!
Thought provoking post Plume,
I speak camera, cat, English…
I also speak some gibberish when words fail…As they often do.
When I was working as a luthier I also spoke/thought in wooden bends…I'd find myself driving around a bend in the road and wonder how hard it would be to get such a sharp curve in the rosewood…The craft popped up in the oddest places of my life, thoughts and dreams…
It's nice to get so into something that it becomes a part of your language…
xo
Andrea
Happy Friday Miss Plume…I speak in several, dream in several, think in several, and in photos too even though you cannot tell from my blog; that is only because my cats are sassy and my eyes are blurry tired when I chase them around…I worked for a photographer way back when, with the big cameras, and loved playing with film…oops, nowadays, I also speak in molecules and waves and really, most of my thoughts have a molecular formula…Happy Friday Happy Friday! Tell that Winona that a lady wears a foofy underwear at least! xoxoxo
I speak & experience the world in colours – some moments are chartreuse, others are vermillion, and some of my favourite moments have been naples yellow… and in songs… there are days of my life that revolve around 'and she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from china' – music and colour are by far a more expressive language! and then there are smells…. burnt toast running late monday, black coffee & marmalade late sunday breakfast…. life is a rich tapestry of sensory communication!
i speak glass… i see patterns and shapes and i spend hours in my mind building it out of glass. my dreams are glassy too. i speak glass.
really wish i summer vacation would end so that i could take a staycation to my studio and work on my glass fluency more. *sigh*
I see the world in spaces. How they are arranged, how they make me feel, how successful they are at bringing people together or giving them a safe and comforting place to be along. I've been trained as a designer of spaces and can't help but notice and analyze everywhere I go, noting what different cultures hold important.
Sometimes I abhor the fact that I just can't simply enjoy a place, but rather pick it apart! But, I am able to create those that others live and play in and don't have to think about, where they can just be.
ps – my word verification begins with "hen", appropriate given the photo of your ladies!
Oh! No wonder that I sometimes feel a bit out of place here … as if I am trespassing in a different world. Trespassing is the wrong word. Eavesdropping! Yes. Peeking into a world of art and beauty.
I only speak English and I'm not an artist. I think in numbers and logic statements and rules. If X then Y. If Y then Z. Therefore, if X then Z.
I speak, think, and dream in German as well as in my native English…AND in canine and feline. The latter two are especially important: They allow me not only to communicate with some of my best friends but also to taste parts of the universe my own senses cannot apprehend. My best ideas come as images, both still and moving–a literal pre-view. Wouldn't say I see in frames, exactly, but I'm very quick to perceive designs or events in space, or spaces.
Ah HA!!!!!!
……I knew you to all be extraordinary people. I just KNEW it.
What a lot of languages there are to speak in this world of ours!
jilly, I love this post, and I love the way you think!
I'm late but, I was away… trying to speak one of the languages I love most, one of liebacks and gastons, backstepping and deadpoints. clipping (and taking. heh)
I believe you speak this language, too.
xo.mas