We have nothing in English to match the Danish "hygge" (meaning "instantly satisfying and cozy")

[beboots]

Quote = from my new favourite non-fiction book, "The mother tongue: English and how it got that way" by Bill Bryson. Seriously, if you're into history or linguistics or english or British culture or anything, really, go out and read that book.


In other news... I'm pretty bogged down with papers, like pretty much all other university students are this year. On the plus side, I have just finished my midterms! :D Huzzah! ... which means that I only have three weeks until my first final exam. -_-;

Status report:

Due this Thursday: Habsburg history research paper on Enlightened Absolutism on Maria Theresia & her two sons: 1,184 out of 2,500 words, plus editing time. So, I'm probably already in advance of half the class. ;)

Due this Tuesday (OMG Tuesday? Shit!) French paper on La Moustache (which is trippy, btw): er, 13 words. Out of 1,000. But I have most of a plan written I swear.

Also, tomorrow I have  a job interview for Fort Edmonton! :D I'm both excited and anxious. I'm worried that I'll sleep in, that I'll forget to take a tag off my new shirt, that I'll accidentally interrupt the interviewer, that they'll bring in an authentic Japanese person to test my Japanese skills... though luckily, our last unit was on job interviews. So I can use the correct level of politeness, and might not stumble too much.... I'm also worried that the interviewer will test my French skillz (which is more likely than the Japanese option), but that they won't understand me because I no longer speak the Quebecois dialect, although I understand it.

There is also a written portion. On Canadian history, I assume. I'm pretty solid on this era (well, anything pre-confederation, up to world war to, really), but not in Western history. I can talk for hours about Ontario and Quebec and the Maritimes... even Manitoba because I'm interested in the Métis and wrote a paper on them last semester, but... aside from Fur Trade politics, I don't know much. But that'll get me through part of the park - Fort Edmonton is, after all, a Hudson's Bay Company post.

Maybe I'm panicking for no reason. Maybe I'm overconfident and will fail because of that. I don't know.

We'll see how this turns out.

(Goddamn I really don't want to work at Superstore for another summer. D: If the interview goes well, when I go in to check my schedule tomorrow I'll hand in my two week's notice. Seriously, this time.)

Comments

[kuiskata]

Papers of fail. DDD: (*cough* I have 502 words. Of 2000-2500. On a paper I've been working on for a good three weeks...)

Good luck with your interview!! *cheers you on*

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Belated good luck with your essays and interviews and exams! omg, what was up with Canadian politics recently? I managed to follow some of it through ontd_political--what's your take on the entire situation just last year?

Also, Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue is FANTASTIC. You should read his companion book Made in America (English as it has evolved in America), and of course the rest of his travelogues. He's also written A Short History of Nearly Everything (I think I've got the title right...), which covers science, and a book on Shakespeare. He has an excellent grasp of humor. :DDDDDDD

I hope you're doing well! :) I haven't been on LJ in ages... >___>

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Re: Canadian politics? I assume you're talking about the unholy triumvate of NDP, Liberal and Bloc Québecois. Um... yeah. When I saw that in the newspaper, I seriously had a "What the HELL?!" moment. I actually groaned out loud while reading the article, and then tried to throw the paper across the room. (Newspapers not being very aerodynamic, this didn't work too well).

Personally, I think that Harper is doing a decent job. Period. Though, I think that people would have accepted a Liberal-NDP coalition... but the fact that they tried to bring in a SEPARATIST party to form the federal government? No dice. I think that even most staunch Liberal or NDP supporters were like "uh... yeah. Give it up guys. Harper won."

Bryson has written MOAR books? :DD Thank you for telling me! As soon as exams are over, I'm going to acquire a bunch of them... ;3

I hope that you're doing well too! I haven't seen you in ages!

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that triumvirate! That was so epic! No offense, but a lot of people were marveling at how interesting Canadian politics had suddenly become. ^^; How separatist has the Bloc Quebecois been lately, anyway? as far as I know from the ontd_p comm, people were saying that they weren't as vocal as before. But then I'm not Canadian, so I'd hardly know. XD

Yes, he has! His travelogues are quite witty and amusing. He also wrote a childhood memoir. :)

I know. ^^; I just never got back to LJ once university started sucking me in. But spring break has come & I'm trying to LJ on a regular basis again. :)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"How separatist"? Lol, I'll just go and check their nationalistic temperature... ;) They're always a presence. They have enough power in the House of Commons to piss people in other provinces off because they essentially ensure that Quebec gets preferential treatment. Like, they'll only vote for a bill sometimes if the ruling party puts something in that specifically benefits Quebec. This is especially true in minority governments, like the present one.

I actually just read an article like a few weeks ago about this one Bloc MP lady who was essentially saying that the best solution to the economic crisis (the GLOBAL one) was Quebec separation. Like, Quebec would magically be able to solve the financial crisis by clever and independent manipulation of... something... yeah, the author of the article was very derisive (and anglophone), but even through the mire of bias the Bloc's explanation didn't make sense.

Sometimes I think that if the Bloc ran more MPs in Ontario, anglophones would vote for separation just to get Quebec out of their hair. ;)

...I kid, of course. *shifty eyes*

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

hahaha, I guess you can only say that they're either separatist or non-separatist, my bad. :P That sort of sucks though, that Quebec gets preferential treatment. That coalition bollixed things up dreadfully; didn't the Liberal leader air his reaction tape late or something of the like? And how often does Canada have a minority govt?

... Quebec separation is the best solution to the global economic crisis? ... LOL XDDDDDDDDD if that were the case all the businessmen in the world would have forced Canada's hand by now and kicked Quebec out to be ostracized. :P

[beboots.livejournal.com]

The thing is, Stéphane Dion (the Liberal Leader) sent the French version of the speech to the station on time, but was late with the English version... which was out of focus. And he's notorious for having really, really bad English. People were also having a spaz when he was elected leader of the opposition because he has dual citizenship with France - like, conflict of interest or something?

Anyway, we do sometimes get minority governments, but they don't normally last this long. (I, er, assume you know what they are? I never know, when I'm talking to people who aren't in the Commonwealth. ;) )

YES I KNOW. WHY DIDN'T WE SEE IT BEFOAR IT IS ALL SO CLEAR TO ME NOW. To separatists Quebec separation is the solution to everything. We don't want the war in Afghanistan? Separate and pull out our troops. Don't like Canadian taxes? Separate and we'll decide our own! Don't like English? Separate, and of course no more English will get in! Global warming? Pish posh! Let's separate! ;)

I feel like I can make fun of them because I just wrote a paper on the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, and went to Quebec City and Montreal last month. It was funny - by the Provincial Parliament building, there are loads of bronze statues of famous Quebecois, and people from New France, etc. And then, randomly, a bust of Ghandi. Me and my friend Maialen were staring at it, wondering what the heck it was doing there. Ghandi is indeed awesome, but he'd never been to Quebec, didn't speak French, probably didn't even know the province existed...

Then I was like: wait a minute. What did Ghandi do? He successfully (and peacefully) got the British (English) out of India. XDDDD I think that they were hoping that some of his good karma rubbed off on the separatists. ;)

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

So that's what it was--and yes, I did hear about his Very Very Bad Eeeeenglish. The conflict of interest would be a big deal, I'd think.

Yeah, I looked up minority govts afterward to clarify what they were. The U.S. ought to teach more about other political systems besides a semester of comparative govt.

THE LIGHT HAS COME UPON US. THE WORLD IS A HAPPY PLACE. XDD What's the Quiet Revolution? rofl, they're probably just saying that Gandhi would be an honorary Quebecois if he lived in Canada, but your interpretation makes so much sense! Because Gandhi would be able to get the English out from anywhere. :P

[beboots.livejournal.com]

It's like tradition for one in every two or three Prime Ministers to have abominably bad English. It's just the way it goes.

They joke that Jean Chrétien, our PM in 2000, spoke bad English AND French (he had a stroke, you see, so had a distinctive facial expression with one side of his lip that didn't really move...)

Cool. You probably know more about Canadian politics than the average non-Canadian... or even the average Canadian. ;) Congrats! :D

The Quiet Revolution (OH GOD I'M getting that paper back in like twenty minutes - I'm sitting outside the classroom typing this) was a period of reforms in Quebec in the 1960s, where they threw off the shackles of the catholic church, put economic power in francophone, not anglophone, hands, etc.,etc.. They modernized and stuff. Also, incidentally, this is when they started swearing strangely, I think.

Oh, Ghandi... <3

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Did Wilfrid Laurier have bad English? (I think I spelled his name right? ^^;) :D

Not that I know very much, mind. XD

How was the paper? I see, basically when Quebec "reasserted its French heritage over the autocratic English yadda yadda?" :P Sometimes I think they worry too much (the Quebecois, I mean).

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I think that it's Wilfed with an "e", but otherwise, yeah. :) Actually, I think he had really good English.

http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=91

His big thing was anglophone-francophone reconcilliation. His cabinet was evenly split between the languages, etc.,etc. But then after he retired, World War I happened, and the conscription crisis, in which all of the Quebecois were vehemently opposed and all of the pro-British anglophone majority were for, and there were riots and nastiness and... yeah. He died knowing that they would never be friends. D:

Also, MOAR comics by Kate Beaton! http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=49
Yes, Canadians are cool. :3

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay! So the trend's broken, really. :P

Ahh, that must have been tough to keep together--props to him for trying. Of course everything would go to hell in a handbasket after his retirement. Disappointment for Laurier :||

Thank you for the links! These comics look fantastic. :DDD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Those comics really, really are. Read them all! :D Even if you have no idea who the people are, they're hilarious. XD

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying them very much. :DD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Good good! :D I keep pushing them on people. :3 Another one converted...