Tea With Tarvos - Tarvos' Log 2019

[tarvos]

Hahaha, no it does not. 乌鸦 is the Chinese word for crow。(wu1ya1). 鹤 is a crane.

I love crows, they are intelligent. It refers to a Satyricon song. The reason for the lyrics was that the singer/guitar player was recording, and the recording studio he was in had a view of a cemetery. A crow landed and perched on a tombstone and kept looking at him as if he'd done something wrong. The song is titled "Black Crow on a Tombstone".

Ravens and other corvids in general in Germanic and Northern culture are omens of bad luck. They were also the messengers of the gods (Huginn and Muninn). Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a background in metal. Scandinavian metal bands often use dark, Nordic or pagan symbolism in their works (they are not necessarily pagans, though; Johan Hegg is an atheist but Amon Amarth's lyrics are all based on Norse mythology. Same goes for other musicians such as Heri Joensen of Týr). I love the sinister symbolism, it appeals to me.

This is also the reason I've got a few tattoos related to Chinese culture on me. I like the imagery and symbolism and want some nice art on me. But the one thing I don't do is have them done in the traditional Chinese or Japanese style - they are adapted to western and more old-school tattoo art styles. For a first, everyone's already seen that style, and for a second, I'm not Asian, it would be weird. The western style with the Oriental themes shows the mix of the person I am - a westerner who has lived in the east.

The same goes for my accent by the way - I don't mind localisms in speech or accent. People can tell I speak northern Chinese with erhuayin and I don't mind it at all. It shows where I learned the language and it tells people about my history. And it's a source of banter.

[tarvos]

Still working on Spanish, my Greek book is coming along slowly, and I've started with some Shanghainese phrases and working on the pronunciation. I can more or less pronounce Shanghainese, but I have to pay attention to a few details to get it right. The tones are working out okay though.

[DaveBee]

Ravens and other corvids in general in Germanic and Northern culture are omens of bad luck. They were also the messengers of the gods (Huginn and Muninn). Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a background in metal. Scandinavian metal bands often use dark, Nordic or pagan symbolism in their works (they are not necessarily pagans, though; Johan Hegg is an atheist but Amon Amarth's lyrics are all based on Norse mythology. Same goes for other musicians such as Heri Joensen of Týr). I love the sinister symbolism, it appeals to me.

I think eskimos and north american indians have a creation myth that begins with a raven.

[tarvos]

Ravens and other corvids in general in Germanic and Northern culture are omens of bad luck. They were also the messengers of the gods (Huginn and Muninn). Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a background in metal. Scandinavian metal bands often use dark, Nordic or pagan symbolism in their works (they are not necessarily pagans, though; Johan Hegg is an atheist but Amon Amarth's lyrics are all based on Norse mythology. Same goes for other musicians such as Heri Joensen of Týr). I love the sinister symbolism, it appeals to me.

I think eskimos and north american indians have a creation myth that begins with a raven.

I didn't know.

Just a sidenote: in North America, you should never call the First Nations Eskimos. It's offensive. (In the US, they are called Native Americans). I say First Nations because that is the term you use in Canada. I don't know what the correct term is in the UK, but I think you should follow local usage here.

[WalkingAlone13]

Ravens and other corvids in general in Germanic and Northern culture are omens of bad luck. They were also the messengers of the gods (Huginn and Muninn). Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a background in metal. Scandinavian metal bands often use dark, Nordic or pagan symbolism in their works (they are not necessarily pagans, though; Johan Hegg is an atheist but Amon Amarth's lyrics are all based on Norse mythology. Same goes for other musicians such as Heri Joensen of Týr). I love the sinister symbolism, it appeals to me.

I think eskimos and north american indians have a creation myth that begins with a raven.

I didn't know.

Just a sidenote: in North America, you should never call the First Nations Eskimos. It's offensive. (In the US, they are called Native Americans). I say First Nations because that is the term you use in Canada. I don't know what the correct term is in the UK, but I think you should follow local usage here.

In the UK the correct term would be Inuits, though to be fair a lot of people here use the wrong term out of nescience.

[blaurebell]

Just a sidenote: in North America, you should never call the First Nations Eskimos. It's offensive. (In the US, they are called Native Americans). I say First Nations because that is the term you use in Canada. I don't know what the correct term is in the UK, but I think you should follow local usage here.

Yes, Inuit also in Germany. Of course in Europe there is little talk about First Nations because there are only Greenland Inuit here. According to what I just read, in Alaska it's apparently ok to say Eskimo because not all First Nations there are Inuit. I think First Nations is a pretty good compromise between factual correctness and political correctness, although I don't think anyone outside of Canada will know what it means.

[tarvos]

First Nations isn't only about Inuit, but also about other tribes that roamed North America before the Europeans came along. I think the name of the Inuit refers specifically to that group, and First Nations refers to everybody as a whole; and in the US, they say Native Americans instead.

[vonPeterhof]

I thought the reason the term "Eskimo" was seen as less controversial in Alaska than in Canada was the fact that Alaska has speakers of languages from both the Inuit group and the Yup'ik group of the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Canada only has speakers of Inuit languages, so there it makes sense to use the term "Inuit" instead of "Eskimo" at all times, while in the US the term "Inuit" technically wouldn't apply to Yup'ik people, making the term "Eskimo" useful as a collective name. But then, I don't know if the Yup'ik people ever actually saw themselves as part of a greater grouping together with the Inuit and to the exclusion of the Aleuts and other Alaska Natives/First Nations, so this use of the term "Eskimo" could still be nothing more than a colonialist label.

Incidentally, in Russia the situation is the opposite of Canada, in that there are at least two Yup'ik languages/dialects spoken in the country but no Inuit languages. Those Yup'ik varies were officially referred to as dialects of the "Eskimo language" at least as late as the 1970s, and the people speaking them are generally referred to as "Eskimo people" to this day.

[tarvos]

Russia is a different story, but in Canada it's just not done to call Inuit Eskimo or the First Nations Indians any longer.

I'm in the middle of a move, so I'm a bit stressed out because of work, move, and a lot of other stuff that is going on in my private life (mostly on the psychological and medical front), but nevertheless I have finally completed my Greek novel. It was terrible and I don't recommend it to anyone, except if you want to learn a bunch of new Greek words (it was good for that at least). The plot was bad, the characters lacked so much personality it was horrifying and the writing was juvenile. It was basically a Greek horror/thriller type novel, but with some really terrible New Age influences at the end.

Anyone who thinks they can resolve a story by having people use meditation techniques and appeal to their "Higher Self" to get rid of a memory-transplanted evil dude called Solovaid (Diavolos backwards; the main character's name is Solengas, which in Greek reads Angelos backwards in certain cases). There is a scientific experiment going on with memory transplants but it is never explained why; there is a kidnapping with zero rhyme or reason; it all just kind of exists but there are so many plot holes I wonder why I spent the money.

So. Never buying one of that guy's books again.

I'm also still studying Spanish (easy) and Shanghainese (not so easy). Shanghainese is fun in the sense that it's a challenge to get it right, but the help from Mandarin is such that it's not so exhausting trying to figure everything out. Many things are the same in terms of vocab, but the characters just have another pronunciation - okay, I can deal with that (and I may learn a few new ones in the process). Explanations of things occur in Mandarin, which is great, because I kill two birds with one stone and anyway, my Mandarin is good enough for this to work out just fine.

That said, I would NOT try learning Shanghainese if I hadn't learned Mandarin beforehand - it would have been too confusing and too much of a hassle. Because Shanghainese is barely written down and its use is in decline, any materials rely on English and Mandarin for translations (the latter, I was told, are generally terrible). Learning Shanghainese on its own without resources to access - it can be done, I guess, but you have to live in Shanghai and do it the hard way. And many people from Shanghai don't even speak Shanghainese these days, because they're all immigrants to the city themselves (and thus they use Mandarin to communicate).

That said, I love Shanghainese and it's a load of fun - but I am very happy I learned Mandarin beforehand, because it's a huge discount on the learning process, even with my middle-of-the-road level.

[tarvos]

I've started reading Después del invierno by Guadalupe Nettel, which is a book that I received the other week from far away Mexico. Spanish is always welcome, so I've decided to read it now. And I've already read over a hundred pages despite the move, so I'll continue to read in the meanwhile when I am not busy packing stuff up.

Yeah! Spanish! Woo!