Fangen wir an!

All right then…where to begin?

Well, first off, in case you who are wondering, the blog title is German for “Let’s start”. Why German? Well because I took German for two years in school, and really never get to use even the little bit I retained. So why not use it here? Warum nicht? See? There I go again!

Anyway, I said on the homepage that I was going to start doing at least two blogs a week, detailing some of the funny, weird, and quirky stories and ponderings associated with my path as a musical artist. Will you learn anything? Not likely. Will you be inspired? Who knows?! Will you be entertained? I hope so. After all, as serious as this music business and this life can be, we shouldn’t lose sight of the humour in it all, right? Natürlich!

So onward with the blog…where was I…oh, right – German. I love languages. I always thought (hoped) that I would have a career that took me all over the world, so I figured I should learn as many languages as possible. Being a native Montrealer, I became billingual in French and English very young…so that was a good start. My grandparents were Sicilian, so I learned some basic Italian expressions over the years. I also studied four years of Spanish, two years of German, and two years of…LATIN! Why Latin? There are not too many ancient Romans roamin’ the streets these days…but it was compulsory in school. “Compulsory”, by the way, is a word derived from the Latin, “compellere” (to drive together), which is in turn made up of two Latin words: “com” (together) and “pellere” (to drive). See? You DID learn something after all!

The problem is, with any language, if you don’t use it you eventually lose it. So here I am now in Toronto – still fluent in English (I think), and somewhat fluent in French. But as for the other languages? Well, I am basically able to order a snack in Spanish (“bocadillo”); verify the speed limit in German (“Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung”); swear profusely in Sicilian (“Ma…#^&amp:#@!…a”), and conjugate the verb “to be” in Latin (“sum, ess, est, sumus, estis, sunt”). Fat lot of good that’ll do me!

So what lesson have I learned? Maybe it’s to focus on one or two languages at a time, and master them, rather than butchering SIX at once?! Maybe it’s that music transcends all language and breaks down perceived cultural barriers, allowing for a world united in peace and harmony. Or maybe it’s just that I should come up with a more compelling topic for my next blog. Hey look – “compelling”…from the Latin word “com” (together), plus…aaaah, never mind.

13 / October / 2007  English   

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