vaga #1/26 languages
部 = XXVI
PART XXVI
Sounds with meanings that are incomprehensible to me for three years, and it is part of my daily life. Not only are they incomprehensible and there are many that are definitely unapproachable. The incomprehensible, but approachable in some way is to be able to spell and read them, these are the ones that use the Latin alphabet, only two, Vietnam and Indonesia and the rest are impossible. One who comes and knows the Latin alphabet down from Greek, A for alpha, B for beta and so on... which are also lines and circles, however it does not impress us, they are universally known and is the one that rules in the world to communicate, either in English, Spanish ..... It does not catch our attention. Encountering symbols or characters that I do not recognise, they attract me a lot, they have a wonderful graphic beauty.
I'm going to start with its graphic symbols. I am fascinated by the visual grace of these. Its multiple combinations of lines, circles, semicircles with "butterflies" up and down, some with hard angles, others only curves and those that use both forms combined. The visual, here is the graphic, my eyes as always curious and restless and facing so many lines and circles I can not stop appreciating them. I go on to share the graphics so alien to ours with their magical and mysterious shapes, from countries I have travelled so far to be appreciated as drawings of lines and circles. I thank "google translator" who gave me these graphs, !! what a wonder !!, there were more than a hundred languages to select from even the most remote languages, extraordinary. It is a tool that breaks communication barriers never seen before and at a speed, copied from Google -About 639,000,000 results (0.89 seconds) - PLOP !! The only language that I did not find and was with its people that is spoken by more than 3 million people are "Balinese", which is not an official language of Indonesia. They are all of high complexity and being able to reproduce or write them would take years and I who am dyslexic have no possibility of approaching the first word. I think that of the graphs that I will show if different fonts or typographies were added to each one, it would be a more incompressible graphic and visual madness.
JUST ONE WORD "WELCOME"
សូមស្វាគមន៍ うこそ පිළිගනිමු स्वागतम्ยิ นดีต้อนรับ සාදරයෙන් اهلا வரவேற்பு ברוך הבא ຍິນດີຕ້ອນຮັບ . ကြိုဆိုပါတယ်
in order not to interrupt the graph, I put the languages in their order: Cambodia, Japan, Sinhala "a" (Sri Lanka), Nepal, Thailand, Sinhala "b" (Sri Lanka), Arabic, Tamil (Sri Lanka), Hebrew, Laos, Myanmar. In some Southeast Asian countries there are many coincidences of forms due to their proximity to each other and cultural exchanges for centuries. Seeing the set of symbols by countries suggest sensations as well as:
Arabic اهلا is poetic, Japanese うこそ is contemporary graphics, Nepali is स्वागतम्ยิ is hard, rigid, always with its straight lines, that of Laos សូមស្វាគមន៍ hysterical, Hebrew ברוך הבא synthesis of lines and is the maximum contract with the Burmese ကြိုဆိုပါတယ် which is cheerful and so far my favourite.
the text platform is very limited on the blog, however, I played with some symbols of the word "welcome", something playful, literally doodling and could play eternally combining lines and circles from between several languages and perhaps create more than one image worthy of printing, these are just some of the several that I entertained myself playing with.
a dance
nosy ladies in the window
teenagers walking through the market
I found the "at" @ in the Tamil language, Sri Lanka, I thought that some Internet web graphic creator had designed it as a unique symbol, !! nope !! I found it here, it caused me to smile any time I saw it again.
VARIATIONS OF THE @
following in Sri Lanka and as I mentioned it has 3 official languages and everything is written in three languages and are of different symbols, even the coins of one rupee. Switzerland, has three official languages and Canada two for example, but always with Latin letters, here 3 different types of characters are mixed. Even certain newspapers in large cities everything is written in 3 languages.
Nepal, its calendar is a chaos, for one, for its complicated and incomprehensible graph, it also worsens it since the months do not coincide with the rest of the world, they are off by 16 days. Those who work with the West quickly know how to change the dates, and the year that does not coincide either. In the first calendar the figures of the Buddha positions that correspond to each day of the week come out and in the second one it is seen that the month begins on July 17 until August 16, it is a tangle when it comes to organising some dates.
at the time of the graphic doodles we are given sounds, not all the lines and circles that one can draw have sound, only those which for centuries and centuries have been gestating, mixing between people and perfected, and they serve to communicate to us. Several sounds together produce a word and the sequence of sounds, a phrase. They are sounds with meanings and that's how it happens, to make a language. The language identifies its people, its culture marks its difference with other countries or ethnicities. There are few languages that do not have the written word.
I am not worried about non-understanding, it does not intimidate me, I know that there are people who are distressed by not being able to understand or make themselves understood. I look for other ways to reach the same end, to communicate. The effort has to be made by one, it is their country, and I am the one who does not speak their language, they tell me "no English" and I say "no Nepali" as if to make it clear that it is not their fault, but mine. Then it's the pantomimes that come into action. I have a "PhD" in hand gesticulation and facial expressions, where the smile does not fail to make things understood. There are physical codes and universal expressions; laughter, crying, supplication, grief, worry, are some of them and understandable by all. Google has a voice translator and text, a great tool, I don't use it at all, I'm old school. An Argentinian acquaintance who does not speak any English and is in Thailand on an island for reasons of force majeure, and it is complicated and goes for years, I saw her and the way she handles herself only with English translator, and Thai, photo to the menu and translates, she speaks in Spanish to the cell phone and is verbally translated into Thai, she moves without much urge to only google. Google can do everything, it is me that can not, for example in Thailand where I am residing google provides you with the name of someone translated into Latin letters, !!! great !!!, I can know what to call it by name, and you find these examples of some ministers of the country:
Termpittayapaisith Juangroongruangkit Wangsupakitkosol Ratchakitprakan, finance, industry, commerce, and tourism
you are out of place...... I have seen many doctors and I tremble when I ask for their last names, it is clear why.
some humour also in language, communication, there are other universal graphics, not phonetic, and you only need eyes to understand. The first photo I appreciate very much since it is of first necessity and is everywhere with the most varied designs and saves me without language. The other photo at Tokyo airport, to make sure you pee properly lol.....
it was difficult for me to understand the ATMs, this is from my bank, "Bangkok Bank" since I have an account because I am a resident, and it is a condition to have the money in a Thai bank. Nine, yes, 9 languages on screen, English is the only one with Latin letters, although it is difficult to find it and always goes next to another language once you select it. In its order: Thai, English, Chinese, Japanese, the next, no idea and maybe Chinese, -there is traditional Chinese and abbreviated Chinese-, but I have no idea, I just guess, then Burmese, the next two are from Laos and Cambodia (I don't know which is which) and Arabic and to top it off it was out of service lol
the photos that come next are my favourite, and some will be repeated because it also corresponds to this topic. They are the ones that one "communicates" with gestures and sometimes I have touched on "a communication" from soul to soul, that is only felt and is always on both sides, it is innocent and genuine. An example with Mom Novi in Bali, when we said goodbye she took my hand she did not speak any English, looking at me, she spoke to me for about 2 minutes, I listened to her with all my attention. I knew and without understanding that she thanked me for the things I had done for her daughter, that she wished me good health, and she blessed me, I answer her in English, "the same for you" - in case she had blessed me or cursed me ha - Peter, saw this scene, "mom what did she say to you, -no idea-", same with Moy's mom, deaf dialogues. Receiving a cup of tea, being invited to sit by the fire in silence, without talking, just being. They shake your hand as they say goodbye, over and over again, or they fall apart in bows. These are moments that I keep with great appreciation. Sounds without any understanding, only invisible fibres and manage to connect in that intimate space. It touches me and I never forget them, as I forget many of the banal conversations.
some photos of these encounters, most of these experiences I don’t have photos as I was alone, and I am not a selfie person
with Novi's mom, (Bali), at home having lunch with the Xixi family, (Vietnam) with Novi's dad who took me on tours and drove me around Bali, with no more than 10 words in English, that girl who took me by the hand to take me to the river, (Vietnam), with the Bali cook, a lunch where nobody spoke English in Bali
about the language not understanding, nor making yourself understood, my daughter Sofia, a photographer at 22 years old told me very enthusiastically that she had learned from a photographer who travelled through Central America and told her how to reach people to take pictures. Of course, their target was the ethnic groups of the Mayan highlands, I have been there and the reaction against the whites is impressive, which I will relate in the future. The advice was that he took pictures and showed them in the digital camera, that works, I have done it, but it is limited, you could get to deepen the meeting more and from there you can take the photos as photographers. There I realised how it works for me, first is sharing, having something they like, sweets to the children, some fruit, cigarettes, engaging in small dialogues with mimicry and above all given time to let go, you can not walk and take photos when you pass by the past half or arrive with a tremendous camera with a zoom lens that weighs a kilo, that intimidates anyone, while a cell phone today does not scare almost anyone, then after the break you can take all the photos you want, the truth is that I felt much more successful than your colleague and I stress that being a woman helps to lower the barriers. Time, crucially, is needed to make some connections first.
a way to reach people without language is to share something they like, and it does not fail, in the photos are those of mandarins, beers, cigarettes and pencils here nor was the word "OK" understood
I love these for the moment I spent, with two Nepalese women, in Gopal's room, in Kathmandu, after lunch, a friend of his wife’s appeared out of curiosity, it is not common for a "westerner" to appear in those neighbourhoods and in the building where he had his room. We ended up playing, sitting on the bed, it was the only thing to sit on, with the cute bracelets, for more than an hour. Bracelets that all women wear, are thin in many colours and are combined. That is the game, how to combine them, there are thousands of possibilities and they in their daily lives do it all the time, and it is a reason to share with friends, and I was one more playing with them. Green next to red, or maybe gold, a blue, 3 yellow not better again a green and so on. You can even put 20 bracelets on one wrist and as many on the other and every day you change designs. Zero English and a lot of laughter, they taught me how to make the combinations until I made my own that they approved of, hahahaha, we laughed so much, playing like teenage girls, in the end they gave me several, and I wore them for a long time.
I have 10 thousand photos on the phone and I have already deleted another 10 thousand, and this photo is one is my favourite, because we communicated, she opened up, she invited me to sit next to her, we ate the mandarins together, and she laughed and did not stop looking at me, curious about how the westerners are, and I was as curious about how she was in her lost hamlet in the mountains She held my hands all the time, Peter, took the pictures. Here we spent the afternoon and only at the end she relaxed after observing me from afar for a long time. Language of soul to soul, open, simple, innocent, genuine, because even the "OK" was not understood Kathmandu Valley 2018
また近いうちにお会いしましょう
"see you soon" in Japanese, what a wonder