... said the editor: anthology 2021

I am pleased to announce that my submission to the #anthology ... said the editor: anthology 2021 was accepted and published. 

This #book on #editing is now on #Amazon #Kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/said-editor-anthology-2021-ebook/dp/B09PFHYKDT

Stewart Stafford

“Going to a country where you don't speak the language is like wading into the sea when you can't swim - it's intimidating at first, not impossible, and ultimately manageable.”
Stewart Stafford

An Introvert's Journey of Linguistic Discovery and Identity

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A memoir written with humor and heart, Languages & Life Lessons recounts the story of Afarin Rava, the only child of a travel-loving professor of literature with a passion for words and languages — a passion that borders on obsession. Afarin tells anecdotes of the challenges she faces and the lessons she learns as she cruises through languages and explores her journey of linguistic discovery and identity.

#book #introvert #journey #linguistic #discovery #identity

L&LL

 

Iran

Iran - circa 1993

a little history...
This is the citadel of Bam, also known as Arg-é Bam, in the Kerman Province, in southeastern Iran. It has a history dating back to the Parthian Empire, 247 BC to 224 AD, around 2,000 years ago. An earthquake, as a result of which over 30,000 people died, destroyed parts of Bam on December 26, 2003, around ten years after this photo was taken.

 

What Comes Next...

One book I enjoyed a great deal was What Comes Next and How to Like It, a memoir by Abigail Thomas. I read many memoirs in the last three years, while I was working on mine, and this one stood out. I don't know if it was the style, the short chapters, the theme, the author, or her dogs, but it got to me. I found its simplicity and honesty inspiring.

Vincent Massey

"We must pass through the barriers of language and race, of geography and religion, of custom and tradition and we must build on a common foundation." 
Vincent Massey

The Trio

 

L&LL

 

Saadi

Saadi, aka Saadi Shirazi, was born in Shiraz, Iran, in the thirteenth century. He was famous not only for his prose and his poetry but also for his long journeys. He wandered from country to country and wrote about both the spiritual and the practical aspects of life. 

Because I had spent most of the first decade of my life traveling, when I returned to Iran at the age of ten, friends and relatives called me "Saadi's Daughter" -- also hinting that my father traveled... and perhaps their way of telling us they had missed us.

In my first draft of Languages & Life Lessons, my introduction started with this translation of a poem by Saadi:

"Human beings are members of a whole,
in creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
the name of human you cannot retain." 

I changed my introduction because I definitely wanted to include Ferdowsi -- whose poems I recited as a child -- but didn't want to overwhelm readers with Persian literature in the first few pages.

...

Did you read the poem?
Now read it again.

Toni Morrison

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
Toni Morrison

Deleted Sections

I had written a couple of pieces about the war between Iran and Iraq, which started in 1980, after Iraq attacked Iran. I had spent those years in Iran, and both the war and its consequences were a part of my life, but I ended up deleting those sections because they included content that could be considered political, and, although I have strong opinions about wars in general, I didn't want Languages & Life Lessons to be about that. This is one of those pieces... without my opinions:

On May 24, 1982, a typical Monday for me, my father dropped me off at the language school in the afternoon for my English class. One hour and fifteen minutes later, class ended, and my father was standing in front of the building as I exited the school. It was loud, and thousands of people were dancing in the streets -- streets which had been empty when I was going to class. I looked at my dad, and he explained that Iran had taken back the city of Khorramshahr, which Iraq had captured at the start of the war. He thought this was excellent news and it would mean the end of the war between the two countries, but he was wrong, sadly, and the killing continued for another six years, and not only in the war zones. As Iraq attacked Tehran, the capital of Iran, I learned vocabulary no teenager should ever learn -- from types of shelters to bombs and missiles and rockets and warheads -- and facts about attacks and how these weapons worked and whether they were heat-guided or radar-guided. 

USA

USA - 2002

 

Federico Fellini

 "A different language is a different vision of life." Federico Fellini

L&LL

 

Book & Dog Review

 

L&LL

 

Book Review

 

Nina Romano

I am so honored that Nina Romano, author of so many great books, has read and enjoyed my memoir -- and described it as "a polished diamond among so many stones in the rough."

Nina Romano...

#book #memoir #author

 

University of Tehran

This is the main entrance to the first university I officially attended, University of Tehran, in Tehran, Iran, where I obtained my B.A. in French Language & Literature and my M.A. in French Literature.

This Main Entrance Gate was designed by Kourosh Farzami in 1965.

Fernando Lázaro Carreter

"A natural language is the archive where the experiences, knowledge and beliefs of a community are stored."
Fernando Lázaro Carreter

Deleted Sections

In my book, I initially had a few sections about funny interactions I had with some of the children I tutored. Those children's sense of humor has remained with me over a decade later and has made them unforgettable.

One of my assignments was to work with a kid, a seven-year-old boy, who needed help with his math homework. On the very first day of tutoring, I went to their house, and his mother told him, "Tell your tutor what you got on your last math worksheet." The boy looked into my eyes and said, "I got an F!" I nodded, and as I was getting ready to reassure his mother, the boy proudly -- and somewhat excitedly -- added, "F is for FANTASTIC!"

His mother got so frustrated that she left the living room, where we were sitting. One of my most challenging tutoring moments was to control my facial expression and not laugh at the exchange that had just happened. Instead, I smiled at the boy and said, "Let's get started."

Book Review

 

From Hong Kong...

I got this photo from a friend in Hong Kong. I love it! 

 

L&LL

 

France

Père Lachaise Cemetery - Paris
I'm visiting the tomb of Sadegh Hedayat (also spelled Sadeq Hedayat), one of the most significant Iranian writers of the twentieth century. 
For more information, visit: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sadeq-Hedayat

France - circa 1997

 

Edward Sapir

"Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generation." 
Edward Sapir

In Other Words

 

A simple mistake inspired me to study Italian... again. 
How? Why?
You can find the answers in Languages & Life Lessons.

Review

 

The Fly

Many French words have entered the modern Persian vocabulary.

(For more information, visit: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/france-xvi-loan-words-in-persian-)

I am convinced the word magass, meaning fly (the insect) in Farsi, also has French origins.

In French, the word for the noun fly is mouche...

I know it has nothing to do with magass, the Persian word for the insect, but please bear with me.

The verb to annoy in French is agacer.

For example, if you want to say my little cousin annoys me in French, you say:

Mon petit cousin m'agace. 

And if you want to say this fly annoys me, you say:

Cette mouche m'agace.

(In both cases, the m' before the verb is the me in annoys me and the contracted form of me agace, m'agace, is pronounced magass.)

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Until someone can show me a better explanation or evidence for the origin of the word magass in Farsi, I will continue to maintain this belief.

For more weird words and expressions in Farsi, read the chapter "Mysterious Names" in Languages & Life Lessons (by Afarin Rava).
https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Life-Lessons-Afarin-Rava-ebook/dp/B09GMYGGQ1

China

China - 2005