I finished memorizing "J'envisage" (I Imagine) by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords but no one had posted them. Tomorrow I'll start working them out.
Pepsi delivered two new coolers to Dollarama this morning and took the old ones away.
The power must have gone out briefly during my song practice because when I'd finished playing, my computer was off.
I got a call from the Parkdale Dental Clinic telling me that I had an appointment for cleaning on Friday. I was surprised because the Ontario government had told me I no longer qualify for the Senior's plan. I thought that meant as of July, but maybe it's for next year, or maybe the clinic hasn't gotten the news. Anyway, my appointment is for 11:30 on Friday and I'm not going to mention not qualifying.
I weighed 85.5 kilos before breakfast. That's the heaviest I've been in the morning in two weeks.
I had time for breakfast this morning because I left half an hour later than I did on the first day of class. But since I took the Bloor bike lane to St George instead of riding on College, I should have left ten minutes earlier because I didn't get to class until everyone else had arrived.
A tech helper for the Sidney Smith building approached me after I arrived to ask if I needed help setting up. I said, "You thought that I was the professor because I'm old. She should be along any time now."
Professor Percy gave us an update on the class survey because now 38 of the 43 students have filled it out. Only one student is in linguistics.
She quoted some of our answers to "The meaning of life" and listed mine, "It's better to be interested than happy."
We looked at Arthur Yap's poem, "2 Mothers in a HDB Playground." HDB stands for Housing Development Board.
Singapore is an outer circle country but Singlish is entrenched and part of a government negative language policy.
There are videos inspired by the poem.
"Beng" is a stereotypical name. Looking up the stereotype, "Ah Beng" is a pejorative term applied to describe an anti-social lower-class youth in Singapore who displays common characteristics such as having dyed hair, wearing loud fashion, playing loud music in public and being less educated." But one literal meaning of "Beng" is "smart".
The professor says it's like "Kevin".
I pointed out that only the children have identity in the poem as the mothers have no names. I added that the mothers are further humbled by the use of only lowercase to depict their conversation.
Competitive exams. Someone said that in Pakistan they post the test scores in the newspapers and so families look for the results.
Ah Beng is defined by consumption.
Kim Cheong is a Korean name and he's the child who doesn't eat.
Singapore English is defined by acronyms and loan words.
A lot of Canadianisms are also product related, like "double-double".
Kiasu is fear of missing out.
Of the new couch, the mother says, "I dare not sit ... too soft". This goes back to the mother's humility I mentioned earlier.
HDB was new at the time.
It's hard to get a car in Singapore.
A tuition teacher is a paid tutor.
There is a parallel between food and learning. Also consumption of tv and ads.
Cheong refusing a brand-name vitamin.
The mothers are using Singlish because they each have a different mother tongue.
The poem inspired the movie "Gone Kimmy Gone".
Edgar Schneider argues that Singapore English is the main marker of national identity because English is what the diverse groups there have in common.
By contrast, in India, English is a class marker.
Singlish is entrenched. The government had a "speak good English" policy but the people resisted. Now the government uses Singlish for public service alerts.
'Lah' is the simplest and most iconic word in Singlish - think 'yeah mate' in Australia or 'eh' in Canada. But it has no meaning. 'Lah' is an expression after a statement as a mere emphasis. How to use it: "What's for lunch today?" "Chicken rice sounds good lah!"
We took a break.
Is English a passport or a barrier to dreams?
Expanded circumstances.
No popular base.
No status.
No national significance.
Prestige from instrumental value.
Linguistic influence in anglicisms.
Iceland needs more English speakers for tourism.
Reporting the same news in English rather than Hebrew conveys an altered meaning.
Kongish is both outer and inner circle.
Deliberately bad English is used for advertizing in Japan.
Ornamental English is like when people get Chinese tattoos without really knowing what they mean.
I pointed out that "EF" means English Fluency. The professor said a Swedish company does the EF test.
English is used in China for learning Chinese.
In China, they are teaching English less but making it more important in exams.
There are English villages in Korea.
I weighed 84.6 kilos before a late lunch at 14:00. That's the lightest I've been at that time in a week.
I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:00.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:09.
I completed today's Exit Slip survey for English in the World.
I worked for almost two hours doing research on Chiac. One interesting quote from an Acadian author named France Daigle explains how Chiac uses English. I translated this from French: "A Frenchman can say 'parquigne,' but the Acadian will feel like he is doing theater if he has to say it that way. He will therefore quite naturally pronounce ‘parking,’ as he hears it from the mouths of the thousands of English speakers who surround him”.
I coated three chicken legs in olive oil and salt and roasted them in the oven. I had one with a potato and gravy while watching the third episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.
So far Jed Clampett and his family have yet to learn that their mansion has internal plumbing and running water. So Granny does the laundry at the swimming pool which they call the cement pond. She also carries water in buckets from the pool into the house for Elly May's bath.
The banker Mr. Drysdale's secretary Miss Jane Hathaway has been shopping for Elly May and arrives with several boxes of clothes for her. Jed tells Jethro to carry the parcels into the house but he says he can't because Granny says the men have to stay outside while Elly is bathing. Jane asks, "But isn't Elly May bathing in the privacy of her own bedroom suite?" Jethro thinks Jane has just called him "Sweet" and so he calls her "Darling."
Jane goes inside to find Elly bathing in a wooden tub. Jane explains that Elly has a beautiful bathroom in her suite upstairs. Up to this point, no one in the family has been upstairs because they thought it must belong to another family. Jane says the whole house is theirs and offers to show them. Granny says it's enough trouble to carry the water from the cement pond, let alone lugging it upstairs too. Jane leads Elly upstairs to show her what she bought. She says she got everything from chapeau to pumps. Granny thinks Jane brought pumps for the water.
Later Jane comes to Jed and says that Elly ran away from her. Jed finds Elly in a tree where Elly explains she didn't run away. She just wanted to try out the new double-barreled slingshot that Jane brought her. Elly has whittled a slingshot frame and tied it with the brassiere since she can't think of any other purpose it would serve.
Meanwhile back in Tennessee, Jed's cousin Pearl has a visit from the oil company president Mr. Brewster, who drives her to the nearest town so she can call Jed and ask if she can come and take care of her son Jethro.
Jethro was played by Max Baer Jr. who is the only member of the cast that is still alive. He is the son of heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, with a minor in Philosophy. He was close friends with Elvis Presley. After "The Beverly Hillbillies" went off the air he couldn't find work as an actor for three years. So he gave himself a job by co-writing, co-producing, and starring in the movie "Macon County Line" which cost $100,000 but earned $35 million. He bought the film rights to Bobby Gentry's song "Ode to Billy Joe", then produced and directed the movie. It cost $1 million and made $27 million. He also owns a chain of casinos.
For the third night in a row, I didn't find any bedbugs.
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