Sunday, October 23, 2011

It's been a while. Britain's welcomed me back with the open arms of a banker embracing a new customer. It's good to be back. Observing, absorbing, getting back in touch with the anti-nature that is civilization. Realizing it's so easy to be absorbed by the hype of the media, new phone, new film, new tv, new underwear! Falling in love left and right with all the new actors, musicians, writers and artists who have popped up over the past year.  Feeling how detached the rest of the world is, how good Europe and the western world have it.

I was on a train today for five hours. I listened to conversations in different languages taking mental notes of patterns of code switching and creolization. It just happened. This is what I do now. I record languages for the greater good so that if one day a great natural catastrophe temporarily focuses the eye of the world on the islands of Micro-Polynesia, the deserts of Mongolia or the turtles of the Galapagos, those vocab and grammar books can be used to communicate with the natives.
http://www.hrelp.org/

Watch this space.