Julie
In early 1989 I accepted a short assignment to start up a difficult earthwork project in San Francisco. I am still here: the short job turned out to be a long-term nightmare (but that is another story). And, I was captured by the beautiful Julie. Let me tell you how she managed that. Read more
Sek, Snakes, and Smiling, Said Succeed
I met Succeed Gnermp~ (there is much more to his surname) in June 1985 while wandering through Bangkok. He invited me to join him and his niece in their English lessons. Succeed had seen me talking into my tape recorder and asked if I would tape from an English text book so that his student could hear an Anglo accent. Charmed by his straightforward request, I spent a delightful hour or two with them; and accepted his invitation home to tea in to meet his family of daughters and grandchildren. Read more
Fake Swedish and Fez Facial Failure
In 1973, my girlfriend Barbara and I stayed a while in Fez, Morocco. While there we met Dave, an Australian linguist studying Swedish literature in Switzerland. While backpacking the ability to switch languages at will is a talent, better by far than being able to instantly convert exchange rates. Dave was a marvel; he could flash from one tongue to another in a flash. His facility with Swedish was especially useful when trying to shed the torrent of street urchins imploring us to come visit their uncles’ stalls in the Medina, the market. The impish lads were polyglot, but Swedish was not a languages with which they were familiar. Read more
