Odds and Ends...
I've been profiled! Beth, everyone's favorite mistress of Shenanigans, has written an article for Wow! Women on Writing about how to create your own workspace, and I was one of her interviewees (how cool is that!).
And, if that weren't enough, after spotting some of my articles on Brio, I was contacted by Sarah over at Bringing Up Baby Bilingual, which resulted in some of my blog excerpts being posted over there as well. I've also filled out a profile questionnaire for her as well, but given that it took me so long to get it back to her, I'm not sure if she'll be able to do anything with the info.
Let me tell you - given all the excitement over here during the past few weeks, it's nice to be singled out for something other than political rants and name calling...
*****
I met up with a friend for coffee recently. She was in Israel for a week visiting family, and we hadn't seen each other in four years. We met in a mall near her cousins' home, and when it came time to go, we made our way to the main entrance. We stood next to the security guard, chatting in English while waiting for my taxi to arrive, trying to figure out whether or not she would be able to get back to Jerusalem that evening, given that it had begun to snow in the capital a few hours earlier (she didn't and they ended up spending the night in Tel Aviv). The security guard was apparently eavesdropping, and decided to try to join the conversation AND show off his English, which proved a bad move on his part.
"You are going to Jerusalem?" he asked (in English).
I replied in Hebrew. "No. My friend is going to Jerusalem. I am going back to my home up north."
He persisted in English, despite hearing my fluent, barely accented Hebrew. "Oh, you live here? I thought you were a terrorist [sic]."
I laughed. I couldn't help it. "Neither terrorist nor tourist," I replied.
And that, needless to say, was the end of his foray into the world of English speaking tourists (and terrorists).
2 comments:
Sad... I also noticed lately in this new trends of guards that doesn't distinguish between who is an Isreali (or non terrorist)to someone who might posses a threat.
I think it is related to the fact that more and more of those "guards" are newly come immigrants
I can't think of anything more irritating than someone speaking a foreign language in public.
It is not so much that I would want to eavesdrop and only partially due to a "are they talking about me" fear. What I think it is more about is that it makes you feel like a foreigner in your own land. An outsider.
It's not about hearing what is being said but about hearing common words. It is about not feeling shut out. When I hear people speaking in the common language I am not apt to eavesdrop, but I do feel more comfortable and not the outsider in my own land.
Of course for a guard, part of his job is to eavesdrop to a certain extent in order to perhaps pick up some indication if some trouble might be brewing. Speaking a foreign language just makes his job more difficult.
Oh, I love that attack against immigrants. Sure you may be right about what you said or perhaps not, that is not what I am commenting on. At least from where I come from people of your ilk make it appear that any criticism against immigrants justified or not amounts to racism. But people of your ilk always exclude themselves from the standards they force upon others and freely criticize immigrants in an hypocritical matter when THEY want to.
You ilk makes the standards but just like not wanting to be held responsible for the effects of your ideology, you will not be restrained by those standards you force upon others.
Post a Comment