LL-L "Resources" 2008.03.23 (10) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=======================================================================

 L O W L A N D S - L * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226

 http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands.list at gmail.com

 Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.php

 Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org - lowlands.list at gmail.com

 Commands ("signoff lowlands-l" etc.): listserv at listserv.net

 Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html

 Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html

 Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]

 Administration: lowlands.list at gmail.com or sassisch at yahoo.com


 You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
 To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
 text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
 sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.


 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
 S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)

=======================================================================

 ========================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 23 March 2008 - Volume 10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page.
 ========================================================================

From: Fonken, Gael M. [foga0301 at stcloudstate.edu] <foga0301 at stcloudstate.edu
>
Subject: LL-L "Resources"

Greetings all,

   I think I can understand this tread better now.  Thanks for all the
clarifications.  I went home last night still struggling with what I did and
did not know about "beyond the pale".  I put that phrase in the category of
"words to avoid" most times.  Since it has such a specific meaning for me, I
cling to that meaning and honor it mostly with a reverenced silence.  An
elder Jewish scholar exiled from Russia taught me Russian literature in
English with great patience and gentle attention.  He had experienced some
of the worst communal violence against Jews and explained this phrase in
that context.  The pale was the furthest one could go safely.  It marked the
outer boundary of the ghetto that Jews were forced to live in. Pushing this
limit was associated (for him) with the experience of rejection.
 Conversely, when others crossed into that space to do damage, I think of
this too as going "beyond the pale".  I think words for borders need to be
used with great care.

   Perhaps we become that which we create as our boundary markers, sometimes
without knowing it.  I live to hope that we will find new, healing words
that allow us to sit (dwell) on these kinds of borders and transform them
into bridges and then maybe even into bonds of friendship. Once some people
celebrated mass on the border between US and Mexico with a chain-link fence
going through the crowd that had gathered there to worship. Sometimes our
bodies move out ahead of the words we use in search of deeper meaning.
 Maybe we could find words that emerge from this kind of border-dwelling as
well?  Those that speak to the gentle, playful, courageous
merging/mixing/healing of misunderstood differences? It would seem that
lowlanders ought to know a lot about such words.

Gael Fonken
----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Resources

Thanks again, Gael.

People have all sorts of personal experiences and imagery about all manner
of things, all sorts of words and expressions included. Some of it happens
to be dark for one person and cheery for another person. I'm among the first
to say that we have to be respectful, sensitive and compassionate. On the
other hand, being paralyzed by it would get us nowhere.

Borders -- boundaries of all types, physical, political and mental -- are
the stuff of fear. They are meant to keep out and keep captive. Stepping
out, crossing boundaries, even a toddler's first step across the threshold
to the outside world, is an act of conquering fear. Learning a foreign
language is much like crossing the border into a foreign country, or even
just like having lunch at one's neighbor's instead of at home for the first
time. Things may be very similar, but they are not identical. And with every
discovery of the strange we learn more about ourselves and about that we
used to take for granted, as familiar and safe. You can approach it with
fear or with positive excitement or a mixture of both. But help you grow as
a person it will inevitably, and indirectly, in extension, it is likely to
help your community grow as well.

When I lived in Eastern Asia, many of my fellow Westerners worked themselves
up into anger, even rage, about the way locals did things. I soon had this
"epiphany" that it had nothing to do with the locals but had everything to
with the complainants' frustration with themselves, frustration over their
own inability to cope with the challenges of reevaluating everything they
had taken for granted. This was the result of being thrown into this
alternative culture, a culture that challenged pretty much everything you
knew. It puts you back at an earlier developmental stage, a stage of greater
vulnerability. Especially young adults don't relish the thought of that. But
later, back home safely, most of them will tell you what a rewarding
experience it had been. Yes, I had frustrating moments myself, but there
came a time when I and others realized that we either had to leave or to go
with the flow. The latter meant that we had to accept the culture and as
much as possible experience and learn it the way we would have done had we
been local children. As much as possible we suspended judgment. The upshot
of this was that I experienced culture shock in reverse when I was back
home. I had been much more open-minded going away into the "exotic" than
returning to the familiar that now seemed strange. I questioned lots of
things that I previously had seemed ordinary and mundane.

In my experience, encountering an "exotic" culture and learning an "exotic"
language sometimes comes with less frustration and fewer surprises than
encountering and learning those that are closely related to our own. The
more similar they are the more we want them to be the same. Because of the
high degree of similarity we feel we know it all, don't need to really learn
it, can "wing" it. And there lies the trap. At the same time, there lies a
great opportunity to fine-tune our adaptability and learn about ourselves
within a somewhat wider context.

Anyway, in the meantime I have built the "skeleton" of the new site and
would really like my fellow Lowlanders to check it out and give me
feed-back. Especially, please help me to describe the categories a bit
better if needed.

http://lowlands-l.net/beyondthepale/

Thanks and regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080323/4df24f80/attachment.htm>