more World Cup
ok ok, so the USA lost, and worse, many people seemed to think it was because of the dentist referee, and furthermore, my students are also mourning Korea, Japan, Saudi, and Togo, which fell along with us. But I think I have a lot to be happy about, just comparing this World Cup with the last. For one, games are in the daytime, and I find Americans around who are aware of them; who watch some of them or all of them; who cheer for the USA and in some cases know more about the situation than I do. Second, I'm better connected; when Ghana won I went to
my heart's in Accra, a blog by an American guy who lived in Ghana for years (apparently), and carries on an active conversation about both soccer and happenings in Ghana itself, which is very interesting. I'd find you some more soccer commentary (it's there for the taking) but I'm not really keeping up with it well, being too busy. I was in Chicago the summer of 1994 when several games were played there (Greece-Bulgaria being the most memorable) and Chicago responded by closing the Edens Expressway down to one lane...my life was orange-cone city- but much like now, a group of UAE students were unable to concentrate during the Saudi games, and were able to find a television and squeeze some good cheering out of the situation during breaks between classes, even if they chose to attend class. Ah well, it's a long way to 2010, you have to do what you can- and I can only hope we (USA) wi'll be back, and that I'll have time to sit and watch an entire game, instead of only the highlights....
World Cup fever
Like many Americans, I've become very interested in the World Cup- the whole fascinating tournament of great soccer between great teams like Argentina, Spain, and Brazil, and upstart teams such as Togo, Trinidad, and Cote d'Ivoire - places we should know more about but often don't. Today I watched the
highlights of a game between Iran and Angola (provided by FIFA) in which both goals of a 1-1 tie were scored by awesome headers...Wow!
The picture is called "Rooney" and is by CharlesFred (click on it for license), who like many other fans has provided pictures to the FIFA site, letting us go there, virtually, and experience the face-painting, etc.
I've saddled
my class with
this article about Beckham but they know much more about this stuff than I do- though I have to say, I think I scored, since he's attractive to both boys and girls, England is/are still in the running, and there's a lot to the article. Beckham happens to be where the subject of the class (media, paparazzi, image) and our true interests (World Cup) come together.
Finally- here's one for the home team - go USA! (playing tomorrow)...beat Ghana! My
other class keeps reminding me of the agony of a misguided war, the price of being the world's self-appointed blah blah blah, but hey, this is just pure fun (or mostly, anyway, and I'm referring to the soccer), and a place where we are but humble visitors, with only still a thread of a chance, like most of my students' teams, Saudi, Ecuador, Korea, and Japan, or some of my other favorites, Cote d'Ivoire, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Mexico....and I have to say, if the (long-awaited) internationalization of the US heartland includes more access to live international events like this, I'm all for it. I have hope- I think Americans are finally showing a willingness to at least
find out a little about some of these places- they are, slowly but surely, looking outward- if only because these "footballers" play such good soccer!
Flag picture by
Scott Schonauer, Stars & Stripes
Growing up bilingual
Here's one for the books:
Leverett, T. (2006).
Growing up bilingual. Global Study Magazine online. London, UK.
Take a look! The print version is very pretty and well done. These folks do pretty things with my writing!
site meter
I've installed
site meter on four sites: this one,
the cesl students weblog, the
main cesl home page, and
my personal page. It's an idea I got from
my daughter, and it's especially interesting to geography buffs like myself who are just curious about the locations of visitors to the sites. Educational for CESL- to find out which directories provide traffic. Turns out there are pirate directories out there that provide more traffic than the ones you pay (this is my first observation- perhaps it will turn out unfounded, after mountains of data provide the true generalizations).
Curiously, you have to use Safari to see the green buttons at the bottom of the pages- and then only on the three blogspot weblogs. I've never seen it on the home page, though I know it's there. Don't know why, but I'm sure it's my fault. Feel free to check it out....like my daughter (and her friend the Utah cycler)- I've found a new toy.
Congratulations!
to John and Karen (in balloon picture below)- who are getting married today. Making a historical linguistics household!
world cup week
Volume 65 of CESL Today is done- hope you enjoy it- and let me know if you see any flaws. There are actually flaws all over the system these days, but I do the best I can, and I've noticed, now, that
wikipedia now lists us as the #1, best CESL in the country, in its entry on
SIU. I won't dispute it; maybe it's because we have way cool weblogs. In fact, I might see if I can get some people to translate the wikipedia entry into various languages besides the Japanese that it already has.
Speaking of World Cup, wish I had students from Trinidad, Ivory Coast or Tunisia. Then I'd know more. As it is, I'm pulling for Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Japan and Germany, along with the USA, or at least as long as I can. My webhead friends assure me I can bet on Brazil. I'm not betting though. I don't even bet on the Dallas Mavericks. Just listen, talk, come home, and write
travel stories.
They say the
dean could be moving off to New York City. This would be a shame. New York City does not need another highly cultured, well-spoken and beautiful woman, at least half as much as we do.
