Kathleen captured a truly precious moment at Pop's.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Idea born three days before filming. A few people practiced for two hours on a Sunday. The rest of us showed up Monday for one hour, one practice run and just three takes. Not bad!
Digg Dubb: Groove Is In The Heart from Trammell on Vimeo.
Digg Dubb: Groove Is In The Heart from Trammell on Vimeo.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thanks, Lauren!
My baby girl, Lauren Pimples McDuffy, always knows just what I want for my birthday. Her inspired choice for teejaymas 2008 included an unauthorized biography of Zac Efron (alas, it doesn't out him) and the official High School Musical "Cologne Spray for Girls."
I'll skip the part where I lament about how old we're getting and just remind you all that she is six months older than I am. Enjoy these last few months before the panic sets in, homie!
I'll skip the part where I lament about how old we're getting and just remind you all that she is six months older than I am. Enjoy these last few months before the panic sets in, homie!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Something I've learned both from my brief stint studying linguistics and anecdotally through friends is that, when it comes to raising kids in a bilingual household, it's very difficult to persuade children to actually speak the non-dominant language.
For example, if a household consists of a mom who is a native Spanish-speaker, a dad who is a native English-speaker and kids who are being raised to speak both - but who attend an English-language school in an English-speaking country - they will very often grow up understanding Spanish perfectly but speaking it like a second-language learner, as opposed to a bilingual person.
There's not much a kid can do to get his mom to stop speaking Spanish to him or her, but the kid certainly can refuse to reply in Spanish. It happens often and it makes sense. Even in this increasingly flat world in which mastering multiple languages is proving to be a necessity, it's dangerous for a kid to be marked as "other" by classmates. At first, the kids are fighting back against the parents in an effort to be seen as "normal," but later in life, when they realize that speaking Spanish or Mandarin or whatever fluently would be an enormous asset personally and professionally, it's sometimes too late to become 100 percent fluent. Or it's too frustrating. Think about the difference between making mistakes and being corrected as a little kid naturally developing language skills vs. being corrected by your LAME MOM as a know-it-all 18-year-old. It's super easy to decide to give up in the second scenario.
It's not impossible by any means to improve dramatically after the magical language-acquisition window of birth to 12 or 13 years old, but it requires effort, motivation and willingness to make mistakes. Just speak. Let mom correct you. Deal.
So ... why do I still respond to Jesús in English 75 percent of the time, even when I initiate conversations in Spanish?
Ugh.
(That said, my Spanish is probably better than ever. But - here we go again - I'll never be bilingual living outside of the Spanish-speaking world. And, no, California is not part of the mundo hispanoparlante.)
For example, if a household consists of a mom who is a native Spanish-speaker, a dad who is a native English-speaker and kids who are being raised to speak both - but who attend an English-language school in an English-speaking country - they will very often grow up understanding Spanish perfectly but speaking it like a second-language learner, as opposed to a bilingual person.
There's not much a kid can do to get his mom to stop speaking Spanish to him or her, but the kid certainly can refuse to reply in Spanish. It happens often and it makes sense. Even in this increasingly flat world in which mastering multiple languages is proving to be a necessity, it's dangerous for a kid to be marked as "other" by classmates. At first, the kids are fighting back against the parents in an effort to be seen as "normal," but later in life, when they realize that speaking Spanish or Mandarin or whatever fluently would be an enormous asset personally and professionally, it's sometimes too late to become 100 percent fluent. Or it's too frustrating. Think about the difference between making mistakes and being corrected as a little kid naturally developing language skills vs. being corrected by your LAME MOM as a know-it-all 18-year-old. It's super easy to decide to give up in the second scenario.
It's not impossible by any means to improve dramatically after the magical language-acquisition window of birth to 12 or 13 years old, but it requires effort, motivation and willingness to make mistakes. Just speak. Let mom correct you. Deal.
So ... why do I still respond to Jesús in English 75 percent of the time, even when I initiate conversations in Spanish?
Ugh.
(That said, my Spanish is probably better than ever. But - here we go again - I'll never be bilingual living outside of the Spanish-speaking world. And, no, California is not part of the mundo hispanoparlante.)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
When my mom realized that my new job would require virtually no creative writing, she exclaimed, "Wow, you're really taking another step away from journalism and writing."
A little defensively, I noted that I would still be able to pursue freelance opportunities. Just last week I submitted another travel story to a major newspaper and I plan on making those submissions a more regular part of my work life.
But it's true: My day job no longer includes creative writing, journalism or even blogging, which is what I clung to while at GUBA. There, the daily blog entries not only were the most entertaining part of my day; they allowed me to continue to call myself a professional writer.
I will always consider myself a writer, but it will be more of a struggle as I've never been the most disciplined freelancer. But even if I come up with one article idea or travel essay a year, I'll continue to be part of media in this new position. Even as I take that next step away from traditional journalism I'm stepping further into the world of social media, which fascinates and excites me.
I love what Digg is doing to democratize media, taking power away from the one or two (often insane and/or unethical) editors who run magazines, newspapers and other media outlets. Digg puts the power in the hands of the users. They control whether a story and the conversation it provokes attains front-page status.
Also, there's a really nice kitchen full o' drinks and snacky snacks. Booya.
A little defensively, I noted that I would still be able to pursue freelance opportunities. Just last week I submitted another travel story to a major newspaper and I plan on making those submissions a more regular part of my work life.
But it's true: My day job no longer includes creative writing, journalism or even blogging, which is what I clung to while at GUBA. There, the daily blog entries not only were the most entertaining part of my day; they allowed me to continue to call myself a professional writer.
I will always consider myself a writer, but it will be more of a struggle as I've never been the most disciplined freelancer. But even if I come up with one article idea or travel essay a year, I'll continue to be part of media in this new position. Even as I take that next step away from traditional journalism I'm stepping further into the world of social media, which fascinates and excites me.
I love what Digg is doing to democratize media, taking power away from the one or two (often insane and/or unethical) editors who run magazines, newspapers and other media outlets. Digg puts the power in the hands of the users. They control whether a story and the conversation it provokes attains front-page status.
Also, there's a really nice kitchen full o' drinks and snacky snacks. Booya.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)