TRAVELS, HERITAGE, AND LANGUAGE by Dani Wolf well, since you've asked (max, jeff & ken, at least), i'll expound a bit. as for my 13th generation american heritage, let me just start by saying that i have a very complex family story that was not one my parents wished to share when we were growing up. so, here's the secret - MY MOM CONVERTED!!! who knew?? me and my brother who were present for the wedding of my mom and dad - okay, he was my step-dad who adopted us. he was jewish. we all converted. it's my identity if not my heritage thru proper channels. so, now you all know that this irish/english/ and yes native-american (i actually have a 'mongolian spot' for those who know what that is*) gal is also jewish. now.....married to a hindu with three kids who each identify his/herself in a diff way as far as religion. eldest is a unitarian or nothing at all. 22 yr old son is jewish. 21 yr old daughter wants to be catholic. all of it is okay with me so long as i don't have to show up. on to language. i was once fluent in french. having not studied or spoken it in many years, i can still read it, but the spoken language has changed in remarkable ways since i was first in france in about 1976. i could get by with my french then. not in 2001! but, they really all do speak english - whether that's fair or not. i could get by in most spanish speaking places because i have those tourist phrases down and remember key things from marta hernandez's family. i also can follow conversations between my husband and his family. they speak tamil - a language of south india. my husband grew up attending english medium schools because he lived all over india. he speaks 8 languages fluently. these are not dialects - but distinct languages, similar to the relationship between, say, french and italian. his english is almost perfect. his hindi, tamil, telugu, gujurati, kanara, etc are all excellent. he can read and write in hindi also, and can read all the other languages he knows - but can't write them - not even his native tongue since he never received any education in that language! u understood yiddish as a kid too. where did that go??? an interesting thing happens in bilingual or multilingual homes with kids. first, there is the classic scenario - all over the world - where the parents speak to the kids and each other in their native tongue - and the kids respond and communicate with each other in the local language. the other situation, as happened often in my home, was that the kids did not know what language they knew a word in. convoluted sentence. sorry. an example: my eldest was very familiar with bagels but had never seen a doughnut when he was 2 yrs old. we were at a friend's house where doughnuts were being served and my son asked for a bagel. makes sense. now, much of the food my kids ate was identified by its tamil name. so, my kids might go to someone else's house where pancakes were being served - and they might say 'dosa' instead which is the word they call pancakes - and which they did not know was a 'foreign' term. that has led to many a laugh over the years. even with older kids. we call a certain small, stainless steel bowl a katoree. my son stumbled over asking for a bowl the other day because he is so used to referring to a katoree - which he now knows is not a term familiar to most americans. as for travels, since my husband is from india, i have had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time there. it is still not a country for tourists, altho many europeans think so. but, most europeans are not used to the kind of amenities that most of us take for granted - central heat and A/C, hot showers, private bath, etc. but, it is truly a beautiful country filled with very welcoming friendly people. when my husband and i first started dating in 1971, we were an oddity in st. louis, where there were only 40 indian families. we turned a lot of heads. that happened in india also. we have traveled there to a number of places where it is rare to see a white person - esp one as fair as i am, wearing a sari and traditional jewelry indicating my 'station' in life (pretty darn high!). but, i have only once been spoken to in a less than friendly manner and that was by a cab driver. he thought i couldn't understand that he was commenting to my husband that i was an awfully uppity woman! those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that i would not take that too nicely. but, it worked out. i spoke up and he shut up and drove! but, there are few manmade things on this planet that can compare with the taj mahal. it is truly a breathtaking vision - even more beautiful in person than in the best of photos. i have not been to the himalayas - which i long to. but, they're shooting at people there, so we tend to stay in the south where most of the family is. i have been to europe several times. the best trip was in november, 2001 when my then 15 yr old daughter was my tour guide. she was home-schooled. art history was her passion then, and she knew the location, history, and all specs of every building and piece of art she wanted to see. she had asked me the year before if i would take her to europe if she saved the money for her own ticket. i should have know better. but, it was a wonderful couple of weeks - with daddy's credit card and no schedule to keep. i overdosed on white marble nudes and crappy 'pizza', but i wouldn't trade that experience for anything. my daughter was an excellent tour guide - even learning the subway and bus routes in paris, rome, and florence so she could manage the show. we had a wonderful time and she fulfilled a lifelong (yep, at age 15) dream. i was amazed at the depth of her knowledge - and the fact that she had taught herself a useful amount of italian in the months before we left. we almost let 9/11 stop us. but, i decided that i wouldn't let the bad guys win, despite the warnings of several well intentioned world travelers who would have preferred that we stay home. i highly recommend such a trip to anyone. so, now i'm tired of typing. i hope bill can find a way to share more of his travels with us - since he seems to have the trip information saved in some fashion. oh, as for marta hernandez - yes, she was in our class. carman & ileana were a yr behind us, i think. henry esquinazi (sp?) was also from cuba, as i recall. Dani * Mongolian spot: Dani explained in a later post—“those of us who have mongolian (slant or round eyed eyed asian or native american) heritage often have a blue spot on our derriere! looks like a faint - or not so faint - drop of blue ink. all of my kids have them too. but, my asian husband doesn't - so genotype or phenotype - they got it from me, i guess. my middle son even has a mongolian eye-folds - which i had as a young child but grew out of, i guess. he's 22, so i think his folds are there to stay. and he's soooooo good looking. what can i say? and as for my arkansas heritage - well, i met a guy about a yr ago who is from the same small neck of the woods as my mom's family - conway, arkansas - and darned if we aren't related!! but, we're not married - to each other. LOL.”
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