![]() ![]() Next time I travel to an English-speaking country to report, I know my expectations won’t be so idealized. ![]() ![]() But, ARE you Bob?”Now back in my adoptive home of Mexico, I’ve finished writing my stories from Barbados, one of which you can read in today’s Daily about the innovative and growing sport of road tennis. I learned to love local turns of phrase, like “yes, please,” which was doled out in situations where a simple affirmative just wouldn’t do. “Is the restroom over there?” “Yes, please!”“Are you Bob?” “Yes, please!” “. When I was told, “That would be right,” it wasn’t a use of the conditional as I first understood it, but somehow a gentler way of telling me something was correct. ![]() I was thrilled to report in Barbados last month for all the expected reasons (weather, beaches, food) and a slightly less conventional one: This would be my first time reporting a story entirely in English in more than a decade.In the lead-up to the trip, as my anxiety grew over driving on the left side of the road and making sure I had all my interviews confirmed, I comforted myself with the notion that doing something in one’s native language inherently makes it easier.Of course, I was wrong.Between Britishisms and Bajanisms, I frequently found myself asking, “What?” There were interviews where I even considered inquiring if the person spoke some Spanish.But, like any language, it only took a strong dose of humility – and tuning my ear to what was initially a linguistic puzzle. ![]()
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![]() ![]() He became the first sailor to cruise around the world, alone, onboard his sailboat Spray at the end of the 19th century. ![]() ![]() He was a captain for years, travelling to China, Australia, Japan, and Alaska. Captain Slocum grew up in a family of sailors and became a seafarer at a young age. One of the books I read is the story of Captain Slocum. Unfortunately, I have not been able to cross any ocean yet under sail, but there is a route I would like to follow one day and ports I want to visit. ![]() Since the age of 15, when I chose sailing as my profession, I have worked in different positions, from washing sails to managing a whole warship. So, I studied the oceans and islands on world maps, then dreamed of the days I would go to those places. That novel made me curious about the world. Stevenson's Treasure Island when I was ten years old. If Homo Sapiens, the last surviving human race, has now spread to all continents, it is also thanks to intercontinental sea voyages. Specialised knowledge made it possible to navigate farther with the never-ending development of seafaring vessels. Somehow, men jumped on the first basic rafts and started to navigate. It was either the quest for food supplies or running away from the enemy. For millennia, the ocean has been a gateway to new worlds, the starting point of journeys towards the unknown. ![]() ![]() ![]() "I was about to say, before I was interrupted by this unseemly remark, that the whole matter is very fully and lucidly discussed in my forthcoming volume upon the earth, which I may describe with all due modesty as one of the epoch-making books of the world's history. To know once for all what we are, why we are, where we are, is that not in itself the greatest of all human aspirations? Away, sir, away!" ~ When the World Screamed Let the knowledge lead us where it will, we still must seek it. Shake off your paltry standards of business. "Raise your mind above the base mercantile and utilitarian needs of commerce. Might I draw your attention to the fact that, as some return for a monstrous taxation, our Government is in the habit of affixing a small circular sign or stamp upon the outside on the envelope which notifies the date of posting? ~ When the World Screamed ![]() Sir, he said - and his writing looked like a barbed wire fence - I observe that you animadvert upon the trifle that my letter was undated. It was first published in Liberty magazine, from 25 February to 3 March 1928. Who is there of all the hundreds who have attempted it who has ever yet described adequately that terrible cry? It was a howl in which pain, anger, menace, and the outraged majesty of Nature all blended into one hideous shriek. 'When the World Screamed' is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his character Professor Challenger. ![]() |