Eh, It's Not All Fun & Games

You'll notice I've up this "Digg" thing on the right side of every post. Just an attempt to modernize this blog. I'm going to add FeedBurner soon, in case anyone wants to access the blog by RSS. Also, I bought the domain name "www.israelibyday.com" so when you access this site, that's all you have to remember. That's the new URL. For information on Digg, click here. To sign up for Digg, just click on the link itself.

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Anyway, so I want to inform the public here of a word that was used quite a bit in class today. Namely used by me to refer to the British girl that sits next to me. Yes, you, British girl. I know you are reading this. And yes, I'm about to PUNK you on my blog -- so, my Mom and Dad will read this, which is about the extent of my readership. Consider yourself officially "in the blog."

A nudnik, or in Hebrew נודניק, is a pest, an obnoxious kid that can always be heard asking, "Dad, Dad, Dad, hey Dad, Hey! Hey, are we there yet? Hey Dad? Dad!" An annoying, incessant, aggravating individual. Like this Brit in our class who argues every word with the teacher, even the one we have once a week who really doesn't speak English. I know what you're thinking. Give us an example of how she's a nudnik (technically a nudnikit, but whatever), right?

We were doing some grammar work when we came across a new verb. One problem inherent in learning a new language is a tendency to want to translate everything. Sometimes you can't help but translate. You don't really have any connection to the new word other than in your old language. For instance, I haven't used or experienced the verb "לזעזע" in Hebrew. So, when I think of "לזעזע" I'm really only thinking of the translation, "to convulse." I haven't melted that word into a neural pathway. I haven't used it in public. I haven't heard anyone say it. I've never seen it.

A nudnik, on the other hand, sometimes forgets that perfect translations are fairly worthless. The Brit finds herself in that boat. Again with the silly Europeans, right?

So there I sat as the class, mainly feuled by my English neighbor, got into an intense argument over the translation of a verb meaning roughly "to accomplish." No, maybe it means "to achieve!" Or "to perform?" No, that's not right. How about "to realize or attain!" I know it... "to actualize." Or how about when she argued over the difference between "fog" and "mist," all the while the actual word I needed to know began to slip away from me. I forget how to say... Perfect. Nudnik.

Oh, and we were tired today, if you couldn't tell by my two buddies in the picture. D, be careful what you wish for!