Babel!

My life is strange (but you already knew that). I went to the movie Babel. It was pretty amazing, but what was really strange about this movie was that as the scenes switched from Mexico to Morocco to the US to Japan, my brain had to keep switching gears to follow the languages.

Although the scenes in Morocco had dialogue in a Moroccan dialect (or at least was supposed to be), I found I could understand much of what was said as this dialect is apparently a mix of French and Arabic. When I couldn't understand something, my brain would switch gears and read the Spanish subtitles, most of which I understood. In both the U.S. and in Morocco when the Americans were speaking, I understood without thinking about it of course, but my mind immediately wanders to the Spanish subtitles to compare the translation to my understanding of the language. I have learned many new expressions from the movies. Some of them I can repeat at school. Of the Japanese, of course, I understood nothing, but found it easy to follow the subtitles. When the Japanese girls were communicating in sign language, I found myself even remembering a few signs from the summer I worked at QA (1990!). The scenes in Mexico were not subtitled at all, but also easy to follow as they were scenes of a family at a wedding and not people discussing complex issues.

Perhaps the most surreal moment took place when Amelia, the Mexican nanny, was shouting help (in English) to get the attention of the (American) border police, but my brain assumed she was speaking in Spanish because she is Mexican and I was wondering why they subtitled this in Spanish ("Auxilio") because I was still thinking she said it in Spanish then I realized that she must have said it in English because they wouldn't subtitle a Spanish phrase in Spanish for an audience in Mexico and that is when I remembered that I live in Mexico therefore she must have said it in English. I suspect all this thought took place in the period of time between the first time she said "Help" and the second, although I am not sure about that. I may see the movie again, just to find out.

In case you haven't been paying attention, I am kind of interested in languages.

* I realize the picture is weird. I just like to accompany text with a photo of some sort. I tried to put some Arabic on it, but Photoshop wouldn't tolerate Arabic characters. I consider this a high-tech form of computer racism. Had I more time, I would have 'shopped them in as a graphic. Alas I am too busy.