Books and magazines (or languages and music)

Hello, welcome to the news edition of Cuttings on a blog!

We're discussing Dreaming in hindi at the Hermit Book Club today! I'm starting the conversation:

Dreaming in Hindi is the story of the author, Katherine Russell Rich, while living in India and learning Hindi for a year. But not really. It's mainly a collection of theories, ideas, and reflections on learning a second language.

Read more...

Come and visit even if you haven't read the book, as we can have an interesting discussion about learning languages and living in different cultures. At some point in the book, the author mentions a Slovak proverb that has stayed with me: With each new language you acquire a new soul. In my experience, and that of the author of the book,  learning a new language is a window into a different world, and speaking a language can make you into a different person, even without you realizing.

On other news, have you seen Stacey's new venture, Music Sandwich? It's a music magazine with a multicultural angle. For this first issue, I wrote an article about the history of tango and the city of Buenos Aires. Oh, how I miss Buenos Aires... Unfortunately, the photos in the article are not mine, because I managed to lose most of them. There are also articles on jazz, electro music, and my favourite section: Sounds like... where you can discover local bands from all over the world that sound like the ones you already know and like. Have a look!

Stop

I simply MUST stop reading the news. I'm a worrier, you see, so all the talk about the credit crunch, and the climate change, and the war on terror was bad enough. But I'm also (and specially) a hypochondriac. So, as you can imagine, a pandemic is my worst fear. I'm coming up with all sorts of plans and possible scenarios in my head, and at the same time, all sorts of reasons why I'd never need to put these plans into action, because deep down, I'm an optimistic hypochondriac, if such thing exists.
The newspapers, on the other hand, are pretty sensationalist. So I'm considering starting a "Think before you read" challenge, make sure it's good news before I read it. And I'm happy to report that there WAS a piece of good news on the BBC website for me to read today! The weather forecasters have predicted that the UK will have a "hot and dry" summer. (Now you realize how British I have become, that I even share this weather obsession with my fellow citizens. It's in moments like this that I think maybe it's time to move back to Spain, or go to a completely different country, one with warm weather, and without swine flu, if there is any. One that I may be able to call home.)
Now, I understand the importance of being informed and the many benefits of instant transmission of news, specially in times like this. I studied Journalism at University, four years of listening, thinking, talking about the value of the fourth power. But sometimes, we can get so carried away with the constant dripping of bad news that we think the end of the world is approaching (or is that only me?). The idea of deciding what information I allow to get into my head and what I choose to ignore seems very liberating. If only for a weekend.