Burns Night Sunday 25th January – eat a Haggis :P

Image by Project 404 via Flickr

This Sunday 25th January is Burns night, where traditionally, people in Scotland eat a Burns Supper and recite his famous poem, Ode to A Haggis. I’ll be spending it at my BF’s parents’ house and will all dress up (wearing a tartan scarf and jacket hehe). B’s family is quite nationalistic, which I like 🙂

Also this year is the 250th birth of Robert Burns (who is also Scotland’s national poet, i.e. of similar status to Goethe in Germany). Which makes it all the more important to celebrate it and I suppose the Scottish identity, as different to the English or British one (sure, there are common traits and I’m not one to be anti-English, but the Scots’ national identity strikes me as more positive and more distinct, whereas the English still seem to be getting over the fact that they no longer command an Empire. See here for a rather good, albeit somewhat anti-English, take on the matter – what went wrong with the (English) working-class?).

The only problem with this Burns Supper is that Haggis is of course meat, and meatier than meat at that! Whereas I’m a Vegetarian – but my BF has assured me that his mum is going to cook a vegetarian one just for me 🙂

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• Jackie Kay: Burns is alive and kicking, 250 years after his birth
• A Very Short History of Burns Suppers

How to Speak with a Scottish Accent

Image via Wikipedia

Being around a lot of Scottish people means that at work, I can train my fake Scottish accent.

Two words that are really easy to get right are those involving two ‘o’ letters.

Example 1: ‘good’

in Standard English, you would say: [gʊd]

However, with a Scottish accent you say: [gyd]

Now, for Germans this is actually quite easy. It’s the same sound that you have in ‘duenn’ (thin). So imagine the short ‘ue’ in ‘duenn’, and just put a ‘g’ before and a ‘d’ after, and you’ve got it.

Example 2: ‘cool’

In standard English, this is what it looks like: [kul]

With a Scottish accent*, it’s pronounced like this: [kçyl]

Again, relatively easy for German speakers as the ‘ç’ sound is common in German, e.g. in the word ‘ich’ (I) – [ɪç]

*well, my mate D. pronounces is that way, and I’m trying to emulate it 😛

This is What A Scotsman Looks Like

Earlier, a Scotsman won Big Brother – Celebrity Highjack. I haven’t blogged about the show as it was tucked away on E4, and no one really seemed to follow it (I did a little bit).

In terms of viewing figures etc., the show was probably a failure (similar to Space Cadets, which I also really liked).  The reason it worked for me was that the housemates chosen already had ‘talent’ and were successful in their own right before entering the house; thus, there was not one desperate fame wannabe that the regular show attracts these days (the BBC also calls the show ‘a secret success‘).

Either way, the point of this post is to show my readers what a Scotsman looks like – for it is a Scotsman, John, that won the show:

lenina’s Xmas Message: Spread the Love

Love is all around lenina this Xmas. The reason for this is that I’m in Edinburgh, rather than London.

Remember, many social outings in London were characterised by people abusing lenina, with outright hatred being displayed towards her by various females, including threats of violence towards an innocent, albeit haughty, lenina.

I was trying to get my head around that last night, when seeing some of my Edinburgh friends for the first time since August. With them, love is all around. They’re not over the top friendly in a superficial way (unlike the ‘London crowd’ who are always superficial to the point of not in fact existing. At all.), but they are genuine and solid. My male friends don’t have any flirty bollocks going on, and there is no ‘sexual tension’, instead, it’s just a proper genuine liking, and being happy to be spending some time together.

In the afternoon, I went to my friend J’s in ‘her’ shop (she manages a big H&M store in Edinburgh) as a surprise. She was genuinely happy to see me, with various hugs etc. In the ‘London crowd’ a similar hugging etc. would have occurred, the only difference being that these people have never had a real conversation with me, therefore it’s all unreal (i.e. lenina would NEVER hug a fucking stranger that she’s only exchanged platitudes and generic sentences with, whereas for the London crowd, generic conversation translates immediately into a great, close friendship, that is to be solidified by physical contact such as hugging. Yes, that’s why I don’t see them any more).

I wonder whether it’s something in the Scottish national psyche that makes them more similar to the German one, as opposed to the English (rather, the London one. London isn’t exactly England). I get the impression that the Scottish are initially quite reserved, but, once you actually get to know them, they are the warmest and most genuine people, and you have a friend for life. It’s a bit similar to the German way I think. That’s why I can’t stand the OTT way prevalent in American and Australian culture, smiling all the time and everything is fucking great.

The ‘London way’ seems to be similar. Everything is quite superficial, and you don’t get to know anyone really (but you don’t bloody want to, either!). I’ve only got one friend in London, but I’ve known her since 1994, and the reason why I get on with her so well is probably that she’s a disabled, lesbian artist. I.e. she too is a total outcast from mainstream society insomuch that she can’t and doesn’t relate to hegemonic London discourses surrounding relationships, sexuality, male/female bollocks, or friendships.

Still, the reason for this post is not to think about the stupid city that is London, but instead, to ask everyone to spread the love this Xmas. I don’t care what everyone has been doing up until now, but from today, treat everyone nicely, especially, the people you are close to. Also think of giving some money to charity or doing something charitable. Here are my two favourites:

• FreeRice: I’ve blogged about this before
• the Guardian’s Katine project – if you’ve had a good year and some money left over, you really ought to give some of it away. I learned by watching Make Me A Muslim that in the Islam faith, it’s obligatory to give a percentage of your annual income to charity:

There are two forms of charity in Islam—obligatory and voluntary, called zakat and sadaqa respectively. Zakah, from the verb zaka, which signifies “to thrive,” “to be wholesome,” “to be pure” means purification. Giving up of a portion of the wealth one may possess in excess of what is needed for sustenance, is to “purify” or legalize it so that the remainder may lawfully be used by the alms giver.

Deducting zakat from one’s earnings is a material acknowledgment of the fact that the actual giver is God. Since the giver is God, the recipient is duty bound to spend it in His cause.

The law of zakat is to take from those who have wealth and give it away to those who do not. This rotation of wealth is a way to balance social inequality.

(source)

Leaving aside the God stuff which doesn’t sit comfortably with me, the idea of obligatory charity is a great one, and one thing we should learn from Islam.

Though I won’t wish anyone a Happy Holiday. I’ll be wishing people a Merry Xmas, and if they don’t celebrate Xmas, I’ll be wishing them a great holiday, or just a nice time off.

Accents Make the Heart Grow Fonder

I’ve just had to speak to an insurance company from (the Republic of) Oireland, to cancel the renewal of a car insurance I no longer own. Speaking to the guy on the phone who had a broad Oirish accent, I had to concentrate hard to understand what he was saying.

While I thus don’t miss Oirish accents, I do miss the Scottish one. Scottish English is unfortunately underrepresented (on the telly and such) when you live in the South East (in the 666-Beast that is London).

Great then that Rab C. Nesbitt is on Paramount Comedy 2 I think – one of the Sky channels anyhow – so we watched it the other evening. Basically it’s about an unemployed, down and out Glesga man fucking up (I’ll embed a youtube at the bottom of this post). Actually he looks a bit like my mate C. (Andraco will now who I mean – J.’s flatmate).

The Glesga-theme also reminds me of John Smeaton, a citizen celebrity baggage handler at Glasgow airport helping foil the terrorist attacks back in June. When interviewed and asked to explain his actions, he said:

• After he saw the police grappling with one of the attackers, he thought:

“You’re no’ hitting the Polis mate, there’s nae chance.”

• Asked by ITV News what his message to terrorists was, he said:

“Glesga doesnae accept this. This is Glesga; we’ll set aboot ye.”

That’s the kind of accent and way of speaking I mean 🙂

Anyway, here’s some Rab C. Nesbitt: