Fire! slam feat. Token Blaq Poet / open mic.

https://twitter.com/TokenBlaqPoet

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The poet knew himself to be in love. He closed the book with real tenderness.

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They parked along side the gravel road to watch the falling stars. Techno music on the stereo and serotonin in the cooler led the morning to them.

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The protester didn#8217;t bother the Banker on  his way to the office as much as his feather boa did. All day his preoccupied mind saw the trailing defiant feathers.

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On September 29, 2011, I attended an event of the San Francisco Brazilian Portuguese MeetUp and asked some members about how they learn and improve their Portuguese language with Portuguese songs from Brazil.

Get your groove on, turn on some Brazilian rhythms and learn the language!

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On September 29, 2011, I attended an event of the San Francisco Brazilian Portuguese MeetUp and asked some members about how they learn and improve their Portuguese language with Portuguese songs from Brazil.

Get your groove on, turn on some Brazilian rhythms and learn the language!

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I am constantly working on improving my Portuguese by finding Brazilian cultural events to attend to practice the language, dance, sing and enjoy the company of Brazilians and Brazil lovers.

A typical excuse I hear for those who aren#8217;t learning a language is that they don#8217;t have the time or money to go to another country to learn a language.

WRONG!

I learned to speak fluent Spanish and Italian without living abroad. I was already fluent in Spanish when I went to Argentina.

I made a short video of the Yemanja Festival for the Afro-Brazilian Ocean Goddess held in Santa Cruz, CA every year in September. You can dance and sing to Brazilian music and speak in Portuguese without going to Brazil.

Do you live in a metropolitan area? If yes, you are likely to find ethnic, cultural and language enclaves where you can find native speakers with whom to practice your target language.

Unfortunately, due to timing issues, we didn’t get to speak to people in the Mission District in Spanish and no Russians wanted to be filmed. But we made a wholehearted effort to speak to as many people as we could.

Benny moves from to a new country about every season to learn a new language and show that you don’t have to take expensive classes or have a personal tutor to learn a language. He immerses himself from Day One. He is currently living in Chicago on his mission to learn Klingon for the Star Trek Convention. Obviously, there are no Klingon enclaves in Chicago where he can sit for a coffee and wax on in Star Trek lingo. So he will be up to his own devices to learn the language as he has done for so many already. He has many videos on his You Tube channel in various languages, including American Sign Language, Esperanto, German and many others.

Man#8217;s crown of glory,

This hoary head

Of nature#8217;s wisdom,

Story lines,

Paths mapped out

To fate#8217;s desires,

The brimming eyes

Sea#8217;s regret

Behind mist veils

Treacherous memories’

Treasure trails,

Season#8217;s begotten

Fleeting moments,

Kaleidoscope patterns,

Sandstone strata,

Moulding expression#8217;s

Mounts and vales,

The incarnation

Of the silver years.

Copyright 2011 Carpe Libertem in Poetry (Amazon)

Often people complain that they don#8217;t have the money to travel abroad to practice or even start learning new language.

If you live in a metropolitan area, you are likely to find ethnic, cultural and language enclaves where you can find native speakers with whom to practice your target language.

Multilingual Benny Lewis of Fluent in Three Months and I found as we traveled to various cultural communities in San Francisco to show that you can practice or learn a language in San Francisco without having to leave the city. Russians would speak to us, but they didn#8217;t want to be recorded on film. Somehow my eyes decided to hide from this photo too although I am not particularly camera shy.

Unfortunately, due to timing issues, we didn#8217;t get to speak to people in the Mission District in Spanish and no Russians wanted to be filmed. But we made a wholehearted effort to speak to as many people as we could.

Benny moves from to a new country about every season to learn a new language and show that you don#8217;t have to take expensive classes or have a personal tutor to learn a language. He immerses himself from Day One. He is currently living in Chicago on his mission to learn Klingon for the Star Trek Convention. Obviously, there are no Klingon enclaves in Chicago where he can sit for a coffee and wax on in Star Trek lingo. So he will be up to his own devices to learn the language as he has done for so many already. He has many videos on his You Tube channel in various languages, including American Sign Language, Esperanto, German and many others.

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I fall into prayer position,

My arms around his breath.

The rise and fall of the present, the moment.

All I ever needed or dreamt of.

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In his twinkling eyes,

Answers replace questions,

I need not look up.

To see that familiar grin,

Or know that,

It is raining outside.

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Alas, it was a corporate store, but one of the very few with soul.

Link: The Ninth Garden 9 vs. The Garden of Night http://amishliving.com/profiles/blogs/the-ninth-garden-9-vs-the?xg_source=activity

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Kicked off my Autumn 2011 Reading List with Genius by Harold Bloom. Highly recommended!

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All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it,

nothing is so perfect

that it does not descend to its tomb. Rivers, rivulets, fountains and

waters flow, but never return to their joyful beginnings; anxiously

they hasten on the vast realms of the rain god. As they widen their

banks, they also fashion the sad urn of their burial.

Filled are the bowels of the earth with

pestilential dust once flesh and bone,

once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones,

decided cases, presided in

council, commanded armies, conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed

temples, exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power. Vanished

are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes that belches forth from

the infernal fires of Popocatepetl. Nothing recalls them but the written page.

HUNGRY-COYOTE (NEZAHUALCOYOTL)

King of Texcoco (1431-72)

I#8217;m in a Brazilian hiking group and new hikers always ask me how I learned Portuguese with a Portuguese accent. My response is always: KSQQ, Rádio Comercial Portuguesa 96.1FM in San Jose, CA, a Portuguese Community Radio. I listened through a lot of ads for funeral homes and Catholic masses while driving. And low and behold, I learned Portuguese.

Judy Keen of USA TODAY published an article on foreign language radio stations in the US and their problems to stay in business, Foreign-language radio stations provide connection to home . Another addition to the article should have been that those radio stations not only keep foreign nationals and immigrants in the US connected to each other and in tune with what#8217;s going on in their home countries, but they also serve as a resource for language learners to have a constant source of information in their target language.

If it weren#8217;t for my intermittent tuning into Portuguese radio, I probably would not speak the language as well as I do. Now my accent is mixed between a Brazilian and Portuguese one but my continental Portuguese vowels and #8220;sh#8221; sounds are distinctly from the Iberian peninsula and I#8217;ve never lived there.

Keep those radio stations on and help language learners pick up a new language while in traffic.

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