#2 Corona: Corona childhood

Children in corona-crazy countries are not to be envied (=wishing that you had someone else’s things or talents). Social distancing on the playground? That seems difficult for children to understand, so playgrounds just get shut. And when the children ask why someone explains it to them like this: “You don’t want to kill your grandmother, do you? So keep away from other children!” A lost generation of corona kids or an unclear number of preventable deaths among old people – what’s worse?

👉@afandi_english👈

#33 Travelogue Uzbekistan: The Art of Spelling

Haven’t you asked yourself why English words in Uzbek are rarely spelt in the original English way? I don’t mind spelling Trump as Tramp but Trastbank instead of Trustbank looks weird. But the one word that looks okay to a foreigner, i.e. Paynet, doesn’t sound quite right when people say it. What’s behind this spelling mess?

Russian
English and other European words often enter Uzbek through Russian which doesn’t use the Latin alphabet. That’s obvious with words like Gamburger or Xot-dog.

Script changes
Uzbek used the Arabic alphabet, then Latin, then Cyrillic and now Latin again. Alphabets come and go, so spelling depends on pronunciation and not much else.

Oral culture
Writing is not so much part of people’s daily life as business can be done orally and people send lots of voice or video messages. Spelling issues are simply not that important.

---Vocab---
📍tramp = homeless person, beggar

👉@afandi_english👈 #travel #uzbekistan