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and another thing
Sep. 11th, 2020 11:41 amAt my old job (a.k.a. budget development hell), I used to have a sign reading:
أنا لااتكلم اللغة الإنجليزية
(Ana la atakellum al-lughat al-ingliziyya)
which is formal standard Arabic for "I don't speak the English language." I used to post it on moderately bad days. On slightly worse days, I'd post the sign that said roughly the same thing in Egyptian idiomatic Arabic (the only phrase I have in that language).
On really bad days, I would post the sign that said:
Sono qui in manera solamente provvisoria
(I'm only here provisionally)
when I start quoting Dino Buzzati, things have reached an existential level of absurdity.
Once, and only once, I posted a sign that read
LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH'ENTRATE
I decided that kind of thinking was bad for morale, so I found a mantra that I could use instead: Not my circus, not my monkey.
I'm pretty sure I know which fanfic I got it from, and I don't know if it's an accurate rendition of a Polish saying. But gosh it helped, on the really awful days.
This morning was definitely a lasciate ogni speranza situation. But I have lots of stuff to do, and I've been able to focus a little better on what needs doing; so I'm somewhere between in manera provvisoria and
أنا لااتكلم اللغة الإنجليزية.
أنا لااتكلم اللغة الإنجليزية
(Ana la atakellum al-lughat al-ingliziyya)
which is formal standard Arabic for "I don't speak the English language." I used to post it on moderately bad days. On slightly worse days, I'd post the sign that said roughly the same thing in Egyptian idiomatic Arabic (the only phrase I have in that language).
On really bad days, I would post the sign that said:
Sono qui in manera solamente provvisoria
(I'm only here provisionally)
when I start quoting Dino Buzzati, things have reached an existential level of absurdity.
Once, and only once, I posted a sign that read
LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH'ENTRATE
I decided that kind of thinking was bad for morale, so I found a mantra that I could use instead: Not my circus, not my monkey.
I'm pretty sure I know which fanfic I got it from, and I don't know if it's an accurate rendition of a Polish saying. But gosh it helped, on the really awful days.
This morning was definitely a lasciate ogni speranza situation. But I have lots of stuff to do, and I've been able to focus a little better on what needs doing; so I'm somewhere between in manera provvisoria and
أنا لااتكلم اللغة الإنجليزية.
