When you listen to French is as if you where eating a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, yeah! taste delicious but you don’t have any idea of what the ingredients are. You can just name maybe: marshmallow, chocolate chips, and vanilla ice cream. When you learn a new word you cannot stop hearing it. A friend mentioned the other day that she really likes the phrase C’est marrant, and I had never heard it, but since explained what it meant and I recognized the pronunciation, I cannot stop hearing it. Marrant means funny, “its funny”. I also learned Truc two weeks ago, truc means stuff, but many stuff, they use it as a noun, for referring to things, and actions, and places, it can be use instead of choose. Another way to say truc is Machin, or Bidule, so you have many ways to name the uncertainty of things, places and life.

As my lessons continue, I feel that I am learning to parse this long String called French, what is most interesting is that there are words that I haven’t noticed that there are there.

(Parenthesis I)

Pendaison de crémaillère, as Nico just got his apartment I asked how would you called a house warming party in French, and Nico explained that it is called pendaison de crémaillère, La crèmaillère is an artifact used in old French houses fire stoves to control the fire. This artifact would be the last thing to put in your house and it would be needed to eat.

Verlan is a way to talk and to change words to say things in French, specially in France. This is my first approach to it, but they use it a lot in my office. They explain that the word is actually a verlam of a l’inver saying words backwards. My coworkers where telling me about Le Meuf of another friend. And well Le Mef comes from Femme where they say it backwards to Meuf that sounds like Mefe but they don’t say the e. Sounds really complicated. Another word they said a lot was Flic which is cop.

And for men they say Mec.

The sentence that they thought me in Verlam is:
Zyva t’es relou dans ta teuté Which is the form that you pronounce it which wants to say: Vas y, t’es lourd dans la tête. That means saying nonsense or crazy things. They had a hard time explaining the concept. But its also you drive me crazy.

What I like about learning new languages is being able to expand the conceptions that you have of your surroundings. Being able to describe experiences with precision.

At my internship I learned each day weird words.

Quand tu nos tiens
We where working in a Monday morning and the mood was comme Lundi. Arno puts music and we all started listing to heavy Rock n’Roll ass the crescendo started Arno says Quand tu nous tiens, that literally means: when you hold us. He explained that the phrase was used for moments of complete pleasure or hapinesss.

삐치다

Korean. Slightly Mad

I’m interested in the different way we use language to communicate. Im of the believe that when you learn a new language you learn a new way to say things and you expand your abstraction of the world. Many concepts that before you tought of unexistant materialize in a way and instead of trying to find different explanations you just use a concept one word.

But still I find myself discussing with some americans in how things would be much easy if we all learned English. I would like to create an presentation or exhibition of the richness of different language. I have two ideas:

1. Is an AtoZ animation/presentation with some type of simple interaction with a language and how I interact with them.

a asci
b braille
c c++
d
E emoticon
f flag semaphore
g grade
h html
i
j
k
l love
m morse
N notes
ñ PIñaTa
o /o/ Close-mid back rounded vowe
p
q
r
s sign language
t translation
u unique
v non verbal communication
w
x
y
z

Another idea is some interaction of unique words that cannot be translated in words, for example:

Antojito - food specially made for Crave… it will be like crave food

Cantinflear - when someone is talking nonsense

Malinchista - The one that loves the foreign world.

왕따 /Wangtha:/ - a person who is forced to be isolated mentally by the other person, usually in class at school, among the students. (Seugran)

Saudade!! It can means - I miss u!! — saudade is a feeling!! (Petra)

Weltschmerz world-pain denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that the physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind.

Description:
Following is a program that:
***reads from a bilingual dictionary French English.
***Picks randomly 5 words that I categorized as “new words” where I used an regular expressions to select words that are more difficult in french.
***It gives you the translation in English
***Gives you 10 sentences pulled out from french blogs feeds that contains the word.

Process:
In order to write the program I started by researching differences between french/Spanish/English what I found in this research is mostly pronuntiation differences, that did not help me that much because what I wanted was differences. I found that the term I wanted to work with is “Bilingual Lexicography” But my search was not that lucky. After spending a lot of time in this research I decided to do a simple regular expressions that will give me long words (from 7 letters to 12), finding that in this was the most common words included in the glossary of a book I am reading in French.

After making this decision I started my search for api’s that could translate the text for me. After exhaustive research I found an api, but I was not able to access through java.. (or I must confess I didn’t know how to) So I didn’t in the old fashion. I converted the file in the dictionary appi from .dict to .txt. The problem is that all the roman characters would be written with weird ASCII characters. So I replaced all the weird characters with what they originally where.

From here I wrote a regular expressions that would group in three the words in the text. The first group will be the French Word the Second the pronunciation and the third the Translation. This was more simpler I use as reference the brackets [] that will be used for the pronunciation word.

I told it to give me five random words and their meaning.

After this I used Shiffmans code for blog reading, and made a class out of it, and run it to my code.

I did not have the time to do a tag remover class so I run it manually throug the html tag remover.

An example of the results

First Example:

midterm.txt

Second Example:

midterm2.txt

Code:

code_midterm.rtf

*Code is also uploaded in the cvs.

Emotions
Emails
Long distance communication through email
What are the emails we writte?

After talking to my roomate, he share one of his hobbies for a project. That is finding the definitions of the definitions of a word and from there create a shape. So I would like to create a tree map of meanings of words starting with one. For my project I would like to create the program that will give me the definitions of the definitions of a word. I will like to define SPACE, and find all its definitions. Adn with this definition transform the space with all the words.

Another approach of this project is to apply it to language learning. I have been reading french books that include a index of words with its definitions. I am interested in finding
1. an algorithm that would guess all the words that I don’t know in French
2. That finds the meaning of the words that I don’t know and organizes them.
3. Addes as foot notes for he words that I dont know.

Running Spam what are the words that distinguish him and me when we writte emails? Email analyzing of a close friend with whom email has become one of our main forms of communication, I use the bayesian formula to find out which are the words we use in our emails. These are the results:

him me

I did another visualization of the words that distinguish him:

Pedro Paramo en Regular Expressions

homework.rtf

A en seguí hacer dijo sus costó lugar a en pensé lugar en de vivió saber sus por volví saber en en seguí lugar de de volví caber por todo Sentí haber en de murió mujer de a seguí sonar todo Se sentí mujer de de Llegué venir a de Toqué venir Se de quedé haber de dar podré morir de pude sentí morir de cosa murió haber dar sino murió mujer pude de habló jugar cosa se de mí tomar sino aun si tú salir de de de tú salir se a debió hacer aun de sentí haber de sus jerró salir a a te dé salir de a pensó haber sus dio .
Allí rezar a en Cerró saber a hijo quedó decir dio caro murió haber en Pero Pensé dejar hijo a sentí mirar caro de Ve tú mujer Pero a lo sé haber a a de mí hacer de de Quizá lugar a se contó subir a de Pensé bajar de era Pensé rizar se de quizá pasar de Por Quizá pasar era eso yo sé volar de a murió saber Por Era sentí mujer eso ese Ve tú haber a de no sé ganar Era aire mandó decir ese de seguí pasar de por de mí saber aire de cerré matar de baja lo sé hacer por se palpó poner de se quizá hacer baja Para salió decir se para roció cesar se baja Yo sé rodar Para dice quizá decir para se juntó lugar baja se cerró mujer dice de Pensé mujer se es pensé pesar se por sentí pedir de se de mí hacer es tan sentí matar por Son llegué tener se a pensó mujer tan de causó poder Son de contó hacer a de pensó pedir de su dolió mujer de de Ya mí decir de por murió mujer su por Quizá haber de pero Falló latir por en Murió venir por su Murió poder pero con sentó poder en dio Salió decir su sus Sentí decir con para pensé sacar dio de quedé decir sus de llegué sacar para por senté pagar de ese Dormí vivir de se lo oí decir por su lo oí pagar ese era volví pedir se casi habló hacer su si No sé comer era a quitó haber casi a ya sé venir si si Pensó mujer a se quizá decir a a Sabrá poner si a sabrá hacer se dijo pensó pasar a de No sé vivir a por mandó pesar dijo en habrá hacer de de habrá hacer por a pensó decir en a de sí rezar de a calló mujer a Se murió tener a de murió decir a a Soltó negar Se de murió venir de por Murió cenar a Sea murió hacer de sea murió pasar por se Quizá venir Sea de debió decir sea En no sé mujer se en Pensé mujer de por Sentí mujer En se le oí mujer en de le oí decir por su No sé decir se si Lo sé lugar de se No sé decir su dije dolió mujer si se traerá mujer se se podré mujer dije con Sentí haber se en cerré salir se se no sé lugar con A Quizá hacer en para Yo sé mujer se Para no sé beber A de podrá mujer para a murió mujer Para su podré salir de paso lo sé rezar a de salió decir su de paseó hacer paso su quedé mirar de dos logré venir de tan No sé saber su casi quizá dejar dos hijo Volví saber tan de sentí saber casi dijo senté lugar hijo de Quizá pasar de de Quizá mujer dijo cada faltó mujer de aire de mí mirar de en Llegué salir cada puro seguí mujer aire sin de mí morir en aire prestó mujer puro Todo pensé mujer sin en de mí pesar aire de no sé salir Todo Hace llegué haber en dije costó decir de es Pagué mujer Hace a sentí mujer dije de perdí mujer es en Llegué nadar a boca saqué mujer de Con saltó venir en de senté haber boca se pensé haber Con por gimió lugar de su soltó vivir se a soltó pasar por a gimió mujer su en cerró dejar a sus si tú mujer a de quedó pilar en es pensó hacer sus a Yo sé vivir de dio Midió soñar es sin vivió decir a de mandó comer dio por quizá gemir sin de lo sé salir de en perdí venir por de senté jugar de si Sentí mujer en Era habló comer de en cortó mujer si pero murió decir Era de pensó lugar en en de mí hacer pero de dormí matar de de presté tener en de murió mujer de de pensé medir de de quedó mujer de de si tú venir de Era pensé morir de de sentó lugar de cosa volví saber Era de salió mover de ser perdí morir cosa de si tú lugar de de dobló haber ser en pensó morir de dedo murió mujer de Es murió meter en dar dormí decir dedo para Ve tú pagar Es dice quedé matar dar de nació salir para de murió tener dice para murió pasar de ceja volví salir de de Ve tú pesar para para causó hacer ceja ceja quizá lugar de casi mandó decir para se sentó hacer ceja de quedó morir casi eso quedé comer se es volví beber de de murió salir eso a Sentí decir es dice pensó girar de toda yo sé lugar a se Llegué bajar dice con Quizá haber toda es Lanzó tocar se de de mí comer con todo de mí hacer es ese me dé lugar de caso nació haber todo es logró mujer ese en murió mujer caso de de mí haber es es soltó haber en a quedó decir de Con Ya sé saber es dice murió decir a paso lo sé saber Con por cerró decir dice a salió mujer paso por soltó morir por se Murió mujer a tan lo sé hacer por si de sí mujer se es pensó mujer tan es me sé vivir si hace Volví lugar es Era Yo sé lugar es hora murió pagar hace en No sé morir Era en tardó decir hora de quizá mujer en con salió saber en sus quedó mujer de aun no sé haber con eso contó colar sus en salió hacer aun a me dé pasar eso hora Lo sé tomar en de Subió decir a aire pensó haber hora sus quedó comer de si quedó mamar aire se libró decir sus de Cerró hacer si de cerró poner se en Si tú lugar de en Pensó lugar de sin Pensó vivir en con cerró durar en su salió saber sin en habló saber con eco se dé subir su de si tú bañar en por Quizá salir eco por habrá pesar de en quizá batir por esa cerró dejar por hora metió cenar en de murió comer esa dijo vendí decir hora se vendí decir de se murió hacer dijo para murió salir se en Salió mujer se su Pensó venir para si Quizá haber en a Pensó hacer su de murió mujer si se no sé hacer a a pidió dejar de dijo movió mujer se con pidió decir a con cerró deber dijo dedo negué sacar

As the first week went by really really fast, I started workin with what will be the first Assignment, again struggling with the basics… using Java, downloading Eclipse, using the CVS, the most difficult was working with Terminal. By the end I had little time to really start experimenting with Strings, so what I did was play around with what was in the CVS. Fist I modified a chapter of the Big Book that is the most important book for the alcoholic anonoymos, changing things around and looking bor the word “Being”. After finishing with the Big Book I went and look for the most important book in Mexican Literature called Pedro Paramo, by Juan Rulfo. This book is known by its know for its simplicity and its richness. So what I did is took out all the spanish prepositions (a, ante, bajo, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, segun, si, sobre, tras) that are words I fill if you take out you can make a new story. And so I did, the program looks for this words and the next words, which rewrittes the text. The second program takes the words acompanied by the preposition so one can be able to analyze better the richness of use of adjetives.

Here you can find the text

Pedro Paramo rewritten

wk1.txt

Pedro Paramo adverbs:

Adverbios

Folder of files:

sandradavilawk1.zip

Programming A to Z it is.

First day of class first class…

Daniel Shiffman gives this course, with his great sense of humor he starts by explaining that the class is not going to be at all of graphics, is going to be just programming, and programming words, and text. The course will look to analyze Data Structure and text analysis, such as spam filtering, and the probability of words.

Why programming A to Z my first Choice? ICM left me like in the middle, or the amount of energy I gave to it wasn’t enough, and well also when working in ICM assignments I felt really frustrated when working with text, it was like I was crippled. And I don’t want to be crippled!!!! also having the opportunity to work with Java, and leaving processing behind. Dedicating more time to programming, and giving myself the opportunity to explore more this world, and well when you program you feel like you where a god and could make the rules of your own world, it also gives you more panorama, and changes your paradigm of judging situations. And I know I don’t want to be a programmer, but I will like to have the skills that programmers have. And well also the romantic part of playing with text, and words.

Ok now back to the class

Class Syllabus

We will be working this week with java basics and next week with Regular Expressions. Shiffman gave us the reasons why we are going to use Java instead of PHP, Pearl or Phyton, one of the reasons is that is one of the languages he manages the best, and the other is that working with Java would give us the flexibility to move around.

He recomended to look into several web pages or other projects such as: Gnoetry or the Nora Project .
We also got in to explainig how to use the CVS, that is a program to share code as I understood. Also he explain the advantages of using Eclipse.

He recommended as resource the following books:

Mastering Regular Expressions Powerful Techniques for Perl and Other Tools By Jeffrey E. F. Friedl

Words and Rules the ingredients of Language By Steven Pinker

Twisty Little Passages
A passage to interactive Fiction By
Nick Montfort

Finally we worked with some basics of java and we review the exercises due for next week.