Ge´der
This is the Spanish phonetic spelling of my name. “Heather” has not one sound in it that has an equivalent in Spanish—my name is unpronounceable in that language, like Xochi or Bexar or maybe Tchoupitoulas Street.
I am practicing Spanish these days. In Spanish, I discover I am very funny. It is said jokes are impossible to translate, the last thing a person can “get” when taking on a new language. But I find jokes first. I can’t take language too seriously because it doesn’t take me seriously.
Learning a new language is infantilizing—I know colors, numbers, the parts of the body. I have no tenses, only present. I have no verbs except “is”, just nouns and pointing. Basically, it’s like being a baby Zen monk, trying to speak all day just in Spanish. I’m in the now. No future, no past. No getting, no giving, no grasping and a lot of laughing.
I really love my Spanish-speaking self: it’s a surreal and hilarious mutual relationship. I am very funny in Spanish.
I am Geder.
Related posts:
Heather,
Fonéticamente, la grafía exacta de tu nombre en español sería: “Géder Sélers” (con acento, o tilde, en ambos). Pronuncio tu nombre, y me encanta.
Soy Pedro.