h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, Seth of Rabi!
Is it appropriate to ask for an introduction to this huge piece of writing?
'Cos believe it or not, I do feel like reading it!
o

Of course it is appropriate wierdo!

The text is from the Oriki Orunmila. Oriki is a praise poem, and Orunmila is one of the orisa or divinities in Yoruba religion.

Yoruba are the majority tribe in South East Nigeria where I live.

Nice to meet you

Nice to meet you, too.
I find myself in most unexpected places!
Greetings from Russia - need a smiley for snow...
I'll be ing, if you don't mind

Not much use for a smiley in Lagos

smiley maybe

feel free to to your heart's content, only don't creep up behind me and shout MOCKBA!!, will you? I always spill my when that happens.

Do you mind very much if I call you Zarya? o is just too

Aha-a! Scared? Beware: I won't shout MOSKVA, I'll try...er...any other scary Russian words?... BALALAIKA! USHANKA!! RASPUTIN!!! STOLICHNAYA!!!!!!!
Are you OK? Let me help you...I didn't expect you'll pass out - my husband happened to come up with a couple of ideas...

do they speak a lot of Russian in Lagos -
where did you pick up your Russian -
are you sure you are not a Russian (double) agent -
Don't call me Zarya, it's too ! If you dislike my favourite most meaningful name, call me Helen, or Lena for short.
to you and kind regards to Mrs. Seth of Rabi and friendly
people of Lagos.
o

I..I..I..th..think I'm ok.
it was the USHANKA!! that did me in. Starts off as a cute little woolly hat but translate it and Wham! Knocks you off your feet. At least you didn't say *whispers* shapka


So your husband thinks I am double agent Russki, does he?

Seth-of-Rabi = what? Agent Zukhov-Rabinovich?

There are people from all over the world here including Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Poles. You pick things up. But I cannot speak Russian. Only one or two words.


Most people like sunrise, but since you put it that way, Lena the o it is.

What part of Russia are you from?

Hello again!
I'm reluctant to tell you where I live as I'm afraid you'll faint again ...
Put down your ...Hold on to a chair...Ready? MOSKVA!!!
What is life like for you in Nigeria?
And how is it better from London?
I looked through your old entry about working abroad, but there wasn't much about the place you are in.
It would be great if you could find time and wish to tell us something about it.
I find it difficult to ask questions since no one obviously is under obligation to answer.
(I've been playing with the Internet for about a month and I'm still unaware of what I am doing. Writing letters to total strangers? Why and what for?)
I hope you won't disappear into cyberspace, agent 166168.
Take care and kind regards,
Elena the o

Why is Nigeria better than London?

Well the money's better, it has a very nice climate, and some of the best fishing in the world.

Nigeria is also a largely unregulated society and you have the freedom and opportunity to do just about anything you care to. But it is a double-edged sword. There are some s out here ready to devour the foolish and unlucky.

Have a nice weekend

Yes, I read on a site made by people who call themselves 'scum-baiters' that Nigerians alone annually trick US citizens out of something like $2,5 billion. What are the world-wide figures then!
But what about the adherents of Yoruba religion? Are they largely nicer than their compatriots?
What is the crime rate where you are? how safe do people feel?
And, on a lighter note - what's the best way to experience the best fishing in the world?

I liked your thoughts about vice and virtue which I came across
on the 'morality' thread. Apart from enjoying a calm and balanced discourse, I'm always happy to find something useful in terms of language teaching. I study 'character traits' vocabulary with my students and your list of 'negative attributes' may be really helpful. Do you mind if we use it?
(I suppose I'll have to make an equally long list
of 'positive' qualities to match it !)

Have a nice weekend !

I suppose the crime rate here is a concern for a lot of people. But then I spent the first half of 2004 working for the British Ministry of Defence in Iraq so danger is relative. I've had no real problems myself and I've been here since before 2000.

THere's good and bad in all walks of life. I really don't think that which church someone goes to has much to do with it. In fact, the more someone tells me that they are a 'good' person, the more I ask myself "why do they need to tell me?".

Your good wishes worked, we caught many good fish on saturday

Nice to hear from you,Mr Seth (sounds queer)of Rabi(?even queerer)!
Could I call you Mr.Seth? It seems proper.
I am trying to get used to this medium and I might despair of it in the end.
< the more someone tells me that they are a 'good' person, the more I ask myself "why do they need to tell me?">
I agree, why else should people advertise themselves?!

I thought you might want to share something you know about the people who created the hymns, but it is obviously a topic for a Travel Channel documentary, not for a couple of letters.
In fact, the documentary might have been made already!

Just call me Seth

I wish I could tell you more about the Yoruba religion. But information is difficult to come by since the followers tend to be quite secretive about it and there is no "Bible" as such.

There is a supreme 'creator' Olodumare, but he doesn't appear to be worshipped directly. Instead, followers tend to worship their preferred Orisha deities who each represent different aspects of nature or spirit. Orunmila is one, but Shango (thunder) is very popular as is Ogun (war, iron). Soldiers and taxi drivers, for example tend to follow Ogun as he is seen to look after those who carry weapons or operate metal machinery.

There is some stuff on the internet but it's mainly superficial. Anything deeper will most likely be written in Yoruba.

Yo Seth! Nice to see you are still around dude. I'm in Gamba at the moment waiting for 5 o'clock so I can zoom down to the corner bar and ogle the lasses. Some fine young cannibals around these days.

Well, it's gone 5 here and you're East of us so I guess you're already down there.

Hope they're not fishing you out of the pool again dude!

Naw! Getting too old for that now.

Hello again
Always nice to meet you on the British English thread
Was wondering if 'fish and chips' should be referred to as 'it' or 'they' He-e-lp... (there's a nice discussion on English stereotypes on Ask H2G2)
How's the fishing?
and
Elena

Nice to hear from you again Elena

It's probably best to treat 'fish and chips' as plural.

'How is your fish and chips?', is not wrong but more of a regional variation and I think it would sound strange with a Russian accent!

We're having a competition this weekend so I'm hoping the fishing here is going to be very good. It was a bit patchy last saturday. One of our friends caught a nice 40kg sailfish but we didn't catch anything worth recording.

How is Russia? (Did you ever tell me which part you're from?)

I think I told you once - but the sound of it seems to knock you out
I'd better not do it again...

Russia has had two nasty accidents recently with about 200 hundred people killed, including one UK citizen. Very sad indeed.

Otherwise spring has come at last, here in the city the has
mostly melted, it's pleasantly warm and life seems a tiny bit more cheerful. Oh yes, there's some sun, too .

If you want to have a look at the Russian spring, I could give you a link to my fotki page - there are some pics made last May. We are lucky to have beautiful parks around.

What's your fishing like? Do you go out to sea in a boat? Do you meet your fish far from the shore? I suppose it's more exciting than sitting for hours on the bank of a lake or a river...
More
Elena

Oh yes, the 'M' place. I must have blanked it out of my mind.

I heard about the accidents. Both my parents came from coal-mining villages. Dangerous job at the best of times.

Glad to hear you're seeing some daylight at last. It always amazes Mrs Seth how daylength varies with the seasons in northern latitudes. Here it's 12 hrs of light, 12 hrs dark every day throughout the year and takes only 30 minutes to go from bright to pitch black and back, almost like someone flicking a switch on and off. We're in the middle of dry season at the moment so it's pretty well guaranteed sunny intil the rains start in a couple of months time.

For fishing, a friend has a twin-engined fishing launch and we go between 25 and 60 kilometres out to sea depending on conditions and how much time we have. If the fish aren't biting we joke and drink beer, if the fish are biting then all hell breaks loose especially if there's only the two of us and we get fish on three or four different rods at the same time.

Mostly the fish are up to 10 kg each and they come in easily enough but we do get fish up to 50 kg quite often and some are over 300 kg. I haven't had one that big yet and I'm not sure I'd know what to do with it if I did

Hope the weekend fishing went well and a 300-kilo fish didn't feed you to the sharks
Pity the BE thread is silent. I was getting addicted to searching OALD...A student of mine gave me a link to OED today, but I haven't explored it yet.
Is your interest in languages professional? or pure nostalgia?
I'm a hopeless amateur, having to support five young children - no time for proper research, snatching bits and pieces in rare free moments.
And it's been like this for 17 years already. One month in London before my first son was born - that's all the 'live' language practice I've had.
I've been thinking about 'perk' recently. Can you think of some examples of how the verb is used - if you do use it. OALD only gives phrasal verbs with 'perk', like 'perk up'. As a noun, 'perk' seems to have emerged independently, from 'perquisite' - is the old meaning somehow 'felt' in the noun?
I feel shy to post to the BE thread. Never enjoyed big parties.

PS We've had *lots* of sun recently - almost a month earlier than usual, so life, to be fair, is *much* more cheerful.
Take care and .
Elena.