Dec 30– From "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Dana (1840)

 The best of a different Dana

Dec 30– From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana (1840)

Summary: Dana gets to California, where people overpay for stuff. He fakes Spanish with a dictionary and his knowledge of other romance languages.

Commentary: The last Two Years Before the Mast. This was one of the more enjoyable books to read excerpts from this year. I look forward to reading the whole thing at some point. It's kind of weird (I've been saying this a lot lately) to jump back fairly early into the book. There was a section very close to the end a couple months ago. I guess Dana's arrival in California could symbolize the arrival of the new year or something. It's interesting reading Dana's account of the Californian culture. He's not describing them as as savages, like some of the authors have written about the people in their travels, but they're also obviously very foreign and different to him. (His later descriptions of the English sailor actually sounds even more foreign, and does start to veer into generic "savage" tropes in a few places.)

I had never studied Spanish while at college, and could not speak a word, when at Juan Fernandez; but during the latter part of the passage out, I borrowed a grammar and dictionary from the cabin, and by a continual use of these, and a careful attention to every word that I heard spoken, I soon got a vocabulary together, and began talking for myself. As I soon knew more Spanish than any of the crew, (who indeed knew none at all,) and had been at college and knew Latin, I got the name of a great linguist, and was always sent for by the captain and officers to get provisions, or to carry letters and messages to different parts of the town. I was often sent to get something which I could not tell the name of to save my life; but I liked the business, and accordingly never pleaded ignorance. Sometimes I managed to jump below and take a look at my dictionary before going ashore; or else I overhauled some English resident on my way, and got the word from him; and then, by signs, and the help of my Latin and French, contrived to get along. This was a good exercise for me, and no doubt taught me more than I should have learned by months of study and reading; it also gave me opportunities of seeing the customs, characters, and domestic arrangements of the people; beside being a great relief from the monotony of a day spent on board ship.

This paragraph is probably my favorite. Such an interesting story of learning a language. I wish I knew enough of other languages to fumble my way through a new one. I can relate to the, "I don't really know how to do this, but it's interesting and gets me out of grunt work" feeling.