In today's entry indispensable LanguageHat writes about Elizabeth Little, a language aficionado, whose book Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic will be published by Melville House in November. Simply reading the title of her New York Times' article "Ablative, Allative, Adessive, Obsessive" made my heart beat faster.

SOMETIMES we turn to ritual to find peace in the solemnity of routine, in the comfort of regular practice. But occasionally we turn to ritual for another reason: because our favorite activities are just too embarrassing to do in public. My obsession, reading textbooks on foreign languages and memorizing obscure grammatical detail, is ritual of the latter persuasion.
...
When you first meet me, I seem like a pretty normal kind of girl. I drink beer, I follow baseball, I watch “The Daily Show.” I grew up in the Midwest, so I’m pretty nice and well adjusted, but for the last seven years I’ve lived on the East Coast, so I’m not too nice or well adjusted. I like puppies, world peace and George Clooney. All in all, I’m an excellent example of run-of-the-mill.

Until you take a look at my bookshelves, that is.

To which I say: Ate¹ Elizabeth!

I remember a rainy day in Portland, which I devoted to my usual pilgrimage to Powell's bookstore. I went to the Red Room on the second floor, to the linguistic section, to check if there is anything new.

After going through two bookcases of Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker I hunted down a book on Korean grammar I haven't seen before. It wasn't "Teach yourself Korean" kind of book, intended for people who want to learn Korean, it was a rigorous yet accessible overview of all main features of Korean language. I started to read and soon the text absorbed me completely, like a prey absorbs a young hungry wolf. I raised my head only after I was done with the book.

This was the first time I realized that something is wrong with me.

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1) "Older sister" in Tagalog.