Stilted

The Word of the Day for April 10 is "stilted."

stilted (adjective) Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff

Synonyms: artificial, contrived, hokey

Usage: She knew no other way to express her genuine feelings than the stilted language of The Family Herald.

Relevance to my life: When I attended the welcoming reception for the Soros Foundation's Teaching Fellows in Tallinn, I remember how stilted the Estonian teachers' speech was. At first I attributed it to degrees of language fluency, but after mingling and talking to them I realized that this program was one of the first to recognize Estonia's statehood on the international scene. Intense emotion and national pride, not language inadequacy or cultural differences, choked their throats and affected their speech.

The Estonian National Anthem
I learned this song fairly early on, since people played it often. I was there from 1993-1994, shortly after their independence from Moscow. While Estonians have always maintained a strong ethnic identity quite separate from Russians, you could say that just after full independence, it was fiery and fervent.







The Finnish National Anthem
Interestingly, it is exactly the same melody. Finns and Estonians and culturally, linguistically and ethnically very closely related to one another.








Onnenpyörä
I got to watch a good deal of Finnish television when I was in Estonia. My favorite show was Wheel of Fortune in Finnish.







Conan O'Brien in Finland
Conan had some segments a few years ago where talked about his similarity to the Finnish President Tarja Halonen. He later visited Finland and visited a few television shows. Hilarity ensued.









Finland
My sentiments exactly, and I'm not being facetious. I loved visiting Finland and would like to go back again some day. It's a beautiful country and I love the sound of the language.

Volition

The Word of the Day for September 26 is "volition."

volition: (noun) 1. The act or instance of making a conscious choice or decision.
      2.  A conscious choice or decision.
      3. The power or faculty of choosing; the will.

Synonyms: willing**

Usage: Without volition I leaned toward her, as a tree is swayed by the wind.

Relevance to my life: Stripped of my volition, I heeded the siren song of chocolate and, giving in, baked a batch of my Crisis Brownies.

It often comes conveniently pre-packaged in the expression "of one's own volition," which is a synonym for "willingly" as in:

The brutal case of pneumonia I had suffered that Estonian winter had left me so weakened and anemic that, one day upon entering the house and smelling the liver sizzling in the skillet, I rushed into the kitchen and, of my own volition, devoured a heaping helping of the iron-rich meat.*

What it is NOT: "violation" - I can only consider your reading my emails and IMs a volition of my privacy. wrong

* I hate liver. Offal is, well, awful. Hell, I was a Vegan for some years, but gave in because, dammit, sometimes I just want a juicy steak.

**Actually, I am not in complete agreement with TheFreeDictionary here. Technically, "willing" is not a synonym for "volition" since "willing" is an adjective and "volition" a noun. A better straight synonym would be the noun "will."