Word of the Week ... XII

This week's word is one of my favourites. I use it frequently in my writing and even sometimes in my speech.

"indeed"

Meaning: "Indeed" is often used as another word for the expressions "really", "certainly" or "definitely".

Example: It was a sad day indeed.

Can you come up with your own examples?

Irish - Language Overview

When people say Irish, they mean the Gaelic language which was spoken in Ireland before English replaced Irish in everyday use. Nowadays, Irish is official language in the Republic of Ireland again, although only part of the population can read or speak it and it is only used as everyday language in some parts, especially Western Ireland around Galway.

Irish

Geographical Extension

Irish is only spoken in some parts of Ireland, called the Gaeltacht regions. Irish is officially the first language in the Republic of Ireland, and an acknowledged minority language in Northern Ireland.

Spoken by

It is spoken by approximately 1.5 million people.

Language Family and History

Irish belongs to the Goidelic language family, like Scottish Gaelic and Manx. First written records of the Irish language date back to the fourth century AD. The early, or primitive, Irish was written in the Ogham alphabet, also called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", whose letters consisted of certain notches and strokes. It was named "Celtic Tree Alphabet" because traditions attributed tree names to the letters of the alphabet. Primitive Irish was prevalent throughout Ireland and on the west coast of Great Britain. In the fifth and sixth century, Primitive Irish developed into Old Irish, which then used the Latin alphabet. At around the same time, the former Celtic country started to adopt Christian believes through St. Patrick and other Christian missionaries.

Middle Irish, which evolved from Old Irish during the tenth century, was not only spoken in Ireland but also in Scotland and on the Isle of Man. About two to three centuries later, it split into Modern Irish, Scotish Gaelic and Manx. Modern Irish was used both spoken and in literature thoughout the next centuries.

Under British rule, the use of Irish declined and was associated with poverty since the wealthy elite in Ireland spoke English. The Great Famine 1845-1849 caused a further decline of the Irish speaking population due to death or emmigration.

The Gaelic Revival movement, which started at the end of the 19th century, tried to strengthen the use of Irish again. The Irish language became a symbol of a new-found national identity. In 1922, the Republic of Ireland gained its indepence from British rule. 15 years later, in 1937, Irish became first official language in the Republic of Ireland. Nowadays, Irish is taught at schools and is used in journalism and everyday use again, especially in the Gaeltacht regions.

Grammar Difficulty

Irish grammar shows some of the same grammatical characteristics as Chinese (Mandarin) which, quite honestly, surprised me a lot. It also has grammar structures in common with the Romanic languages. For English natives, Irish grammar may be difficult to grasp due to the great differences in sentence structure, the two genders for nouns, two different verbs for "to be" and other differences.

Pronunciation Difficulty

Irish pronunciation is by far the most difficult pronunciation I have yet encountered. All consonants can be pronounced either as "broad" or "slender" version, with different positions of the tongue. This small distinction in pronunciation also brings different meanings with it which makes it a pitfall for non-native speakers.

Special Facts

Since there were hardly any people around who were still able to write in Irish by the time Irish becamse official language in the Republic of Ireland, spelling and grammar are mostly derived from older written records of Modern Irish as used before British rule.

Irish is strongly influenced by the English language nowadays, especially when it comes to modern words which simply didn't exist in the time Irish was still "naturally" spoken. Some simply use the English words, for example for internet, while others create "Irish" words for it.

In Northern Ireland, Irish was exclusively used by Catholics for a long time and was seen as a symbol of a unified nation. Recently, Protestants in Northern Ireland show an interest in the Irish language as well.

The Basics - Italian

Ok, today, I'll give you some basics in Italian, just because I love the sound of it. To help you all out with pronunciation (and since I was asked for a pronunciation guide last time I posted a short language course), I found something for you:

Italian Pronunciation (English)
Italian Pronunciation (German)

Exercises

Let's begin with the 5 essentials:

Cursing: Merda! (Shit!)

Thank you: Grazie!

I love you: Ti amo.

Cheers: Cincin! / Alla salute!

Help: Aiuto!

Ok, now we can move on to some basic phrases:

Ciao, sono ... (Hi, I'm...)

Come stai? (How are you?)

Come ti chiami?/Come si chiama? (What's your name? - informal/formal)

Sto bene. (I'm fine.)

Mi dispiace, non parlo l'italiano. (I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian.)

Parli/Parla l'inglese? (Do you speak English? - informal/formal)

Scusa! (Sorry!)

Usually, most people will be more friendly if you at least try to speak a few words or phrases in their native language, and will more likely switch to your language if they know it. And, honestly, it's not that difficult to learn a few phrases before your next trip to Italy, but it can make your trip so much easier and more interesting!

Word of the Week ... XI

I read this word in a Facebook post and knew I had seen it before (and profoundly like it):

"blimey"

Meaning: It's a colloquial British expression you use when you want to express incredulity. According to an English friend, it basically means the same as "wow" and is hardly ever used nowadays. I say: What a pity, it's such a nice word! Save the word!

Example: Blimey! You really made it!

What are your examples?

Swedish - Language Overview

I chose Swedish to be my first Scandinavian language since my mom was already learning Danish and I wanted to take a different language. I don't know why exactly I reasoned that way, but I like Swedish so I haven't regretted my choice.

Swedish

Geographical Extension

Swedish is spoken throughout Sweden and in parts of Finland as official language.

Spoken by

Swedish is spoken by about nine million native speakers.

Language Family and History

Swedish belongs to the Scandinavian (or North Germanic) languages, and more extensively, to the Indo-European languages (like almost all European languages, by the way). Its closest relatives are Danish and Norwegian, which can be understood so that speakers of either of the three Scandinavian languages are able to communicate with each other.

The Scandinavic languages began to split from the Germanic language during the 8th century. Only a century later, the mutual Scandinavic language called Old Norse divided into Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). Over the next centuries, each country developed a distinctive dialect which led to the division of former Old East Norse into Old Swedish and Old Danish from the 13th century onwards. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic church with its monasteries brought many loan words from Greek and Latin to Sweden while the Hanseatic Power and the trade through it brought with it a strong influence by Low and High German. Old Swedish had a grammar complexity that resembled the modern German grammar. In the recent centuries, Swedish experienced a simplification of grammar until it reached the form of modern Swedish in the late 19th century. The main reasons for a simplified and unified Swedish language had been the invention of book printing and therefore a wider distribution of written Swedish (especially the Bible), and the industrialization in Sweden which also brought forth new Swedish writers. The last greater reform of the Swedish language to date was the "you-reform" in the 1950s and 1960s when the way in which you address higher-ranking people was changed to a more liberal way.

Grammar Difficulty

Swedish grammar is similar to English grammar in complexity. Although Swedish still has two genders, its overall complexity has been simplified throughout history so that the Swedish language shouldn't be too difficult to learn for English natives.

Pronunciation Difficulty

Swedish has a rather sing-songy pronunciation which might be difficult to immitate. Apart from that, however, it is quite easy to learn.

Special Facts

Old Swedish was written with runes. The runic alphabet only had 16 letters so that many letters were used for more than one phoneme.

Daily Exercises...Not Only for Muscles

Language skills are pretty similar to muscles: If you don't use them regularly, they shrink.

I have known this for years but never actually acted. Why not? I could come up with reasons like stress, no time, too much work etc., but the truth is: I was probably just too lazy. Let's face it: If I had really wanted to, I could have easily included some minutes of language exercises into my daily routine, just like I include some push-ups or curls into my daily routine no matter how busy I am.

Granted, language skills require brain work whereas push-ups or curls require physical activity, so maybe it's easier for me to do some physical exercises in between my regular "brain work" instead of occupying my brain with even more stuff in a break; still, that's no excuse for letting my language skills get rusty. I know that I'm still perfectly able to understand those languages I don't use regularly; I have problems with actively using it.

From now on, I'll try to include my languages more into my daily life. I don't want to lose the skills I have; on the contrary, I want to improve them even further. Luckily, it takes much less effort to reactivate language skills than to acquire new language skills.

Do you have language skills too which have become rusty? What do you do to prevent losing your language skills?

Watch out for my language exercises--soon to come! (Any preferred language? If so, let me know!)

My Two Cents ... XXII

This week's phrase:

"a penny for your thoughts"

I came across it in a joke, and it stuck with me, so I did my usual research:

What does it mean?

If someone says to you, 'I'd give a penny for your thoughts,' he wants to know what you are thinking. It is mostly used when someone seems to be distracted and "lost in thoughts". It may, however, be used too if someone wants to ask for an opinion on a certain matter.

Where does it come from?

It appears to be quite an old saying, dating back to the middle of the 16th century when a British penny was still worth quite a bit.

My two cents:

I definitely like this phrase. It sounds nicer than to ask, 'What are you thinking?' and I'll try to include it into my everyday vocabulary.

Chinese (Mandarin) - Language Overview

Chinese (Mandarin) is a beautiful language. For European and American people with non-Asian background, it will also appear quite exotic due to their signs instead of letters.

Chinese (Mandarin)

Geographical Extension

Chinese is spoken throughout China in various dialects, in Taiwan and Singapore. It is recognised as minority language in the United States and Mauritius. Mandarin is by far the most dominant and wide-spread variation and is mostly spoken in the north and southwest of China.

Spoken by

With 850 million speakers throughout the world, Chinese (Mandarin) is likely the language with the most speakers. The total speakers of Chinese language variations sum up to about 1.3 billion speakers.

Language Family and History

Mandarin is the standard Chinese which is used in school, in government agencies, in the media and as a common language of communication for natives of all the various Chinese variations.

Linguists think that all variations of Chinese and similar languages have developed from an original language called Proto-Sino-Tibetan. The earliest written records of Chinese language date back to the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BC). The language back then is now referred to as Old or Archaic Chinese. However, linguists have not been able to come to a consent of Old Chinese pronunciation and language. Even Middle Chinese cannot be fully reconstructed so that all hypotheses concerning the outdated versions of Chinese are tentative.

In contrast to European languages, Chinese has mostly been isolated throughout history. The vast majority of Mandarin speakers can be explained by geographical circumstances. The north of China is easier to travel than the mountains and rivers of the southern parts of China. Most Chinese variations which developed in the southern parts were used for all parts of life until very recently when the government introduced an educational reform and made Mandarin the compulsory language taught at schools in the mid-20th century.

Grammar Difficulty

Mandarin grammar is based on sentence structure and word order rather than on word changes (thus as verb conjugations or plural endings). Therefore, Mandarin is classified as an analytical (relying on syntax) language. However, Mandarin possesses a great variety of particles and classifiers to distinguish different moods and aspects. For natives of non-analytical languages, those grammar structures are very confusing and it takes some time to get used to the completely different approach.

Pronunciation Difficulty

For natives of European languages, the phonetic system of Mandarin is confusing at least. Mandarin has a set amount of syllables since letters can only be combined in a certain way. To increase the amount of phonetic elements, Mandarin uses five different tones to differ between the meaning: four different intonations (high level, high rising, low falling-rising, high falling) plus one unstressed (neutral) tone. For many non-natives, it is difficult to get the different syllables' pronunciation and especially the intonations right, which leads to a great risk of misunderstandings since a slightly altered intonation also alters the meaning of Chinese words.

Special Facts

Most Chinese natives speak at least two or three different variations of Chinese, one of them usually being Mandarin. They often speak their own regional variation, and sometimes other variations as well if they lived in several places. Even in Hongkong, which was English colony until 1997, Mandarin spreads as common language next to English and Cantonese (the Chinese variation officially spoken in Hongkong).

Other languages such as Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean have borrowed a major part of their writing and even vocabulary from Chinese.

Modern Mandarin only knows about 1,200 different syllables (including the different intonations) which leads to many words with the same pronunciation. In writing, however, each word has its own character so that written Mandarin is non-ambiguous where spoken Mandarin might be misunderstood. Therefore, many Mandarin words have developed to consist of two syllables instead of the original one syllable to make words non-ambiguous in spoken language as well. Compare: the English language knows over 8,000 different syllables.

The Sound of Languages

Have you ever had the feeling that you could listen to a foreign language for hours without understanding a word just because you love the sound of that language? Or that you want to learn a language simply because you love the sound of it?

I have a film with Chinese Mandarin audio track which I sometimes turn on just for the sound of it. I might be able to understand an occasional word or two but wouldn't be able to follow the plot without subtitles in a different language.

Another example: I started learning Italian because I loved the sound of that language. I think it is the most beautiful of the Romance languages (I've started learning French and Spanish before I started learning Italian because those two were offered at school) although from the three Romance languages I speak, it is the least wide-spread. Whenever I have the opportunity to speak Italian without making a fool out of myself, I seize it. The people working in my favourite Italian café in my hometown already know me by now; I always speak Italian with them (most of them are Italian natives).

How much I like the sound of a language strongly determines how much motivation and effort I will likely put into learning it. The more I like the sound of it, the more do I strive to learn it, to be able to speak and understand it. Thus, my advice: If you want to learn a foreign language but are not quite sure as to which one, listen to some languages (on DVDs, for example) to find out which one sounds best to you.

My Two Cents ... XXI

This week, it's another phrase I learnt through the English author Richard I. Prescott (thanks again, R.I.P.). It's

"two to the dozen"

What does it mean?

It means that something or someone is doing something very fast (for example a heart is going two to the dozen if someone is really excited).

Where does it come from?

Actually, when I researched the origin, the only phrase I found was "nineteen to the dozen" which originated back in the Cornish copper mines in the 18th century. The newer pumps were able to get out nineteen thousand gallons of water for every twelve bushels of coal.

My two cents:

I personally like "two to the dozen" better although it was very interesting to find out where the phrase got its meaning "very fast" from.

Language Jobs - Language Teacher

The last job in my little language jobs series (for now). I've started as language teacher for younger students when I was thirteen and have since helped many students in English, French, Spanish and German and have even taught some adults in business English. So, here's my overview of the job as language teacher:

Language Teacher

Description

A language teacher, well, teaches languages. Students reach from young children to school children to adults, depending on where you teach. A language teacher doesn't only teach grammar, vocabulary and punctuation but also cultural aspects, history and other interesting and/or important facts about the countries where the language is spoken.

Necessary Skills

First of all, a language teacher should know his language. Don't laugh, I've had teachers whose language skills were less than good...in fact, they were worse than the skills from half their language class! Apart from the obvious, a language teacher needs to be able to work with people (in the age range he is teaching), and excellent communications skills. Furthermore, a teacher needs to know how to motivate his students, and how to explain difficult language concepts in a way his students understand.

Income Range

The income range varies. Teachers at public or private schools (elementary schools, high schools, universities etc) usually get paid according to set income ranges (depending on qualification, age, and experience). Freelancers (tutoring teachers, for example) negotiate their own prices with their clients. Usually, hourly income for freelancers is on the lower side since most private clients don't want to or are not able to pay high prices. Private language schools, on the other hand, might pay a bit more for qualified language teachers (both freelancers and employees) since they generally ask high prices from their clients.

Where to Find Jobs

Depending on whether you have an academic degree as teacher or "just" know your language and teaching skills, you might be able to find employment with public or private schools, private language schools or as freelancer (tutoring, giving courses for private language schools etc).

How Your Environment Can Affect Language Learning

Do you live alone? With your parents? Or your own family with partner/husband/wife and children? Where do you live? Who are your friends, and where are they from?

All those questions are related to your environment, and all those questions relate to some kind of effect on language learning. If you live alone, you can easily use your free time for language learning. You can sit and listen to audio CDs, stick your nose in your course book or watch the newest DVD in a foreign language for practise. No one will protest. On the other hand, no one will join your endeavours, either. It is a double-edged sword. Living alone can give you the freedom to do whatever you choose to do, including language learning. And, living alone can give you the freedom to do whatever you choose to do, including being lazy instead of learning. When you live together with other people, they can both motivate and hinder you, depending on their needs (like your children) and their own inclination to learn new languages.

Just imagine your husband/wife wants to learn Italian with you because you two want to visit Italy. Speaking of motivation! And now imagine three little children who constantly demand your attention, and your course book collecting dust because you have no time and no one to motivate you...

Apart from who you live with, language learning is also strongly effected by where you live. If you live in a foreign country, for example, you will be much more motivated to learn the language your environment speaks. However, if you live in an area where foreign language courses are not easily accessible or certain foreign languages have a bad reputation, you will be less likely to take on the endeavour to learn a new language.

What other environmental circumstances can you imagine that influence language learning, and why?

My Two Cents ... XX

This week's phrase is one I stumbled upon in a manuscript I edited:

"to go to town on sth"

What does it mean?

This idiom means to do something with much zest, speed and determination, and often without sparing any expenses. Example: "He went to town on his new novel and already has written over hundred pages in only two weeks."

Where does it come from?

The original meaning of this phrase refers to expensive shopping trips to the nearest town. It has first been recorded in 1933 and seems to be of American origin.

My two cents:

When I stumbled upon this phrase in the manuscript, I had a vague idea of its meaning but wasn't quite sure. I chose the easiest way to find out: through the author! Thanks to Richard I. Prescott for this nice new phrase! What strikes me somewhat funny, however, is that I learnt this phrase with American origins through an English writer...