Accents

Yesterday, I found a Youtube video from a guy imitating 32 different English accents. It was, quite frankly, impressive. How did I find it? Well, it all started with me and my boyfriend watching some random videos and stumbling upon one about a prank call a young girl did with a Dublin-based demolishion company. The accent struck me as interesting, so I wanted to see if that was really a Dublin accent. Thus, the Youtube search.

What struck me as interesting was the following: We started listening to the prank call, and I somehow was reminded of how Dutch sounds to me, a German native, just that the language was English. It was not really English spoken with a Dutch accent, though. I was intrigued. The Youtube video with the 32 different accents revealed that apparently, most of the Irish accents remind me of Dutch. I can't really explain this, but I definitely like their accent (and I like the sound of Dutch too).

On another note, I was thinking about different accents in various languages recently and I noticed that it often seems to be the southern part of the country which has a very distinct accent or dialect. It's like this in Germany, in the United States, in France, and certainly in Italy too. I would be interested in hearing about other countries too, so if any of you know about other countries and their various accents, I would really appreciate your insight.

It makes me wonder, though, why accents develop in the way they do. It certainly has to do with the influences from other languages, but is that really all? I mean, those countries I mentioned above have more than one shared border with other countries, not only on their south side. Germany, for example, is surrounded by seven different countries, whereas the two southern countries even speak German (Austria and Switzerland). France shares borders with Spain in the south, and with several other countries in the north and north-east. Italy has no shared border at all in the south.

Can anyone of you shed some light on this phenomenon?

English--Language of Variety

The English language has an extremely wide range of words for us to use. It is estimated that the current English vocabulary sums up to about 500,000 - 600,000 words. German comes close, but French, for example, only knows about 300,000 words. Now what does that mean?

One reason for this huge difference might be the way words are built. Where English or German may create one new word, French uses several existing words to name the same thing. On the other hand, English is a language full of synonyms and words with a similar yet slightly different meaning. In short, English is a paradise for writers because we have a huge variety of words at our fingertips. By choosing one word over another, similar word, we can express nuances of meaning which would otherwise be difficult to describe.

Example:

She looked at him./She stared at him.

Both verbs describe the same activity, but in the second sentence you get the impression that she is intensely looking at him, maybe in shock or surprise, whereas the first sentence could mean anything from a fleeting look over turning her head towards him in surprise because he spoke to watching him in his sleep. "Look" doesn't tell us the quality of the activity; "stare" conveys more information in a single word.

Synonyms can help to make a text varied since we don't need to use the same word over and over again.

Some examples:

eventually--finally--in the end--at last--ultimately
luckily--fortunately
however--though--but--yet

Depending on which word/word group we use, our sentence structure might also vary, which will ultimately make out text less monotonous and thus less boring to read.

If we know our vocabulary, it is so much easier to create images with our writing, and to make a text interesting to read, which should be our ultimate goals as writers (even the best story will suffer from bad writing, but with a good writing voice, even the most boring content can gain appeal).

Word of the Week ... XX

Every writer should know what this word means, so I thought it would make an awesome word of the week for us:

"thesaurus"

Meaning: a synonym for a given word, or at least another word with a similar meaning

Example: If you search for a thesaurus of the verb "to ask", you might come up with other verbs like "to demand", "to inquire", or "to request".

Did you know that Microsoft Word, for example, has a built in thesaurus function?

Watching Films Bilingually

Have you ever tried to watch a film in one language and set the subtitles to another language you know? It can be confusing. Or, more exactly, it is confusing.

Did you know that most languages don't share the same syntax structures? I experienced total confusion when I tried to follow my favourite Disney film, Mulan, in Spanish while catching the meaning with help of the English subtitles. Almost every longer sentence was twisted. If the Spanish sentence began with the main clause, the English sentence ended with the main clause; if the Spanish sentence began with the subordinate clause, the English sentence ended with the subordinate clause. You would think the translators working on the subtitles would watch out for this phenomenon and try to avoid it where possible....

On another note, if you have ever followed subtitles and audio in the same language, you might have discovered that they differ from each other. The meaning is (almost always) the same, but the wording may well be different (and no, the subtitles are not always the easier wording, as one might think since they are usually used by people to help them understand the spoken words).

Well, back to our bilingual problem.... I have noticed that I am unable to follow both the spoken and the written words. If I put on a film in a language where I want to train my listening skills, and they don't have subtitles in the same language, I often don't use any subtitles (and might watch the film a second time in one of my main languages to get what I missed in the other language). It just doesn't work out for me. I tend to follow the subtitles to catch the meaning, and completely miss what is said. If, however, I force myself to concentrate on the audio, I don't need to use subtitles in a different language since I won't be able to read them while listening. My brain seems to be incapable of following two languages at the same time (yet, thinking in two languages at the same time is possible...my brain is really weird!).

What are your experiences with subtitled films?

Reasons for Choosing the Second Language You Chose to Learn

All right, today, I want to talk about all the different reasons to choose exactly the language you chose to learn as second language (and I would love to hear about your very own personal reasons in the comments!!!). All reasons given are in no particular order, and are just based on my own thoughts.

Part of your heritage is from a foreign country and you want to learn the language your ancestors spoke.

You like the sound of the language (you have heard it in a film, song or on holiday).

Your significant other speaks a different native language.

You want to travel or move to a foreign country where they speak a different language.

It was the only foreign language offered at your high school or college.

You want to read your favourite author in the original language instead of reading the translations of his books.

The language you chose is believed to be especially easy to learn.

The language you chose is believed to be especially difficult to learn. (Yes, there are people who want the challenge....)

You think the second language will give you an advantage in the job market.

Your boss told you to learn that language if you want to keep your job.

You are particularly interested in a certain country and want to be able to read information about it in its official language.

Your parents thought that language would be best for you to learn.

You came across a dictionary/text book/other language learning resource for that language as a gift.

Your best friend wants to take a class in that language but doesn't want to go alone.

A cute woman/hot guy is in that class and you want to get to know her/him.

The class is taught by a cute/hot teacher.

Okay, and here are my personal reasons for the languages I started learning (and the ones I still want to learn):

English--It was the first mandatory language to learn in school; apart from that, I simply love this language.

French--My second foreign language I took at school. The other alternative was Latin (one of them was mandatory), and I didn't want to learn a "dead" language.

Spanish--It was offered as one of the subjects to choose from in 9th year, and since I like languages, I took up the opportunity to learn yet another one.

Italian--The first language I started learning outside of school, at about the same time I started Spanish classes. I simply liked the language, and came across an Italian course (textbook and audio CDs) on sale.

Chinese (Mandarin)--My vocational school offered a ten-week-class, and one of my best friends wanted to take it. She persuaded me to take the class too, because she thought it would be fun to do it together (she was absolutely right!).

Dutch--I like the Dutch mentality and think the language sounds cute (maybe because it sounds similar to German, yet not quite the same).

Irish--I like Celtic lore, which was alive the longest in Ireland and thus is connected to the Irish language.

Danish--We were on family holiday in Denmark, and my mom was taking Danish classes, so I asked her to teach me a bit while we were there.

Swedish--I wanted to learn a Scandinavian language, and since my mom was already learning Danish, I decided to go with a different Scandinavian language. Also, I grew up with some of the Swedish children's book classics.

Japanese--I haven't yet started to learn Japanese, but it interests me (maybe because I watched a lot of anime when I was younger) and I like the sound of the Japanese language.

Arabic--I haven't yet started on Arabic either, but I feel challenged by the fact that Arabic is seen as the most difficult language to learn for a German native.

Russian--Another language on my wish list. Maybe it's the different alphabet....

Turkish--Since Turkish people are one of the greatest immigrant groups in Germany, I came into contact with several Turkish people and their culture when growing up.

Now here are my reasons, what are yours?

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November...

Why is it that many people still remember phrases like the above from their school days and actually remember what happened at the date in question? And why do we forget so much of the other stuff we learnt at school?

In order to help us remember things, we need to connect them to emotions. Most likely, rhyming phrases appeal to some area in our brain, maybe the one responsible for having fun, and are recognised as 'Oh, funny, save for later'.

I still remember a poem by heart which we learnt in ninth year at school. Our German teacher made us memorise it and say it as fast as we could. He would stop the time and make a competition out of it. Although the poem itself is really nice, I doubt I'd remember much of it, let alone all three stanzas, without that competition.

So, since it is Saturday, I'll just give you my two cents about this phenomenon:

I think it's really cool that there are phrases like the above for many historical dates. I like history, but it's not one of my main areas of interest, so I often forget things I've read or heard. Those catchy phrases, however, stick to my mind much more likely, and with the phrase, some of the other information about that particular event in history might be brought back from the abyss of deleted memories in my brain.

When all Words Fail...

Sometimes, you reach a situation where you are at a loss for words. It may be for good reasons, or bad reasons, but the result is the same: You feel as if no words are powerful enough to express what you feel right now. They would sound awkward or hollow, maybe even make a bad situation worse or spoil a good one. Now, if you still want to express yourself in such a situation, what can you do?

In a bad situation, for example if someone is crying, you may want to comfort the person. If you know each other well, you might just do best by hugging her and offering your shoulder to cry on. If, on the other hand, you don't know each other well enough for a hug, maybe just squeezing her hand or gently touching her arm or shoulder can convey some comfort.

Good situations are usually different. Someone tells you incredibly good news and you can't think of something to say which would express your joy and happiness. Maybe you know this from your own behaviour, but some situations just ask for squealing, jumping around and doing the happy dance. Other situations, like when a good friend tells you good news, you just instinctively hug your friend (or whoever bears the good news; it might be the postman, if the news he brings are good enough). Another common way to convey happiness is a broad smile that lits up your eyes too.

Even without words, we can make people feel better and share happiness. It's easy; all you have to do is to listen to your heart and soul, and you will know what to do.