Ni hao, ni hao ma? Hen hao?
Hi again, my friends. I hope you've been doing well. This one might run a little on the longer side, but we'll see what happens.
I honestly think this might be my first entry on Putonghua, or as we Americans know it: Mandarin Chinese. First and foremost, there's a common misconception that everyone from China speaks "Chinese". This might be true, but we need to be more specific as there are a few dialects. Just as I spoke about it in my previous entry on Creole, you can't label the language(s) of China as just "Chinese". The two big ones are Putonghua (Mandarin) and Cantonese (Guangdong hua).
So the next time you want to ask if someone speaks Chinese, you'd better ask if they speak Mandarin or Cantonese instead.
Now for my thoughts on the language. I fucking love it.
Chinese is spoken all over the place. I just so happen to live in a city with a lot of Asian restaurants, from Chinese ones to Japanese ones run by Chinese people (yes, I know it's weird, but it happens). Have you ever wanted to know what they're saying? If they're saying nice things, or how Americans are greedy, fat bastards? Well if so, this is the language to know.
In all honesty, learning Mandarin (I'm studying Cantonese also) has been a JOY to practice with. Every time my girlfriend and I go to a Chinese restaurant (two in particular), I have to attempt speaking to the servers. The first time I did it, I got the "O_O" look. You know, the one that says, "Hol...y." And from then on, I was on a first name basis with everyone. At the restaurant closest to us, the server actually brought out her iPad and showed me how she was learning English and gave me some tips on how to read Pinyin (the Romanized pronunciation of Mandarin/Cantonese). Not even gonna lie, it HAS gotten me discounts on food. Yes, it's a perk, and if it keeps happening, I'd be a fool to try and stop it. To me, it seems like a token of gratitude for attempting a language as difficult as Mandarin.
That leads right into the seriousness of the matter. Mandarin is NOT easy. It is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with an incorrect tone, despite proper pronunciation, it could make the difference between cursing at someone, or giving them a compliment (Take Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 2).
The characters are pretty much like Japanese, in that you have to KNOW what they mean by looking at them, because there aren't many clues as far as punctuation goes. In addition to knowing what the characters mean, which can number in the thousands, you also need to be able to use the Pinyin system. It uses the Romanized alphabet, and has lines distinguishing which tone you need to use to get the proper pronunciation for whatever word you're trying to say.
Mandarin takes a lot of practice. In this last lesson, I learned how to express desire, learned "your place", "my place", "when", "now", and "later". It's tough. I definitely have to go back and practice the pronunciation. I AM also working on the Pinyin and Character system. I am writing out every phrase to get a good grip on writing in both ways. Of course the Pinyin system is easy because it's pretty phonetic, but the characters are really where it's at, despite their difficulty. Characters can have multiple strokes, which can make it seem more like a picture instead of a word. I'm using a Chinese-English/English-Chinese Webster's Dictionary to help me out. The book's print is pretty small, but I'm making it work. I've found that once you've written a character, it becomes muscle memory very quickly, and you can write them from memory. I've already gotten "ni", "bu", and "wo" without needing the book.
I do have a gripe, and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the language. Everyone who follows me knows that I love tweeting in foreign languages. My BlackBerry actually has a decent number of international keyboards for me to work with. I tried to tweet in Chinese, but there were THREE keyboards for it, and I had no idea what in the hell I was doing. It was really tricky. That being said, I cannot WAIT to get my iPhone 5, because there is a way to use your finger and "draw" the characters you need to use, which would be fantastic.
I love Mandarin, and you should to.
Constructive comments, questions, and tips are always welcome!
再见,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Kreyol Ayisyen
Bonjou!
I took the leap of faith and tried Haitian Creole, and in all honesty, I love it. Why do I love it? Because I know French!
For those of you who don't follow, here's what I mean. Haitian Creole sounds like a dialect of the French language. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of borrowed words taken from French. Part of me wonders if someone who knows is fluent in French and knows zero Haitian Creole could survive in Haiti based on their knowledge of the French language. I honestly want to say yes.
Here are some examples of the similarities.
Hello/Good day
French: Bonjour
Haitian Creole: Bonjou
Good evening
French: Bonsoir
Haitian Creole: Bon aswè
I understand
French: Je comprends
Haitian Creole: M/Mwen konprann
So as you can see, there are lots of similarities, and I won't even get into the rest of them, as there are many. But if you already have a base in French, I think Haitian Creole would be a breeze. Once I become semi-efficient, I'd love to take a trip to Haiti and try speaking to the people there in their language. I can't wait for my next lesson...In the meantime, here's hoping there are some Haitian people in my city that I can practice with or some followers on Twitter who can hit me up in Haitian Creole!
Before I conclude, there's a reason why I always try to say "Haitian Creole", and that's because there are a few different kinds, such as Louisiana Creole. I wish I could name more, but I'm not able to right now. I just know that the various Creole languages are mixes, so to try just say Creole would require me to be more specific! Kreyol Ayisyen!
Orevwa,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I took the leap of faith and tried Haitian Creole, and in all honesty, I love it. Why do I love it? Because I know French!
For those of you who don't follow, here's what I mean. Haitian Creole sounds like a dialect of the French language. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of borrowed words taken from French. Part of me wonders if someone who knows is fluent in French and knows zero Haitian Creole could survive in Haiti based on their knowledge of the French language. I honestly want to say yes.
Here are some examples of the similarities.
Hello/Good day
French: Bonjour
Haitian Creole: Bonjou
Good evening
French: Bonsoir
Haitian Creole: Bon aswè
I understand
French: Je comprends
Haitian Creole: M/Mwen konprann
So as you can see, there are lots of similarities, and I won't even get into the rest of them, as there are many. But if you already have a base in French, I think Haitian Creole would be a breeze. Once I become semi-efficient, I'd love to take a trip to Haiti and try speaking to the people there in their language. I can't wait for my next lesson...In the meantime, here's hoping there are some Haitian people in my city that I can practice with or some followers on Twitter who can hit me up in Haitian Creole!
Before I conclude, there's a reason why I always try to say "Haitian Creole", and that's because there are a few different kinds, such as Louisiana Creole. I wish I could name more, but I'm not able to right now. I just know that the various Creole languages are mixes, so to try just say Creole would require me to be more specific! Kreyol Ayisyen!
Orevwa,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Monday, September 24, 2012
Nederlands II
Goedemiddag!
I'm falling in love with the Dutch language. Seriously. It's ease and massive amounts of English cognates make it a breeze to pick up.
This third lesson first gave me the male and female ways to say American (Amerikaans and Amerikaanse) and the male and female ways to say that a person is Dutch (Nederlander and Nederlandser).
I have to spend the rest of this entry discussing the importance of the next two words I learned, and also that these were the only other two words that I learned.
"Ik ben" and "en"
"I am" and "and"
Super simple, but super important. Think about how many times during a conversation that you tell someone "I am......" or use "and" as a conjunction. Now that I have these simple and small, yet enormous words, I can actually start being to "Show ownership of my feelings" like they tell you to do when handling confrontations.
This helps a lot because I try to follow people from the various foreign languages that I'm studying, and of course I have some Dutch speakers on my timeline, and quite frequently I see "Ik ben....." Now that I know what it means, I can focus on what's coming AFTER the "ben". I guess what I'm trying to say is that knowing how to use the various forms of "am" and "be" can unlock a massive door. You might not be able to say much initially after learning how to say I am, but all you need to do after that is to just learn adjectives, verbs, and conjugations (and we all know what joy that is..lol).
I just realized that I learned how to say "but" also..(Maar). That word is is just as important, because now it allows you to form a response to someone or something.
Out of all the languages out there, I never thought I'd be liking Dutch this much. It's awesome. I can't wait to learn more!
Constructive comments, tips, advice, and whatever else are more than welcome!
Tot ziens,
Your Favorite Polyglot,
Twitter @mistercapoeira
I'm falling in love with the Dutch language. Seriously. It's ease and massive amounts of English cognates make it a breeze to pick up.
This third lesson first gave me the male and female ways to say American (Amerikaans and Amerikaanse) and the male and female ways to say that a person is Dutch (Nederlander and Nederlandser).
I have to spend the rest of this entry discussing the importance of the next two words I learned, and also that these were the only other two words that I learned.
"Ik ben" and "en"
"I am" and "and"
Super simple, but super important. Think about how many times during a conversation that you tell someone "I am......" or use "and" as a conjunction. Now that I have these simple and small, yet enormous words, I can actually start being to "Show ownership of my feelings" like they tell you to do when handling confrontations.
This helps a lot because I try to follow people from the various foreign languages that I'm studying, and of course I have some Dutch speakers on my timeline, and quite frequently I see "Ik ben....." Now that I know what it means, I can focus on what's coming AFTER the "ben". I guess what I'm trying to say is that knowing how to use the various forms of "am" and "be" can unlock a massive door. You might not be able to say much initially after learning how to say I am, but all you need to do after that is to just learn adjectives, verbs, and conjugations (and we all know what joy that is..lol).
I just realized that I learned how to say "but" also..(Maar). That word is is just as important, because now it allows you to form a response to someone or something.
Out of all the languages out there, I never thought I'd be liking Dutch this much. It's awesome. I can't wait to learn more!
Constructive comments, tips, advice, and whatever else are more than welcome!
Tot ziens,
Your Favorite Polyglot,
Twitter @mistercapoeira
Gaeilge
Dia duit!
I know it's been a while since you've gotten an update, but better late than never.
You might be wondering, "What the hell is Gaeilge?" I wouldn't fault you for one second if you did. You probably have heard the accent a million times, but you probably never knew that it had its own language.
Gaeilge = Irish!
I had some common misconceptions before I got started. I thought that Irish would be like French is to Haitian Creole, in that I thought Irish would sound like English, but only with some slight differences. Another example would be American English versus UK English. We can completely understand each other until it comes to slang, such as petrol. That was a horrible paragraph, but you get it!
Anyway, I could not have been more wrong. Irish is its OWN language, and sounds like nothing I've ever heard. It was fun and weird at the same time, because I've never been able to pull off an Irish accent, but after this lesson, I know that it's not impossible, being that you have to try to imitate what you're hearing and say it exactly like the speaker.
The weirdness comes from the silent letters. Telling someone that you don't understand is "Ni thuigim", but phonetically it's said, "Nee hihim". The "t" gets left out. Also, saying yes is spelled like "Ta" but pronounced like "Sha". And my last example would be the Irish language itself. Americans would see the word "Gaeilge" and try pronounce it like "Gaylg", but it's actually pronounce "Gaylin" with a kind of glottal g at the end.
I don't really know what to say about Gaeilge..I won't totally discount the language, even though there aren't many people who speak it, but I know that this one will be a little bit tougher to get into my list of favorites.
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I know it's been a while since you've gotten an update, but better late than never.
You might be wondering, "What the hell is Gaeilge?" I wouldn't fault you for one second if you did. You probably have heard the accent a million times, but you probably never knew that it had its own language.
Gaeilge = Irish!
I had some common misconceptions before I got started. I thought that Irish would be like French is to Haitian Creole, in that I thought Irish would sound like English, but only with some slight differences. Another example would be American English versus UK English. We can completely understand each other until it comes to slang, such as petrol. That was a horrible paragraph, but you get it!
Anyway, I could not have been more wrong. Irish is its OWN language, and sounds like nothing I've ever heard. It was fun and weird at the same time, because I've never been able to pull off an Irish accent, but after this lesson, I know that it's not impossible, being that you have to try to imitate what you're hearing and say it exactly like the speaker.
The weirdness comes from the silent letters. Telling someone that you don't understand is "Ni thuigim", but phonetically it's said, "Nee hihim". The "t" gets left out. Also, saying yes is spelled like "Ta" but pronounced like "Sha". And my last example would be the Irish language itself. Americans would see the word "Gaeilge" and try pronounce it like "Gaylg", but it's actually pronounce "Gaylin" with a kind of glottal g at the end.
I don't really know what to say about Gaeilge..I won't totally discount the language, even though there aren't many people who speak it, but I know that this one will be a little bit tougher to get into my list of favorites.
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Norsk and Svenska
I was going to separate these two, but after thinking about it, I decided against it. There are wayyyyyyyyy too many similarities to be able to have two informative entries without them looking like identical twins.
Instead, what I'm going to do is explain both, and show you the minute differences that I've found.
First off, Norsk=Norwegian and is spoken in Norway. Svenska=Swedish and of course is spoken in Sweden.
The two languages remind me a lot of German, and here's why. When you're making a statement, such as "you understand...", you say,
German: Sie verstehen
Swedish: Du förstår
Norwegian: Du forstår
But when you want to turn "You understand" into "Do you understand?" you switch the subject and the verb, so (leaving out German this time):
Swedish: Förstår du...?
Norwegian: Forstår du...?
Sidenote..Just because the Swedish version of the word "understand" has an extra sign doesn't necessarily mean there is a different pronunciation than its Norwegian counterpart. They sound identical. Jeg and Jag sound similar too. Jeg sounds like "Yai", and Jag sounds like "Yahg" with the g not as strong and glottal.
Because these languages have a lot of other similarities that I won't get into right now, I think the main thing for me right now (especially since I just started), is the fact that for Norwegian, language names end in 'sk', such as Engelsk, Spansk, or Portugisisk. In Swedish, they end in 'ska', so Engelska, Spanska, or Portugisiska.
They really aren't that difficult, and are actually quite beautiful. I've seen the writings of both of these and had no idea how to pronounce them, but now that I'm learning, I think these will be two more that I fall in love with. I'm betting Danish and Finnish sound pretty similar to these two also, but I don't have any resources for them yet :(.
As always, constructive tips, comments, and questions are welcomed!
See you later,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Instead, what I'm going to do is explain both, and show you the minute differences that I've found.
First off, Norsk=Norwegian and is spoken in Norway. Svenska=Swedish and of course is spoken in Sweden.
The two languages remind me a lot of German, and here's why. When you're making a statement, such as "you understand...", you say,
German: Sie verstehen
Swedish: Du förstår
Norwegian: Du forstår
But when you want to turn "You understand" into "Do you understand?" you switch the subject and the verb, so (leaving out German this time):
Swedish: Förstår du...?
Norwegian: Forstår du...?
Sidenote..Just because the Swedish version of the word "understand" has an extra sign doesn't necessarily mean there is a different pronunciation than its Norwegian counterpart. They sound identical. Jeg and Jag sound similar too. Jeg sounds like "Yai", and Jag sounds like "Yahg" with the g not as strong and glottal.
Because these languages have a lot of other similarities that I won't get into right now, I think the main thing for me right now (especially since I just started), is the fact that for Norwegian, language names end in 'sk', such as Engelsk, Spansk, or Portugisisk. In Swedish, they end in 'ska', so Engelska, Spanska, or Portugisiska.
They really aren't that difficult, and are actually quite beautiful. I've seen the writings of both of these and had no idea how to pronounce them, but now that I'm learning, I think these will be two more that I fall in love with. I'm betting Danish and Finnish sound pretty similar to these two also, but I don't have any resources for them yet :(.
As always, constructive tips, comments, and questions are welcomed!
See you later,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Magyarul
Hungarian, Hungarian, Hungarian, what can I say about thee?
It's got tricky pronunciations, and some weird grammatical structures, but to put it bluntly, Hungarian is cool as shit. This is one of the MAIN reasons I love the whole "testing myself" aspect of my journey. What Americans do you know that speak Hungarian, really? And better yet, what Americans do you know that actually want to. Well, if you didn't know any before, you know one now:
Me.
I don't care about how many symbols go on some of the letters, and I don't care about how long the formal version of "goodbye" is (viszontlatasra). Sidenote, I really need to learn how to put in special characters, because I know there is one on each of the first two As..I might just copy and paste. But like I was saying, I don't care that in Hungarian, "gy" sounds like "dyuh". It doesn't matter. Hungarian is awesome.
In my lesson, I learned the formal and informal ways (which the makers of the course should do early on like in this one) of how to say "Good morning".
They are:
Jó reggelt (informal)
Jó reggelt kívánok (formal)
The "kivanok" at the end essentially makes the full statement, "Wish you good morning." I also learned how to say "Nice weather"
Nice: Szép
Weather: Idő
Is: Van
Altogether, you say, "Szép idő van," or literally, "Nice weather is." Yes, I know it has a weird order, but are you going to waltz into Hungary and force a national language change? Hell no. Another awkward structure is telling someone they speak very well versus telling someone that you don't speak very well. I would break it down for you, but then that would take all the fun out of it for you! So go learn some Magyarul (Hungarian), and hit me up! Constructive comments, tips, and questions are always welcome!
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
P.S. I know I didn't fix all the words needing symbols. Sue me. :)
It's got tricky pronunciations, and some weird grammatical structures, but to put it bluntly, Hungarian is cool as shit. This is one of the MAIN reasons I love the whole "testing myself" aspect of my journey. What Americans do you know that speak Hungarian, really? And better yet, what Americans do you know that actually want to. Well, if you didn't know any before, you know one now:
Me.
I don't care about how many symbols go on some of the letters, and I don't care about how long the formal version of "goodbye" is (viszontlatasra). Sidenote, I really need to learn how to put in special characters, because I know there is one on each of the first two As..I might just copy and paste. But like I was saying, I don't care that in Hungarian, "gy" sounds like "dyuh". It doesn't matter. Hungarian is awesome.
In my lesson, I learned the formal and informal ways (which the makers of the course should do early on like in this one) of how to say "Good morning".
They are:
Jó reggelt (informal)
Jó reggelt kívánok (formal)
The "kivanok" at the end essentially makes the full statement, "Wish you good morning." I also learned how to say "Nice weather"
Nice: Szép
Weather: Idő
Is: Van
Altogether, you say, "Szép idő van," or literally, "Nice weather is." Yes, I know it has a weird order, but are you going to waltz into Hungary and force a national language change? Hell no. Another awkward structure is telling someone they speak very well versus telling someone that you don't speak very well. I would break it down for you, but then that would take all the fun out of it for you! So go learn some Magyarul (Hungarian), and hit me up! Constructive comments, tips, and questions are always welcome!
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
P.S. I know I didn't fix all the words needing symbols. Sue me. :)
Português II
Bom dia galera! Tudo bem?
You all ready how much I am in LOVE with Portuguese. I don't even need to get started on that right now, lol. Today, or rather, yesterday, I got to the near halfway point of Portuguese II, and I hit a big milestone. In every foreign language, not just Portuguese, there are certain very important words that you can't wait to start using.
In the beginning, you NEED to know how to say, "I don't understand" and "I understand a little" *insert whatever language you're learning here*. That's fine and well, but those are present tense. But if you think about it, most of the conversations we have are in the past tense. Here's an example:
Past tense
A: Hey, what's been going on?
B: Nothing much. I went to the store, and I got some apples, because my doctor told me that I should eat healthily.
Present Tense
A: Hey, what goes on?
B: Nothing much. I go to the store, and I get some apples, because my doctor tells me that I should eat healthily.
Weird when it's all in first-person, right? Exactly. Now I have gotten a grasp on how to conjugate normal verbs, but one of the trickiest verbs I got some help with today was the first-person, past tense conjugation of "ir", which means to go. Now, being that I have a lot of experience with Spanish, I knew that "I went" in that particular language is "Fui" or "Yo fui". Portuguese and Spanish are like cousins, so I should have had some idea that they would be similar.
I also learned how to use "foi" in a variety of sentences, as well as how to say lunch, which again, is similar to "almuerzo" in Spanish. In Portuguese, it's "Almocar" (forgive me for not having the proper 'c' with the mark at the bottom).
It's crazy how one word can open up a ton of conversation, and it makes you realize that even though we live in the present, we talk in the past.
I've been reading a book called "Dirty Portuguese: Everyday Slang" and have been able to translate things without needing to look them up. And let's face it, one of the first things everyone wants to know in a foreign language is how to curse (unless you're a goody-goody or don't believe in telling someone to shut the fuck up). It doesn't just teach you that, but it also gives you some really important phrases to use that a professional course won't teach you. I can't wait to try a couple of them when I speak to my Brazilian friend again.
As always, constructive comments, questions, and tips are welcome!
Ate logo meus amigos, e eu vou te ver mais tarde,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
You all ready how much I am in LOVE with Portuguese. I don't even need to get started on that right now, lol. Today, or rather, yesterday, I got to the near halfway point of Portuguese II, and I hit a big milestone. In every foreign language, not just Portuguese, there are certain very important words that you can't wait to start using.
In the beginning, you NEED to know how to say, "I don't understand" and "I understand a little" *insert whatever language you're learning here*. That's fine and well, but those are present tense. But if you think about it, most of the conversations we have are in the past tense. Here's an example:
Past tense
A: Hey, what's been going on?
B: Nothing much. I went to the store, and I got some apples, because my doctor told me that I should eat healthily.
Present Tense
A: Hey, what goes on?
B: Nothing much. I go to the store, and I get some apples, because my doctor tells me that I should eat healthily.
Weird when it's all in first-person, right? Exactly. Now I have gotten a grasp on how to conjugate normal verbs, but one of the trickiest verbs I got some help with today was the first-person, past tense conjugation of "ir", which means to go. Now, being that I have a lot of experience with Spanish, I knew that "I went" in that particular language is "Fui" or "Yo fui". Portuguese and Spanish are like cousins, so I should have had some idea that they would be similar.
I also learned how to use "foi" in a variety of sentences, as well as how to say lunch, which again, is similar to "almuerzo" in Spanish. In Portuguese, it's "Almocar" (forgive me for not having the proper 'c' with the mark at the bottom).
It's crazy how one word can open up a ton of conversation, and it makes you realize that even though we live in the present, we talk in the past.
I've been reading a book called "Dirty Portuguese: Everyday Slang" and have been able to translate things without needing to look them up. And let's face it, one of the first things everyone wants to know in a foreign language is how to curse (unless you're a goody-goody or don't believe in telling someone to shut the fuck up). It doesn't just teach you that, but it also gives you some really important phrases to use that a professional course won't teach you. I can't wait to try a couple of them when I speak to my Brazilian friend again.
As always, constructive comments, questions, and tips are welcome!
Ate logo meus amigos, e eu vou te ver mais tarde,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Friday, September 7, 2012
Francais
Bonjour!
Why not keep the streak of Romance languages going with some French? Tonight's lesson was the complete opposite of last night. I totally haven't forgotten any of my French. And I'm saying that while patting myself on the back!
I do enjoy the French language, and if you follow me on Twitter, you can see that I've tweeted in the language quite often! It's fun, and some people call it the language of love, even though I'd say that would have to be Portuguese for me ;).
My lesson covered handling monetary situations, similar to last night with Italian. The speaking was not bad at ALL. Asking my to do simple math problems, and learning how to say 14-16 was very simple (quatorze, quinze, and seize). I also learned one of the more important phrases, and that is "I have" (J'ai). In ANY langauge, you need to know that, especially if you need to tell someone you don't have any money.
The speaking has never been tough, until I try to say "tres" or "quatre". I know that'll come with practice, but if I went to France right now and said, "J'ai quatre de dollars" everything would sound like a native except for "quatre". I canNOT pull off that or "tres" to save the life of me. It's something with the tongue, or the French are just superhuman. That accent for those words is just really hard for me.
Another problem I have is when it comes to negatives. Most times you'll make a ne/pas sandwich to make a statement negative, such as:
Je ne comprends pas.
That seems easy, but it's not always consistent. Like, saying "not here" is "pas ici", not "ne ici pas", if that makes any sense. And "I don't have" is "Je n'ai pas", not "Ne j'ai pas". It's definitely tricky.
I guess I had more trouble than I initially thought, lol..But for real. I do really appreciate this language. I can't wait to get better!
As always, if anyone has comments, questions, tips, or just wants to show support, please drop me a line! And follow me on Twitter for constant updates!
Merci et au revoir,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Why not keep the streak of Romance languages going with some French? Tonight's lesson was the complete opposite of last night. I totally haven't forgotten any of my French. And I'm saying that while patting myself on the back!
I do enjoy the French language, and if you follow me on Twitter, you can see that I've tweeted in the language quite often! It's fun, and some people call it the language of love, even though I'd say that would have to be Portuguese for me ;).
My lesson covered handling monetary situations, similar to last night with Italian. The speaking was not bad at ALL. Asking my to do simple math problems, and learning how to say 14-16 was very simple (quatorze, quinze, and seize). I also learned one of the more important phrases, and that is "I have" (J'ai). In ANY langauge, you need to know that, especially if you need to tell someone you don't have any money.
The speaking has never been tough, until I try to say "tres" or "quatre". I know that'll come with practice, but if I went to France right now and said, "J'ai quatre de dollars" everything would sound like a native except for "quatre". I canNOT pull off that or "tres" to save the life of me. It's something with the tongue, or the French are just superhuman. That accent for those words is just really hard for me.
Another problem I have is when it comes to negatives. Most times you'll make a ne/pas sandwich to make a statement negative, such as:
Je ne comprends pas.
That seems easy, but it's not always consistent. Like, saying "not here" is "pas ici", not "ne ici pas", if that makes any sense. And "I don't have" is "Je n'ai pas", not "Ne j'ai pas". It's definitely tricky.
I guess I had more trouble than I initially thought, lol..But for real. I do really appreciate this language. I can't wait to get better!
As always, if anyone has comments, questions, tips, or just wants to show support, please drop me a line! And follow me on Twitter for constant updates!
Merci et au revoir,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Italiano
Buongiorno! Come va?
I'm crazy. You ain't gotta tell me. And I'm putting this out there from the jump, it is 2:46 in the morning..I'm tired..Going off of fumes..I'm not gonna be too particular about making this entry perfect. I just wanted to give you something before I forgot.
I did Hindi earlier, and I decided to work on some Italian because I had nothing else to do.
I must say, out of all the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian), Italian is probably my weakest. I'm not even going to count Romanian because I don't know any...yet. One of my teammates from my MMA gym speaks it fluently..But that's another story.
When I first started, I didn't know how far I had gotten. I'm more than halfway done with the first set of lessons (16/30). For these past few lessons, the main focus has been on handling situations regarding money. I guess that's a really important thing to know when visiting Italy...Actually, it's probably an important thing to know when visiting anywhere.
My trouble comes from two things in Italian..When to use 'ne', and when to use 'dei'..It's going to be the death of me..I'm making it a point to get up and go over my notes to keep it all together.
Italian rolls off the tongue. It's a fun language, and isn't that hard, with the exception of the things I just mentioned. I didn't use any dictionaries or anything like that, as most things are phonetically spelled. If I had a problem, I just ran it through GT to make sure. Usually I was spot on.
My favorite word from tonight's lesson was "abbastanza". It means "enough". It just sounds cool.
I can't wrap my head around why I'm weakest at Italian when I'm pretty far into it. I can remember French easier than this, and I'm not as far. It's weird. But that just means I need to beat it the hell into my head.
I'm passing out as I'm typing this..So..I'm calling it right here.
Sidenote..Tomorrow, I'm going to speak to my GF all day in foreign languages..No English. Here's hoping that A) I can pull it off, and B) she doesn't shoot me. <3
Ciao,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I'm crazy. You ain't gotta tell me. And I'm putting this out there from the jump, it is 2:46 in the morning..I'm tired..Going off of fumes..I'm not gonna be too particular about making this entry perfect. I just wanted to give you something before I forgot.
I did Hindi earlier, and I decided to work on some Italian because I had nothing else to do.
I must say, out of all the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian), Italian is probably my weakest. I'm not even going to count Romanian because I don't know any...yet. One of my teammates from my MMA gym speaks it fluently..But that's another story.
When I first started, I didn't know how far I had gotten. I'm more than halfway done with the first set of lessons (16/30). For these past few lessons, the main focus has been on handling situations regarding money. I guess that's a really important thing to know when visiting Italy...Actually, it's probably an important thing to know when visiting anywhere.
My trouble comes from two things in Italian..When to use 'ne', and when to use 'dei'..It's going to be the death of me..I'm making it a point to get up and go over my notes to keep it all together.
Italian rolls off the tongue. It's a fun language, and isn't that hard, with the exception of the things I just mentioned. I didn't use any dictionaries or anything like that, as most things are phonetically spelled. If I had a problem, I just ran it through GT to make sure. Usually I was spot on.
My favorite word from tonight's lesson was "abbastanza". It means "enough". It just sounds cool.
I can't wrap my head around why I'm weakest at Italian when I'm pretty far into it. I can remember French easier than this, and I'm not as far. It's weird. But that just means I need to beat it the hell into my head.
I'm passing out as I'm typing this..So..I'm calling it right here.
Sidenote..Tomorrow, I'm going to speak to my GF all day in foreign languages..No English. Here's hoping that A) I can pull it off, and B) she doesn't shoot me. <3
Ciao,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
हिंदी
नमस्ते! आप कैसे हैं? बहुत अच्छी?
What's up everyone?
I started on this last night, but just got to finish today. You guessed it: Hindi!
If you don't know Hindi, I know you know someone who does. India has about 1.2 billion people, and it's only logical that there are a lot of immigrants that came to America to live. Unfortunately, lots of Indians get a negative stereotype, and that's not fair. Not every Indian is a taxi driver or an operator of a convenience store.
But I digress, we all know someone who speaks Hindi. And I'll bet that you already know some Hindi, ESPECIALLY if you do yoga!
My lesson was actually pretty fun. I got to learn how to ask for directions, and how to say things are over there, or over here. The main thing I wanted to get from this lesson is the monster that is Devanagari. This alphabet is gorgeous, but it's super hard because there are so many letters and modifiers to the letters. It's almost like drawing hieroglyphics because everything is connected by a horizontal line, which you can see in the title and in the opening line. From what I've concluded from the alphabet that I handwrote with each sound, the words are spelled phonetically. The hard part is knowing exactly what sounds/letter you're supposed to use!
The first time I saw Devanagari script, I honestly was wondering what the hell I was looking at, and I still kind of feel the same way, but it is definitely getting easier, and it will continue to get easier with practice.
I do need a dictionary though because Google Translate didn't show me how to spell some of the words I needed for this lesson. GT and Omniglot.com did do a good job of helping me out, though.
It's not that difficult of a language to learn, the only tricky part is the grammar.
For instance:
English Version: Where is Main Street?
Hindi Version: Main Street where is?
Once you get past that, and the need to change word endings depending on gender, you're good. It's a fun language. I definitely will keep this going (even though you know I'm going to keep them all going!)!
नमस्ते,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
What's up everyone?
I started on this last night, but just got to finish today. You guessed it: Hindi!
If you don't know Hindi, I know you know someone who does. India has about 1.2 billion people, and it's only logical that there are a lot of immigrants that came to America to live. Unfortunately, lots of Indians get a negative stereotype, and that's not fair. Not every Indian is a taxi driver or an operator of a convenience store.
But I digress, we all know someone who speaks Hindi. And I'll bet that you already know some Hindi, ESPECIALLY if you do yoga!
My lesson was actually pretty fun. I got to learn how to ask for directions, and how to say things are over there, or over here. The main thing I wanted to get from this lesson is the monster that is Devanagari. This alphabet is gorgeous, but it's super hard because there are so many letters and modifiers to the letters. It's almost like drawing hieroglyphics because everything is connected by a horizontal line, which you can see in the title and in the opening line. From what I've concluded from the alphabet that I handwrote with each sound, the words are spelled phonetically. The hard part is knowing exactly what sounds/letter you're supposed to use!
The first time I saw Devanagari script, I honestly was wondering what the hell I was looking at, and I still kind of feel the same way, but it is definitely getting easier, and it will continue to get easier with practice.
I do need a dictionary though because Google Translate didn't show me how to spell some of the words I needed for this lesson. GT and Omniglot.com did do a good job of helping me out, though.
It's not that difficult of a language to learn, the only tricky part is the grammar.
For instance:
English Version: Where is Main Street?
Hindi Version: Main Street where is?
Once you get past that, and the need to change word endings depending on gender, you're good. It's a fun language. I definitely will keep this going (even though you know I'm going to keep them all going!)!
नमस्ते,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Writing in Arabic
What's up everyone?
I just finished working with Write It in Arabic: Second Edition by Naglaa Ghali to help tighten up my writing of the script. This book is phenomenal (I'm reading it on my kindle). It gives you a breakdown of every letter, symbol, and also gives you words (with phonetic pronunciations) that use the letters you just learn. It also has a complete section just for supplementary exercises. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L piece of work.
For those of you who read my previous entry, you know how disappointed I was in my audio lesson. Tonight's "workout" made up for ALL of that. I was even tweeting in Arabic, and one of my followers responded IN Arabic. It was awesome. Not gonna lie, I did need to translate some of what she was saying because I'm not that good at reading it just yet, lol. But it was great nonetheless.
People don't mind talking to you when you speak their language. Even if it isn't the person's native language, and even if they aren't that good at it themselves, there is still the opportunity to learn from each other.
Here are some of the tweets that I posted tonight...Yes, they're random, but I felt accomplished making them. And thank you BlackBerry for having an Arabic keyboard!
It was a joy working with this book. It actually doesn't seem to be as bad as I expected. I just need to really know how to spell each word that I learn from my audio lessons. That requires a bigger dictionary than the one I have now..So I guess I need to get on that.
I'm not all that tired, so I might do some Hindi for you tonight. Devanagari is another beautiful script that I suck at, but I can only get better with practice.
وداعا,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I just finished working with Write It in Arabic: Second Edition by Naglaa Ghali to help tighten up my writing of the script. This book is phenomenal (I'm reading it on my kindle). It gives you a breakdown of every letter, symbol, and also gives you words (with phonetic pronunciations) that use the letters you just learn. It also has a complete section just for supplementary exercises. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L piece of work.
For those of you who read my previous entry, you know how disappointed I was in my audio lesson. Tonight's "workout" made up for ALL of that. I was even tweeting in Arabic, and one of my followers responded IN Arabic. It was awesome. Not gonna lie, I did need to translate some of what she was saying because I'm not that good at reading it just yet, lol. But it was great nonetheless.
People don't mind talking to you when you speak their language. Even if it isn't the person's native language, and even if they aren't that good at it themselves, there is still the opportunity to learn from each other.
Here are some of the tweets that I posted tonight...Yes, they're random, but I felt accomplished making them. And thank you BlackBerry for having an Arabic keyboard!
طبعا!!
تبغ <
البرد القارس
حب وحنان
مشكلة? مستشفى.
It was a joy working with this book. It actually doesn't seem to be as bad as I expected. I just need to really know how to spell each word that I learn from my audio lessons. That requires a bigger dictionary than the one I have now..So I guess I need to get on that.
I'm not all that tired, so I might do some Hindi for you tonight. Devanagari is another beautiful script that I suck at, but I can only get better with practice.
وداعا,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Saturday, September 1, 2012
العربية
Merhaba!
What's happening everyone? Sorry for the delay! I promise I didn't forget you.
Tonight's task was Eastern Arabic...And I have to say, I'm not impressed with this Pimsleur series. It isn't because of a lack of information or anything like that; it's simply because it moves INCREDIBLY fast. I learned about 10-15 new words tonight and barely got the time to practice them. With other Pimsleur programs, you'll learn maybe two or three..at the most 5, and then you'll get them beaten into your head, which makes for easier learning. I just don't know how I'm supposed to retain all this and learn probably the same amount for my next Eastern Arabic lesson. It's weird because this one language is the only one that's weird like that.
Anyway..For those of you who don't know, Arabic is written from right to left, just like Hebrew (yes they do have some similarities), but many words are based on a root system. What I mean is that there will be a base part of a word, and then to change it to fit the sentence's context, you are required only to change a part of the word.
For instance:
Day: Yom
Two days: Yom'ayn
Feel me?
It is definitely a tricky language because you really have to know the endings and the words, and also if the word is masculine or feminine. The gender of the word will help determine what the ending will be.
I am by no means good at it, but I do practice with my friend Nayef who owns an Arabic restaurant, and apparently I speak it very well, despite the fact that I think I suck at it.
Unfortunately, I didn't write in Arabic for this lesson, but I will go back and do it, mainly because you have to be spot on, and the dictionary I have sucks. As far as resources, I will aim to have the most in Arabic, just because of its complexities.
I just wish this course was slower. Everyone knows that this is one of the tougher languages, so why make it harder to grasp it by shooting a gatling gun's clip full of words at me? Either way, I'm going to keep going, no matter how much I want to "skip" Eastern Arabic when it shows up in the rotation.
Until later, my friends.
وداعا,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
What's happening everyone? Sorry for the delay! I promise I didn't forget you.
Tonight's task was Eastern Arabic...And I have to say, I'm not impressed with this Pimsleur series. It isn't because of a lack of information or anything like that; it's simply because it moves INCREDIBLY fast. I learned about 10-15 new words tonight and barely got the time to practice them. With other Pimsleur programs, you'll learn maybe two or three..at the most 5, and then you'll get them beaten into your head, which makes for easier learning. I just don't know how I'm supposed to retain all this and learn probably the same amount for my next Eastern Arabic lesson. It's weird because this one language is the only one that's weird like that.
Anyway..For those of you who don't know, Arabic is written from right to left, just like Hebrew (yes they do have some similarities), but many words are based on a root system. What I mean is that there will be a base part of a word, and then to change it to fit the sentence's context, you are required only to change a part of the word.
For instance:
Day: Yom
Two days: Yom'ayn
Feel me?
It is definitely a tricky language because you really have to know the endings and the words, and also if the word is masculine or feminine. The gender of the word will help determine what the ending will be.
I am by no means good at it, but I do practice with my friend Nayef who owns an Arabic restaurant, and apparently I speak it very well, despite the fact that I think I suck at it.
Unfortunately, I didn't write in Arabic for this lesson, but I will go back and do it, mainly because you have to be spot on, and the dictionary I have sucks. As far as resources, I will aim to have the most in Arabic, just because of its complexities.
I just wish this course was slower. Everyone knows that this is one of the tougher languages, so why make it harder to grasp it by shooting a gatling gun's clip full of words at me? Either way, I'm going to keep going, no matter how much I want to "skip" Eastern Arabic when it shows up in the rotation.
Until later, my friends.
وداعا,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
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