Mandarin II

Let's get back into a happy groove..I know some of you might have been caught off guard by that last entry!

This will be my second entry on Mandarin, and instead of explaining what I learned, I think I'd rather just tell you how I'm feeling about it.

I'm going to sound completely loco at this next statement, but I honestly believe that Mandarin is nowhere near as hard as it is made out to be. I have a good resource to assist me with writing in Pinyin and with the characters, and I even have a friend on LiveMocha who I can ask questions about words that I'm not too sure how to find in my resource.

In all honesty, I think Mandarin Chinese is quite easy. Some of you may be saying, "This MF right here is nuts." And you're probably correct in that assumption, but it's true. I went through my last lesson and it was a breeze. It's weird because I sometimes feel like I don't know anything, but when I really think about the language, and try to express some feelings, or have a light conversation, I find that I know a LOT more than I thought I did. 

Let me explain why it's so easy..Maybe it will help you who are trying to learn it and having difficulty. Mandarin is a tonal language, meaning that one word can possibly have four different tones, and therefore four different meanings. Trying to teach yourself from a book is going to be insanely difficult because the book can't vocally repeat the words to you. I started learning aurally, so naturally, I understand how to say the words, and because I understand it in the hardest aspect of it to grasp, the writing is much less of a chore (despite the number of strokes some characters have).

So, in short, if you're going to learn Mandarin, or any tonal language for that matter, make sure you learn by ear before you try to crack open a book. It will save you a lot of frustration, trust me. I think back and realize that I would be tearing my hair out if I had tried learning from a book first.

I'm still rapidly falling in love with the language, and you never know..This might be my third language I become fluent in!

Zaijian,

Your Favorite Polyglot

Twitter: @mistercapoeira

Arabic, Why Do You Hate Me?

Okay..Y'all probably are used to me writing happy entries about the things I've learned, what I'm excited about, and all things that are on the brighter side of the rainbow.

This is NOT going to be one of those entries..

I'm really frustrated with Arabic, and it's not my fault, and it's not the language's fault. It's simply the sheer lack of a good resource for it. Arabic has a ton of altered and Americanized ways of pronouncing a word without actually giving consideration as to what the Arabic letters actually say the word sounds like. We all remember how many ways people spelled Moammar Ghadafi, don't we?

There are really expensive dictionaries, that generally are only Arabic-English..Those just happen to be the better ones, but I'll be damned if I spend more than 50 bucks for a resource that's only one way.

Why am I so pressed to have a SOLID resource to help me with writing? Plain and simple: a language is more than just speaking it. If and when I visit the Middle East, I'm not going to expect things to be written in English. I HAVE to be able to understand the script.

It's just aggravating to already have two Arabic dictionaries and know that they CAN'T help me with the phrases I know. I have pages of stuff that needs to be completed with the script, and those two books only helped me with about 5 of the sentences.

My choices are these: Find an Arabic person who is willing to sit down and teach me how to write the words, become so good at the alphabet that I can create the words just by listening, or find the perfect dictionary. All three choices are going to be tough.

Wanting to be good at the language also presents its own frustration. This is the ONLY language that gives me fits. Even Mandarin Chinese seems easy to me. Why can't this work out just as well?

I hope you've enjoyed my rant, and if you have ANY ideas as far as finding resources to aid with writing, I would LOVE to know. And if you are interested in helping me write what I already have in Arabic, that would be fantastic.

Ma'a salaamah,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira

Anishinaabemowin

Boozhoo! Aniish ezhiayaayin?

What's "Anishinaabemowin"? Well, let me preface this by saying that you not only owe it to yourself, but you also owe it to these people to take some interest in their culture, especially after Americans wrecked their livelihoods.

Anishinaabemowin is the language of the Ojibwe Native American group. I'm not going to get into their history because a) I don't know enough about to speak on it, and b) I respect ALL Native Americans enough to not attempt to bullshit everything that pertains to them. If you want their history, read a legitimate book or meet some real Native Americans. I just can't bring myself to attempt to try to explain it all here.

Before I get into the ease or difficulty of the language, I wanted to first say that I NEED to meet some Ojibwe speakers. I love this language. But I'd probably be hard-pressed to find some here because Ojibwe speakers typically live in the northern part of the United States.

Easy? Or difficult?

I'd classify it as easy! It's surprisingly engaging. There are some long words, almost like in Turkish, but they aren't tongue-twisters, and they aren't easy to forget.

The trickiest part is probably the writing. I say this because sometimes there are two a's when it only sounds like there is one. You have to pay close attention to the accents when the word is spoken, and that'll give you an idea as to if the vowel is singular or plural.

Here are some words for you that I learned in this second lesson.

Hello: Boozhoo
You too?: Giin dash
Thank you: Miigwetch
No: Gaawin

I could continue, but that would make it too easy for you! ;)

I cannot WAIT to continue learning this Native American language. I'm proud to be one of the few who know some of this. I'm not sure how many people are actively studying it, and it's making me almost believe that it's dying out.

There is no word for "goodbye" in Ojibwe, so instead I'll say that I'll see you again!

Constructive comments, tips, advice, and questions are more than welcome!

Giga-waabamin,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira

Deutsch

Guten tag! Wie geht es ihnen?

I'm surprised that I haven't done an entry on Deutsch yet! O_o

For everyone confused, Deutsch is not Dutch! Deutsch is how Germans call their language. They sound different, but they're two completely different languages and people.

Where to begin?

I've been doing German for awhile now, and it's never been that hard for me because it just reminds me of American English. The two are Germanic languages after all. The writing is cake too!

In this lesson, I learned some important things, such as how to say

Or = Oder
One = Ein
Two = Zwei
With = Mit
Buy = Kaufen
Do = Machen

All of these are great to know, and it left me hungry for more. I'm glad I'm given things in pieces, because if I got everything at once, we all know that I'd probably only remember a couple of words. These words were put into sentences with phrases I already knew, so I was able to start asking things like, "What do you want to do?" That's a pretty useful question, especially since when you land in a foreign question, the first thing you're gonna need to figure out is what you're gonna do, right?

But here's what I need from my readers, I need practice partners! I'll probably make this its own entry, but eff it, why not start here?

If anyone is reading this and is fluent in German, I would love to practice with you. You can follow me on Twitter, and I'll be sure to follow you back. One of my Capoeira students is German, but I'm not sure how much he knows (I will DEFINITELY be finding out tomorrow, though!). But I digress, anyone willing to practice with me would be much appreciated!

Constructive tips, questions, and advice are always welcome!

Auf Wiedersehen,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira

Türkçe II

Merhaba! Nasılsınız??

Turkish is a bad ass language. I'm a little nervous about planning a trip there, but that doesn't mean that I can't practice and become fluent!

I repeat: Turkish is a bad ass language, lol. It is truly awesome.

I'm proud to acknowledge the fact that I've made it to the milestone that is learning about locations. To ask where something is in Turkish, the sentence structure is set up as such:

Place + Where = Sentence

So, if I want to know where Topkapi Square is, I'd say:

Topkapı Sarayı nerede?

Things also covered in this lesson were how to say "Here", or literally "This place here", and "There", or "That place there".

THE most important thing that I learned, though, was how to say "I don't understand". In Turkish, you say "Anlamadım". How useful is this, right? I know how to say "I don't know" and "I can't speak", but it's like..MANDATORY to be able to explain that you have no clue what someone is saying to you.

This one is pretty short, huh? Everything else was pretty much review, which is shocking, because it had been a while since I had come to it. It's crazy how I'm remembering things despite the time between lessons. I guess learning more languages makes it easier to retain everything!

As always, questions, helpful comments, tips, and advice are always welcome!

İyi günler,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira

ASL

ASL: My new language love.

ASL in this context does NOT stand for Age/Sex/Location (for all you Omeglers). To me, and for hundreds of thousands of others, stands for American Sign Language.

Being able to talk to with my hands, like learning 31 languages (probably 32 now), is something I never thought that I would learn nor would have the motivation to learn. I decided to scour YouTube and I found a few channels; one most important was the TWYH Blog (Talk With Your Hands). I paid the most attention to that because the teacher was able to give me the most basic information about ASL that I needed, and those things include:

-The Alphabet
-Numbers 1-10
-Pronouns
-Greetings
-Feelings
-Classifiers (Man, woman, girl, boy)

It was surprisingly easily, despite the fact that it was a lot of material. Most of the pronouns are symbols we use when gesticulating, which made having to recall commands a breeze. For instance, to say "you", you simply point your finger at the person you're speaking with. To say "your", you extend all your fingers and have your open palm  pointing towards the person you're conversing with, almost as if you're trying to use The Force with one hand.

The difficult part is finding good resources. There were a lot of videos on YouTube, but they were more Rosetta Stone-ish, in that they just gave you random words. You all now I'm in love with the Pimsleur method and the method from TWYH, which is to give you a sentence you can actually USE in conversation.

I think I'll have to find some REALLY reputable videos, because I don't want to spend money for an ASL Rosetta Stone. That would SERIOUSLY piss me off.

Another issue is finding deaf people or people who are fluent in ASL. I'm not sure there are any on my old campus, although there is one guy who always signs the commencement exercises for graduation. I might have to do some deep digging to find a practice buddy.

The language is soooooo fun. Sometimes when I'm bored now, I just practice the alphabet on both hands to build speed and accuracy, because let's face it, if I don't know the symbol for a word, I can always spell it out!

I can't wait to learn more.

Constructive comments, questions, advice, and tips are always welcome!

Until next time,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira

Eλληνικά II

Τι κάνετε?

Greek, Greek, Greek. A language of the gods, Athens, Thessaloniki, Santorini, and more gorgeous places that have stood the test of time. It is a BEAUTIFUL language, and I'm glad I'm getting the exposure to it, because honestly, when I was younger, I had no idea what Greek sounded like. Here I am, years later, speaking it, as well as writing it.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my previous Greek entry, but in this language, there are a lot of s, k, th, and l sounds that sometimes trip me up like a tongue twister. It happens because in English, we typically don't have a 'th' sound close to a 'k' sound with another word using similar sounds right after that. I'm not complaining at all; it's just something I have to work at, ξέρετε?

I got to work more on conditional phrases like "where" and "when" (πού και πότε), "now" and "later"(τώρα και πιο αργά) , "not now" and "not later" (Όχι τώρα και Όχι πιο αργά) , etc. I also got to work on locations, like your place (Σπίτι μου)  and my place (Σπίτι σας).

The biggest thing (though some of you might think it to be small) I got to learn is how to say "restaurant" (Εστιατόριο). This will be heavily important, especially to me, because when I go to Greece, I plan on getting fed CONSTANTLY with my girlfriend right by my side. I'll need to know where every single restaurant in a 5 mile radius is. It's mandatory, lol. So some of you may have guessed by now, that because I learned how to say "restaurant", that I learned how to say some words of things you'd find in a restaurant, like beer (μπύρα) and wine (κρασί). That doesn't help me because neither she or I drink, but hell, I guess it's good to know, ναι?

I learned that the word for wine is a neutered word, meaning that the article that precedes it is not masculine (I think I got that right). So:

Some wine: Λίγο κρασί
Some beer: Λίγη μπύρα

Writing in Greek has become a ton easier. I had already known the Greek alphabet because I knew a bunch of people in fraternities and sororities, and they would need to know the alphabet, so consequently, I would hear it. A lot. Now that I think about it, I could probably read the letters on their shields if they were words, or if I really wanted to delve into their secrets, which I don't lol. I've got enough to deal with. Back to the initial thought, though. I'm putting together words in Greek without looking at a dictionary, and only using Google Translate to check my spelling, which so far has been almost spot on. I'm not cocky, but I am so proud of myself for making it this far. I love Greek, and I hope that when I travel there, that the people see how much I appreciate their language!

Constructive comments, tips, and advice are always welcome!

Aντίο,

Your Favorite Polyglot
@Twitter: mistercapoeira

русский II

Доброе утро! Как дела? Я очень хорошо.

I love the Russian language. I realized recently that I'm almost as far in Russian as I am in Italian, which is a crazy reminder of how much I've put into this.

My lesson this time around dealt with numbers, and how to deal with buying situations. It's the same as the previous lesson, only that this time I learned MORE numbers and how to ask if someone has Russian money and how much I owed. I really appreciated the practice, especially since I haven't gotten numbers down pat yet, but I'm kind of waiting to learn something more engaging. Whenever I go to Russia, I don't think I will want to focus for too much on how much I owe someone. If I need to buy something, I'll get what I need, READ the numbers, and pay. All of which can be done silently, lol. However, I do think that one needs to know how to handle themselves.

One of the things that I learned is that in Russian, instead of asking, "How much do you have?", you ask, "How much exists in your place?"

English: How much do you have?
Russian: Сколько у вас есть? (Skolko u vas yest?)

But in Russian, if someone asks you that without including "есть" in the question, you don't need to include it in your answer. So basically, you can say "Skolko u vas?"

The numbers in Russian are starting to get bigger, and I'm learning how to ask for thousands of things because Russia uses the Ruble (just like Italy used to use the Lira). So for and example, something could cost fourteen thousand rubles (Четырнадцать тысяч рублей/Chetyrnadtsat tysyach rubley), instead of like, five dollars in America. The hardest part for getting the numbers down is remembering where the accent is. It's tricky, but doable, and sounds great for such a lovely language.

Of course I'm still writing down the Russian script as I'm going, and it is getting so much easier. Practice is definitely paying off.

I wish I had more to talk about from this lesson, but like I said, it was mainly about numbers and handling monetary situations! I'm really excited to learn the past-tense, but I know that won't come until later :/.

I will say this though. Being a polyglot has brought me in contact with a TON of speakers of foreign languages. I tweeted something about Russian the night before I did this lesson, and I got a response from another person who is interested in learning the language. We struck up a conversation, and just like that, now I have a person to practice with via Twitter who seems to know what he's talking about. 

Languages are a beautiful thing.

Constructive comments, tips, and advice, are always welcome!


до свидания,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira