ICYMI: Are you starting to learn Japanese? Are you wondering whether you should learn with romaji (Roman characters) to help simplify getting started? Well, you shouldn't - and here's why.
A habit I am starting is to write a short sentence, like a diary entry, in Chinese every day. My writing is horrendous but this is one of the ways I am trying to remember the characters.
"When you know enough that you can read most basic sentences, you’ve reached the point where you can start picking up more of the language, not through studying, but through listening, reading, and talking with others."
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I've always loved #languages but my love for #linguistics started when I read about linguists being all about all languages being equal. The standardisation of language is part of human evolution but has sometimes been used to classify people according to socioeconomic background or to consolidate power. For example, RP (the Queen's English), Hochdeutsch, Castillian Spanish.
This intriguing article speaks about this and the serious endangerment of many languages.
'In English, ‘Mvskoke Opunvkv’ simply translates to 'Mvskoke Language'. This brand-new site will serve as a centralized location for finding resources, video/audio and other materials that pertain to learning the Mvskoke Language.'
Whew, there are always challenges in learning a new language, but c'mon! Just learned that in #Japanese the word for 'painting' is the very short, and almost un-hearable micro-syllable 'e.' It totally disappears when used in a sentence.
I'll have to be sure to avoid art galleries when visiting Japan 'cuz I'll never know what people are talking about.
So watched this great Chinese movie called The Captain (my review here) and can't help but think that Mandarin second language learners will have so much fun trying to differentiate the pronounciation of 机长 (captain) and 机场 (airport). The tones are the same, but the pronunciation different - with 机长 it is jīzhǎng and 机场 jīchǎng.
Interview (in Mandarin) with the first Indian citizen to attend a Taiwanese public school. His father wrote to the ministry to ask for permission as foreigners weren’t allowed then.
Austronesian directions are trippy, producing the same words for different things.
"Timur/timog" means east in Malay, but in my language, Tagalog, it means south. In others, it means wind or rain. Turns out, they all have roots meaning southeast monsoon. It checks out because here at the north, those winds appear from the south while at the south, they would appear from the east.
What's weird is in Masbate, it means north. Wonder what happened there?
In Germanic #languages, like English, this #berry derives its name from its vivid blue hue. But is #blue the color associated with #blueberries in other languages?
My parents were surprised that I still remember how to speak various Chinese languages, because I suppose the story that’s supposed to happen is that I’m supposed to move to the U.S. and lose my heritage languages, but I guess that’s why I’m paying more attention about retaining them and doing things I would never do back home, like taking Cantonese and Taiwanese classes (my Mandarin is fine, I just need to watch TV and read the news to retain fluency)
I always get a good laugh over people that think language doesn't change. Gender Neutral is trying to make it's way into german and a bunch of conservatives are just losing their minds. When one of my classmates asked one of my Teachers in German Class in Germany, he replied
"When I was young my teacher said that it is 'Zu Dem' Zum does not exist." and left it at that. Obviously it was in German. Teachers are not allowed to speak any other language. This was for ease.
If you were to drive to the Store, you could say "Ich fahre zum Supermarkt" because zum is now part of common language and taught in schools as formal German.
You can try to resist and mock living languages but the people and the languages will live to mock your stubborness, blindness and blatant conceit. It doesn't matter if it's German, Spanish, English or whatever. Languages change. Strict adherence to the Duden or whatever just makes you look like an asshole.
When I first heard Romagnol, I thought it sounded a bit French. Reading "San Marino la storia in miniatura", with its snippets of Romagnol songs & poems led me to a YT recording of someone speaking Romagnol. Many commenters who spoke Catalan said they could understand it easily, so I tested Google Translate out with "detect language" on the following. It said "Corsican" and offered a translation for almost every word. Interesting! #Languages#AmReading#Nonfiction#History@bookstodon
Have learned 100/1000 Chinese characters using mnemonics and memory palace techniques :). Apps I'm using to do this: Tofu Learn to write the characters and Du Chinese as a graded reader.
Hello #Mastodon this my #introduction post. As my profile reads I am 56, over the hill, and slowly getting into the final years of my career. I am married with three grown, trouble-free kids (so far). My interests are a #federated place to discover new people and ideas. I enjoy studying #languages such as #French#AuxiliaryLanguages and #Filipino (Ang Pilipino ang asawa ko). I enjoy making sarcastic remarks on people’s postings. Let talk and exchange follows!
After an all-too-long development phase, I’m opening the new year with a new version of Tempo. This new version brings with it Android Auto support, one of the most requested features of all time....
Tempo – An open source music client for Subsonic built natively for Android, now with Android Auto support (github.com)
After an all-too-long development phase, I’m opening the new year with a new version of Tempo. This new version brings with it Android Auto support, one of the most requested features of all time....