Two-Week Holiday

Dear readers,

It’s time for my annual summer holiday. I’ll be gone for the next two weeks so there will be no new posts until I return. I will reply to your emails and comments when I am back from my holiday. If you sent me an email within the last two weeks, I apologise for not replying sooner. Unfortunately work comes first and it has been quite a busy couple of weeks!

That’s all from me for now. See you in two weeks’ time.

PS. Don’t forget to cast your votes for the Top 100 Language Blogs of 2009. Voting will be open to the public between July 8th and July 27th.

Filed under: Updates

Dutch Loanwords in Indonesian

I stumbled upon this interesting little video which lists some of the Dutch loanwords found in Indonesian (Bahasa indonesia).

While it’s fun to spot Dutch loanwords in spoken and written Indonesian, knowledge of Dutch will not give you much of a head start in learning Indonesian.

Filed under: Videos, Vocabulary , bahasa indonesia, Dutch, Indonesian, loanwords

Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs of 2009

A short update from me today. Readers might be interested to know that Lexiophiles is currently holding its Top 100 Language Blogs competition. The Lexiophiles crew have added a few new categories for this year’s competition : Language learning, language teaching, language technology, and language professionals.

You can submit your nominations for your favourite language learning and translation blogs by clicking here. The closing date for nominations is July 6th and the public voting phase will be held between July 8th and July 27th.

More details about the Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs of 2009 can be found here.

Filed under: Blogs, Competitions , Languages, Blogs, top blogs, language blogs, Competitions

Using Twitter in Your Language Learning – Reading Practice

This is the second and penultimate post in my Using Twitter in Your Language Learning series. This time, we will be looking at the ways in which you can use Twitter as a means of improving your reading comprehension.

One of the easiest ways to find foreign-language posts is to use the Search function. For example, typing 日本語 into the search box will return results which include the word 日本語. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the search results will be written in Japanese but it’s a good starting point. A word of caution : some of the posts may be written by people who are learning Japanese so you will need to keep an eye out for posts written by native speakers if you want to read “real” Japanese.

The public timeline is another good place to look for foreign-language posts, though you will probably find yourself refreshing the page a countless number of times in order to find a post in the language you’re learning.

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, you can try “deciphering” the tweet. Analyse the grammar (if the author made the effort to bother writing something grammatically sound), use an online or print dictionary to find the meaning of any words you don’t know and try to translate the post into your own native language. Analysing the way that people write can be a good way to reinforce and improve your own writing skills. Writing even a short post in the language you’re learning can be a challenge if you’re not sure how to express your feelings in that language or lack the vocabulary. It’s very tempting to try and translate things word for word but I’m sure most of you are aware that this is not the way to do it.

I find it very useful to memorise sentence structures and learn how to modify them for my own purposes. I enjoy breaking down Japanese and Mandarin tweets to get a feel for the writing style and learn new slang and idiomatic expressions. You’d be surprised how much you can learn from reading people’s Twitter messages, blog entries and forum posts.

Having said that, I wouldn’t recommend relying on Twitter as your sole means of reading practice. Don’t expect everyone to use correct grammar, spelling or punctuation. It would be unwise to assume that what you are reading is a good example of written Japanese, German, whatever. The character limit prevents people from writing in-depth posts and people commonly resort to abbreviations and “text-speak” as they only have 140 characters to work with. It’s also worth keeping in mind that a lot of the posts will be on very trivial matters, such as what time the author got out of bed and complaints about the weather.

If you’re determined to use Twitter as a means of boosting your reading skills, it might be a good idea to ask a language partner or native speaker to explain any unknown words or expressions to you or point out the differences between formal and informal written language. Make sure you supplement your reading material with other, more orthodox material so that your writing skills don’t suffer.

Filed under: Microblogging, Reading, Tips & Tricks , Languages, learning languages, Reading, twitter

Kelly Translates

A short post today as I don’t have the time or energy to write the second part of my Twitter series. I wanted to let you all know that I have revived my translation blog, Kelly Translates. Most of you probably don’t remember the original blog but it’s a blog devoted to Chinese>English translation. The revised blog is in its infancy (only two posts so far) but I will be working on some new posts for the blog over the weekend.

That’s all for today. お休みなさい.

Filed under: Blogs, Translation & Interpreting , translating, translation

MyLangBlog is Back

Another short and sweet post for today…

I wanted to let you all know that Cathy (also known as Cisa) has revived her language blog, My Language Learning Blog. The blog was offline for a few months but is now back with a vengeance. Feel free to check out her blog and read about her adventures in learning Mandarin, Portuguese, Japanese and Korean. A true polyglot in the making…she makes me seem lazy.

Filed under: Blogs , Language Learning, Languages, Blogs, foreign languages, Polyglot

My Latest Project

I’ve done it again. I’ve started a new blog. You’d think someone like me wouldn’t have the time for another blog, what with the full-time job, two cats, language learning, volunteer translation work and studying towards an undergraduate certificate in archaeology. I’ve been toying with the idea of a food blog for quite some time now but I felt this blog was not the place to publish recipes or articles on food culture.

So without further ado, may I present my latest blog, 慢慢吃 (màn màn chī), a blog devoted to Asian cuisines and food culture.

頂きます！

Filed under: Blogs , asian food, blog, food

Using Twitter in Your Language Learning – Writing Practice

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to write about how language learners can use Twitter in their language learning. Today’s post will look at how language learners can useTwitter (or similar microblogging services) as a means to improve their writing skills.

One thing that I like about Twitter is that it allows you to write a short message in the language of your choice. I find it a little intimidating to write a full-length blog post in any of the languages I’m learning as I’m never really sure how to link sentences together to form a coherent (and interesting) post. Microblogging offers me a chance to write short comments about the weather, my mood and the minutiae of my everyday life. I could post these short and somewhat trivial comments on my blog but I prefer not to. Why would my readers want to read a bite-size comment about how tired I feel at a particular moment when they could be reading a new podcast review or a post about my (lack of) progress in a certain language?

Many of my fellow language learners have created Twitter accounts in the past few months and most of them are using the service as a way to practice their writing skills. For example, Respondebat Illa uses Twitter as a means to post short, but sweet, messages in Latin, while The Glossophile (Derron Borders) uses it to practice his French, Spanish, Catalan and Basque. Twitter has a character limit of only 140 characters so it is the ideal way for a language learner to practice his or her writing skills without feeling the pressure of writing a long blog post. Some people don’t enjoy sitting down and writing anything longer than an average Facebook message so microblogging is the perfect way for these people to get some writing practice. After all, writing a few sentences in the language you’re learning is certainly better than nothing.

One drawback  is the aforementioned character limit. Unless you’re able to condense your thoughts or comments into a short sentence, you will be tempted to use abbreviations, slang or “text speak”. While this is not a problem in itself, it is a problem if you’re looking to use Twitter as your sole means of practising your writing skills as it may encourage bad habits and an lax attitude towards grammar and spelling. It is also not an ideal platform for having a text-based conversation with a language partner or fellow Twitterer (is this the correct term?). If you want to practice your writing skills through an online chat, you’d be better off using an instant messenger or email as these will give you more freedom to write as much as you like without being constrained by a ridiculously small character limit.

There’s no doubt that Twitter can be a fun way to practice your writing skills but I wouldn’t recommend using it as your sole means of practice. Unless you ask someone to correct your grammar or spelling, it’s likely that your mistakes will go unnoticed. If you’re looking to perfect your skills or learn how to write an article or essay, you should consider signing up for a language exchange partner on Lang-8 or starting your own language learning blog.

Edited on June 14th, 2009.

Filed under: Tips & Tricks , Languages, learning languages, Microblogging, twitter, writing

Using Twitter in Your Language Learning (Introduction)

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on the subject of language learning methods so I’ve decided to write a short series of posts on how Twitter and similar microblogging services can be used in language learning. I have to admit that I’m a bit of a latecomer to Twitter and that I’m still coming to grips with the jargon (RT?, #??), so I am by no means an expert on the matter.

This series of posts will focus on three key topics :

1) Using Twitter for writing practice.
2) Using Twitter for reading practice.
3) Useful language learning resources on Twitter (e.g. words of the day, grammar tips).

I’m afraid that’s all for today as it’s getting late and I need to be up again in less than seven hours (oh, the joys of work). Needless to say, now would not be the best time to sit down and write a coherent and insightful post about the merits of Twitter so please check back later this week for the first post in my Using Twitter in Your Language Learning series.

じゃ、またね！

Filed under: Tips & Tricks , Languages, learning languages, Microblogging, Polyglot, twitter

The Glossophile Language Forum

For those of you who are looking for another language learning forum for sharing your thoughts and experiences of learning foreign languages, feel free to check out the Glossophile Language Forum. The forum is part of the Glossophile website, a website devoted to the love of languages and language learning, and is in desperate need of new members. There are dozens of sub-forums covering various aspects of linguistics and language families.

The author, Derron Borders, is passionate about languages and is currently learning Basque and Catalan. You can read his blog here or follow him on Twitter.

Filed under: Online Communities , forums, glossophile, Language Learning, Languages, Online Communities

The A to Z Challenge – Postponed Indefinately

After giving it some thought, I’ve decided to postpone my A to Z Challenge indefinately. I felt that I wasn’t spending enough time maintaining and improving my key languages and I discovered that I prefer to dabble with languages as and when I want to rather than set aside a specific month for each language. Learning Basque has been great fun and is something I will continue to do in the not-too-distant future, but for now, I think I devote my time and energy into mastering the languages I have already studied. My Spanish is in desperate need of revival, my Dutch is still far from perfect and I am eager to bring my spoken and written Mandarin back up to a high level of proficiency.

I hope I haven’t disappointed too many readers, including those readers who were looking forward to see me try to learn their native language. My wanderlust is incurable so I will get around to learning a little of your languages sooner or later. I just prefer to be spontaneous and let my enthusiasm lead the way.

For those of you who are interested in knowing what the results of my poll were, I’m afraid I can’t view the results any more as the poll has mysteriously disappeared from the Edit Polls option in my blog dashboard (where did it go?). I do know that Latin got the most votes, with Modern Greek in second place and Galician in third place. I will be deleting the poll from the side menu shortly and will archive the A to Z Challenge page for future reference. If you took part in the poll, thank you for participating.

Filed under: A to Z Challenge, Updates

Llanito

I found  a fantastic blog at the weekend that’s devoted to llanito, the local dialect of Gibraltar. Llanito is written by a fellow Gibraltarian and is packed with llanito words and sayings.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the dialect (and I imagine the vast majority of you have never heard of it, much less know much about it! ), it is an interesting blend of English, Spanish, Genoese, Maltese and Hebrew and is the everyday language of the average Gibraltarian. Those of you who have learnt Spanish will see that some of the Spanish-sounding words in the llanito vocabulary are very different to standard Castilian. For example, “marbles” are called “mebli” in llanito but are known as “canicas” in standard Castilian. Sweets/candy are called “caramelos” in Castilian but are known as “bolillas” in llanito. While I enjoy speaking llanito with friends and family, I find that it interferes with my Spanish as I tend to forget that the words we use in Gibraltar for certain items are often very different to the standard Castilian. I know that this is a pitfall of any dialect but it does mean I need to think twice before having a conversation with a native Spanish speaker!

More information about this interesting and unique dialect can be found on the Wikipedia page. You might also want to have a look at the online Yanito Dictionary or the searchable database at Llanito.Com.

Filed under: Blogs, Gibraltar, Llanito , dialect, Gibraltar, gibraltarian, Language, Languages, Llanito

Twittering Language News

A quick update for now…

I will no longer be posting weekly round-ups of language news on Sundays. I’ve decided to use my Twitter account as a way to post language-related news as and when I want to, rather than wait until the end of the week and then forget to write a news round-up post.

My “tweets” can be found underneath the poll in the menu at the far right of the screen.

EDIT : My “tweets” can now be found in the menu on the left underneath the Recent Posts, Archives and Categories sections.

Filed under: Updates , Language, Languages, News, twitter

Japan Festival, Amstelveen – June 6th and 7th, 2009

Readers in the Netherlands may be interested to know that there will be a Japan Festival in Amstelveen next weekend. The festival will be held on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June, 2009, at the Stadshart Amstelveen shopping centre and will include a range of activities for the whole family to enjoy, including taiko drum performances, martial arts displays, a Nintendo Wii tournament, a karaoke contest and an attempt to break the world records for the longest sushi bar and sushi roll. Other activities and workshops will be held in Amstelveen’s Stadsplein. Anyone who wants to learn the art of origami or how to play Go will have the chance to do so next weekend. There will also be a tea ceremony at the Cobra Museum.

More information can be found at the Stadshart Amstelveen’s website (only available in Dutch).

Filed under: Cultural Events , amstelveen, Cultural Events, festival, Japan, Japanese, netherlands

Linear B and Other Ancient Scripts

I’ve been doing a bit of background reading on Linear B and other early writing systems for an essay for my Later Prehistory course. Long-time readers will probably have heard me mention that I’m taking a series of introductory archaeology courses offered by the University of Leicester. The current course, Later Prehistory, tackles a rather wide range of cultures, including the Minoans, the Bronze age cultures of Europe, the early urban civilisations of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China, and the early states of the Americas (e.g. Olmecs, Maya).

Although I am only 1 week into this 12-week course, I have already begun to do some background reading and research for my essay. Students are given a small selection of essay titles to choose from and I’ve decided to choose the title which I felt would be an excellent way for me to combine my love for languages with my passion for archaeology : How did early writing systems differ in their material form and use within society? Discuss in relation to at least three writing systems. I haven’t made any firm decisions on the writing systems I’m choosing to focus on for this essay but Linear B is one of them. Other candidates include the oracle bone script of Shang Dynasty China, Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform.

I’m currently reading through John Chadwick’s Linear B and Related Scripts to get a better idea of how the Linear B script was used in Minoan society. One thing that becomes clear very early on in the book is that Linear B was used almost exclusively for administrative purposes. There is no evidence as yet to suggest that the script was ever used for historical or “recreational” purposes, which sets it apart from other ancient languages such as cuneiform and Ancient Greek, which were used for writing down their myths and were used for diplomatic affairs. The decipherment  of Linear B was quite a breakthrough in the understanding of the rise (and fall) of Minoan civilization. I found a copy of Andrew Robinson’s biography of Michael Ventris, The Man Who Deciphered Linear B, in the Amsterdam Public Library (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam), which I will read as soon as I have finished reading Chadwick’s book. Once I have finished reading both of those books, I will move on to Steven Roger Fischer’s A History of Writing and Lesley Adkin’s book Empires of the Plain. Needless to say, I’m going to be quite busy for the next few weeks!

A to Z Challenge Update – I’m still working through Alan R. King’s The Basque Language. I’m trying to memorise some of the dialogues he’s used in the book using the sentence method and am trying to dissect each sentence in order to consolidate everything I’ve learnt so far. It’s good to see that I can finally understand basic sentences and am getting to grips with the case endings. If only the verbs were as straightforward…

Filed under: A to Z Challenge, Albanian, Archaeology, Basque, Books, Scripts , Ancient Languages, ancient scripts, Archaeology, Basque, cuneiform, euskara, linear b, minoans, writing systems