Indonesian In My Kitchen

One of the things I discovered about the Dutch is their almost universal love of nasi goreng (fried rice) and the rijsttafel (lit. the rice table). There are countless Indonesian restaurants across the country and I might be as bold to say that the Dutch prefer Indonesian food over anything else that Asia has to offer. A quick glance at a menu at a Chinese restaurant will show that half of the food on offer is, in fact, of Indonesian origin. This is not true of all Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands but it’s something I’ve noticed at most of the restaurants and takeaways I’ve visited.

A lot of Indonesian food words have found their ways into the Dutch language. Kroepoek, prawn crackers, is a well-loved snack, while for some people, bami has come to refer to almost any type of Asian noodle, Indonesian or otherwise. Words like satay, nasi goreng and tahoe are used in the Netherlands in pretty much the same way as basmati, tandoori and naan are used in the UK.  They have become part of the Dutch culinary culture and most people will know exactly what you mean if you use these words in a conversation.

One thing I’ve noticed is that many traditionally Indonesian ingredients do not have a Dutch translation. Even if they do have a Dutch equivalent, you might still draw a blank if you use that instead of the original Indonesian name. For example, I was once asked by one of my partner’s relatives if I used lombok whenever I made anything spicy. I didn’t have a clue at the time what lombok was as I wasn’t very familiar with Indonesian cuisine. It turned out that lombok was simply a type of chilli pepper.

On another occasion, I tried finding some sereh for an Indonesian recipe I wanted to make and I didn’t really know what I needed to look for. Thankfully the local supermarket had used the original Indonesian name and it turned out that the mystery item was, in fact, lemongrass. Sereh does have a Dutch equivalent, citroengras (literally, ‘lemon grass’), but it seems to be used far less. A quick look around any Indonesian food section in the local supermarket or open-air market is a learning experience and always makes me feel tempted to learn some Bahasa Indonesia.

Here’s a short list of some  of the Indonesian food vocabulary I’ve learnt during my two years of living in the Netherlands :

kroepoek - prawn crackers (rom the Indonesian krupuk or kerupuk)

tahoe – tofu (from the Indonesian tahu)

boemboe – a type of chilli or spicy paste (from the Indonesian bumbu)

nasi goreng - fried rice (nasi means cooked rice and goreng refers to any food that has been fried)

pisang goreng – fried banana fritters (pisang is the Indonesian for ‘banana’)

bami – noodles, originally brought to Indonesia by Chinese merchants (from the Indonesian bakmi)

ketjap manis - Indonesian sweet soy sauce (from the Indonesian kecap manis; manis is the Indonesian word for ’sweet’)

sambal – A type of spicy condiment which is often made from chillis

gado-gado – A type of vegetable salad with a peanut sauce dressing

tempeh – A type of soybean cake

Is anyone fond of Indonesian food? Do you have any recipes you’d like to share?

On the Spot – John Biesnecker

Today’s interviewee is John Biesnecker. John is an American living in Shanghai and used to work for Praxis Language, the company behind ChinesePod and its sister sites. John’s latest blog, Never Stop Moving, is a great read for anyone interested in Chinese culture and John’s thoughts of living in China (you can also read his older posts by clicking here). He has offered to share his thoughts of learning Chinese and his tips for learning a foreign language.

You can read the full interview by clicking on the Continue Reading link below.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

I’m really only studying (Mandarin) Chinese these days. I’d like to do more, but I don’t have time. As for level, I’m an advanced reader (somewhere at the level of a Chinese high school student) and an upper intermediate speaker.

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

I started late. I had to take a foreign language for two years in high school, and I chose German. That was my freshman year, 1994. I took two years of German in high school, forgot everything, took another year in college, forgot all of that, and then came to China for a summer. That was 2001. I still wasn’t much of a student until I came back after graduating from university in 2003. Given my incredibly poor German knowledge, I generally count 2003 as my start.

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

Survival! China attracted me, at first, more than Chinese. I arrived not being able to speak anything, so in the beginning it was all about getting things done. I’ve always loved to read, though, and soon enough the characters pulled me in. Now, having achieved reasonably literacy, it’s the culture and history that keeps me learning.

Which languages would you like to learn in future? What are your reasons for choosing these?

Next on my list are Cantonese and Shanghainese. Cantonese because I like how it sounds, and Shanghainese because I live in Shanghai and, while basically everyone speaks Mandarin, it’s pretty handy. After that, I’ll see where my life takes me. I’d like to learn Japanese, too, and Korean – both cultures and languages are fascinating.

Revisiting Persian

Readers who have been following my online exploits since the days of the original Aspiring Polyglot blog will know that I have dabbled with Persian (Farsi) in the past. This was before I started learning Japanese and taking my Dutch studies seriously so it was a short-lived adventure and I set it aside with a view to revisiting it someday.

I’ve been giving some thought to re-embarking on my Persian studies, even though I know I should follow my partner’s advice and stay focused on the languages I’m already learning. After all, what would I use Persian for? He may be right. Discipline and willpower are vital allies in the quest to master a language but I’ve also been blessed (or should that be ‘cursed’?) with an almost insatiable curiosity for languages. Persian is an age-old and fascinating language with a beautiful script and rich cultural heritage. Despite the turbulent political atmosphere, Iran is an intriguing country and a wonderland for archaeology enthusiasts, one I would very much like to visit someday.

Should I follow my partner’s advice and not succumb to wanderlust? Or should I satisfy my curiosity and set myself yet another challenge? Oral fluency is not my goal here as I’m more interested in learning how to read and understand Persian so I’m not particularly worried about not being able to speak it well. In some ways, I think I’m more interested in studying languages rather than learning them, though I have to admit I’m not that keen on linguistics and theories of language acquisition. What interests me most about languages are the words, the expressions and figures of speech, the cultural references that are embodied in what people say to each other. Do you really need to be a fluent speaker in order to enjoy these things? It certainly would help but I don’t believe it’s essential. People are able to admire Latin and Ancient Greek without speaking them so the same could be true of a modern and living language.

But I digress…

On the subject of learning Persian, I’ve tracked down a few books and courses for learning the language. I came across an electronic copy of Colloquial Persian by Leila Moshiri. I’ve had a quick look through it and it looks like it might be of some use. My main complaint with this book is that the Persian script is not used at all. Romanisation is fine for learning how to speak the language but I hate being illiterate in any language (I despise books which teach Japanese through rōmaji alone).

I also found a more recent edition of Teach Yourself Persian. The edition I bought a few years ago was an outdated edition which only seemed to cover grammar and the script (i.e. no dialogues). Its biggest flaw was that the Persian script was almost illegible thanks to the microscopic font they used. The newer edition, Teach Yourself Modern Persian, looks quite promising. It comes with audio CDs and, more importantly, teaches the Persian script from very early on. Romanisations are still used but only in the lists of new vocabulary and in conjunction with the Persian script and English translations.

The Assimil course Le Persan sans peine also looks good. It’s only available in French, but thankfully my knowledge of written French is still quite good despite years of relative neglect. There’s also the fantastic EasyPersian.Com website. It feels like it hasn’t been updated in ages but the lessons are all still there and it’s still one of the best online resources for learning Persian.

One final resource I would like to mention is the Persian for You audio course available at the IRIB World Service site. The downside is that there are no transcripts available, at least none that I can see. The French edition has no audio but plenty of text and the Spanish edition has audio and transcripts (though you will need to really dig around for the audio files).

Has anyone tried learning Persian? If so, what are your thoughts on learning the language? Any advice or resources you would like to share with other Persian enthusiasts?

PS> New language learner interviews will be posted tomorrow. I have three new ones to read through and format.

On the Spot – Vincent of Street-Smart Language Learning

Another language learner interview for all of you to read and possibly learn something from. I have a lot of other things going on this week so I haven’t had the time to write a post of my own.

Here’s Vincent’s language learner interview. Vincent is the author of the Street-Smart Language Learning blog and is a firm believer in the benefits of language immersion.

You can read the full interview by clicking on the Continue Reading link below.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

I’ve given a crack at listing my language skills in the table below. As I’m sure you know, it can be pretty tough to categorize language skills. As a gauge, if I’m comfortable speaking with clients in the language I’ve listed conversational ability as “proficient” and if I’m comfortable reading contracts in the language (I’m a lawyer), I’ve listed reading ability as “proficient”. (You’ll see below my standard on fluency is pretty high.) For the languages in which I’m advanced, I could probably get through the same activities but it would be a bit of a struggle.

Language	Conversational Ability	Reading Ability
Japanese	Proficient	Proficient
Chinese	Proficient	Proficient
Spanish	Proficient	Proficient
Portuguese	Proficient	Proficient
French	Advanced	Proficient
Italian	Advanced	Proficient
German	Advanced	Advanced
Russian	Beginner	Beginner
Korean	Beginner	Beginner

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

The first foreign language I was exposed to was Italian at home. However, my parents weren’t strict about it and I didn’t really pick it up. Then when I was about eleven, my school had a year-long sampler for the three languages they offered: French, German, and Spanish. I first only really started studying a language with Spanish when I was twelve, so seventeen years ago. (The rest of my language-learning history can be found here)

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

I picked the languages I’m learning based on the how big the economies represented by those languages are. Of the choices I had at age twelve, Spanish was clearly the most useful in the States. While I was originally doing it on a sort of guessing basis, I now look at the percentage of world GDP controlled by that language when considering starting a new one. Strangely enough, my guessing matched up exactly with the GDP list.

On the Spot – The Arabic Student

Here is the first of the language learner interviews. Our first interviewee is The Arabic Student, who has taken some time to share his views on learning Arabic and his tips for learning  a foreign language.

The full interview can be read by clicking on the Continue Reading link.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

Well, I’m really only learning one language, Arabic, but when you consider all the dialects and how different they are from each other and from MSA (Modern Standard Arabic), calling Arabic one language is like calling Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian one language.  As for my ability in Arabic, well, I can understand news channels like Al-Jazeera, which is in MSA, but if I’m watching a soap opera in a dialect, Egyptian for example, I have some trouble.  Also, I can get the gist of Arabic in the Koran, but it uses so many old words that no one uses today, plus it takes words that are used today and uses them in a different way all together.  The Koran isn’t a priority for me, though.  I just read it every now and then when I’m bored.  I’ve only ever formally studied MSA but I’m trying to learn the dialects on my own.  My speaking is nearly non-existent if I have to speak dialect, but I can say anything I need to say in MSA and my pronunciation is pretty good, if I do say so myself. Most people will understand you if you speak in MSA because it’s the language they watch the news and read the paper in.

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

I’ve been learning languages on and off since I was in about the 6th grade. I got a computer program for learning Japanese and learned a lot of the phrases, but learning phrases isn’t enough to learn a language and, of course, this was way before internet 2.0, where you can find any kind of audio or video you want in nearly any language, so I didn’t have a whole lot of resources other than that program which wasn’t very comprehensive.  Needless to say, I didn’t get very far in Japanese.  All I know now is that “Watashi” means “I” and they throw the word “wa” and “ga” in every sentence with no discernible meaning.  I hope that doesn’t offend any learners of Japanese.

After my failure at Japanese I waited until I was forced to take a language in high school.  I took Spanish but the classes moved so slowly that I lost interest.  I actually picked up the FSI Barrons tapes and went through a lot of them about 2 years ago, but I have just never been that interested in Spanish or Latin American culture, so I lose motivation when I try to study Spanish.  I’d say I’m at the high beginner or low intermediate level in Spanish.

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

I like languages that have a cryptic-looking alphabet. They seem so foreign and I always thought it would be cool to be able to read something that looked like utter gibberish to the uninitiated.  Also, the job prospects are good if you’re an Arabic speaker in the US.

UPDATED – A Call for Interviewees

Would you like to share your thoughts and experiences of language learning with readers from around the world? If the answer to this question is ‘Yes’, then please feel free to leave a comment and let me know that you’re willing to be interviewed.

I’m still in the process of putting together an interview template but I’d be happy to hear your suggestions. What questions would you like to see being asked?

UPDATE - I’ve finished working on the survey and have sent it out to some of my readers. If you would also like to take part and share your language learning experiences with the blogosphere, then feel free to leave a comment stating your interest and I’ll send you a copy of the survey.

Why Language Classes Don’t Work

I stumbled upon Tim Ferriss’s blog today and came across one of his language learning articles, Why Language Classes Don’t Work : How to Cut Classes and Double Your Learning Rate. Tim makes some very good points about why language learners are unable to learn a language by attending formal classes. According to his article, he has tried learning more than 20 languages, and is conversationally fluent in 6, so he’s been able to determine what works and doesn’t work when it comes to learning a new language.

One of the reasons he gives for why language classes don’t work is that teachers are often seen as being more important than the material and textbooks being used. I agree with this view, to some extent. If you have quality language learning material at your disposal, it’s entirely possible to learn a language without a teacher to guide you. A lot of people have had success learning a language outside of a classroom setting and some find self-study to be a lot more productive than attending classes. Having said that, I think the success of a language class depends on the teacher and the attitude the teacher has towards language learning. Some teachers are able to inspire their students and while they may not necessarily teach them everything there is to know about the language, they can motivate their students to go out and learn for themselves. Sometimes it helps to have someone to guide you along the path to fluency, though a supportive language partner can also fit this role.

Thoughts on Translation

For the past few months, I’ve been translating news articles and biographies for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology (you can see the institute’s website here). This has been a fantastic way for me to develop my translation skills while learning more about ancient Chinese archaeological cultures. The translation work has been on a completely voluntary basis (i.e. I don’t get paid for doing it), something many translators are reluctant to do.

I worked as a freelance translator during my year-long stay in Taiwan but I’ve since had to put my translation career on hold due to economic reasons and the lack of in-house translator jobs in the Netherlands. Translating documents on a voluntary basis is a good way for me to sharpen my skills and, more importantly, build a portfolio of sample translations for prospective employers and/or clients. At the very least, it’s an excellent way to put my Chinese language skills to good use. Use them or lose them, as they say.

I’m currently working on two documents for the institute and it never ceases to amaze how much of a learning experience translation work really is. Translators do not know the meaning of every word they come across so research skills are as vital as language skills. Translators working with specialised texts are often expected to know their subject and be familiar with the jargon used. Working with texts dealing with archaeological themes introduces you to such words as 贝壳丘 (midden) and 殉葬 (being buried alive with the dead), words you’re hardly likely to come across in your average Chinese class or textbook!

As a translator, you’re constantly learning new words, new meanings and building upon your existing knowledge of the subject(s) and language(s) you ‘re specialising in. Language is always evolving and so must the translator. Every text I translate is a learning experience and helps me learn more about the way we humans use words and language to convey ideas and disseminate knowledge.

For those of you who are looking for a fun way to develop your language and translation skills, you might want to consider translating news articles or blog posts for your own use. This is an excellent way to learn new words and expressions and reinforce your understanding of the foreign language’s grammar. What are your thoughts on this? Do you use translation practice as a way to improve your language skills or do you feel it’s a waste of time?

Watch this space for more thoughts on translation and my catastrophic attempts at translating Japanese and Dutch articles.

Nederlands Dagboek – 20th January 2009

Ik ben nog steeds bezig in het boek China : Centrum van de Wereld. Het boek gaat over de moderne Chinese maatschappij en is geschreven door Garrie van Pinxteren, een Nederlandse journaliste en sinoloog. Ik vind het redelijk makkelijk te begrijpen, maar er zijn nog wat onbekende woorden.

Lezen is een hele goed manier om nieuwe woorden te leren maar ik wil ook mijn Nederlands schrijfvaardigheid verbeteren. Ik gebruik heel weinig Nederlands op het kantoor, dus ben ik van plan om korte ‘blog posts’ te schrijven.

Maar ik moet weg! Ik moet het avondeten maken en het is bijna half negen…

Tot zo.

PS. If there are any glaring mistakes, please let me know! I can only learn from my mistakes.

Bilingoz

I discovered a site that could be very useful for advanced Japanese learners and people wishing to boost their knowledge of specialist vocabulary : Bilingoz.

Bilingoz allows you to study specialist vocabulary using a flashcard system and allows you to quiz yourself on your knowledge of your chosen field.  Specialist subjects include political science, metallurgy and anatomy and you can choose from six difficulty levels (Basic I – Advanced II). Audio functions are available only for the basic levels but the wide selection of vocabulary more than makes up for this minor drawback.

Japanese Onomatopoeia – Algorithm March

One of the things I like about the Japanese language is its wide variety of onomatopoeic and mimetic words. A lot of these words are used in daily conversation and literature (especially manga) and capture the essence of the sound or image that they’re trying to convey. Some of these words are quite hard to translate into English and are the bane of a translator’s existence. Others have English equivalents but many of these fail to match the beauty and simplicity of the original Japanese words.

It’s important to differentiate between the various types of onomatopoeia and mimetic words as they are not merely words which imitate sounds (such as the English ‘bark’ or ‘bang’). Giseigo (擬声語) are words which mimic human or animal sounds (e.g. laughing, crying, dogs barking, cats miaowing) while another type of onomatopoeia, giongo (擬音語), is used to mimic other sounds (e.g. the sound of thunder, a knock on the door). Mimetic words, gitaigo (擬態語), are different to giseigo and giongo in that they don’t mimic sounds, but rather they are used to convey a certain visual or sensory feeling (e.g. to show one is happy, to describe the way one walks, to convey the golden nature of blonde hair, to convey the softness of a pillow). Knowing how to use these words in everyday conversation or writing is one way to display your mastery of the Japanese language and add some spice to a story you may be telling to your friends or colleagues.

There are hundreds of onomatopoeic and mimetic words in use in modern Japanese. In this first installment of my Japanese Onomatopoeia series, I will look at the giseigo, giongo and gitaigo in the Algorithm March video and do my best to show how these words are used. I do want to add that the video was a song aimed at a very young audience so the onomatopoeiaa used may not be used in standard conversation!

きょろきょろ(kyorokyoro) :

Kyorokyoro (きょろきょろ) is a gitaigo used to convey the action of looking around in a restless manner. It can be used as a suru-verb and can be written in either hiragana (きょろきょろ) or katakana (キョロキョロ).

In the video, there’s the line 横に歩いてきょろきょろ(yoko ni aruite kyorokyoro), which means ‘walk sideways and look around’. Kyorokyoro describes the action that the actor on screen is doing at that point in the song, looking from left to right as if he’s about to cross the street.

Here’s another example of kyorokyoro in use :

部屋の中をきょろきょろと見ている　－ Looking around the inside of a room.

You can also use kyorokyoro to suggest that someone is looking this way and that way by using the expression あちこちをきょろきょろする (achi kochi o kyorokyoro suru).

シュウシュウ(shuu shuu) :

Shuu shuu (シュウシュウ) would fall under the category of giongo as it imitates the sound made by rushing air, almost like a ‘whoosh’ sound. I haven’t been able to find many examples of this giongo in use so I will just use the sentence used in the video.

空気入れますシュウシュウ (kuuki iremasu shuu shuu) which means ‘We’ll put air in (it), whoosh whoosh’ (空気　is air and 入れる means ‘to put in’ or ‘to insert’).

ピュウピュウ (pyuu pyuu) :

Another giongo is pyuu pyuu (ピュウピュウ), which imitates the sound of air whooshing or blowing around. The sentence used in the video is 空気が入ってピュウピュウ which is translated as ‘The air is inside, pyuu pyuu’.

Pyuu pyuu can also be used in these ways :

風がピュウピュウ吹いているよ – The wind is really blowing (howling).

今日は朝から冷たい北風がﾋﾟｭｳﾋﾟｭｳ吹いてます – The cold northern wind has been blowing ever since this morning.

As you can see, there is no good way to translate pyuu pyuu which captures the essence of the original Japanese. Whistling, howling and blowing might be the nearest English equivalents but they still lack the elegance of the Japanese pyuu.

That’s all for this installment. Please note that I’m still learning Japanese and it’s likely that I’ve made translation errors or used the wrong kanji. The example sentences were found via a Google search but the translations are my own. And enjoy the video, if you haven’t already seen it!

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs

I thought I’d post one of the old blog posts I was able to retrieve from the original Aspiring Polyglot blog. I’ve edited it a little but it remains more or less the same as the original post…which I wrote about two years ago.

I’ve often wondered why Ancient Egyptian is not normally listed as a ‘must-have’ language for polyglots, aspiring or actual. Coptic and Middle Egyptian both have their charms but you rarely hear language enthusiasts saying that these are languages they plan to add to their ‘collection’. They may tackle Ancient Greek, Latin or Sanskrit but few dare to touch Egyptian hieroglyphs, even if they have an affinity for character-based languages such as Chinese or Japanese.

In all fairness, there probably are a number of reasons why many language enthusiasts shy away from the ancient Egyptian language. First of all, the majority of textbooks are either aimed at those studying Egyptology or linguistics (making it boring or less accessible for the average enthusiast) or they provide only a very superficial overview of the language. Second, some find the lack of vowels to be a challenge. While Arabic and Hebrew also tend to leave out some vowels in the written form, students of these languages are at least aware of how the words are pronounced and what vowels are used in certain words. Coptic has an alphabet and Egyptologists and linguists have made ample use of the language to try and figure out what ancient Egyptian sounded like but, of course, this method has its limits. Third, hieroglyphs can be tricky to work with. As someone who’s studied Chinese and dabbled with Japanese on and off, pictograms don’t send me running for the hills. Egyptian determinatives remind me of the radicals used in Chinese characters as they give the reader an idea of what the preceeding collection of phonograms and logograms represents. Like Chinese and Japanese, they can help differentiate homonyms, something with is particularly useful when working with a language that doesn’t display all of its vowels!

I’ve toyed with the idea of learning to read basic Egyptian texts (if such a thing exists!) as I’ve been something of an amateur Egyptologist for many years. I would like to get around to Latin and Ancient Greek in future, mostly to satisfy my interest in etymology and word derivation, but ancient Egyptian seems like a real challenge and might be something fun to work on when I want to take a break from my ’serious’ language study. I have a number of books on hieroglyphs in my collection including the best-selling How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Mark Collier and Bill Manley. The book is a fairly good step-by-step guide on learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and, while limited, is a good starting point for enthusiasts.

Has anyone else ever considered learning ancient Egyptian or one of its variants? If any has attempted to do so, feel free to share your tips!

Two years later, I’m still considering learning how to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. I’ve read a few chapters in the Mark Collier and Bill Manley book but I still find the Egyptian script difficult to learn, especially since there are so many alternative spellings for certain words. The grammar is also quite tricky and the vocabulary used in the example texts and exercises are all very ritualistic and formal…which is hardly surprising given that the Egyptian hieroglyphic script was mostly used on temple and tomb walls to honour the living god (i.e. the Pharoah) and the deceased. Memorising ancient Egyptian vocabulary is a challenge and yet it feels so rewarding to recognise the odd word on an ancient artefact in the museum.

Fun With Words – 14th January 2009

One of the New Year’s resolutions I set myself for 2009 was to read at least one foreign language book a month. I’m currently reading China : Centrum van de Wereld by Dutch Sinologist Garrie van Pinxteren, a Dutch-language non-fiction book  about present-day Chinese society. In some ways, I find non-fiction more accessible to the language learner than a novel as the words used are commonly seen in the newspapers or heard in documentaries. Things are made even easier when you’re already familiar with the subject matter as you can make an educated guess about some of the unknown words you come across.

I’m impressed at how easily I can read Dutch books after two years of living in the Netherlands and can’t help but wish that my speaking skills were just as good! I still come across words and expressions that I’m not familiar with so I still have a long way to go before I can claim to read fluently (is there such a thing as fluency in reading?). I’ve made a note of some of the new words I came across today and will be creating an Anki flashcard set for them shortly.

• onuitvoerbaar - impractical, unfeasible
• overtuigingskracht (de) - persuasiveness
• drilpuddinkje (het) - diminutive form of drilpudding, a gelatin dessert or jelly pudding
• aframmeling (de) - a beating, a thrashing
• aanvankelijk - initially, at first
• huiverig - hesitant
• inlichtingendienst (de) – the intelligence service, the secret service
• marmeren (de) – marble (the material)
• ophaalbrug (de) - drawbridge
• spuugbak (de) - spittoon

That’s all for today. I’ll be writing some posts about Japanese onomatopoeia (擬声語/擬音語) and mimetic words (擬態語) later this week.

Kotowaza – 三日坊主 and 七転び八起き

This is a post from a Japanese language blog I no longer update. Since I’ve marked that blog for deletion, I thought I’d post a copy here to preserve it for future reference.

Japanese has a wide range of proverbs, kotowaza (諺), to describe most situations and emotions. Many Japanese learners give up after months (or even weeks) of struggling with the language. Those who give up at the first sign of difficulty and who lack perseverance can be called 三日坊主 (みっかぼうず), which literally means ‘three day monk’. As with any language, Japanese certainly takes more than three days to master. Determination and motivation are essential to success but sadly many people are not able to put in the time and effort needed to learn this beautiful, yet sometimes frustrating, language.

Another kotowaza which seems relevant to the study of the Japanese language is 七転び八起き (ななころびやおき), which means ‘falling down seven times and standing up eight times’, or ‘always rising after repeated failures’. If one is determined to learn Japanese, he or she must be able to persevere, even when it seems that no progress is being made.

Language Learning Tips – Personalised Phrasebooks

Today I discovered that one of my long-time readers felt it was a shame that I deleted many of my old blog posts when I deleted my blogs Aspiring Polyglot (version 1) and Dragon Fruit. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to retrieve many of them due to something called robots.txt (this prevents blogs and websites from being archived) but I have managed to find some of my deleted posts thanks to an RSS archive that had saved some of my more recent posts.

Here is one of the posts I managed to salvage from obscurity. I’ve edited it slightly but hope that it is still useful after all this time.

I originally got this idea from Bill Handley’s book Fast Easy Way to Learn a Language, where you would keep a notebook of key phrases and sentence structures you find essential or useful to know. While this may encourage learning in parrot fashion and would certainly never make you fluent on its own, I think this is quite a good way to get to grips with basic conversational skills in your target language and is a good first step towards mastering the spoken language. This is certainly true if you learn how to substitute words efficiently as it allows you to build up your language skills methodically and at the very least you will have a small arsenal of phrases and expressions to use while you struggle towards fluency using other methods.

I have several such notebooks, one for each language I’m working on, though I don’t always have the time to re-read over the phrases I have already entered. In a way, these notebooks are my own personalised phrasebooks and cover those phrases I feel I need for everyday life. My Dutch notebook includes a selection of phrases I feel might be useful to know for future jobs as well as a selection of more ‘colloquial’ expressions.

In creating my own personalised little phrasebooks (which are far from complete), I tend to use a variety of sources. I usually scan my self-study course books for phrases and structures that I feel I will be most likely to use and ignore anything I know I won’t have to use in a hurry. I also keep a note of any phrases or expressions used in podcast lessons or audio courses as these are more likely to be representative of the spoken language (this is not always the case with the language used in textbooks). Sometimes I jot down expressions I might hear on TV or on the radio and occasionally run these through Google to see if I can find some examples of their use. Blogs can also be a good source, although you run the risk of picking up bad language and grammar mistakes this way.

Do any of you use a similar method for boosting your spoken language skills? If so, what sources do you use and how do you record them?