The Korea Times : Korean Language

People looking to learn some basic Korean phrases or learn more about Korean culture and traditions might be interested in The Korea Times’ language section. There are currently 120  lessons and new lessons are added every week. Each lesson highlights a few key phrases and words on a particular theme, e.g. “Korean Side Dishes”, “University”, “Weather” and “Office Seniority”.

The lessons are quite short and don’t include grammar points but they can still be of use to learners wishing to expand their vocabulary. Each item of vocabulary lists its Korean (in romanized Korean and hangul) and English name and often includes a picture of said item, which is a handy feature for those language learners who rely on visual aids for memorizing new vocabulary. The only drawback is the lack of audio files to help learners master the pronunciations of each new word or phrase. Having said that, many of lessons include cultural tips which explain the origins and significance of certain Korean customs and traditions, which, I feel, more than makes up for the lack of audio files.

Memorista.Com

One of my readers, Francis, wrote to me a few days ago to let me know about a site he felt could be useful to language learners. Memorista.Com is a site designed for teaching basic vocabulary through the use of mnemonics (i.e. memory aids) and is ideal for people starting off with a new language or who want to pick up some basic vocabulary for a business trip or vacation.

While similar sites exist, the thing that sets Memorista apart from the others is its customizable training and testing. Registered users can create their own mnemonics if they feel the ones provided are useful to them and can make use of the testing feature to help them commit the new vocabulary to memory. The training and testing cover basic vocabulary from a variety of topics, including food and drink, accommodation, travel and basic expressions.

At present, the Memorista site contains mnemonics for around 100 basic vocabulary items for five languages : Spanish, French, Italian, German and Polish. However, the site administrators have plans to expand the vocabulary coverage and add more languages over the coming months.

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.

Links, Links, Links…

I’m still working on a post about the importance of learning Dutch so today I’m going to take the easy way out and share some links that I think are worth checking out.

• How Difficult is Chinese? -Liz has posted a great post about the challenges faced by people learning Chinese on her blog Pocket Cultures. Thoughts on learning Chinese were submitted by John Biesnecker, Ivy, a Singaporean blogger, and your’s truly.
• Mountain Songs - A fantastic website with hundreds of Chinese poems. The poems are mostly written in Classical Chinese and are accompanied by English translations and beautiful photos of the places they describe.
• Extreme Mandarin – A Chinese vocabulary blog with a difference. Yersi’s blog covers a wide range of topics, including Dungeons and Dragons, koala bears and cash.
• Chinese Sans 汉字 – John, author of Chinese Quest, has written a post about the limitations of learning Chinese (or Japanese) without learning the written language. I agree with what he has to say…I cannot make sense of anything written exclusively in pinyin.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for some original content later this week.

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?

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.

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.

Keep Learning Your Native Language

In our efforts to learn foreign languages and expand our vocabularies in these, we often overlook the richness and beauty of our own native tongues. We’re often too busy flipping through flashcards, compiling word lists or jotting down new words in notebooks to realise that there’s still a lot to learn in our own language. English has such a wide vocabulary, derived from countless sources, and there are thousands of words which are rarely, if ever, used in everyday life. I was reading Umberto Eco’s Foucalt’s Pendulum quite recently and was amazed by the number of words he used which had me running for the dictionary. Reading certainly is a learning experience…

I get a certain pleasure from discovering new words and figuring out their etymologies, even if they are words I’d never get to use in everyday life or even on this blog. I’ve bookmarked a few sites that are perfect for learning new words (see below). These are all for learning English words but I’ll try and post links to ‘words of the day’ for other languages in the coming weeks.

• A Word a Day – This site posts new words based on a weekly theme, such as ‘unusual conjunctions’ and ‘words borrowed from Irish’.
• Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day – No weekly theme here but it does give example sentences as well as interesting facts about the day’s word.
• Dictionary.Com Word of the Day - This gives plenty of example sentences as well as a brief etymology of the word in question.
• WordThink – A quick and easy ‘word of the day’. Not very detailed but still fairly useful.
• FreeRice.Com – Not a ‘word of the day’ but still a fantastic resource for learning new words. There are a number of quizzes to test your knowledge of rare English words and for every correct answer, a small amount of rice will be donated to the needy via the UN World Food Program. This is a good way to expand your vocabulary and contribute to a worthy cause.

If anyone else knows of a ‘word of the day’ website that should be added to this list, then feel free to leave a comment with a link to the site in question.

Fun With Words – γλώσσα

I came across the phrase ξένες γλώσσες (foreign languages) while playing around with one of the English>Greek tests at the Goethe-Verlag website. γλώσσες is a form of the word γλώσσα, which means ‘language’ or ‘tongue’. The word ‘glossary’ is derived from γλώσσα, which can also mean ‘obsolete or foreign word’.

Here are some words which are derived from the word γλώσσα :

• γλώσσα προγραμματισμού - programming language (e.g. Java)
• γλωσσολογία - linguistics, philology
• γλωσσολόγος - linguist
• γλωσσάριο - glossary
• μητρική γλώσσα - native tongue, mother tongue

If you can know any other words or phrases derived from γλώσσα that should be added to the list above, feel free to leave a comment.