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.

Quelle Semaine!

What a week it has been! My mother was in hospital on Monday (discharged on Tuesday, thank God), I spent 3 hours travelling home on Tuesday, work was insanely chaotic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and yesterday a pleasant evening with some friends was cut short when their cat started hissing and running around their house as if possessed. I do hope their cat is alright as I have two of my own and would be worried sick if they started acting like their’s did…

So needless to say, there was little time left in the day to devote to language study or updating this blog! Hopefully things will be back to normal this coming week.

I’m taking a month’s break from my “One Foreign-Language Book a Month” challenge as I need to work on an essay for the archaeology course I’m taking (the current module focuses on classical archaeology).  Lately, reading time seems to be limited to the two hours I spend commuting to and from work each day so I think it makes sense for me to spend that time doing the necessary background reading for my course and essay. I’ll find other ways to fit in some language practice into my busy work days…

I have a few links to blogs, websites and news articles that might be of interest to fellow language learners :

• Button Gaffe Embarrasses Clinton - An example of how a mistranslation could lead to a potential political catastrophe. I wonder if anyone proofread the gift before it was given to Hillary.
• Les Tribulations d’une Caissière - I stumbled upon this blog via an article on the TimesOnline website. The blog’s author, Anna Sam, is a French university graduate who has recently published a book about her experiences as an undervalued and frustrated supermarket clerk. The blog is written in French but you can read a translation of an extract from her book by clicking on the TimesOnline link above (it can be found towards the end of the article). I’m sure there are many university graduates – in France and elsewhere – who can sympathise with her situation.
• Chinese Cultural Heritage Net - Entirely in Chinese but a great source of reading material for those who are interested in China’s cultural heritage and archaeological sites.
• Kanji Clinic – A fantastic resource for anyone struggling with Japanese kanji and vocabulary. Most of the articles are centred around a particular theme (e.g. colours, animals, medical terms) and include mini quizzes at the end of most articles to test your knowledge of the kanji discussed. Many of the articles explain Japanese cultural and social issues, such as the origins of Japanese festivals and the meanings behind some of the most common Japanese surnames.

That’s all from me for now. I have a few “word-building” posts in the pipeline and may have a few more language learning interviews to share with you all in the very near future.

それでは、じゃまたね！

日本語を勉強する

I thought I’d share some links to some Japanese learning resources I discovered recently. I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for the past two years so I’m always on the look-out for new resources.

Here are some of the websites and blogs I’ve stumbled upon :

Surasura : A Text for Intermediate Japanese – An online reader and grammar text for intermediate students. I find the grammar notes particularly useful, though I haven’t been able to get the audio files to work..

Learn Japanese Online : Intermediate Japanese Grammar List – Not a learning resource per se but it’s a good way to see what grammar points I still need to cover.

Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words - A great resource for anyone wishing to read or write haiku. It’s a shame that the site only uses romaji..

U-Biq Online Japanese Study – A fairly good beginners course. A lot of grammar points and sentence structures are covered and hiragana/katakana are used throughout the course. My only complaint is that kanji are not used in the example sentences, though you can find the kanji for most of the new vocabulary along the side of the page.

The Daily Yo-ji - A bit of a misnomer but this blog is a good resource for learning advanced Japanese grammar and expressions. It seems to be aimed mostly at people working towards the JLPT levels 1 and 2 so it might not be of much use to anyone who’s just started learning Japanese.

Japanite - Another blog for advanced learners. The author makes use of articles to teach grammar and vocabulary and you can find some useful posts on conversational Japanese.

The JapanesePod101 Blog - I’m not a big fan of the JapanesePod101 podcast lessons but I think its blog is one of the most useful resources around for learning the Japanese language. I really enjoy the Kanji Curiosity articles as they’re jam-packed with new vocabulary.

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.

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.

Podcast Review – Romanian Podcast.Net

I promised a few podcast reviews some time ago so I’m working slowly through the list of sites I bookmarked. I’ve decided to continue my series of podcast reviews with a review of Romanian-Podcast.Net, a podcast series which teaches basic Romanian.

The site has been online for about a year and has a total of 16 episodes thus far. New episodes are added once a month and come with handy (and free!) transcripts. The episodes themselves are quite thorough and are mostly thematic (e.g. telling the time, ordering coffees at a cafe). A lot of new words and expressions are taught in each lesson and some basic grammar is also covered, though not in great detail.

What I like about this podcast series is that the presenter, Florin, focuses on teaching the language rather than initiating silly conversations with his co-presenters, something that certain well-known podcasts are guilty of. Lessons are also relatively short (7-8 minutes long) so there’s no risk of being overwhelmed by new words or grammar.

My only complaint would be the lack of updates. Learners might find it hard to learn the language when there’s only one new episode per month. There are also no lessons available for intermediate or advanced learners so this podcast might not be very useful for those who already have a basic command of the language. Nevertheless, this is probably the only podcast course around for learning Romanian so it is a valuable resource in itself. If you’re thinking of learning Romanian for travel or simply to indulge your curiosity, then I can recommend visiting the Romanian-Podcast.Net website to see what Florin has in store for you.

Happy New Year, 新年快乐, 明けましておめでとうございます…

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope 2009 has gotten off to a good start for everyone. 2008 was a rather bad year for my partner and I (we had several deaths in the family) so here’s hoping that 2009 is a much more pleasant and happy year. So far so good…

We had a great Christmas and New Year and really enjoyed our time off from work. My mother was here until early this morning and I’m glad I was able to take off so many days from work and do things with her (lots of shopping and sightseeing!). She’s now back in Gibraltar so I guess I can get back to blogging and looking forward to her next visit, whenever that may be.

Some news/update/thoughts :

• iKnow! has added some Mandarin courses to its ever-growing selection of language courses. The courses are aimed at intermediate/upper-intermediate students and seem to be only available in traditional Chinese. Nevertheless, they look pretty good and jam-packed with useful vocabulary and example sentences. A special thanks to unzum for bringing these new courses to my attention!
• I watched the film adaptation of The Kite Runner during the Christmas break and enjoyed listening to spoken Dari (which is closely related to Persian). I don’t have any immediate plans to learn the language but I did do a little research and came across this fantastic Dari resource : LearnDari.Net. You can find video lessons (with transcripts) here.
• I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions yet though I have been giving some thought to my language learning objectives and wishes for 2009. I find it very hard to set myself concrete goals so I’ll probably settle for general goals, like my fellow language blogger Geoffrey Barto.
• I’ve added a few more language blogs to my blogroll, including Street-Smart Language Learning and John Biesnecker’s blog. If there are any language learning blogs you feel I’ve overlooked and should add to my blogroll, then feel free to leave a comment with links to them!
• A silly observation but I think the warning slips inside Kinder Surprise eggs are fantastic for language nerds such as myself. Not only do they give warnings about the small parts in every major European language, they also give warnings in Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, Chinese (traditional and simplified) and Arabic!

That’s all for now. It’s time for me to go and give some real thought to my language learning resolutions for 2009.

iKnow

A friend of mine recently forwarded a link to iKnow, a site for people who are studying English or Japanese. Registering will give you access to a range of features, including dictation practice and Brainspeed, a fast-paced word game. If you want to keep track of your progress or share your word lists with other users, then it would be best to register for a free account.

Even if you choose not to register, this site still has a lot to offer. There are a number of courses for learning basic and intermediate Japanese : Core 2000 and Core 6000. These courses provide learners with a wide vocabulary base and the audio files are extremely useful for people wishing to perfect their pronunciation. I’m also very impressed with the huge database of example sentences as I find it important to learn new vocabulary in context. Beginners will find the hiragana and katakana courses quite helpful, while intermediate students will be able to build upon their existing language skills as they work through the Core 6000 courses.