G-Blogodaria - GLN

Speak Now, or Forever Study Grammar

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Fri, 18/1/2013 - 10:00

What are the key factors in learning a new language? Peter with the blog Creativity & Languages has summarized six that stand out:

Motivation
Regular practice
Emotional involvement
Playfulness and willingness to make mistakes
Humble approach – The basic first
Grammar is secondary to practice, theory is secondary to practice.

Factor number six is arguably the most important, as he elaborates “that second language acquisition is more successful when it imitates children language acquisition. Children do not learn grammar first and then how to speak, they learn how to speak by a trial and error process which involve constant engaging with their environment. Children do not learn reading by starting to read literature. They learn to read by starting to read simple single words, and then simple single sentences. ”

In the end, speaking a language regularly will produce the quickest results, no matter how much you study grammar.

There’s A Word For That: 14 Foreign Words That Perfectly Encapsulate Ideas That English Forgot

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Thu, 17/1/2013 - 01:13

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The people of Tierra Del Fuego sure are passive-aggressive:

Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego)

This word captures that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.

Or they’re just efficient wordsmiths that don’t have time to sit around explaining this in English.

The Origin of the Word “Work” Is Closely Related To “Torture”

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Tue, 15/1/2013 - 10:00

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Oh goodness, this is depressing. The Guardian reports that work has totally sucked all the way through human history:

Words indicating labour in most European languages originate in an imagery of compulsion, torment, affliction and persecution. The French word travail (and Spanish trabajo), like its English equivalent, are derived from the Latin trepaliare – to torture, to inflict suffering or agony. The word peine, meaning penalty or punishment, also is used to signify arduous labour, something accomplished with great effort. The German Arbeit suggests effort, hardship and suffering; it is cognate with the Slavonic rabota (from which English derives “robot”), a word meaning corvee, forced or serf labour. In romance languages, words from the Latin laborare have come to mean ploughing or tilling the earth, although in Italian, lavoro also means work in general. The Latin meaning was anything accomplished with difficulty and struggle.

It was so terrible that it is closely related to the root word for “persecute.” It is related to the word “wreak,” as in wreak havoc. Basically, everyone across the Indo-European family was waiting for 5pm.

We wonder if there are languages in parts of the world isolated from les miserables Indo-European folk who actually have a word for “work” that doesn’t convey the idea of being so bummed about getting stuff done?

Additional thought: Would we all be seeking jobs we love and enjoy if the concept of “work” was passed down in society to reflect personal growth fulfillment?

Tintinnabuli: The Simple Style of Arvo Pärt

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Mon, 14/1/2013 - 10:00

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The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt released his most recent album, “Adam’s Lament,” in October 2012. A minimalist composer of sacred music, he developed his own style known as tintinnabuli (from the Latin “tintinnabulum,” meaning small bells) through the influence of Gregorian and Renaissance music. His choir works are normally sung in either Latin or Church Slavonic (language used in Orthodox ceremonies).

In response to Soviet political pressure on account of the religious content of his work, Pärt departed Estonia for Vienna in 1980, where he then moved to Berlin in 1981. His breakthrough came in 1984 with the work “Tabula Rasa.”

American composer Steve Reich mentioned Pärt as a source of inspiration in a 2004 interview with the Guardian: “He’s completely out of step with the zeitgeist (spirit of the times) and yet he’s enormously popular, which is so inspiring. His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion.”

The video below (courtesy of Zeit Online) is the debut performance of the title track from “Adam’s Lament” in Istanbul by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBnnftH5DFA&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Odessa: A History of Diversity, Creativity and Turmoil

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Thu, 10/1/2013 - 10:00

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Photo Courtesy: Intelligent Life

The author A.D. Miller writes in this recent article from Intelligent Life about his experience visiting the Ukrainian city of Odessa and the Odessa State Literary Museum. Opened in 1984, the museum survived the post-Soviet transition. Visitors can view exhibitions dedicated to writers and poets as diverse as Nikolai Gogol, the 19th century Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, and the Soviet era short-story writer Isaak Babel.

The city, historically a popular attraction for writers and musicians, owed much of its cultural legacy to its immensely diverse population, and also, as a result, its diversity of languages:

“Founded by Catherine the Great in 1794 as a free port, it soon became probably the most cosmopolitan city in the world, drawing in Greeks, Poles, Germans, Italians, Tatars, Turks, Armenians, runaway serfs and Jews fleeing the anti-Semitic restrictions in force across the rest of the Russian empire. Even today, with its Mediterranean architecture and post-Soviet ricketiness, Odessa seems to belong to many other places, and at the same time only to itself. Poetry and polemic in a variety of languages, forgotten heroes of foreign struggles and minority masterpieces are remembered in the museum’s portraits and manuscripts.”

Awaking the “Sleeping Beauties”: Australia’s Aboriginal Languages

Submitted by The Global Language Network (GLN) on Thu, 20/12/2012 - 10:00

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In this Radio Australia interview from last April, three language experts discuss the importance of preserving aboriginal languages in Australia. Featured in the program are community linguist Vaso Elefsiniotis, Dr Simon Musgrave from the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University and the Chair of Endangered Languages from the University of Adelaide, Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann.

An excerpt from this interview features Professor Zuckermann referring to the plight of one’s native language as the loss of a natural right. He stresses how language is comparable in importance to a community’s possession of land. The necessity to keep languages alive is part of maintaining one’s identity, as well as his sense of relation to his community’s cultural legacy. He states:

“I believe that languages, aboriginal languages should become official languages of Australia. These are language rights. I mean, we had 250 languages at least, out of which only 15 to 20 are alive and kicking.” The languages no longer spoken he describes as “sleeping beauties” who through renascent everyday use can be revitalized.

Professor Zuckermann continues with a quote from the late children’s writer Russell Hoban, who said that “‘language is an archeological vehicle, full of the remnants of dead and living pasts, lost and buried civilizations and technologies.”