Word of the day – benutzen

benutzen/benützen, verb = to consult, to make use of, to take advantage of

Example of usage: etwas als Vorwand benutzen = to use something as an excuse

Related words:
benutzbar = usable, passable (road)
Benutzer = user, borrower
benutzung= use
Benutzungsgebühr = charge, hire charge

This word caught my eye today while I was editing a German version of a website. It’s perhaps more nützlich (useful) than yesterday’s word.

Word of the day – 龜

龜 (guī) , noun = tortoise, turtle

This is my favorite Chinese character and one of the few that sort of resembles the word it represents. At the top you have the head, then the two bits sticking out on the left are the claws, the shell is on the right and at the bottom is the tail. If I hadn’t told you this though, I doubt if you would have guessed the meaning of this character.

The turtle is a symbol of longevity, strength, stability and prophecy in Chinese culture. The idea that the world is supported by a giant turtle appears in stories in many cultures.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, the Chinese character at the top of this page means character, letter or word and is pronounced zì in Mandarin Chinese, ji in Japanese and ja in Korean.

Word of the day – подбородок

подбородок (podborodok), noun = chin

For the past three months I’ve been learning Russian with Rosetta Stone. I study one lesson a week and spend about half an hour to an hour a day on it. This week’s lesson is about parts of the body and I really like the sound of the word for chin in Russian.

Rosetta Stone courses come a CD-ROM and are designed to teach you entirely through the medium of the language you’re studying. As far as I can tell, all Rosetta Stone courses have the same format – you start learning individual words, such man, woman, boy girl, dog, elephant, etc. Then you learn how to combine them to together in increasingly complex phrases and sentences. The idea is that you’re supposed to pick up the pronunciation and grammar as you go along. In the case of the Russian course, it doesn’t teach you the Cyrillic alphabet, so it’s a good thing I already knew it before starting the course.

Each lesson consists of a series of exercises that drill you in listening, reading, speaking and writing. You can go through the lessons at your own pace, let the program take you through them, or test yourself.

Level 1 of these courses includes 92 lessons, Level 2 has 118. I have Levels 1 & 2 of the Russian course, so if I continue studying at the rate of one lesson a week it will take me over four years to complete the course. By 2010 I should be fluent in Russian then!

One frustating thing I’m finding with this course is that it has yet to teach me any useful everyday phrase – things like “hello”, “how are you?”, “good bye”, etc. It is giving me a thorough grounding in the basic vocabulary though.

Has anybody managed to complete a Rosetta Stone course? Are you now fluent in the language you used it to study? What did you think of the course?

You can find more information about Rosetta Stone courses at: www.rosettastone.com

Word of the day – bleachtaire

bleachtaire, noun = detective
bleachtaireacht, noun = detecting
úrscéal bleachtaireachta = detective novel

Is maith liom fuaim an fhocal seo, agus sin é an fáth a phioc mé é. Ina theannta sin, faoi láthair táim ag léamh úrscéal bleachtaireachta don fhoghlaimeoir fásta, Triblóid le Colmán Ó Drisceoil.

I chose this word because I just like the sound of it, and also because I’m reading a detective novel in Irish at the moment: Triblóid by Colmán Ó Drisceoil. It’s a short novel written especially for learners of Irish.

Language and memory

Some memories seem to be language-specific. For example, while working in Taipei I memorised various local addresses and phone numbers in Mandarin. If you asked me for such information in another language, e.g. English, I’d have to think of it in Mandarin first, then translate in my head. Similarly I know the contact details of Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio station) in Welsh, but would have to mentally translate them first to give you them in English.

While in Taiwan, I drifted into the wonderful world of IT. Most of the things I learnt about computers were in Mandarin. So when I returned to the UK, I had to learn some of the terminology again, but this time in English. Has anybody had similar experiences of learning something in a foreign language, then having to relearn it in their native tongue?

When languages die, is the knowledge that people have built up over countless generations lost? Some of that knowledge may be translated into the new languages people adopt, but this is not always the case.

Welcome to the new Omniglot blog

This blog will contain my musings on language and languages, interesting words and phrases, details of my adventures in foreign parts, and various other bit and bobs. The main language will be English, but I’ll slip into other languages on occasion, just to see if you’re paying attention.