I’ve been given free access to the online courses offered by Online Trainers to give them a try, and have one course to give away.
The languages available are English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch.
If you’re interested, just drop me an email at feedback[at]omniglot[dot]com and I’ll send you an access code that gives you three months’ free access to a course of your choice.
[addendum] This course has now been claimed. If I’m given any other free courses, I’ll let you know.
Omphaloskepsis /ˈɒmfələʊˈskɛpsɪs/ is an interesting word I came across today that refers to the practice of contemplating one’s navel as an aid to meditation. It comes from the Ancient Greek ὀμϕαλός (omphalos – navel) and σκέψις (skepsis -inquiry).
Apparently omphaloskepsis is used in yoga and sometimes in the Eastern Orthodox Church and it helps in the contemplation of the basic principles of the cosmos and of human nature, and naval is consider by some to be a ‘powerful chakra’.
Omphaloskepsis is also another word for contemplating one’s navel or navel-gazing, i.e. being self-absorbed.
The French equivalent of omphaloskepsis is nombrilisme, from nombril (navel) plus -isme (-ism), and the Welsh equivalent is bogailsyllu, from bogail (navel) and syllu (to gaze, look). A French idiom the revolves around the navel is penser qu’on est le nombril du monde (‘to think that one is the navel of the world’) or to think the world revolves around you. Are there similar phrases in other languages?
On another topic, have you ever heard or used the phrase “who’s she, the cat’s mother?”.
It is, or was, used to point out that referring to a woman in the third person in her presence is/was considered rude by some. It apparently was first noted in the OED in the late 19th century.
According to an article I came across yesterday music might be what enables us to acquire language, and spoken language could be thought of as a special type of music.
When acquiring language babies first hear speech as “an intentional and often repetitive vocal performance” and they learn to hear and mimic its emotional and musical components, such as rhythm and pitch, before they start to learn and focus on meaning. Being able to distinguish the different sounds of speech seems to be an essential first step for the acquisition of language. Newborn babies are able to distinguish phonemes of any language they hear, but gradually focus on the language(s) they hear most often.
The researchers also found connections between how the brain processes consonants and how it recognize the timbre of different instruments – both processes that require rapid processing.
These findings lend support to the idea that singing came before speech, as discussed in The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body by Steven Mithen.
I find that it helps to spend time listening to a language to tune your ears to its sounds, and to mimic those sounds, even though you don’t understand what they mean at first – a bit like a baby. If you spend plenty of time listening to a language, when you learn words and phrases it’s easier because they already sound familiar. I probably heard hundreds of hours of Taiwanese while I was in Taiwan, for example, so it sounds familiar, even though I don’t understand much. If I decided to learn more of it, I would find it easier than a language I haven’t heard so much.
Some would call this passive listening, but it isn’t passive – your brain is busily working away trying to make sense of all these strange sounds you’re filling it with and looking for patterns. You can’t learn a language simply by listening – conversational interactions with others are also needed – but I think listening is an important part of the learning process.
Kaplan International are running a competition for bloggers who write about language learning. All you have to do is write a post (at least 250 words) about what you think is the most important benefit of learning another language.
The prizes are an Apple MacBook Air or a Kaplan English course in Edinburgh. The competition starts on 28th September and closes on 26th October 2012. The winners will be announced on 19th November.
In what ways have you benefited from learning other languages?
Neithiwr yn y Vaynol Arms yn Nant Peris fel rhan o Ffair Nant, mi wnaeth y Clwb Uke Bangor perfformio yn gyhoeddus am y tro cyntaf. Mi wnaethon ni chwarae cymysgedd o ganeuon yn gynnwys Country Roads, House of the Rising Sun, Dark Moon Rising, Cockles & Mussels, Go West, I Wanna Be Like You, ayyb. Yn Go West mi waethon ni canu North Wales yn lle Go West, ac roedd y cynulleidfa yn hoffi hyn, ac fel encôr mi wnaethon ni canu Delilah unwaith eto. Ro’n ni’n argraffu y trefnyddion ac mi wnaethon nhw ein gwahodd ni dod yn ôl i’r ffair y flwyddyn nesaf.
Last night in the Vaynol Arms in Nant Peris as part of the Nant Fair, the Bangor Uke Club performed in public for the first time. We played a mixture of songs, including Country Roads, House of the Rising Sun, Dark Moon Rising, Cockles & Mussels, Go West, I Wanna Be Like You, and so on. In Go West we replaced Go West with North Wales, which went down well with the audience, and we sang Delilah again as an encore. The organisers were impressed and have invited us back for the fair next year.
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
According to an interesting article I found today, the UK government is planning to cut funding to Asset Programme, which provides classes in a wide range of language not usually covered in the regular school curriculum.
The languages are known as ‘community languages’ to distinguish them from modern languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian, and classical languages (Latin and Ancient Greek) which are included in the curriculum. They are Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Cornish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu, Welsh and Yoruba. This sounds like a useful initiative and it would be a great waste of talent if it’s cut.
Are there similar programmes in other countries?
– les boule Quiès = earplugs (to keep out noise) = plygia clust
– les protège-tympans = earplugs (to keep out water) = plygia clust
– le tympan = eardrum / tympanum = pilen y glust / drwm clust
– le bouffon / le fou du roi = jester = cellweiriwr
– le plaisantin / blageur = joker = cellweiriwr
– farceur = practical joker
– emballer / faire (la valise) = to pack = pacio
– deballer / défaire = to unpack = dadbacio
– l’avantage unique / l’argument clé de vente (ACV) = unique selling point (USP) = pwynt gwerthu unigryw
When I was in London this weekend I heard the word dep being used by a singer who was standing in for another in a singing group. I hadn’t come across this word before and assumed it was an abbreviation of deputy.
According to this article, that’s exactly what it is – “in the music biz it means a stand-in, a musician who takes the place of a regular band member – usually when they’ve fallen ill … or more likely got a better paid gig on.”
Have you come across this usage?
While in London this weekend I heard many different languages being spoken, including different varieties of English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese. Those were just the ones I recognised. I spoke mainly English while I was there, plus some Mandarin and a little Japanese and Portuguese. The next time I’m there I might take my digital recorder to record some of the polyglot babble.
In Bangor you can find speakers of quite a variety of languages, but the linguistic diversity of London and other big cities is much higher, so whatever language you want to practise, you can probably find people to speak with.
Here are a few photos I took of the firework display the ended the Thames Festival.
There’s a video of part of the Sing for Water concert I took part in here