A translation agency has contacted me asking for help finding someone who can translate from English to Fijian.
If you can do this, or know someone who can, please contact Stephen at stealthtranslations@googlemail.com as soon as possible.
Thank you / Vinaka
Hie mee stiagh ayns possan coloayrtys Frangish riyr. Cheayll mee mysh ‘sy Jerrey Geuree, as riyr hoshee mee goll huggey fy yerrey. Daittin lhiam dy oddym loayrt Frangish foast, er yn oyr cha loayrt mee ram jeh rish yn feed bleeaney shoh chaie. Tra va mee loayrt Frangish va focklyn Bretnish dy kinjagh geabbey tar magh ass my veeal er yn oyr dy vel Bretnish my hengey joarree stroshey ec y traa t’ayn. Loayrmayd er shoh as er shid, by vooar yn spoyrt eh, as v’eh braew çheet ry-cheilley lesh sleih noa.
Va ram sleih noa ‘syn sheshaght chiaullee co-hellooderys yn çhiaghtyn shoh myrgeddin, as ta ain stiureyder shirrey boayl elley smoo dy yannoo cliaghtey.
Mi ymunes i rŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg neithiwr. Mi glywes i amdano ym Mis Ionawr, a neithiwr mi es i iddo o’r diwedd. Ro’n i’n falch mod i dal i siarad Ffrangeg yn eithaf rhugl, achos dw i ddim wedi siarad mwy ohoni yn ystod yr ugain mlynedd diwethaf. Pan o’n i’n siarad Ffrangeg roedd geiriau Cymraeg yn wastad eisiau dod allan o fy nheg achos Cymraeg ydy fy iaith estron cryfaf ar hyn o bryd. Mi siaradon ni am bethau amrywiol, mi fwynheues i fy hunan yn fawr, ac roedd hi’n hyfryd cwrdd â phobl newydd.
Roedd lawer o bobl newydd yn y côr cymuned yr wythnos hon hefyd, ac mae ein arweinydd yn chwilio am le arall mwy i ymarfer.
Last night I joined a French conversation group which meets regularly in a local pub. I heard about it at a party in January and have been intending to join since then. Last night I finally tracked them down.
All members of the group are English and/or Welsh and can speak French well, or at least can understand it even if they don’t speak it fluently. The group has been going for about eight years and is run by a teacher of English as a foreign language from Bangor University. The rule is that only French is spoken for first two hours, and we stuck to this last night. After that English is allowed, though last night we continued to speak mainly in French.
It was fun, interesting, we discussed all sorts of topics, and I found that I can still speak and understand French reasonably well even though I’ve used it very little during the past 20 years. Welsh, which is currently my dominant foreign language, kept on trying to impose itself on my French, but I managed to keep it in check most of the time. If I’d spoken the mixture of French and Welsh that was brewing in my head the Welsh-speaking members of the group would have probably understood.
One thing we talked about was how it can be difficult to understand mispronounced words, especially in unfamiliar contexts. The leader of the group told us about a student of hers who was talking about a visit to the “islands”, or at least that’s what it sounded like. The leader kept on asking “Which islands?”, but the student kept on saying “the islands”. Eventually she worked out that the student was talking about the Highlands (of Scotland). The mispronunciation may be only slight, but it’s enough to disrupt comprehension, and this can happen not just with foreign languages, but also with different dialects and accents of your native language.
When I meet people with names I’ve never heard before, sometimes I find it hard to take in their names until I’ve seen them written down.
The phrase “loaded for bear” appears in the novel I’m reading at the moment and is used in the following context: “I know next to nothing about computers but clearly Dommie is loaded for bear.” I take this to mean that Dommie is a computer wizard who’s ready for any challange, and if he were to go hunting, he would have appropriate ammunition for bears.
According to the Free Dictionary, loaded for bear means, “ready and eager to deal with something that is going to be difficult”.
What does this mean? defines this expression as, “To be full of energy. To be prepared for any eventuallity; to be over-prepared.”
The Urban Dictionary defines it as, “Carrying more equipment than necessary. Overloaded.”
I haven’t heard this phrase before and suspect it might be used mainly in American English. Is it familiar to you?
On the radio the other day they were discussing the possibility of staging televised debates for British politicians similar to the ones that happen during presidential elections in the USA. One commentator thought it was unlikely that the British Prime Minister would be willing to take part in such debates and that if he didn’t, the BBC might “empty chair” him.
According to The Guardian, empty chairing is “the practice of drawing attention to politicians’ refusal to show up. The aim is clear: to embarrass ministers for ducking tough questions.” While according to The Economist, empty chairing involves using an empty studio chair to symbolically represent someone who has refused to appear on a TV programme.
This seems to be similar to the practice of mentioning that somebody was “unavailable for comment” or “refused to comment” on a big news story.
Have you heard the term empty chairing used? Are there equivalents in other languages?
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
While travelling by train the other day I heard an announcement which explained that passengers in the back two or three coaches of the train would have move forward if they wanted to get off at the next stop as their coaches would not be ‘platformed’. I think this was the first time I’d heard this word.
Have you heard this usage before?
Can you think of an any other ways to express the same thing?
Here’s a recording of song in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
This is one of the songs I’ll be singing tomorrow afternoon at the big Sing for Water event in London. The Bangor Community Choir with be there along with about 50 other choirs and we’ll be raising money for WaterAid. We’ll be singing from 2-3pm in the Scoop next to City Hall and Tower Bridge on the South Bank, and the Bangor choir will be doing some of our own songs from 3.30pm ish by HMS Belfast.
So if you’re around in London tomorrow afternoon please come along to listen and support us, if you can.
According to recent research, gossip makes up about 80% of human language interactions, and it is possibly one of the things that separates humans from other animals.
Researchers suggest that language developed mainly to share social information, i.e. gossip, and has enabled humans to build larger and more complex societies than other creatures. Animals such as apes spending a lot of time grooming each other and this limits the number of individuals they can interact with, while humans use language as a form of “vocal grooming” and are able to keep up with far more individuals.
In Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language Robin Dunbar makes a similar case, and estimates that the optimal group size for humans in about 150.
How much time do you spend gossiping?
Here’s a recording of part of a news report in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it is and where it’s spoken?