Month: June 2011

A review of Rocket Hindi

By Simon

In April this year I was offered a free subscription to a Rocket Languages course in return for writing a review. My plan was to write the review after completing the course, however I realise that it’ll take me quite a while to work my way through the entire course so decided to write the review now.

A bit of background
Rocket Language courses are primarily provided online, though the courses are also available on CDs. The company was started in 2004 by Jason Oxenham and Mark Ling, who wanted to create an online Spanish course that was fun and easy to use, and that gave students the confidence to speak the language as soon as possible. The course proved popular, and the company now offers courses in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Hindi, German, French, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, ASL and English for Spanish speakers.

Why Hindi?
I wanted to try out the course in a language I didn’t know at all, which narrowed the choice down to ASL and Hindi. I chose Hindi because I know a number of people who speak it and I thought it might be interesting and useful to know. While this review focuses on Rocket Hindi, it is relevant to the other courses as they have a similar structure.

Details of the course
When you log into your Rocket Language course you see a welcome screen featuring links to Your Course, which contains all the language lessons; Your Motivation, which contains tips on learning languages, improving your memory, measuring your progress and so on, and Your Community, which links to the learners’ forums for the language you’re learning, and also for the other languages offered by Rocket Languages.

The course is split into two stages: stage 1 includes sections entitled Greetings and Meetings, The Perfect Tourist, In Town and Food and Drink. Stage 2 has sections entitled Retail Therapy, Family and Friends, Activities and Hobbies and a review section. There is also a section called the Survival Kit, which contains lessons on body parts, city, clothing, colours countries, days, food, house, numbers. In addition, you can download a piece of software called MegaHindi, which tests you on vocabulary with a number of quizzes.

Each lesson features a short conversation in Hindi which is presented in the Devanagari alphabet, in Romanized form and in English. You can listen to just the conversation, or listen to the full lesson, which is narrated by an American with the Hindi parts spoken by native speakers of Hindi. The lessons go through the conversation line by line explaining what all the words mean and how they go together. It explains how the words and structures can be used to make other sentences, and encourages you to make your own sentences. Lessons after the first one also review the conversation from the previous lesson and encourage you to go back to that lesson if you don’t understand everything.

Additional vocabulary used in the lessons is provided, and the end of each lesson you can test whether you have absorbed everything with the Rocket Review – a short quiz on the recorded lesson, and with a written quiz. You can save words into a custom dictionary, and make notes as well.

As well as the main language lessons, there are also lessons on language and culture. These are written lessons which introduce you to various aspects of the culture and include relevant words and phrases with recordings. Within these lessons you can also learn the Devanagari alphabet.

When you have completed each stage there is a comprehensive test on everything covered in that stage. If you score 80% or more, you pass the test and receive a certificate by email. The course aims to take you to A2 level of the Common European Frame of Reference for Languages.

My assessment
So far I have only completed part 1 of stage 1 and have learnt greetings, how to talk about myself, ordering food and drink, booking a hotel and such like. I need listen to each lesson several times before I can understand and produce all the words and phrases, and am gradually becoming more familiar with the sounds, rhythms, structures and the Devanagari alphabet. I would prefer more explanations of the grammar and a more standard Romanization system. The system used looks like this: kaisee haiM aap? (कैसी हैं आप?) – How are you?, while I’m more familiar with the UN system, in which that phrase would be kaisī haiṅ āp? It would also be very useful to have a lesson or some lessons showing you how to write the Devanagari letters and numerals by hand. In the absence of this, I found the SOAS Hindi Script Tutor very useful.

The course has a similar structure to other courses I’ve tried, including Teach Yourself, Colloquial and Pimsleur courses. It covers a lot more material than Pimsleur, though perhaps not quite as much as the Teach Yourself and Colloquial courses – they tend to have more grammatical explanations and exercises, but only the dialogues and some of the exercises are recorded. With the Rocket Language courses every bit of foreign text is recorded, so you’re not left wondering how to pronounce something. The Rocket conversations are recorded at normal conversational speed, I think, and the speakers pronounce things clearly. When explaining words and phrases they pronounce them more slowly and break up some words into syllables.

While the Rocket courses are primarily provided online, you can order an offline version on CDs, and you can also download all the mp3 files and listen to them whenever you like. This feature appeals to me as it means I don’t need to be online or tied to my computer to use the course. I have also made PDFs of all the lessons as well, so can peruse offline if I choose.

The Rocket Language courses seem to be aimed mainly at people who have little of no previous language learning experience and who are planning to visit a country where the language they’re learning is spoken. The conversations I’ve listened to and studied so far are mainly focused on language useful to tourists, however the lessons also show how the phrases used can be applied to different situations, so are useful even if you’re not planning a trip to a relevant country.

How much does it cost?
The online version of each Rocket Language costs US$149, which gives you unlimited, lifetime access to the course, and to any changes and improvements to it. The offline version on CDs costs US$299. Discounts are often available, and free 60-day trials are offered for all languages. These costs compare very favourably with Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur courses, though are more than Teach Yourself and Colloquial courses.

Do I recommend it?
Yes, definitely. I have enjoyed this course so far and hope to complete it eventually. I have successfully tried out some of the phrases on Hindi-speaking friends, and when I listen to online Hindi radio broadcasts, such as BBC Hindi, I am starting to pick odd bits and pieces.

Multilingual poetry

By Simon

On Sunday I attended an evening of multilingual poetry in Bangor that feature poets from Wales and India who read poems in Welsh, English, Bengali, Malayalam and Manipuri. It was part of a project to build links between Wales and India which involved the Welsh poets translating poems by the Indian poets into Welsh, and vice versa. They also translated their poems into English. A similar event will be taking place in Ultracomida in Aberystwyth tomorrow.

I could understand the poems in Welsh quite well, and while I didn’t understand any of the poems in the languages of India, it was fascinating just to hear these three very different languages, each of which belongs to a different language family – Bengali is Indo-Aryan, Malayalam is Dravidian and Manipuri is Tibeto-Burman. Unfortunately I didn’t get any recordings of them so I can’t share them with you.

Understanding poetry in foreign languages can be quite challenging, even if you speak them well. Poetic language can differ from every day language in various ways, but I find it worth the effort to try to read and appreciate poems in their original languages rather than just relying on translations.

Feeleeaght

By Simon

Riyr hie mee dys fastyr feeleeaght ‘syn Blue Sky Café. Va bardyn ayn veih Bretin, Lucsemburg as yn Injey, as lhaih ad daanyn ayns Frangish, Baarl, Bretnish, Bengalish, Malayalam as Manipuri. Ga nagh hoig mee yn daanyn ayns nyn çhengaghyn Injinagh, v’eh feer hymoil dy chlashtyn ad.

Last night I went to an evening of poetry at the Blue Sky Café. There were poets from Wales, Luxembourg and India, and they read poems in French, English, Welsh, Bengali, Malayalam and Manipuri. Although I didn’t understand the poems in the Indian languages, it was very interesting to hear them.

Wedi 7

By Simon

Neithiwr roedd y Clwb Uke Bangor ar S4C ar y rhaglen Wedi 7 (tua diwedd y rhaglen) – ein ychychdig eiliadau o enwogrwydd! Ro’n innau ar y rhaglen yn siarad yn fyr yn Gymraeg efo Meinir Gwilym, y gohebydd crwydrol ar gyfer Gogledd Cymru, ac un o fy hoff cantorion Cymraeg.

Last night Bangor Uke Club was on the S4C programme Wedi 7 (towards the end of the programme) – our few moments of fame! I appeared briefly on the programme talking in Welsh with Meinir Gwilym, the roving reporter for North Wales, and one of my favourite Welsh singers.

Mawdelit

By Simon

Mawdelit is one of the Scots words discussed in a programme I watched last night called Blethering Scots. It was described as an illness you pretend to have to get time off work, and comes from the French mal de lit, which is related to the medieval Latin malum lecti – an illness that confines one to bed or a bed-sickness.

Other words mentioned in the programme include:

– fankle – to catch in a snare, to trap; to tangle, ravel, mix up; confused, tangled, and the related words fankled and fanglet

Example: It was jist the ither day I got fankled wi’ some o’ ma accoonts.

– stramash – an uproar, commotion, hubbub, disturbance, a broil, squabble, row; to shatter, to smash to pieces

Example: There arose a stramash doon stairs fiercer than ordinary.

– glaikit – stupid, foolish; thoughtless, irresponsible, flighty; playful, full of pranks; wanton; sportive, roguish (of the eyes); deceitful, shifty.

Example: There rest him weel; for eith [also] can we Spare mony glakit gouks [fools] like he.

One contributor to the programme mentioned that it was unusual to see such words written down when he was young and that children were told that these words were wrong when they used them in school. Nowadays, however, some schools are teaching Scots and encourage its use. It is also used to a limited extent in the media.

Source: Dictionary of the Scot Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid

Epizeuxis

By Simon

I came across the word epizeuxis recently (in One of Our Thursdays is Missing, by Jasper Fforde) and wasn’t sure what it meant or even how to pronounce it, so I decided to find out.

According to the OED, epizeuxis (/ɛpɪˈzjuːksɪs/) is “a figure by which a word is repeated with vehemence or emphasis.” It comes via Latin from the Greek ἐπίζευξις (epizeuxis – a fastening upon), from ἐπί (epi – upon) and ζευγνύναι (zeugnunai – to yoke).

Wikipedia says that, “In rhetoric, an epizeuxis is the repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis” and gives examples such as “O horror, horror, horror.” from Macbeth, and “Education, education, education.” by Tony Blair.

Information about this and other terms used in rhetoric from abating* to zeugma** can be found in the Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric.

* abating in an English version of anesis (/ˈænɪsɪs/), from the Greek ἄνεσις (anesis – a loosening, relaxing, abating) = “adding a concluding sentence that diminishes the effect of what has been said previously. The opposite of epitasis.”

** zeugma (/ˈzjuːgmə/), from the Greek ζεῦγμα (zeûgma – yoke) = “A general term describing when one part of speech (most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun) governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series).”

Gaeilge

By Simon

I found an online Irish test on ranganna.com today – it contains 100 questions of ever increasing difficulty and gives you a idea of your level of Irish. It’s available with instructions in Irish and English and has a seven-level marking scheme ranging from beginner to advanced.

I just took the test and got 69/100 or level 5 (Advanced) – I could understand almost all the questions, but my knowledge of the finer points of Irish grammar and orthography could be better. I’m happy with this as my main focus with Irish is understanding, speaking and reading it well.

After you have taken the test it shows you your answers with the incorrect ones highlighted and the correct ones indicated – a useful feature. It also has some suggestions for learning more Irish.

Canu am Ddŵr y Gogledd

By Simon

Côr Canu am Ddŵr y Gogledd yn canu tu allan neuadd y dre Manceinion

Ddoe es i i Fanceinion efo’r Côr Cymunedol Bangor i gymryd rhan mewn Canu am Ddŵr y Gogledd neu Sing for Water North. Daeth tua 300 o bobl o gorau o ogeledd-orllewin Lloegr a gogledd Cymru efo’n gilydd i ganu ac i godi pres am yr elusen Wateraid. Mi adawon ni Fangor am 8 o’r gloch y bore ac aethon ni mewn coets i Fanceinion.

Ar ôl cyrraedd yn Manceinion, mi dreulion ni y bore yn ymarfer yn y neuadd mawr yn neuadd y dre – neuadd ac adeilad syfrdanol efo acwstig gwych. Ar ôl tamaid o ginio, dechreuodd y berfformiad tu allan neuadd y dro yn Sgwar Albert efo côr o Fanceinion yn canu dwy gân, ninnau yn canu dwy gân, ac yna pawb yn canu efo’n gilydd. Wrth i ni gorffen y gân olaf, mi gyrhaeddodd y parêd Dydd Manceinion.

Pan cyrhaeddodd y parêd aeth hi yn swnllyd iawn yn y sgwar ac mi dihangon ni i Starbucks am banaid a sgwrs. Yna aeth rhai ohonon ni i oriel celf Manceinion, ac yna mi aethon ni gatre.

Mae fideos y perfformiad ar gael ar YouTube.

Puzzle

By Simon

A visitor to Omniglot sent in this image of some mysterious writing from an inscription on a Biedermeier glass from 1830-1860, a type of Bohemian / Czechoslovakian glass. Can you make any sense of it?

Cursive Cyrillic mystery inscription

It looks like a cursive form of Cyrillic and reads something like “Сйо мень одь Госйос Дир Кторке Тр?імуко Сиус” or “Sjo menʹ odʹ Gosjos Dir Ktorke Tr?imuko Sius”. I have no idea what this might mean.