Month: January 2013

Benefits of language learning

By Simon

According to an article I came across today, it is the process of learning a new language that encourages people to learn more languages, and becoming bilingual makes learning further languages easier.

The article talks about at study of native English speakers who were either monolingual, or bilingual in English and Spanish or English and Mandarin, and who were presented with words made up by the researchers. It found that the bilingual participants could learn the made up words much more easily than the monolingual ones, and the researchers think that the process of learning a foreign language improves your language learning skills.

Another study found that bilinguals are also better at learning words in their native language and generally have faster brain activity, especially older adults (60-68 years old) who have been bilingual from an early age. Apparently “these results suggest that lifelong bilingualism may exert its strongest benefits on the functioning of frontal brain regions in aging.”

Language quiz

By Simon

Here’s some text from a book I’m currently reading in which some of the dialogue is written in this way. Do you have any idea where people speak like this?

“Vares nuffing nú unnersun, mì sun. Doan ask wy ve öl daze wuz bé-er van vese, coz U aynt gó ve nous fer í. Lemme tellya, no geezer az a clú abaht iz own tyme, yeah? Ees juss lyke a sparrer, eggzackerly lyke a sparrer aw a bitta bá-erred cod.”

Another bit:

“E oo ayts lyf wil keep í, thass wot í sez in ve Búk, innit? Wel, Eye doan luv lyf ennymaw wivaht Am, so Eye spose Eye must ayt í. Awl Eye did woz 4 Am, awl Eye evah wannid woz 4 uss ló 2 B cumfy.”

Note: as far as I know, this form of speech is rarely written, and this spelling system seems to be one developed by the author. The second quote is in a future version of the form of speech used in the first one.

Yardarms

By Simon

Photo of a sailing ship's rigging showing the yards and yardarms

Last night there was some discussion of the phrase ‘when the sun is over the yardarm’ and none of us were sure what a yardarm or even a yard is. I suspected that there were part of the rigging of a sailing ship, but wasn’t sure which part.

I now know that a yard is a spar, or long piece of wood or metal attached to the mast of a sailing ship to which the sails are attached, and that a yardarm is the end of a yard (see photo).

The phrase ‘over the yardarm’ refers to the practise of officers on sailing ships of waiting until the sun appeared to above a particular yardarm before having their lunch or first alcoholic drink of the day. In summer in the north Atlantic this would be at about 11am. This became the time when the sailors received their first ration of rum, and the officers stuck to this time even when ashore. The expression spread to landlubbers and is still quite widely used, especially in North America. On land the sun appears over the proverbial yardarm at around 5pm. It first appeared in print in Rudyard Kipling’s From Sea to Sea in 1899. [from World Wide Words and Wikipedia].

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– apprenti(e) = apprentice = prentis = deskard
– apprentissage = apprenticeship = prentisiaeth = deskardelezh
– le porte-clefs/porte-clés = key ring / chain / fob = torch allwedd = doug alc’hwezoù
– l’anneaux porte-clefs = key ring = torch allwedd = (?)
– une clé/clef de rechange / une autre (clef) = spare key = allwedd sbâr = alc’hwez da drok (?)
– un roue de rechange/de secours = spare wheel = olwyn sbâr = rod-eskemm
– l’ouïe (f) = hearing = clyw = kleved / klev
– être dur(e) d’oreille = to be hard of hearing = bod yn drwm dy glyw = bezañ fall e gleved, bezañ teñvalglev
– la brasserie = brewery = bracty, bragdy = bierezh, breserezh
– (nez) camus = pug nose = trwyn smwt = fri-togn

Linguisticator

By Simon

I came across an interesting-looking site today called Linguisticator, via the Economist.

It says that it provides “an advanced online language training program designed to teach adults how to learn languages quickly and effectively. It is unique in providing a single course that can be used to learn any language on the planet. The program was designed with military and business professionals in mind, but is available to anyone serious about learning a language.”

Apparently, “With the training Linguisticator provides, it’s possible to learn languages faster and more accurately than children do, such that you can gain conversational competence in only a few weeks and fluency in a few months.”

It’s basically a video-based course that you subscribe to and watch online. It doesn’t teach a particular language, but teaches you how to learn languages systematically. You can also book individual language lessons via the website and work out a language learning plan.

There’s a free trial version that gives you a taster of the course.

Have any of you tried it?

Newspapers and magpies

By Simon

Magpie reading a newspaper

What’s the connection between newspapers and magpies?

Well, apparently the first newspapers published in Venice and were known as gazeta de la novità and cost one gazeta (Venetian) or gazzetta (Italian), a small coin which had a picture of a magpie on it. A magpie is gazza in Italian and the name of the coin is a diminutive form of that name. Another possibility is that the newspaper was named after the magpie, a bird renowned for chattering.

The word gazette was first used in English in 1665 for a newspaper published in Oxford [source].

New video

By Simon

Here’s the script for a new video I’m making in Russian. I got the Russian from my textbooks and phrase books and from Google Translate, so there may be some errors. If you speak Russian could you check it and let me know anything that needs correcting? Большое спасибо!

Здравствуйте.
Hello

Здравствуйте. Как дела?
Hello. How are you?

Спасибо, хорошо. А вы?
Fine thanks, and you?

Хорошо. Как вас зовут?
Fine. What’s your name?

Меня зовут Галина Михаиловна. А вы?
I’m Galina Mikhailovna, and you?

Меня зовут Игорь Максимович. Очень приятно.
I’m Ivan Maksimovich. Nice to meet you.

Очень приятно.
Nice to meet you.

Oткуда вы?
Where are you from?

Я из Алматы в Казахстан, но я живу в Международной космической станции полгода. А вы?
I’m from Almaty in Kazakhstan, but live half the year in the International Space Station. And you?

Я из Москвы, но я живу в Новосибирске. Вы космонавтом?
I’m from Moskow but live in Novosibirsk. Are you a cosmonaut?

Да. А вы? Какова ваша работа?
Yes. And you? What do you do?

Я ки́пер в Новосибирском зоопарке.
I’m a zookeeper in Novosibirsk Zoo.

Вау, это круто!
Wow, that’s cool!

Что? Даже круче, чем быть космонавтом?
What? Even cooler than being a cosmonaut?

Да, абсолютно. Я всегда хотел работать с животными, но отец настоял, чтобы я стал космонавтом.
Yes, absolutely. I always wanted to work with animals, but my father insisted that I become a cosmonaut.

Не будучи в пространстве захватывающим?
Isn’t being in space exciting?

Ну, это было в первый, и виды невероятным, но это может быть довольно скучной застряли в маленькой космической станции с теми же людьми все время.
Well it was at first, and the views are incredible, but it can be rather boring stuck in a small space station with the same people all the time.

О, я никогда не думал об этом так. Что вы делаете в Международной космической станции?
Oh, I never thought about it like that. What do you do on the International Space Station?

Мы делаем эксперименты, петь песни, писать стихи и смотреть на вид.
We do experiments, sing songs, write poetry and look at the view.

Каково это быть невесомым?
What’s it like being weightless?

Сначала это было странно и я заболела, но я привык к его сейчас.
At first it was weird and I was sick, but I’m used to it now.

Ну, я должен идти. До свидания.
Well, I have to go now. Goodbye.

До свидания.
Goodbye.

Pixelated v Pixilated

By Simon

When something is pixelated it is divided into pixels; enlarged so that individual pixels are visible; made up of a small number of large pixels to disguise someone’s identity (used on TV) [source].

When someone is pixilated they are behaving in an eccentric manner, as though led by pixies; whimsical or drunk [source].

The two words are easily and often confused.