Month: October 2013

Attitudes of minority languages speakers to learners

By Simon

A friend of mine posted an interesting question on Regional, Minority & Indigenous Languages group on Facebook:

“Has anyone ever experienced rejection or hostility from a minority group for learning their language?”

This generated a lot of discussion.

Sometimes when I speak Welsh to people in shops in Bangor they will reply in English. I don’t know why they do this, but it is a but frustrating. That is the only negative experiences I’ve had with speakers of the minority languages I speak or am learning (Welsh, Breton, Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic and Manx).

I have only met a few young Breton speakers, and they were happy to talk to me in Breton, but I understand that many older native speakers of Breton are not willing to talk to learners, partly because they find them difficult to understand as they speak a standardised form of Breton with lots of neologisms.

If you are studying or have learnt any minority/endangered languages, have you had any problems with being accepted by their speech communities?

Ffrangeg a Iwcailis

By Simon

Ro’n i’n ar fin mynd i’r grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg heno pan ges i neges testun o’r hogyn sy’n rhedeg y grŵp iwcalili yn gofyn i mi i helpu efo gwers iwcalili yn y prifysgol. Felly es i yno ac mi wnes i helpu tipyn bach. Roedd y gwers yn Siamber Cyngor y prifysgol – ystafell grand iawn. Ar ôl hynny mi aethon ni i’r tafarn Groegeg lle mi wnaethon ni parhau i ganu a sgwrsio. Dydy’r grŵp mewn trefn da ar hyn o bryd, ond mi wnaethon ni mwynhau beth bynnag.

I was about to go to the French conversation group tonight when I got a text from the lad who runs the ukulele group asking for help with a ukulele lesson in the university. So I went there and helped a bit. The lesson was in the university’s Council Chamber – a rather fine room. After that we went to the Greek and continued to play, sing and chat. The group isn’t very well organized at the moment, but we enjoyed it anyway.

Sesiynau

By Simon

Roedd sesiwn da yn fy nhŷ y prynhawn ‘ma efo tri ohonon ni yn canu’r cymysgedd arferol o gerddoriaeth o Ynys Manaw, o’r Alban ac o Iwerddon. Ar ôl canu yn y côr cymuned yn yr hwyr, mi es i adref, ac ro’n i’n meddwl am fynd i sesiwn cerddoriaeth yn y Skerries, tafarn fach rownd y gornel o fan hyn, ond mi wnaeth hi’n dechrau bwrw glaw trwm a mi wnes i penderfynu aros gatref.

There was a good session in my house this afternoon with three of us playing the usual mixture of tunes from the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland. After singing in the community choir in the evening, I went home and was thinking about going to a music session in the Skerries, a small pub round the corner from here, but it started to rain heavily and I decided to stay at home.

Twitterizing

By Simon

Today I finally got round to signing up for Twitter, something I’d considered for a long time, but didn’t do anything about – this is often how I do things, or rather don’t do them. I’ll be tweeting as @Omniglossia as someone else is using @Omniglot. I plan to use to as a place to post sentences that I’ve put together in languages I’m learning. I try to make them memorable by adding unusual, silly and funny elements along with the ordinary words I want to remember. Your corrections, comments and suggestions are always welcome. I’ll also use it promote stuff going on elsewhere in the Omniglot realm.

Do you use Twitter as a tool for learning languages and/or for practising languages?

Rwseg

By Simon

Mi wnaethon ni siarad yn ac am Rwseg, ac yn y Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg, yn y grŵp sgwrsio amlieithog neithiwr. Ac ar ôl hynny mi es i i Global Café, a mi wnes i cwrdd â phobl o’r Eidal, o Wlad Belg ac o’r Ffindir, ac mi wnaethon ni siarad yn Saesneg yn bennaf, efo tipyn bach o Eidaleg a Ffrangeg.

We talked in and about Russian, and in Welsh and English, in the polyglot conversation group yesterday evening. After that I went to Global Café and met people from Italy, Belgium and Finland, and we talked mainly in English, with a little Italian and French.

Dydd diog

By Simon

Mi wnes tipyn bach o waith y bore ‘ma, ac ar ôl cinio mi wnes i dysgu mwy o Lydaweg, mi wnes ymarfer fy medrau sircas, ac mi wnes i canu’r gitâr, y piano a rhyw offer eraill. Mi wnes i dechrau sgwennu cân newydd hefyd – cân y fydd yn cymysgu diarhebion, ymadroddion a llafarddulliau efo’n gilydd mewn moddion diddorol a doniol. Does dim tôn eto, ond mae gen i rhyw llinellau o eiriau. Enw y gân ydy ‘How many roads?’ a dyma’r llinell gyntaf: ‘How many roads must a chicken cross, before it grows any teeth?’.

I did some work this morning, and after lunch I learnt a bit more Breton, practised my circus skills, and played the guitar, piano and a few other instruments. I also started to write a new song, which will mix proverbs, sayings, idioms in interesting and amusing ways. I don’t have a tune yet, but I have a few lines of words. The name of the song is ‘How many roads?’ and here’s the first line: ‘How many roads must a chicken cross, before it grows any teeth?’.

Learning vocabulary

By Simon

There are some interesting tips on how to learn vocabulary (including my own little contribution) on SmartLanguageLearner.com. Do you use any of these methods? Or do you have your own ones?

Since I wrote my contribution to that blog, I’ve been thinking about this and realised that constructing sentences using words I’m learning might help them to stick in my memory, especially if the sentences include unusual, silly and/or funny words and create interesting images and associations. For example, if I want to learn words for furniture I might picture each piece of furniture with an animal in, on, under, behind or in front of it – there’s a camel on the chair, a tiger under the table and a fox in the fridge. These should be a bit more memorable than ‘the cat sat on the mat’ and will help me learn animal names, and prepositions, or the equivalents. I could also expand the sentences to add verbs and adjectives I want to remember. Maybe Dr Seus books in languages I’m learning would help as well.

Anturiau yn y gegin

By Simon

Mi wnes i ceisio rhywbeth gwahanol am ginio heddiw – cyw iâ efo pesto newydd, pasta ŵy newydd a salad. Mi wnes i’r pesto efo brenhinllys, cnau pinwydden a chaws parmesan, ac roedd berw’r dŵr a thomatos yn y salad. Roedd yn eithaf blasus ac yn wahanol i’r pethau dw i’n arfer gwneud, ond mi wnes i cognino’r cyw iâ tipyn bach rhy hir. Ar ôl hynny mi wnes i mud-ferwi afalau o’r coeden afalau yn fy ngardd i fwyta efo fy ngrawnfwyd yn y bore.

I tried something different for lunch today – chicken with fresh pesto, fresh egg pasta and salad. I made the pesto from basil, pine nuts and parmesan cheese, and there was watercress and tomatoes in the salad. It was quite tasty and a change from the things I usually cook, though I cooked the chicken a bit too long. After that I stewed some apples from the apple tree in my garden to have with my cereal in the morning.

Twmpath

By Simon

Roedd hi’n braf a chynnes heddiw, ac yn y prynhawn mi wnes i gweld perfformiad teithiol o’r enw ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ gan Willi Dorner, artist o Awstria. Roedd 20 o berfformwyr mewn dillad lliwgar yn gwasgu eu hunain mewn lleoedd annhebygol o gwmpas Bangor, er enghraifft rhwng waliau, tu ôl polion lampau, dan feinciau, ac ar doeon. Roedd llawer iawn o bobl yn dilyn y perfformiad ac mi wnes i digwydd cyfarfod cryn dipyn o ffrindiau yn eu plyth.

Roedd dim ond dau ohonon ni yn y grŵp sgwrsio heddiw a mi wnaethon ni siarad yn y Gymraeg a Saesneg yn bennaf, ac yn y Wyddeleg ac yn Rwsieg hefyd. Ar ôl hynny mi es i i dwmpath yn y prifysgol – twmpath cyntaf y tymor hwn – ac mi wnes i ei fwynhau yn fawr. Dw i’n wrth fy modd efo dawnsio, ac mae’n gyfle da i gyfarfod efo pobl eraill.

It was fine and sunny today, and this afternoon I saw a travelling performance called ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’. There were 20 performers in colourful outfits who squeezed themselves into improbable places around Bangor, for example between walls, behind lamp-posts, under benches and on roofs. Many many people followed the performance and I bumped into quite a few friends among them.

There were only two of us in the conversation group this afternoon and we talked mainly in Welsh and English, and also in Irish and Russian. After that I went to a cèilidh in the university – the first cèilidh of this term – and I really enjoyed it. I love dancing and it’s a good opportunity to meet other people.