How long does it take to learn a language?

By Simon

There’s no single answer to the question posed by the title of this post. It depends on number of factors, including what hope to do with the language, how often and how intensively you study, which language you’re learning, and which language(s) you already know.

Some language learners find it helpful to set themselves targets and goals, such as passing a language proficiency exam. This gives you something to aim for, but also puts quite a lot of pressure on you. If you don’t achieve your targets and goals, or it seems likely that you won’t, it’s easy to become disheartened and possibly to give up altogether.

Here’s an alternative way of thinking about learning, from the Effortless Language Acquisition blog:

…learning is a lifelong process. There is no end. There is no graduation. There are no “permanent grades” or records.

The author of the blog argues that if you see learning a language, or indeed anything else, as a lifelong project – Constant And Neverending Improvement (CANI) is the phrase he uses, you won’t feel so stressed or worried. Instead you can just try to improve every week, even if it’s only by a small amount.

Yiddish in Lithuania

By Simon

According to an article on the BBC, Jews in Lithuania are trying to revive Yiddish, which was spoken by around 250,000 people before the Second World War. Today there are about 5,000 Jews in Lithuania and only a few hundred still speak Yiddish. Children at the only Jewish nursery school in Lithuania are being taught Yiddish songs and nursery rhymes, which they enjoy a great deal, and a Yiddish class at Vilnius’ Jewish secondary school started last month.

One of people interviewed comments that:

“…the only way to make sure Yiddish survives is to interest all Lithuanians in the country’s Jewish history and art, and above all, its music.”

The position of Yiddish in Lithuania sounds quite similar to that of other endangered languages – most of the remaining speakers are elderly, few families are passing the language on to their children, and a lot of people see speaking the language as a hobby rather than an everyday means of communication.

The BBC article has quite an optimistic tone, however another article I just found paints a more gloomy picture. One of the people quoted in the second article says “There is no real revival of Yiddish, … It’s a club, it’s a fetish, it’s a hobby.”

By the way, I’d be interested to know if there are any Yiddish speakers who read this blog.

Immigrant language learning

By Simon

There was a interesting report on the radio this morning about helping immigrants in London to learn English. They interviewed a Bangladeshi woman who has lived in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, which has a large immigrant population, for over 20 years but who speaks very little English. She told the interviewer that on the rare occasions when she needs to communicate in English, she uses an interpreter. The rest of the time she speaks Bengali. She also said that there aren’t enough teachers of English as a Second Language in that area, a claim that a representative of the local council denied.

It’s interesting the way some immigrant communities hold on to their languages for many generations, while others abandon them within a generation or two.

Have you had any experience of this phenomenon?

Word of the day – Brekekekex (Βρεκεκέξ)

By Simon

I came across the word brekekekex in a book I’ve just finished reading – A Time of Gifts, the first part of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s fascinating account of his epic journey on foot from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople (Istanbul), which he made in the early 1930s. He has a good ear for languages and acquired quite a good knowledge of German, plus bits and pieces of Hungarian, Greek and a number of other languages.

He mentions at one point that there were many frogs brekekekexing in the woods. I thought he’d made the word up, but it seems Atrisophanes got there first. The word comes from the chorus of Atrisophanes’ comedy, Βάτραχοι (Bátrachoi) – The Frogs, which was first presented at the Lenaea in 405 BC:

Brekekekex koax koax
Brekekekex koax koax.
Children of the marsh and lake
harmonious song now sweetly make,
our own enchanting melodies
koax koax
The songs we sang for Nysa’s lord,
for Dionysus, son of Zeus,
in Limnai at the Feast of Jars
as people in their drunken glee
thronged into our sanctuary.
Brekekekex koax koax.

The words brekekekex koax koax are intended to imitate the croaking of the frogs. You can see the original Greek version of the play here. In the above translation an extra syllable seems to have been added to Brekekekex – it’s Βρεκεκέξ (Brekekex) in the original.

Does anyone know if this word is still used in Modern Greek?

Latin nearly extinct

By Simon

According to an article I found on the BBC today, the Papal Latinist, Father Reginald Foster, fears that Latin is likely to cease to be used in the Catholic church before long. This is mainly because priests no longer have to study Latin at seminaries and are unable to read important theological texts. When bishops receive their appointment letters or letters of congratulation, which are written on parchment in Latin, many of them write back asking for a translation.

In Italy most school children are taught Latin for at least four hours a week up to the age of 18, though Father Foster criticises the teaching methods used as old-fashioned – he thinks Latin should be taught as a living language. Elsewhere in Europe, few schools teach Latin any more.

Web resources

By Simon

Here are a few online language-related resources that I came across recently:

– A series of videos on YouTube showing how Chinese characters have developed from the original pictures:

– esPodkasto – la podkasto en esperanto (Esperanto podcast)

– Lojban Radio – an introduction to this logical language (in Lojban and English)

– Hour of Babble – podcasts about constructed languages (conlangs)

– Eddie Izzard on learning French

Word of the day – Gaeilgeoir

By Simon

A Gaeilgeoir is an Irish speaker or Irish language enthusiast. The plural is Gaeilgeoirí. So I could say Is Gaeilgeoir mé – I am a Gaeilgeoir (in both senses of the word). When Irish was the main language in Ireland, I doubt if there was a need for such a word, though I could be wrong.

There’s an interesting article about recent immigrants to Ireland learning Irish here. It also mentions that attitudes to the language are changing partially as a result of increased cultural and linguistic diversity in Ireland. The author, a Gaeilgeoir from Dublin, comments that she used to get stared at and whispered about when talking Irish to her children in public, but this doesn’t happen so much nowadays as there are quite a few other languages being spoken in Ireland.

In Welsh the equivalent terms are Cymro Cymraeg (Welsh-speaking Welshman), Cymraes Cymraeg (Welsh-speaking Welsh woman) and Cymry Cymraeg (Welsh-speaking Welsh people). Cymru-Cymraeg or y Fro Gymraeg are the areas of Wales where Welsh is the main language – the Welsh equivalent of Gaeltacht. There are also terms for non-Welsh-Speakers: Cyrmo/Cymraes/Cymry di-Gymraeg – e.g. Cymraes di-Gymraeg yw fy mam – my mum is a non-Welsh-speaking Welsh woman.

Are there equivalent terms in other languages?

Snow

By Simon

Last night temperatures in Brighton plummeted to 0°C or possibly below. This morning the city was covered by a light dusting of snow, which had mostly melted by lunchtime. Snow is something I rarely see, so I still get excited about it.

Brighton Pavilion with a light dusting of snow
Brighton Pavilion with a light dusting of snow

A snowman on Brighton beach
A snowman on Brighton beach with the remains of the West Pier in the background

Snow in January in Brighton! This shouldn't be allowed!
A view from my window this morning

Another view of the snow from my window
Another view from my window

This little bit of snow and ice caused the usual transport chaos – many trains were cancelled or severely delayed and there were long tailbacks on the roads.