Overlearning

By Simon

Today I came across an interesting article on Overlearning, via Polyglottery, which argues that it’s better to learn a relatively small amount thoroughly than to try to learn as much as possible of a language.

The author’s main point is that some language learners don’t repeat words and phrases enough before moving on to the next ones. This results in them half-knowing quite a lot, but unable to produce what they know smoothly and fluently.

A better way is apparently to repeat things many times, then practice using them with native speakers as frequently as possible. In this way, you are able to produce words and phrases without conscious thought – they just flow out when you need them.

The author also says that you can pick up the grammar by learning how to use words and sentence patterns in various situations. You may not know why a particular inflexion is needed, but you will be able to apply it when necessary.

This makes a lot of sense to me and sounds similar to the Pimsleur method.

How many of me?

By Simon

I came across an interesting website that tells you how many people there are in the USA who share the same name as you. I looked up my name and discovered that there are 38,996 Simons, but only 1,800 Agers. The number of people in the States called Simon Ager is zero.

According to another site that does the same thing for the UK, there 10 other people who share my name. The site says that “There are probably more people killed in yoghurt, cream, marshmallow and fluffy thing accidents each year then there are of you.” – isn’t that nice to know! You can also leave messages for people who share your name that they’ll see if they search for themselves.

There’s probably a Greek or Latin-derived term for the practise of searching for yourself and/or your name online, but can’t think what it is. Any suggestions?

Coptic lives!

By Simon

Coptic, a descendent of the Egyptian language of the Pharaohs, is generally thought to have died out as an everyday language in the 17th century. Since then it’s been used only in the religous ceremonies of the Coptic Church in Egypt. However, according to the Daily Star Egypt, there are a couple of families who still speak Coptic as their language of daily conversation.

The Coptic speaker mentioned in the article says that she does not speak Coptic with her children because she felt that Coptic was a worthless language to have her children speak, therefore she did not do so when they were young. So, unless there are any undiscovered Coptic speakers out there, the language probably won’t survive for much longer.

When words fail you

By Simon

When you find yourself unable to recall a particular word, there are quite a few alternative filler words you can call on. In English these include thing, thingumy, thingumybob, thingamyjig, wotsit, doobree, doodad, and whatchamacallit. Few of these words have a standard form, so you can spell them how you like.

Knowing the equivalents of these words in other languages is very useful because there will always be gaps in your vocabulary. What kinds of filler words do you use in your language?

Lusophilia

By Simon

I came across an interesting report in the New York Times today in which they talk about the recent opening of The Museum of the Portuguese Language (Museu da Língua Portuguesa) in São Paulo, Brazil. The objective of the museum is to create a living representation of the Portuguese language, where visitors may be surprised and educated by unusual and unfamiliar aspects of their own native language. The report also mentions that inspite of having more native speakers than French, German, Italian or Japanese, the Portuguese language is often overlooked by the rest of the world.

On a related matter, I’ve noticed that quite a few of the Brazilians I know think their version of Portuguese is inferior to the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. This quite surprised me as I personally prefer the sounds of Brazilian Portuguese, and it was the singing of Astrud Gilberto on a Stan Getz album that first attracted me to the language.

In case you’re wondering, lusophilia is the love of Portugal or the Portuguese language. The Luso- part comes from the Roman province of Lusitania, which occupied the same area as modern Portugal and part of Spain.

Name the language

By Simon

For this week’s quiz we have a song in a mystery language. Can you identify the language? If you can identify the singer as well, I’d be very impressed.

Clues: this was originally a Hungarian song, which was translated in English, then into the language of this recording. The title of this song is also the title of the first full-length feature film to be made in this language, which is currently only spoken by a few hundred people. This singer, who also plays the harp, sings in a number of different languages, including English.

Colour names

By Simon

According to a study by researchers at Ohio State University, colours tend to be divided into eight main categories: red, green, yellow/orange, blue, purple, brown, pink and grue (green/blue) across many languages. The categories are remarkably consistent, though the boundaries between the different colours vary from language to language, and some languages have fewer words for colours, which are often amalgamations of the main categories.

One distinction made in all languages is the one between ‘cool’ colours, like blues and greens, and ‘warm’ colours, like reds, oranges and yellows. Some languages use a single word to desciber the cool colours, and a different word to describe the warm colours.

An example of a language with different colour boundries to English is Welsh. The Welsh word glas represents a blue/green/grey/silver colour, llwyd is brown/grey colour, coch is a redish-brown, scarlet or crimson colour. The other Celtic languages have similar colour boundries.

Disjointed conversations

By Simon

When chatting on instant message programs like MSN Messenger or using the online chat function on Skype, conversations often become quite disjointed. You might respond to what the other person just said, then they respond to something you said earlier. Fortunately you can look back at what’s been said and work out what they’re on about. When more than two people are involved, it can be even more confusing. 而且如果你同时用几门不同的语言聊天，比如说，一边讲汉语，一邊講國語 and talking English to someone else, 就会混淆得不得了！

Instant messaging is probably the form of written language nearest to spoken conversation, but it’s not the same. In spoken conversation there are extralinguistic cues which, among other things, can indicate when it’s your turn to speak – usually our intonation goes down when we’ve finished speaking, something that happens without conscious thought. Such cues are missing in IM chats.

Email ‘conversations’ can be even more disjointed, especially when many people are involved. Sometimes I receive emails after they’ve back and forth between various people many times. To work out what they want me to do, I have to plough back through the whole discussion, and maybe contact some of those involved to clear up some of the details.

Japanese for kids

By Simon

The son of one of my friends has decided that he wants to learn Japanese and his parents have asked me if I can recommend any suitable courses for him. I thought of the Talk Now! series, but they only teach you a limited number of words and phrases, and the lad, who’s 10 years old, wants to learn more than that. I also suggested Pimsleur.

Have you any suggestions?

Transliterations of Omniglot

By Simon

One of my regular correspondents has suggested that I add a page to my main site showing how to write Omniglot in various different writing systems. He’s also sent me a list of transliterations to get me started – you can see the beginnings of the page here.

Could you provide any new transliterations of Omniglot, and corrections to the existing ones, if necessary? Could you also try to come up with translations of the word Omniglot in your language(s)? It means ‘all languages’ in the context of my site.