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.
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?’.
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.
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.
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.
After the concert I went to last night I discussed with friends what people say when they want the performers to come back and sing another song or play another tune. In English we shout ‘Encore!’ or ‘More!’. Encore is a French word meaning ‘still, again, even’, and I’d assumed that in French they shout ‘Encore!’ at concerts as well, however one of my friends told me that they shout ‘Une autre!’ (Another!).
According to Reverso, the French equivalent of the exclamation Encore! is Bis! [bis], and bisser means to do an encore or to ask for an encore.
According to Wikipedia, French speakers will shout une autre!, un rappel! (a curtain call) or bis!, or sometimes encore! when asking for an encore. The word bis comes from Latin and means twice or double, which, according to the OED, is a prefix used in Late Latin, French and Italian before s, c or a vowel in place or bi-.
What are the equivalents of encore! and an encore in other languages?
Y bore ‘ma mi wnes i canu recorders efo cyfeillion yn nhŷ haf un o aelodau y grŵp. Ar ôl cinio mi wnes canu yn y Côr MS, grŵp o bobl sy’n codi arian ar gyfer Cymdeithas y Parlys Ymledol Gogledd Cymru. Mae rhai o aelodau y côr ‘ma yn canu yn y Côr Cymuned Bangor hefyd, ac mi wnaethon nhw annog fi i ymuno â’r Côr MS yr wythnos ‘ma. Dw i’n wrth fy modd cael unrhyw gyfle i ganu, felly mi wnes i mwynhau canu efo nhw yn fawr. Gyda’r nos mi es i i gyngerdd yn y prifysgol efo Alejandro Toledo and the Magic Tombolinos, band â’i lleoliad yn Llundain efo aelodau o’r Ariannin, o Israel, o Groatia ac o Loegr sy’n canu cymysgedd o gerddoriaeth sipsi o Ddwyrain Ewrop, cerddoriaeth clasurol a cherddoriaeth roc a phop, ac sy’n canu am filiwn milltir yr awr. Cyngerdd gwych ydoedd.
This morning I played recorders with friends in the summer house of one of the members of the group. After lunch I sang in the MS Choir, a group of people who raise money for the North Wales Multiple Sclerosis Society. Some of the member of this choir also sing in the Bangor Community Choir, and they persuaded me to join the MS Choir this week. I am delighted to have any opportunity to sing, so I really enjoyed singing with them. In the evening I went to a concert at the university featuring Alejandro Toledo and the Magic Tombolinos, a London-based band with members from Argentina, Israel, Croatia and England who play a mixture of music from Eastern European Roma people, as well as classical, rock and pop music, and they play at a million miles an hour. It was a great concert.
Heno mi es i i’r grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg yn gytanf, ond doedd neb arall yno, felly mi wnes i sgwenu e-bost hir. Pan ro’n i’n ar fin gadael am 8 o’r gloch mi ddaeth ddau arall, ond mi wnes i ddim aros gan ro’n i’n ar y ffordd i’r clwb iwcalili yn y tafarn Groegeg. Heno oedd cyfarfod cyntaf y clwb ers misoedd, ac roedd llawer iawn o bobl yna – mwy nag erioed o’r blaen. Doedd dim digon o iwcalilis am bawb, ond mi wnaethon ni ymdopi yn eithaf da. Yn anffodus roedd y tafarn yn swnllyd ac yn llawn dop ac roedd troellwr yna, felly dan ni’n chwilio am le arall tawelach.
Tonight I went to the French conversation group first, but nobody else was there, so I wrote a long email. When I was about to leave at 8 o’clock two others came, but I didn’t stay as I was on the way to the ukulele club in the Greek. It was the first meeting of the club for months, and many people were there – more than ever before. There weren’t enough ukuleles for everyone, but we managed fairly well. Unfortunately the pub was noisy and crowded and there was a DJ, so we are looking for a quieter place.
A few days ago after the Bangor Languages Learners’ meet up, I was talking to one of the other members of the group and suddenly exclaimed, “I forgot the elephant!”, and hurried back into the café to retrieve it. As he commented, it’s not a phrase that often comes up in conversation. The elephant in question is a small white one from Morocco that usually lives on my mantelpiece, but which had taken up temporary residence on the table in the café where we met so that people who hadn’t been to the group before could find us. When we left the café I forgot to take the elephant, and only remembered when I went outside.
Many people suggest that you should focus on learning the most frequently-used words of a language first, and only learn the less common ones later, if you really want to. However, I like to learn both frequently-used words and obscure words because you never know when you might need them.
Do you focus exclusively on frequently-used words, or do you like learning obscure and unusual words as well?
Can you imagine a situation in which you would say “I forgot the elephant!” or something similarly unusual?
