Language Trainers Blog

I’ve just done this quiz on Sporcle.com, and gotten a fairly sad 12/20.  Granted, I didn’t know that it included dialects (so now you know), although I don’t think that would have helped me much.

A couple of these languages I hadn’t even heard of prior to doing this quiz, so perhaps that should be my impetus to get out and learn a bit more about the world.  I was pretty glad to see that Language Trainers covers most of the widely-known ones, though!

How did you do?

Image from Flickr Creative Commons.

I think most language learners have been in the situation where they realise that the textbook or dialogue they are learning from is not at all relevant to anything they would need to use in real life.  Of course, there are some fantastically-written learning materials out there, but there are also the ones that try to teach obscure terms that most people would never need to know.  I remember a lesson where my teacher taught us the translation for double income no kids families, as well as a term which means a mistress whose rich boss boyfriend pays to raise her bastard baby.  I guess that says something about the culture, though!

So, what can we do about it?  If you’re lucky enough to have a private tutor, you do have some control over what you learn.  Tell your teacher you are interested in learning to say certain things, or have particular conversations.  If you are in a class situation, you can do some study on your own.

One way to work out what’s relevant to you is to think about the interactions you have within a day or a week.  Could you navigate the supermarket, hairdresser, library, subway in your target language?  If not, great!  You’ve just found some new learning material.  Think about what conversations actually take place during your day, and try to translate them.  Note down (or look up) any vocabulary and sentence patterns you still need and bring them up with your teacher in your next class.  Once you’ve got a good translation of the conversation, you can take turns at playing each role.

Next time you’re at the hairdresser (or supermarket, etc), go through the conversations in your head to solidify the language knowledge.  Or, go ahead and try it out loud (if you are in a position to, of course).

Good luck!

Image: eye2eye.

Germany is not generally associated with comedy, but the BBC has teamed up with a German stand-up comedian to produce a series of short language videos called What’s so funny about German?.  Henning Wehn, “the German comedy ambassador to the United Kingdom”, takes learners of German through some basic points about his native language, with more than a few comedic examples and observations.  I learned that a Bodybag is not for cadavers, but is a backpack with one strap.  Check out the videos for more interesting German language points!

I stumbled across a learning resource for deaf students and learners of sign language, and an interesting section is the NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) Signed Songs.  The page lists some traditional Maori and older pop songs, as well as a couple of Christmas ones.  Each song is presented in a  Flash format and has audio as well as video of a signer.

Just in time for Christmas, here’s James Townshend signing Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  Enjoy!

October is National Poetry Month in the United Kingdom, and it’s a great opportunity to celebrate the beauty that language can create, whether it be in your native tongue or a foreign language.

This month is the perfect time to discover something new in poetry, whether you are an existing enthusiast or not.  These days poetry doesn’t have to be classical, or in rhyming couplets.  It can take the form of non-rhyming prose, haiku, performance art, or poetry jam.  It can be dramatic or serene.

For language learners, poetry can be a great inspiration, and it’s very fulfilling to be able to understand a poet’s original intention.  Try a couple of poems in your target language, and compare them to their translations.  Can you see any difference?  It’s always useful to bear in mind that translations of art need to be somewhat artistic themselves, and fail as poetic translations if they are word-for-word.

What are your favourite foreign language poems?

This is not the best way to start the week, but I’ve just read a tragic story of miscommunication in Pennsylvania, USA, and it made me wonder what I would do in a similar situation.

Mamadou Makadji, 22, a student from Mali, was shot and killed after a robbery at gunpoint escalated when the victim and his friends did not understand what the gunman was saying.

Makadji and two friends were sitting on a park bench when a gunman approached and tried to rob them. Makadji did not understand what the man was saying, and he was struck with the pistol and then shot, Clark said. His two friends, also students from West Africa, were not harmed.

Makadji’s uncle stated that cultural differences in the way people regard guns may have had some influence.

“In Mali, no one thinks about a gun for the people. You think about guns for the army. … You carry the gun for the animal,” he said. “If you fight someone, you never think about the gun.”

Mahamadou Sissoko, president of the Malian Association in Philadelphia, said Makadji eventually did understand that he was being robbed.

“He was digging in his pocket for the money when (the gunman) hit him,” Sissoko said. “The guy probably felt ignored.”

The apparently quiet student was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What would you do if approached by an agitated, gun-wielding person speaking a language you didn’t understand?  Not all hand gestures are international, and it’s unlikely that the robber would have stopped to consider that perhaps the victim’s hesitation was because of confusion, not bravado.  In English-speaking countries, a lot of native speakers assume everyone else also speaks English.  Sadly, this assumption can be the decider between armed robbery and murder.

Source: AP/Google News.

Are you sick of reading comments on the internet that you need to take time out to translate, only to find out that it wasn’t worth it in the first place? Me too!

Sister Salad have done a great cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s classic Baby Got Back, entitled Yo Comments Are Whack. I think it should be Yo’ Comments Are Whack, but that’s neither here nor there.

An excerpt:

We’re tired of starin’ at the screen,
Tryin’ to figure out what you mean.
Take a couple seconds to end your sentence,
So you won’t sound thirteen.
So haters! (Yeah) Haters! (Yeah!)
Do your comments need translators? (Yeah!)
Then punctuate. Capitalize.
It makes a difference, guys!
Yo comments are whack.

I enjoyed it. I hope you do, too.

George Bernard Shaw said “England and America are two countries separated by a common language”. It may be an awkward situation borrowing a cigarette in the US if you are an English tourist there. The word ‘tramp’ describes different people in each country, and ‘spunk’ could not only mean ‘to get up and go’ if you are an American in the UK. You don’t even need to love your mistress.

Eddie Izzard talks about these two confusing languages with a great sense of humor. Enjoy!