Aaaannd... it's over.

There's still some occasional flashes of fire, but basically the language rush of Spring 2018 is over.

Here's some interesting stuff: 20 slang Malaysians love to use

Made me interested in Malay

Thoughts about Chinese... and some other languages.

Chinese... I have learned the about 50 characters I have encountered so far.
But I just know the characters. I don't know their names and the names mean nothing to me. I mean... xiao? I suppose it means something. I have heard it. I don't know what it means. Or zai. Or ba. I think that might be eight. It might be something else, also. And it's possible it's not just ba, but bai or something else. And don't ask me about the tone. I wouldn't know. Could be third. Or not. (It is ba and the tone is first, which is what I meant, which means that I don't even know what "third tone" is... *sigh* Not good. :-D)
But I like Chinese. I want to learn it. I want to be able to read it and speak it and understand it.

Now, Arabic I don't like. I think it sounds ugly and the writing is stupid - and ugly - most people making notes in Arabic write like 3rd graders just learning to write cursive. Crude and ugly and uneven. My father had the world's most beautiful handwriting, and he is my ideal. I want to be able to write Arabic as my father would have written it, had he known how to write Arabic.
Now, I want to learn Arabic though. Because of two reasons. 1) I started learning it when I was about 15, and I would like to finish what I started, especially when it comes to languages and 2) I have serious problems with the Arabic part of Maltese, and it's easier to learn Arabic than Maltese. I seriously hope it will help me learn Maltese. If not, I'm going to be pretty angry and feel cheated.

Now, most of the reasons people give to why others should learn Arabic are uninteresting to me. I am not Muslim nor will I ever be. I am not planning on living or traveling in Arabic speaking countries. Now, I live in an area with predominantly Syriacs or Assyrians, who speak mostly Arabic or Aramaic (Syryoyo), and understanding them would be really nice... because I'm pretty sure they are saying nasty things about non-Syriacs, including me. It would be nice to be proven wrong about that.
That there is a lot of idioms in Arabic - there's a lot of idioms in every language. Duh.
That the grammar is easy and everything builds on core words, sure. Nice. But that's not a reason to learn a language.

Now, Korean I find very interesting. The writing is simple, easy, logical and looks nice. It sounds... odd. Unfamiliar. The sounds, the way of speaking, the language itself, is unfamiliar, and intriguing. I find it difficult to learn because I can't find a handle... I suppose it's just to parrot sentences until they start making sense, and that doesn't feel good to me.

But, but... too much procrastinating here, already. My 15 minutes pause has long passed :-D Back to studying.

Lazy day today, tomorrow it will be full speed

It's the Eve of Mayday. I should go visit my sisters, and drink sima and eat munkkeja, but - uh. Can't be bothered. It's a lazy day, a "bad day" as I call them, I don't want to do anything.

I have managed to get the Karelian Swadesh list on Memrise. I would really have wanted to add ALL the languages on the SAME list, but that cannot be done on Memrise. :-( So I have to write their own lists.

So, the Chinese R is pronounced "like J in French, but start dragging the tongue backward until it's touching the roof of your mouth". There should be a definite buzz to the sound... sometimes it sounds like SH, sometimes like L

I made a list of animal names in Hebrew to write my Alephbet cards, but my Word ate it. :-( Not happy. So the Hebrew Alephbet card project is frozen at the moment. I need to find the words again. :-(

Láadan needs a better course. Well... every language needs a better course. But, whatever. Beggars can't be choosers, huh? I suppose there aren't that many words in the language, so the amount of sentences to be created is also limited. And also, the Feminist ideal of women being totally void of all negativity, hatred, belligerency, and violence, creates serious problems, which becomes pretty obvious with the "sample stories", that, still, are based on existing Patriarchal stories. X-D

Romanian pronunciation is fun!

You see, I have started copying my favorite book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Romanian, à l'Alexander Arguelles.

BTW, I listened to his speech at the Polyglot Conference and realized that that's what I want to do. (At least right now.) Think of myself as having the job of a Polyglot, and the whole world of languages at my fingertips (because most books have been pirate-copied and available online, especially when I can manage in Russian and Portuguese...:-D)

I need to put in the next Chinese lesson on Memrise. :-(

Uuuuuhh... Errrh...

Decided to use the Ecclesiastes as writing practice sample. I don't want to use the Bible, for principles, and also because I don't like it, but... I wanted to have a long text that's the same in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and that's it. Also, it's freely available online.
I still don't like it.

Started putting my Chinese characters/radicals on Memrise. Can't find a good pronunciation of 人 on an MP3 file I can use. :-( On Forvo they all say it like "jen", when it's "ren". I can't produce the Chinese R.

People were 30 years late to the Láadan party. :-( Too late, now.
But, funny, that...

Duolingo

So... I have been adventuring in the Duolingoland, and found out that it's VERY hard to switch from one language to another without any space between. I kept thinking in German on my French review, and it went pretty badly :-D

Now, people will tell you it's not smart to study several new languages daily, or even at the same time. I don't find that a problem - if you keep small pauses between languages - but if you are serious, don't do what I do, do what Luca does.

So, today's task with Chinese was numbers 0-10, 100 and yuan.

零 líng (0) = 雨 yǔ (rain) + 人 rén (man) + 卩 jié (seal)
一 yī (1) *
二 èr (2) *
三 sān (3) = 一 yī (1) + 二 èr (2)
四 sì (4) = 囗 wéi (enclosure) + 八 bā (8) (though it looks like 儿 ér (legs)
五 wǔ (5) = 二 èr (2) + ?
六 liù (6) = 八 bā + ?
七 qī (7) = 一 yī (1) + ?
八 bā (8) *
九 jiǔ (9) = 乙 yǐ (the second, the other one, B) + ?
十 shí (10) *
百 bǎi (100) = 一 yī (1) + 白 bái (white)
元 yuán (monetary unit) = 二 èr (2) + 儿 ér (legs or son)

Here's some fascinating data about the Chinese numbers

Now, I really need to do two things tomorrow:
The Hebrew alphabet chart or poster
and
write in the rest of the Swadesh for Karelian at Memrise and publish it.

Also, I need to find some short stories in French, German, Spanish and Italian and read them.

Just not my style...

I just realized something. Yes, I know, really stupid of me, not to get it earlier, but better late than never, huh?

I will never be a polyglot in the normal meaning of the word, because I don't have the tenacity. One just needs to look at this blog to get that.  Last year I made two posts. TWO. I WAS SUPPOSED to take the 6-week challenge in Russian, but... that was about it. I think I managed one week this time around. :-D
(One thing that did me in was the Russian keyboard. I went to https://www.keybr.com/ and got it all set up nicely, but then the program had me typing the same 4-5 letters day after day, never gave me any new letters, and I gave up. Not fun.)
2016 I got into Korean. That lasted a couple of months, I think...
2015 I posted my 52 in 52 plan at the beginning of the year, but if you look at the entries, most of them are empty. 
2014 was also a slow year.
One thing to notice about statistics is that I post mostly during January (New Year's promises... every year I wish I will do better and actually stick to something.) and April (Because of my birthday. Every year I am reminded of my "50 languages by 50" goal.)

It would be wonderful if I just had the determination and perseverance. I mean, one can learn anything in 15 minutes a day, if one just does it for a longer time, like a year or so. The longer one persists, the more one learns. And I have been studying languages for some 40 years now. Had I only stuck to it, it would be more probable than possible that I indeed spoke 50 languages by now.
I do love languages and I learn them easily enough...
I'm OK with my bad pronunciation (good enough to be understood, but is never going to be good enough to pass as a native.)
I am kind of proud of the Finnish influence in my language. I use languages as I use Finnish, and Finnish is very elastic. I know it's a bad habit, but... as long as I am not working with the language, like being an interpreter, translator, or teacher, I don't see the problem with that.

But, anyway, I have decided to allow myself to be just as "airy" as I am and not be serious with my languages. So I will be studying 20 languages side by side 2-3 times a year for 1-3 weeks, and what sticks, sticks, and that's good enough.

So, today's "20 languages" were:
Láadan (conlang)
Russian
Maltese
Spanish
French
High Valyrian (conlang)
German
Welsh
Chinese
Korean
Danish
Japanese
Turkish
Tegirenai or Tigerian (conlang)
Vulcan (conlang)
Walloon
Mari
Karelian
Toki Pona (conlang)
Hungarian
Arabic
Hebrew

I got irritated by the way someone pronounces Láadan, it sounds so... unnatural, forced, fake. So I studied about how to pronounce it.

Russian didn't get much love, I read the "word of the day", and that's it.

Maltese got more love. Still the same problem as every day. *sigh* I managed to find a forum, but it's a disgusting ultra-nationalist, racist forum, and I don't want to learn what they say. I want to learn nice things. I have also decided that I really need to learn the verb basics. This is too difficult, trying to figure out the verb forms without the support of grammar. :-D

Spanish got some proper studies, though if the studies at Duolingo count as that, I don't know.

I started reviewing my 5000 French words. I still remember pretty much, and the last time I looked at it was 2016! I had an experiment going on there, learning the 5000 most common words 100 words a day, and I got to 2900 words.

High Valyrian... it's mostly a joke. It is offensive that there is a course on High Valyrian on Duolingo, BUT NOT ON ARABIC.

I got some German brushed up. I know surprisingly much of German. On the other hand, I should. German is one of the languages I can actually read. It's still like B-level, but still.

Started brushing up my Welsh as well. Though I like the Goedelic branch more.

Continued with my Chinese. Right now that's about the most serious I am with languages. I decided to just jump in and so far it's going great. I am holding the reigns tight and not letting me go gathering information, it's really hard as it is, but I really want to learn the language and not just wish I knew.

I was reminded of how much I like Korean dramas and decided to brush up on my Korean as well. Relearned the letters.

Min mand er dansk, og jeg vil kunne tale dansk med ham. So I started the Danish course at Duolingo as well. I have given up on trying to pronounce it well, and just try to repeat it as it sounds in my Finnish ears. My husband has told me my Finnish accent is great for Danish. :-D The fact that Danish has more vowel sounds than Finnish has ANY sounds - bah. What ever. :-D

Now, that video with the woman speaking Korean, Chinese, and Japanese was inspiring, so I have added Japanese to my list as well. I am going to use Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, so I would like to learn the basics of Chinese and Japanese transcribed... At least until I know the letters. There's quite a lot of them. :-D It's not like with Korean or Hebrew.

Turkish I noticed was on Duolingo as well, and I like the Turkish TV dramas as well, so - let's brush that up a bit, too.

Now, the inventor of Tigerian was expressing himself on Láadan, and as tigers are my spirit animals, I went to see what this Tigerian is. I don't think it's going to get much attention from me in the future though.

They had Vulcan on Memrise, and because I identify myself with the Vulcans, I thought I could just as well learn the language :-D

They also had Walloon, and I suspect our family might have some Walloon roots, though... maybe not. I think I look a bit South European... could be possible.

I was just looking into Mari. It is a Finno-Uralic language, and it would be interesting to learn some of that, just for the nationalist streak in me - and to save the endangered languages

Karelian is on the list because I am writing in Swadesh lists of the Finnic languages on Memrise.

Toki Pona is still waiting. I don't think it will take much time to learn enough of this language to be able to use it. It fascinates me a lot.

I was rereading this blog again, and I just love Kati Wolf. So Hungarian.

I have such difficulties with Maltese, so I decided to learn Arabic to be able to learn Maltese. (Now, Arabic is one of the "brush up" languages, so it's not like I'm beginning from zero here either.)

And my Jewish husband is into his Jewish studies right now, so Hebrew got up on the list.

Chinese

Urk.

I just can't produce the sounds. Learning 4000 characters. Not a problem. Tones. Not a problem. Learning words, grammar, sentences, not a problem. Phonemes? A huge problem.

I am Finnish. Finnish consonants are pretty hard. I find Chinese incredibly soft and... sort of melting... It's the same thing with Norwegian. Some consonants are very soft. I feel like I should make my tongue a snail trying to fill my mouth to be able to produce these letters... The Norwegian N... I just can't.

Now, apparently, this is a problem not only for me.

And R is a problem both in Norwegian and Chinese :-D For different reasons. The Norwegian R is a bit like r^j (consonant y, not English j)

But, but...

I decided to use Duolingo, and learn the characters at the same time, and also learn the radicals. Sounds like a lot, huh? I'm not moving to the next lesson on Duolingo until I have learned the characters, however long time that will take.

Anyway, the first lesson has two... er... what ever to call that. Sentences? Words?

你好 nĭ hăo (hello)
and
再见 zàijiàn (goodbye)

The characters are 你 nĭ (you)  好 hăo (good) 再 zài (again) and 见 jiàn (to meet)
The radicals are  亻 rén (man) 小 xiǎo (small) 女 nǚ (woman) 子 zǐ (child) 一 yī (one) 冉 rǎn (slowly) 目 mù (eyes) 儿 ér (feet)

And I find it extremely humiliating that I cannot copy the Chinese characters. My copy looks awful. And I do calligraphy... (blush)

So, what I have done today is
study Spanish
Read the Russian word of the day and the sample sentences
Write the Maltese word of the day for this blog, and then I searched some Maltese recipes - that is, recipes written in Maltese, and that was pretty hard, and then I stumbled over an interesting blog entry about Christmas, moved that to LWT and now I'm going through it, so I have studies Maltese
Then the Chinese. I went to Duolingo, and found that they have a lot of interesting stuff there, so I have studied Spanish, French, German, Valyrian,  Korean and Welsh :-D
I wonder how the heck they have Valyrian but not Maltese or Finnish.

I like this :-D I don't have the slightest idea if anything sticks, but this is fun. 

Yeah, that too

Project 52 in 52: Japanese

 AJATT method - overview
(the old method. It has been improved a couple of times.)
I disagree about the flashcards. There is magic in handwriting. You will learn as you write with pen on paper... it doesn't work if you type it in some computer program. SRS isn't difficult or complicated to create with actual physical cards.

漢字 

Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja

What's the difference of Hanzi and Kanji?

1) all these are the "Chinese letters"
2) there are differences. Especially in the pronunciation. Above are the romanized names of these signs in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In some signs the difference is bigger, in others smaller.
3) the meaning can also vary. Chinese signs have only one meaning, the Japanese have several. Nevertheless, most signs are either the same or close enough to say they are the same signs.