Gabriel Wyner contacted me recently about a new app he would like to develop. It will be designed to teach you languages from beginner to fluency.
It will start teaching you pronunciation, and then teach vocabulary and grammar, and will be based on spaced repetition. The system willh enable you to create your own cards, and to add pictures and text to existing ones. It will also suggest words to learn, and the most efficitent order in which to learn them. It will automatically search for images you can use to illustrate the words and sentences, and link them with audio recordings. It will suggest sentences to learn. You can also add your own sentences, and choose sentences that other users have added from a proof-read database. The process of doing all this will help the information to stick in your memory.
Here is Gabriel’s introduction to the project:
You can find out more, and back the project, on Kickstarter.
When learning languages I use a variety of tools. At the moment I’m using Duolingo and Memrise, and also Colloquial Icelandic. I like the way Duolingo puts words in different contexts and tests you in different ways. I like the way Memrise gives you the option to create your own memory hooks, and the conversations and grammar notes in Colloquial courses are useful.
To practise my speaking and writing, I find projects helpful. For example, I might decide to write a blog post, conversation, story, song or poem in a language I’m learning, or to write about some aspect of that language – words, idioms, grammar, etc. The process of doing this helps me learn new vocabulary and grammar, and it tends to stick if I find it interesting and/or amusing.
So today I will write about the Swedish word snart, which means ‘soon, shortly, any time soon, anon’. Here are some examples of use:
– så snart som möjligt = as quickly as possible
– det snart är jul = the run-up to Christmas
– för snart ett år = nearly a year ago
– vi måste göra det snart = we have to do it soon; we must act quickly
Related expressions include:
– snar = early, ready, quick, swift
– inom kort = shortly, before long
– om en stund = in a while
– strax = soon, close, directly
Snart comes from the Old Norse snart (quickly). Danish and Norwegian have the same word with the same meanings, and in Icelandic there are snar (quick, swift, fast) and snarlega (quickly, fast).
I have just finished reading the book, and found it very interesting. Although he had to study Irish in school, like everybody else in Ireland, he wasn’t able to speak the language after finishing school. While working as a journalist in South America, he was often asked about the Irish language when people found out he was from Ireland, and he became ashamed that he couldn’t speak it, apart from odd phrases. He became determind to master Irish, and wrote the book about his Irish learning adventures, and also about the history and current state of the language.
He discusses the challenges of learning a minority language, including finding people to talk to, and pursuading native speakers to speak Irish to you, even though it is often easier them to switch to English, unless you’re very fluent. He talks about the growth of Irish in Northern Ireland in both Catholic and Protestant communities, where there is a real hunger for the language. People there don’t let minor things like lack of funds or official permission stop them from setting up schools, radio stations and other things.
If you have any interest in the Irish language and/or Ireland, this book is worth reading.
A friend of mine has a similar story: she grew up in Wales but had no interest in learning Welsh at school. After learning school, she went travelling in Eastern Europe, and was often asked about Wales and the Welsh language when people found out where she was from. She became determined to learn Welsh, and in less then a year, during which time she studied Welsh everyday, and shared a flat with native Welsh speakers, she was more or less fluent. She won the Welsh Learner of the Year competition in 2008, and went on to do a degree in Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.
In order to appreciate your own language and culture, is it necessary to spend time in other countries?
Quite a few people I’ve talked to here in Glencolmcille have told me that Irish is a difficult language. This got me thinking about what makes a language difficult to learn.
Here are some aspects of Irish that learners may find difficult:
Spelling and Pronunciation
Irish spelling takes quite a while to get used to. It is far more regular than English, though works in different ways, and there are many silent letters. For example, bhfaigheadh (would get) is pronounced [wiu], which you would never guess from the spelling. Some older Irish texts are written in the Gaelic Script (An Cló Gaelach), which adds a extra layer of difficulty.
Vocabulary
Irish vocabulary is quite different to English, and most other European languages, so very few words are familiar to learners, unless they know Scottish Gaelic or Manx. There are words borrowed from English, and a few from Latin, though.
Grammar
Irish grammar is similar to the other Celtic languages, but quite different to other European languages. For example, the word order is VSO (Verb, Subject, Object); verbs have positive (tá = am/is/are), negative (níl = am not/isn’t/aren’t) and question forms (an bhfuil = am/is/are?); there is no verb ‘to have’; there are no single words for yes or no, and the pronouns fuse with prepositions – le (with) and mé (I) becomes liom, do (to) tú (you, singular) becomes duit, and so on. On the other hand, there are only 11 irregular verbs, no indefinite articles, and verbs only conjugate for person and number in some tenses.
Dialects
Like many languages, Irish has dialects. The differences between then are mainly in pronunciation and vocabulary. If you learn one, you might find the others a little difficult to understand at first, but before long you’ll be able to understand most things.
These are all things that can be difficult in any language. Basically the more differences there are between your mother tongue and the language(s) you’re learning, the more challenging it will be.
Have you learnt or are you learning Irish?
Do you find it difficult?
What aspects of Irish do you find most challenging?
One thing Chinese learners often ask about is how many characters they need to know in order to read Chinese.
In a new article I was sent today, there’s some discussion about how many Chinese characters and words you need to know. I decided to check to details provided by the writer, and re-wrote this section based on what I found.
According to the PRC language curriculum standards, by grade 9 Chinese pupils are expected to be able to recognise 3,500 commonly-used characters, and to be able to write 3,000 of them.
According to the BBC languages site, the average educated Chinese person knows about 8,000 characters, but you only need to know 2-3,000 to read a newspaper.
According to this post on Ninchanese, Chinese students who graduate from high school know about 4,500 characters. If you want to be able to read Chinese newspapers you need to know around 2,500 characters, and for other texts maybe 3-4,000 characters. It also mentions that there are 370,000 words listed in the 汉语大词典, a comprehensive Chinese dictionary.
In China urban residents are officially considered literate if they know 2,000 characters, and rural residents if they know 1,500 characters. Based on these definitions, 99% of the population was literate in 2014 [source]. However, if the Ninchanese statistics are true, many people who are defined as literate might struggle to read a newspaper.
Chinese characters are often equated with words. However, each character represents a syllable. Some Chinese words are monosyllabic, and are written with one character, but many have two or more syllables, and are written with two or more characters. So knowing a Chinese character doesn’t necessarily mean that you will understand all the words it appears in.
For example, you may know the character 马 [馬] (mǎ) – horse, but would you know these words?
马兵 [馬兵] (mǎbīng) – cavalry (“horse soldiers”)
马力 [馬力] (mǎlì) – horse power
马上 [馬上] (mǎshàng) – immediately (“on a horse”)
马戏团 [馬戲團] (mǎxì tuán) – circus (“horse play group”)
If you are a native Chinese speaker, or a learner of Chinese, do you know roughly how many characters you can recognise and write?
I studied Mandarin for five years at universities in England and Taiwan, and spent over five years in Taipei. I can read and write traditional and simplified characters, and pinyin and bopomofo. I can read Chinese texts, and even some Classical Chinese, but there are usually quite a few characters and words I don’t know. I’ve only read Chinese literature as part of my studies, and not for pleasure. I would guess that I know maybe 2-3,000 charactes, or at least I used to – I rarely read or write Chinese these days and have forgotten quite a few of them.
If not, you are missing out on one of the best kept secrets in Latin America. It is a country filled with life, lots of culture, and great food to eat!
It’s the place that I have called home for the past 4 months and the country that my wife Andrea grew up in. She has given me some inside information and provided me with some fun Colombian slang words to show you.
We based this article off a YouTube video that we produced featuring actual Colombians speaking the 10 Colombian Slang Expressions. If you want to hear these phrases spoken by actual Colombians than check out the video.
10 Popular Colombian Slang Expressions
1) Quiubo
It’s like saying, “What’s up” in English. Or another way of saying it is, “How’s it going?”
It’s a very common phrase used among family, friends, and co-workers. Basically, it’s great in any informal setting. So don’t try this one on your serious Colombian boss.
Here’s an example in a normal Colombian dialogue:
A: Quiubo, ¿Que mas?
B: Bien, gracias a Dios.
Translation:
A: Hows is going, what’s going on? B: Everything is good, thank the Lord.
2. ¡Que bacano! or ¡Tan bacano!
Both these phrases are extremely popular in Colombia.
It’s the equivalent of saying, “That’s awesome” or “that’s great.” If you think something is really awesome make sure to say, “¡Que bacano!”
Here are a couple examples in daily conversation:
A: Compre un nuevo celular——–B: ¡Que bacano!
A: Si, mi mama me dio la plata—–B: ¿Enserio? ¡Tan bacano!
Translation:
A: I just bought a new cell phone. B: That’s awesome!
A: My mom just gave me money. B: Really? That’s great!
3. Que Pereza
Here’s another one that I hear all the time in Colombia. It essentially means, “What a pain.”
You can also use it if something is really boring. So next time you have a boring project at work or one you really don’t want to do, take a look over at your co-worker and say, “¡Que pereza!”
A: I have to study calculus. ———-B: Really? That’s so boring!
4. Hacer Una Vaca
Are you about to watch a sports game with friends and you need people to chip in for pizza?
It’s time to “hacer una vaca.” This one is only used in the plural form though.
For instance: “Hagamos una vaca” or “Por qué no hacemos una vaca” means “Let’s all put money together for…”
Let’s take a look at this phrase in action:
A: ¡Tengo mucha sed!——B: Hagamos una vaca para la gaseosa.
Translation:
I’m so thirsty. Let’s chip in to buy a soda.
5. Que Boleta
This phrase means, “That’s not fair!” or “That’s not nice!”
Basically, you can use this phrase when you are in a bad situation or something bad happened when someone treated you poorly.
My Colombian wife uses this one a lot whenever I do something she doesn’t like or is upset about.
Here’s an example:
A: Juan no tiene trabajo, su jefe lo despidió.
B: ¿Enserio? ¡Que boleta!, Él es un muy buen trabajador.
Translation:
A: Juan doesn’t have a job because his boss fired him. B: Really? That’s terrible, he is a great worker.
6. Por Si Las Moscas
This is one I am trying to use more and more. It means, “Just in case.”
It’s very common in Colombia where I live. If you think it is going to rain, you could make sure to bring an umbrella, “Por si las moscas.”
Here’s an example from a dialogue:
A: Piensas que debo traer repelente?
B: Si, tráelo por si las moscas, quizás hay muchos mosquitos.
Translation:
A: Do you think I should bring insect repellant?
B: Yes, bring it just in case as there might be lots of mosquitos.
7. Parar Bolas
You can use this one to signify, “Pay attention!” A common conjugation for most Colombians here is “¡Páreme bolas!”
This signifies someone telling them to pay attention already. My wife uses this one a lot when she tells me to pay attention to what she has to say.
Here’s an example in conversation:
A: ¿Usted hizo la tarea?—–B:(no contesta nada)—–A: Oiga, páreme bolas!
Translation:
A: Did you do your homework? (no response) B: Hey, pay attention to me!
8. Dar Papaya
“Dar papaya” means to make yourself an easy target. You can say, “No de papaya” o “no hay que dar papaya” when you are telling someone to be careful around others.
Parents can use this one to tell their kids to be careful and not make themselves an easy target.Here’s an example in conversation:
Here’s a conversational example:
A: ¿Por qué utiliza el celular aquí? ¡Estamos en el centro, no de papaya!
Translation:
A: Why are you using your phone here. We are downtown, don’t make yourself an easy target [to get robbed]!
9. Que Embarrada o Embarrarla
Here’s another very common Colombian slang expression. I hear this one said all the time.
“Que embarrada” can be used when something bad happens and to express that you are sorry about it.
You can also say, “La embarre” (embarrarla) when you make an error.
Here’s and example in conversation:
A: la abuela de Alex murió——-B: ¿Si? ¡Qué embarrada!
A: La embarré en el examen, tuve 7 errores.
Translation:
A: Alex’s grandma passed away. B: Really? I’m so sorry to hear that!
A: I really screwed up on the test, I had 7 mistakes.
10. Mamar Gallo
We have now reached our 10th and final popular Colombian slang expression.
“Mamar gallo” means to “mess around” or to “joke around.” You can use this phrase to tell someone to stop messing around. I like this phrase a lot as I like to “Mamar gallo” at times.
Example in conversation:
A: ¡Deje de mamar gallo y limpie la habitación!
Translation:
Stop messing around and clean your room!
Other Colombian Slang Words to Learn (and sound like a native)
Here’s a few more Colombian phrases or words you can learn.
They are all quite common and will be universally understood by just about any Colombian and probably by most Latinos.
Try a few out on a Colombian friend or language partner.
Que oso = How embarrassing!
Tengo un filo = I am super hungry
Me estoy asando = It’s boiling hot in here
Tiene huevo = What nerves!
Que chevere = That’s great/ Cool
Que jartera = What a pain (as well)
Mentiras = I am joking!
Arruncharse = to cuddle
Camellar = trabajar
Wrapping It Up
As a quick reminder if you want to check out these Colombian Slang Expressions spoken by Colombian natives check out this short dramatic video.
Better yet, download Andrea’s cheat sheet and get the 1 page PDF with the important phrases and how to use them. It’s in both English and Spanish to help you learn something new.
I hope you have learned something new or a new phrase you can try out with a Colombian friend.
My recommendation is to travel to Colombia and use a couple of these phrases on locals. They would be happy to play along with your slang words and you will be sure to sound like a native.
Colombia is a fantastic place to visit with crystal clear beaches, tropical beaches, and happy people to meet. It’s nothing like the dangerous, drug-infested reports that are often portrayed in the government or media (although it does have dangerous parts).
Finally, whatever your reason is for learning Colombian expressions, my one hope is that you actually use them!
About the writer
Nate and his wife Podcast and teach Spanish to Intermediate and Advanced language learners over at SpanishlandSchool.com. He loves to travel (particularly in South America) and writes on his hikes at LiveOutdoorsy.com. If you have any Colombian questions please feel free to reach out!
This is a guest post by Dimitrios Polychronopoulos
When I first started studying Chinese, in Taiwan, back in 1993, I started with the Mandarin phonetic alphabet and traditional characters. Primarily I used bopomofo to learn how to read, in the same way a Taiwanese child learns growing up on the island. Then just more than two years later, I left the island and found my progress in Chinese was mostly from books published the simplified characters. My tutors were from Beijing and Shanghai and I started learning the simplified characters.
Now more than twenty years have passed, and I’ve maintained my intermediate level of Chinese with a variety of tools. Back in 2015 I discovered LingQ and became a big fan and in 2016 I started my own website, Yozzi, to encourage myself to blog in different languages where I’d reached at least an upper intermediate level. The idea was for me to publish one article a week in each of my eight strongest languages. While I have been reasonably consistent at bringing new content to the site, so far I only have two articles up in Chinese. One of the greatest challenges is that when it comes to getting guest blogs on the site, I often have people saying they are interested in submitting, but they never get around to sending in their articles. The same thing happens with guest interviews. Several of the interviews have yet to be returned by the candidates who expressed their interest. One such interview is out there with a Chinese person who lives in Norway, but he hasn’t turned it in yet.
In this case could it be that Chinese is such an inconvenient language to write in? One of my Taiwanese friends who moved abroad says any time she has to write in Chinese, she always keeps putting it off, because even for her it is inconvenient. If a native Chinese speaker feels this way, no wonder as a non-native speaker, I myself have the fewest posts in Chinese up on Yozzi than any of the eight languages. I hope to change this in the long run. If there are any Chinese people who want to talk about their experiences in different countries, cross-culture experience and language-learning experience? I’d love to interview you for my site in Chinese. Please let me know
As for new ways to make progress in Chinese, in 2017 FlipWord has come along. I’ve been using FlipWord for nearly two months now. It’s been a lot of fun challenging my Chinese level. Anytime I want to read an article on line in English, I will open it up in my Chrome browser and let FlipWord replace English words with Chinese words. It will also quiz me as well from time to time on my syntax.
After United Airlines sent me an apology and an update about their changes after the terrible incident on board with the injuries of the passenger Dr. David Dao, I froze the letter in time with Chinese character changes, and published it on BeBee. With this letter, you can see an example of what FlipWord looks like if your settings are on ‘advanced’ for learning Chinese.
Regarding FlipWord, it feels good to see the new words and expressions I learn as I use it. It often happens that a word pops up in a context where I think I already know the word, but it presents me with a different option, for example to earn money I would normally think of “赚钱” Zhuànqián but FlipWord suggests 挣 ‘Zhēng’.
With FlipWord I find myself actively thinking about how I would express the same thing with my intermediate Chinese. There are many ways to express the same thing in a language. Language has nuances and shades. With FlipWord I’m beginning to understand nuances more than I expected to, with each new character that pops up. It also helps with syntax, as quizzes pop up and it asks me to construct my own sentences by putting characters in the right order. Another thing is that I never realised how bad my Chinese syntax was until FlipWord. At this point, my main question is how my learnings from FlipWord will become activated next time I find myself engaging in conversation among a group of native Chinese speakers. It’s the joy of the never ending tale and development of a lifelong language learner.
How do you find something if you don’t know what it’s called or even if it exists?
This is the problem that faced me yesterday when I started looking for something to cover the toes of my left foot that stick out of my plaster cast. I was using a sock, but it didn’t fit very well, and kept on slipping off, so I thought I’d try to find a better alternative.
I went on Amazon (other online retailers are available), and searched for cover for plaster cast, or something similar, I soon found what I was looking for – the toe cozy or ToeCozy. Like a tea cozy, but it fits on your toes rather than on your teapot.
I think it’s a brand name rather than a generic name. Is there a generic name for such things? Maybe toe cover.
When you’re learning a foreign language you often faced a similar situation, especially when you start, as you have only limited vocabulary. You just have to use the words you do know to describe things you don’t have words for. Or maybe you have other ways to get round this.
Yesterday I did an interview on Skype with a student of linguistics in Germany who is writing a thesis about acquiring native-like pronunciation in foreign languages. I talked about the methods I used to try to do this – listening, mimicing, learning about the phonology of a language, recording my voice and comparing to native speakers, and so on.
While we were chatting, it occured to me that speaking a foreign language is somewhat like playing a musical instrument, or to singing in tune with others. It particularly resembles playing an instrument like a violin or a trombone, which require you to constantly monitor whether the notes you’re playing are in tune with each other, and with other instruments, if you’re playing in an orchestra or other group, and to make adjustments as necessary.
Your voice is your instrument, and learning to pronounce a foreign language is like tuning your instrument. It’s not something you can do once then forget – to acquire native-like pronunciation you need to do a lot of listening and make lots of little adjustments to your pronunciation. It also helps if you understand how the sounds are produced, especially ones that don’t occur in your mother tongue – studying phonetics and phonology can help.
Even if you know nothing about music, you can probably hear when an instrument or voice is very out of tune. It just sounds wrong and clashes with the other instruments / voices. Similarly if your pronunciation of a foreign language is very different from native speakers, i.e. you have a strong accent, it will sound odd to them, and they may have trouble understanding you. The closer you can get to native-like pronunciation, the easier it will be to communicate.
Do you aim for native-like pronunciation in languages you’re learning?
Yesterday I discovered an interesting resource for learning Russian – Russian Podcast, which includes a series of conversations in Russian with transcripts.
There are also videos featuring conversations with various people, with subtitles in Russian and English. These are called vodcasts, which is a new word to me. Most of the material is free, but you can get more if you subscribe.
In a video I watched yesterday the host chats about language learning with another Russian woman who lives in Paris and speaks quite a few languages. One expression I picked up from their conversation was по-чуть-чуть (pa-chut’-chut’), which means little by little, and that is one of the suggestions about how to learn languages that is discussed.
Here are some examples of usage:
– Я собирал каждый день по чуть-чуть. = I’ve been putting a bit aside every day.
– Я изучаю по чуть-чуть русский язык каждый день. = I study a little Russian every day.
– Я по чуть-чуть изучаю, и дальше у меня уже прогресс. = I study little by little, and that’s how I progress.
On it’s own, чуть means hardly, a little or as soon as. Here some examples of expressions and sentences featuring this word:
– чуть (было) не = almost, nearly
– чуть ли не = almost certainly
– чуть что = at the slightest thing
– Мне нужно подержам невесту чуть подольше = I need to hold on to the bride a little longer.
– Думаю, стоит покопать чуть глубже = I just have to dig a little deeper, I guess.
When reduplicated чуть-чуть means a little bit. Here are some examples of usage:
– Ну, хорошо, только чуть-чуть. = Erm, all right, then just a little bit.
– Мне просто нужно чуть-чуть больше времени. = I just need a little bit more time.
![汉字 [漢字] Chinese characters](http://www.omniglot.com/images/blog/hanzi.gif)
