Polish Diacritics

The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin Alphabet but uses special diacritics - or auxiliary symbols. Auxiliary symbols are ´helper´symbols. They assist the letter by changing its sound or tone. The Polish alphabet uses three auxiliary symbols. 


1. Acute Accent or kreska. ć, ń, ó, ś, ź
2. Dot above or kropka. This is used only for the letter z. ż
3. Stroke. This is used only for the letter l.  ł
4. The tail or the ogonek. This is used only for the letters a and e.  ą, ę


Lets take a look at the Polish word for Hello, Cześć. The word comes from a common slavic word meaning ´honor´. The two unfamiliar letters are ś and ć.


ś = eh - shh 
ć = che ( cheap)
c = s - eh (septic)


When we put it all together...Cześć,  the word sounds like this - Chesht. Polish letters in combinations make very unusual sounds. Like many other languages, it takes a lot of training and practice to get the sounds right. I did find a few YouTube videos with helpful instructions for people who are beginning Polish. 

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Polish is allegedly a very hard language to learn. The best way to start is by listening to the language every day. You will not understand what you are listening to, but the more you listen, the easier it will come to you.

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On Vacation in Ixtapa Mexico

I am in Ixtapa Mexico with the family. My father in law bought everyone a plain tickets from Mexico City to Ixtapa. He did not want to drive all the way here from Mexico City. It is a long drive. We would also have to go through some dangerous areas.

For the past week I have been playing with my beautiful baby, swimming, and biking. Two days ago I rode 18 kilometers. I was exhausted. I consider myself very lucky to be able to do those kinds of things. There are so people I know who are so unhealthy that they cannot ride down the street and back without fainting. It sucks to be them.

Anyway, while on vacation I decided to spend about 15 minutes a day studying language. I know some people are going to say, ¨Naomi, you are on vacation. You should not be studying at all.¨

I have been here for a week already. Everyday I take a dip in the pool. I take my son out for a walk. I look up at the palm trees, bright flowers, and sandy beaches. Do not worry about me not enjoying myself. I am having a blast.

I spend only 15 vacation-minutes a day writing sentences in my notebook. I work mostly on Swedish, and a little on Spanish.

For Christmas, I received a $100 gift card for Amazon.com. With that gift card I am going to buy three books: two books in Advanced Spanish Grammar and one book on Swedish Grammar. On Amazon one can also buy used books. I do not need anything new, so all the books I am going to buy are used. Even in the University I always bought used books. New books are a complete waste of money. With the rest of the money on the gift card, my husband is going to get whatever he wants.

This photo was taken of me studying Swedish today!

Dates Time and Ice Cream

No matter what language I study, I always hate learning dates and times. I do not know why, it just annoys me. Unfortunately, every time I must learn a new language I have to go through the same routine.

¨today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, at what time, at nine o´clock, at seven o´clock, two hours ago, in two hours, this evening, days of the week, days of the month, months¨  etc..etc...etc....

then we have these fun ones...¨the train is one hour early, one hour late, on time, the bus is always on time, the bus is usually on time, the bus left thirty minutes ago, the bus will leave in forty five minutes.

It annoys me!¨ How boring and redundant! I wish I could just learn that stuff and be done with it already.

Anyway, times and dates is not something we can just skip in language learning. It is important. So I have to suck it up, and learn it. In Swedish I had to write some simple sentences using the days of the week. In the sentences below I am practicing two things. The first, is the days of the week in Swedish. The second thing I am practicing, is that pronouns must be placed after the verb. Anytime we are talking about dates and times, first goes the verb, then the pronoun.

På måndag sover katten i sovrummet.

På tisdag äter du maten i köket.

På onsdag kör hon bil.

På torsdag packer hon resväskan.

På fredag leker ni med katten.

På lördag simmer han lite i poolen.

På söndag springer du på stranden.

I find that sometimes, in doing these types of boring lessons it is good to be creative. Below, I wrote seven sentences in Swedish. In each one, I wrote the kind of ice cream I would like to have on each day of the week. Then, I linked five recipes from Swedish cooking websites. All you have to do is click on the ice cream flavor and you will be linked to a Swedish ice cream website. I thought it would be a cute little twist.

På måndag äter jag vaniljglass.

På tisdag äter jag chokladglass.

På onsdag äter jag jordgubbsglass.

På torsdag äter jag hallonglass.

På fredag äter jag blåbärsglass.

På lördag äter jag körsbärsglass.

På söndag äter jag vaniljchokladglass och bananchokladglass.

( hallon - raspberry) ( jordgubbar - strawberry)



This was a fun little exercise for me. In addition to improving my Swedish grammar, I also got to serf the internet and read some cute Swedish websites. In the next few weeks, I will be looking carefully at this Swedish Recipe Site. The link is provided below.
 
Recepten SE

When I start working on any language learning project, I have the habit of wandering off. This blog started with me complaining about how I do not like learning dates, times, hours, etc..etc... Then I sentences talking about ice cream. Then I linked Swedish ice cream recipe sites. Well then ... I found a Swedish Youtube video showing us how to make chocolate ice cream.

Some of us need to take a class

First, I would like to say that I am amazed this blog has been hit over eight hundred times. With only a handful of posts, I find that number to be very impressive. I hope I will continue to post things that my readers would like to read about.

This morning, first order of business, I would like to comment on a video made by another Youtube Polyglot CodylanguagesBlog. He posted a video today updating his progress in the Chinese language.

Many of us in the online polyglot community teach ourselves how to speak different languages. We buy grammar books, study the grammar and do the exercises. We listen to audio cassettes. The key is that we know what to do and how the process works. There are many different programs out there to learn languages. These programs really do work. There is never any single language learning program that works; you must select at least three different programs. Any person can learn another language. If I said it once, I have said it a thousand times – any person can learn languages. The only thing you need is the passion to do so. You do not have to live abroad for a year. Let me repeat myself…YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE ABROAD FOR A YEAR TO BECOME FLUENT IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

That being said, this morning I was thinking that even though I have been teaching myself Swedish, I am the kind of person that really needs to take a language class once in a while. I was thinking that if I was back in my home city of Seattle, I would take a course in Swedish at the University of Washington.

Anyway, in Cody´s video he said that he just finished a course in Chinese. During his winter vacation from classes, he is going to use some of his free time to practice his other languages. Cody speaks both English and German fluently. He is now learning Chinese and Swahili.

The reason I decided to write about Cody this morning, is because I like the fact that he discusses the actual language classes he takes. Teaching ourselves language at home is great, in fact, it is necessary when we do not have a University close by, cannot afford the tuition or the University does not offer the languages we want to study. I think the message I am trying to send is this.

Take a class if you can.

If you cannot take a class, then teach yourself at home. If you want, why not do both? One does not have to be a genius to learn more than one language. All it takes is passion and knowing how to learn a language.

Check out Cody´s channel if you have time.

How My French Interferes with Swedish

Last night I tried to write a few more sentences in Swedish. I wanted to write about what people drink, such as wine, water and milk. I also wanted to use some new vocabulary words that I learned from someone else's flashcard set on Live Mocha. 

ibland - sometimes
alltid - always
aldrig -never
och - and
eller - or
ofta - often
oftast - usually
nu - now
men - but
mycket - very
redan - already
båda - both
kanske - perphas
många - a lot
brukade - usually
all, allt, alla - all
nästan – almost
varje – each, every
varandra – each other

Here is my original writing. Note that it is completely wrong! Without having a Swedish grammar book to assist me, I made many mistakes.

Hur många vin dricker du?

Nu jag dricker inte vin. Ibland jag dricker vin rött men jag dricker inte ofta.
Ibland jag dricker vin rått men jag dricker altig vatten.
Pojken dricker inte vin rött och vin vitt. Pojken dricker båda mjölk och vatten. Flickan dricker hela vatten men nu, hon dricker inte.

Mistake Number One - in Swedish adjectives come before the noun. You would think that being an English speaker this would have been something that I would have thought about naturally. In English we say ' greeen house' 'big man' 'scary dog' etc...etc...In the languages that I have been learning for most of my life - all Romance languages - the adjectives usually go after the noun. In French we would say, ' une table ronde' ' un livre rouge' 'une femme italienne' . Only certain adjectives go before the noun. These adjectives describe goodness, badness, beauty, age and size. Sometimes, the location of a French adjective determines whether or not it its meaning is literal or figurative. 

Here is an example of this from About.com

Figurative: mes vertes années my green (fruitful) years
Literal: des légumes verts green vegetables

Figurative: un grand homme a great man
Literal: un homme grand a tall man

Figurative: un triste individu a sad (mean or bad) person
Literal: un individu triste a sad (crying) person

Figurative: mon ancienne école my old (former) school
Literal: mon école ancienne my old (aged) school

Figurative: un certain regard a certain (type of) look
Literal: une victoire certaine a certain (assured) victory

Okay, so lets go back to the point of this blog. In my little blurb, I wrote vin rött and vin vitt. The obvious problem is that the words for RED and WHITE are adjectives which modify the noun, WINE. Just as in English, they should be written as Rött Vin and Vitt Vin. The reason I wrote it the other way around, and English speaker who should have known better? I have only studied Romance Languages. When I wrote the sentences, I naturally applied French grammar rules to Swedish. 

This is one of the most common problems that polyglots make. The other languages we know interfere with the languages we are learning. It is not a big problem. Nor is it a reason to quit. If you think about it, everyone has some kind of interference from another language. Typically it is from their native language. These mistakes are easily fixed. It is easy to learn from them. 

All in all, knowing more than one language still makes language learning easier. The advantages polyglots have still outnumber the disadvantages. 

The next mistake I made was basic syntax. This is a major mistake. I wrote, “ Ibland jag dricker”. This means, “Sometimes I drink” In Swedish, the correct syntax is, “ Sometimes, drink I.” I also wrote, “ Hon dricker inte.” This is also incorrect. It goes Verb and then the pronoun. The correct syntax is, “ Drink she not,” or “ Dricker hon inte.”
I wrote, “ Hur många dricker du?” When, I should have written, “ Hur mycket dricker du?” What is the difference between mycket and många? I really have no idea. I have been looking online and have not found an answer yet. If anyone could post the answer on this blog, that would be fantastic.

After the corrections, here is how the text should look. 

Hur mycket vin dricker du? Nu dricker jag inte vin. Ibland dricker jag rött vin, men jag dricker inte ofta. Ibland dricker jag rött vin men jag dricker aldrig vatten. Pojken dricker inte rött vin och inte vitt vin. Pojken dricker både mjölk och vatten. Flickan dricker helst vatten, men nu dricker inte.

Bad Criticism in Language Learning

Glossika

Today I have the privilege of introducing Glossika, (Mike Cambell). Glossika is both a linguist and a polyglot. I have been watching his YouTube videos for a few weeks. It is a rare event that I will actually go out on a limb and give a call out to another person. This is one of those rare occasions. Not only do I think Glossika is an impressive person, but I also recommend all my viewers to check out his channel immediately. You can find his channel simply by clicking on his name as it appears in this blog.

Glossika learns foreign languages because he loves them. There is not a single ethnocentric bone in his body. If only other people had this kind of open-mindedness. He does not express any negative attitude towards any particular language. He does not express any value judgment’s towards rare languages. He understands that there is no such thing as a useless language. Learning languages will give a person a richer and fuller ability to appreciation of things they otherwise would not have been able to appreciate.

 Glossika has no agenda other than sharing his love for languages. His YouTube channel contains dozens of fantastic videos. These videos not only show us his impressive language abilities, but also instructions and good advice about how to learn a language.

I grew up in a part of the United States, within a specific family culture that was and is VERY ethnocentric. I am sure you know the types. Those people who think that English is the best language on earth and everyone should speak English as a primary language. The same people who think that America is the best country on earth, yet they have never even lived in another country. These people place the English language at the top of an imaginary hierarchy and subsequently assigns other languages a lower value. They boast that English is allegedly the hardest language to learn, but they have never studied any foreign languages themselves. I do not see how any person can make that claim without having fluency in at least one other language.The funny thing is that the people who tend to make these ethnocentric arguments tend to be high school dropouts who could not even give a single English lesson if they tried. As you can see – I am very judgmental and openly admit it.

Glossika is not judgmental like me. At the same time, he embraces a lot of the qualities I wish Americans would embrace. That is one of many reasons he is one of my favorite YouTube Polyglots

Glossika’s goal is simply to teach and share with a large audience. He does not get involved in drama. He even makes it clear on his channel that all “subjective political and religious comments will be deleted.” He recently uploaded a video about some of the negative criticism one can receive when they upload a video in another language.

The reality is that Youtube is full of trolls. Their only goal is to tear a person down. In his video, Glossika gives some solid advice about how to deal with abuse, haters and trolls. He also encourages people to continue their language learning goals. I think that his message is important which is why I asked his permission to mirror the video on my channel.

I especially like his video about linguistics, polyglots, and philologistics. Not only does Glossika teach us languages, but he also teaches us about the science of language learning. 

Kudos to Glossika! Keep up the good work!

My progress on Live Mocha

   While I have been in bed with a broken rib, I have been making some progress on Live Mocha. I wish I could do some other things right now, but being on my back for the next two weeks is going to slow down my language learning a bit.