Anthropologist In Heels

Who is reading this blog?

I check my demographics all the time. This picture represents last weeks views.

My readers are all over the world.

Somebody must really like me, or maybe I have a few stalkers out there. :--)

I do not know about the rest of you, but with children, family and work, I am having trouble finding the time to maintain my languages. Before having these two babies, had so much free time. I could hang out in coffee shops, bookstores, and libraries. My favorite things to do.

I would conjugate verbs, write sentences and contemplate the meaning of trivial things.

Now, it is all about babies, diapers, baths, dinner, laundry, and a never ending stream of house chose that never get finished.

When could I possible pick up another language, or maintain what I have?

Good grief.

Today I took the little one up to North Seattle. I ran out of lye and need it to make my Artisan soaps.

While pushing the stroller up to the metro, I utilized my time listening to Pimsleur Mastering Chinese. I have Chinese, Russian, Italian, and Korean on my IPOD. When I walk with the baby anywhere, this is my golden opportunity to listen to languages. It is not as much as I want, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is listen to these language learning CD's in your car, on your Ipod, in the bus, subway or walking where ever you need to go.

My theory is this - the time spent listening is cumulative. It adds up slowly. Maybe a lot slower than we would like, but something is better than nothing when it comes to language learning. The key is consistency. You have to be consistent, and squeeze in those special ten or fifteen minutes every day. Just imaging how much listening you would have done in one year. Think of it like a bank account - put in fifteen dollars every day, five days a week.

It is worth it in the end.

Hyperglots Daily Routine

Did you know that polyglots are usually male and left handed? It is true! I have only known a couple other female polyglots. We are a rare breed indeed.

When I listen to the video above, his daily regime is overwhelming. I can not handle more than three languages in one day. I do not know how this man does it.

Naomi's New Language Learning Material

Irish Polyglot!

Listen...Listen...Listen....that is the secret to learning languages. LISTED !!!1

One of the best gold nuggets of advice comes from Hyperpolyglot, Laoushu. He is by far, one of my favorites.

Listen....Listen....Listen..... Moses suggests that you listen to a language, acclimatize yourself to the rhythm and phonetics of that language. When you are ready to hit the grammar books, it will all come together. Above is a Finnish news segment. The speaker is Alex Stubb. I did not know who he was until I googled his name. I would like to refer to him as blondie for the remainder of this blog. He just has that Viking look to him.

ኢትዮጵያ ግዕዝ Gəʿəz Alphabet in Photos

Amharic - The Second Most Spoken Semitic Language in the World

Ge'ez (ግዕዝ Gəʿəz), is a script used as an abugida (syllable alphabet) for several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea but originated in anabjad (consonant-only alphabet) used to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Church. InAmharic and Tigrinya the script is often called fidäl (ፊደል), which means "script" or "alphabet".