TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 33 of 65 22 April 2012 at 8:42am | IP Logged |
Funnily enough, yeah, after two and a half years of study, the page does indeed make perfect sense to me. I
can't form all conjugations of all verbs by any means, but I know and understand the rules. It's difficult, and
takes a lot of time, but not impossible.
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liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)
| Message 34 of 65 23 April 2012 at 5:02am | IP Logged |
I have gotten one week of Georgian study under my belt. It is pretty clear this language is not going to be a walk
in the park (...not that I expected it to be after all!). Take for example that in Georgian, the word for father is
mama, the word for mother is deda and the word for boy is bitchi!
These first few weeks are arguably my favorite part with language learning. I just love learning how different
languages are extracted from random sounds and assembled in such a way that they mean something to people.
I am fascinated how Japanese can do it a certain way which is totally different from Italian which is completely
different from Georgian! Yet for each of those groups, the sounds and sentences have lucid meaning. I can
already tell that Georgian is remarkably different in its grammar and syntax than any other language I have
studied; I can see how linguists get so excited over it!
I found a great course that teaches "Survival Georgian". It is put out by the Peace Corps and is completely free. ( I
just love free knowledge!) You can find it here for yourself if you are interested :
http://sites.google.com/site/soyouwanttolearnalanguage/georg ian
So, I have really just scratched the surface of the very basics of this alien language. I am through Lesson 5 which
means I have mastered such necessities as:
Where are you from?
saidan xarT?
What is your name? (pl./formal)
(sg./informal)
ra gqviaT?
ra gqvia?
My name is...
...mqvia (sounds like "mivqueeah")
Nice to meet you
sasiamovnoa
( and the most important phrase in any language ...)
Excuse me, where is the toilet/restroom?
Bodhishi, sad aris tualeti?
Of course, I can also now say "I am a Peace Corps Volunteer" effortlessly... which does me no good as I'm fairly
sure I won't ever be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia in this lifetime. Oh well.
The lessons are fun because there are also VIDEO lessons that come with the pack. These lessons are led by a
Georgian instructor named Keti.
Keti is VERY intense. Keti does not smile. Keti looks like she could (and would) kick the living crap out of me
even though I probably outweigh her by 100 pounds. Keti WILL teach you Georgian ... or else! Despite my being
somewhat intimidated by my virtual instructor, video lessons with Keti are quite entertaining. In a sense I feel
like I am transported back to the Cold-War era and am receiving some sort of secret CIA assignment.
" Say 'I am a Peace Corps Volunteer'." "SAY IT!!! ... I will break you ......"
Nevertheless, in the next week or two, I hope to finish the "Peace Corps Survival Georgian" Course. After that I'll
go back to Book2 and start on the Beginner's Georgian course. At that point I may actually have enough under
my belt to start finding actual people to speak Georgian with! (frightening...)
Edited by liddytime on 23 April 2012 at 5:02am
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geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian
| Message 35 of 65 23 April 2012 at 5:18am | IP Logged |
liddytime wrote:
Take for example that in Georgian, the word for father is
mama, the word for mother is deda and the word for boy is bitchi!
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Love it!! Reminds me of the illuminating observation I heard about Hebrew years ago (delivered at top speed, for
maximum effect):
Hebrew: the language where "me" is who, "who" is he, and "he" is she.
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Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 36 of 65 23 April 2012 at 7:51am | IP Logged |
I love this log! I am having so much fun reading it- while I'm making an effort NOT to learn the Georgian
words. Phew. The only thing I got was that toilet sounds like the equivalent word in Turkish. That's not
learning anything, right? :-)
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Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian
| Message 37 of 65 23 April 2012 at 4:20pm | IP Logged |
Where did you get the video for Peace Corps from? I don't remember seeing it coming along.
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liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)
| Message 38 of 65 23 April 2012 at 4:52pm | IP Logged |
Expugnator wrote:
Where did you get the video for Peace Corps from? I don't remember seeing it coming along.
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Go to this link and then go to the link that says "Peace Corps + audio". Then a direct download of the files should start.
http://sites.google.com/site/soyouwanttolearnalanguage/georg ian
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
I love this log! I am having so much fun reading it- while I'm making an effort NOT to learn the
Georgian words. Phew. The only thing I got was that toilet sounds like the equivalent word in Turkish. That's not
learning anything, right? :-) |
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THANKS! But be careful, just like TixiiDon warned you: We are infiltrating your brains with Georgian... resistance is
futile ... you can't hide .. you WILL know Georgian soon!!! (So you had better tell your daughter to start studying ;-) since
you are subliminally learning Georgian)
Edited by liddytime on 23 April 2012 at 4:53pm
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zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4930 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese
| Message 39 of 65 24 April 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged |
This log is so much fun! Keep going with your language learning, liddy! It sounds like you are having a blast!
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zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4930 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese
| Message 40 of 65 24 April 2012 at 4:39am | IP Logged |
By the way, the Georgian alphabet looks very nice. It reminds me a little of the Greek alphabet.
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