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Chung at work / Chung pri práci | ||
Tags: Azerbaijani | Uzbek | Turkic languages | Uralic Languages | Slovak | Comic Strip/Cartoon | Serbian | Serbo-Croatian | Ukrainian | Croatian | Endangered Language | Linguistics | Hungarian | Finnish | Turkish | Polish | Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 25 of 541 24 May 2011 at 7:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm still grinding my way through Finnish. Unfortunately Polish and Slovak have taken the back seat in my studies (actually it's more like they've been put in the trunk but as in putting in long pieces of lumber or big furniture, I can't shut the trunk door on them, and so I can't lose sight of them). I've found a Finnish tutor who's willing to help me and correct some of the exercises in FSI Conversational Finnish that lack answer keys (these are usually the "Function Exercises" at the end of each chapter in the main textbook) so I'm looking forward to getting feedback on what I put down for "freer" exercises (e.g. adding my impressions in Finnish about Finnish cuisine compared to North American cuisine).
One of my Finnish friends sent a link to me of a Danish cartoonist's strips from "Scandinavia and the World". There are a lot of gems in these strips but here's the best one which is tangentially related to my studies in Finnish (partial background: it plays on the stereotype of the quiet but proud Finnish man turning into putty when dealing with a Swedish woman who is stereotyped as a busty and (over)sexed blonde). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 26 of 541 07 June 2011 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was talking with an acquaintance yesterday who was wondering how I deal with so many languages that seem so unfamiliar to the average native speaker of English. To put things in perspective for him, I explained that the languages that I'm familiar with are from a handful of sub-groups which in turn derive from one of two language families (i.e. Indo-European and Uralic). In other words it's not as huge a stretch as it seems even though I do mix things up (especially when I use a Slavonic language since I'm familiar with half of a dozen of them in varying degrees).
As a rough guide I expressed my perception of the degree of similarity between some languages that I'm familiar with using reference points understandable to him. - Bosnian/Croatian/Montengerin/Serbian (BCMS) are about as distinct from each other as much as American English is to British English (hence why I tend to treat them all under "Serbo-Croatian") - Czech and Slovak are about as distinct from each other as English and Scots or a little less than Spanish and Portuguese. - Polish differs from Czech or Slovak roughly as much as Spanish does from Portuguese - Finnish and Estonian are roughly distinct from each other as much as German and Dutch - Slovenian differs from BCMS roughly as much as Spanish from Portuguese - Hungarian differs from Finnish or Estonian roughly as much as English from any Slavonic language - Ukrainian differs from Polish roughly as much as English and German, but from Slovak roughly as much as English and Dutch My point was to show that despite the number of exotic-sounding names in my profile for monoglots of English, the degree of similarity between certain combinations of these languages allows me to cheat a bit. To the informed observer my profile is not all that extraordinary. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6107 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 27 of 541 07 June 2011 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Very nice distinctions.
How would you perceive the difference between Polish and Latvian? (Maybe French from Swedish?) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 28 of 541 07 June 2011 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe, but my grasp of Latvian is limited to a few words and basic familiarity with its grammatical concepts. If I were you, I'd ask Miegamice about this pair since she's a native speaker of Polish and Latvian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 29 of 541 06 July 2011 at 7:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have added a fourth language to my profile: Inari Saami.
More information about Inari Saami can be found at Siida (The museum of Saamic culture in Inari, Finland) and Wikipedia. A list of textbooks in this language can be found on this page maintained by the Saami Parliament in Finland. I will be getting an introduction to reading and writing this language using the textbook “Sämikielâ 1” by Kari Meløy. The book contains 10 lessons and is the first volume of a set of 3 textbooks on Inari Sami with Finnish as the intermediary language. I picked up this book along with several for learning Northern Saami while on a recent trip to Finnish Lapland (unfortunately I couldn't find the second and third book of the series). I had been thinking of taking up Sprachprofi's call for a 6-week challenge starting on August 1 using Inari Saami but have decided to study outside the challenge because of time constraints. I estimate that I can complete this textbook over the next 3 to 5 weeks. The primary goal is to acquaint myself with Inari Saami while the secondary goal is to satisfy a strong philological interest in Uralic languages. I am not expecting to gain anything more than passive limited/survival-level knowledge of this language. If my foray into Inari Saami goes well enough, I may continue my studies in Saamic by moving to the more established Northern Saami by completing at least the Finnish edition of the basic course Davvin 1. Given the basic level of the language taught in “Sämikielâ 1”, I suspect that my lack of support materials (e.g. dictionaries, reference manuals on grammar) will not be a problem and scouring Wikipedia or the website of Siida (the museum of Saamic culture in Finland) will provide enough background information when required. The book itself is about 80 pages thick and designed for children between the ages of 12 and 14. Unfortunately the book lacks an answer key and audio but this reflects its intended use in a classroom rather than by the independent learner. I may or may not be successful in finding a native-speaker to correct my answers to the homework in this textbook. As I complete each chapter, I plan to summarize what I've learned and at the end of the course will post general observations including ones that touch on comparaisons with other Uralic languages that I've studied (especially Finnish). I have already begun my studies here by reading the entire first chapter and will complete its exercises by Thursday evening. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kafea Groupie United States Joined 4934 days ago 78 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Smi | Message 30 of 541 06 July 2011 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi, My Finnish friend has shared this bookstore website with me.
Sorry, there must be a better way to add the link. Try again. Finnish bookstore 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kafea Groupie United States Joined 4934 days ago 78 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Smi | Message 31 of 541 06 July 2011 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh, it worked! Click "Finnish Bookstore" in the above post.
I have the "Talk Now" and the "Vocabulary Builder" but these are not enough to create a working knowledge of the language. It helps, though. Vocabulary Builder does not have the same printing option for the dictionary that Talk Now has. Everything was going well until we hit the numbers for time-telling. That is downright intimidating. Edited by Kafea on 06 July 2011 at 4:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 32 of 541 06 July 2011 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, it's an excellent place for a student of any language in Finland despite rarely offering deep discounts on inventory of language-learning material (e.g. I got Gummerus' large English-Finnish dictionary from a competing bookstore for about 18 Euros while Akateeminen was charging the suggested retail price of about 80 Euros). The particular link in your post shows that what few Saamic learning materials Akateeminen Kirjakauppa offers are sold at a much higher price (e.g. Sammallahti's book on Saamic languages costs 65 Euros at Akateeminen Kirjakauppa but 35 Euros at Sami Duodji ry and Siida).
Kafea, I don't know how much Norwegian you can understand but the publisher, Davvi Girji offers a couple of free e-books that teach some Northern Saami phrases with some of these translated into Norwegian (if you can read some Danish or Swedish, you shouldn't have trouble understanding the Norwegian translations either). These e-books seem to me as if they're meant for beginners or perhaps even children because of the basic phrases and the large and colorful illustrations/animation. The e-books are Boađe mu mielde! and Bures boahtin!. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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