20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3
Medulin
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Croatia
Joined 4464 days ago
1199 posts - 2192 votes 
Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali
| Message 17 of 20 21 May 2014 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
Indian languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada have a lot of media (including flourishing movie industry),
as well as good bilingual English dictionaries (targeted to Indians learning English), but very few (modern) textbooks,
which limits their appeal as languages non-Indians would study.
My Malayalam textbook is a 1995 reprint of the 1911 original, and most vocabulary in it is dated.
Edited by Medulin on 21 May 2014 at 12:06pm
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 4962 days ago
3335 posts - 4349 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian
| Message 18 of 20 21 May 2014 at 7:32pm | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
[QUOTE=Kai]
For example, Northern Saami has a lot of material considering that roughly 15,000 people speak it, almost all of whom live in far northern Fennoscandinavia. However if you can navigate Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish websites, you can get free and legal streams of news broadcasts and children shows in the language, not to mention use courses and bilingual dictionaries published in one of those three aforementioned languages as intermediaries.
Perhaps a better approach to your question would be to start at unzum's So You Want to Learn a Language since a comprehensive answer to your question depends on the experience of each person. If you had asked me about media in Northern Saami a few years ago when I started to study the language, I wouldn't have been able to provide that much stuff. In the meantime I've come across plenty of material and now say with confidence that if anyone has at least a shred of motivation to learn it, there is a lot available. |
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Thank you for reminding me about that, Chung! Northern Saami hasn't been forgotten. And I even learned to read Scandinavian in the mean time.
I have to say those videos and podcasts that are only available at some countries represented bad news for learners. It happens more often than enough that I'm happy to have found a good resource only to figure out it is only available within the country.
On the other hand, I learned Papiamento mostly with native media, and while there isn't much published in terms of books that would account for a Super Challenge, there are new videos and news articles and songs being posted everyday.
I think when it comes to less common languages an accurate picture can only be taken when you more or less read in the language. i'm sure I will come across other Georgian TV shows by the time I reach a B2 level.
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| Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4896 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German
| Message 19 of 20 21 May 2014 at 11:41pm | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
Perhaps a better approach to your question would be to start at unzum's
So You Want to Learn a
Language since a comprehensive answer to your question depends on the experience
of each person. If you had asked me about media in Northern Saami a few years ago when
I started to study the language, I wouldn't have been able to provide that much stuff.
In the meantime I've come across plenty of material and now say with confidence that if
anyone has at least a shred of motivation to learn it, there is a lot available.
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That is a very useful website as is one of the sites that it recommends:
links4languages.
This is a very useful question, by the way.
I have always wanted a website that would rank languages not by number of speakers, but
by the number of books published in them.
Edited by Darklight1216 on 21 May 2014 at 11:45pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5058 days ago
2237 posts - 6731 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 20 of 20 22 May 2014 at 12:40am | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
| If you had asked me about media in Northern Saami a few years ago when I started to study the language, I wouldn't have been able to provide that much stuff. In the meantime I've come across plenty of material and now say with confidence that if anyone has at least a shred of motivation to learn it, there is a lot available. |
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Speaking of which, this just came across my twitter feed via @IndigenousTweet and @ArcticLanguages: Three Sámi languages have their own TV station
barrentobserver.com wrote:
...A few kilometres off the main road, deep in an evergreen forest, an all-Sámi language broadcast station has just switched off air for the morning.
The fevered buzz in Yle Sápmi dies down for a couple hours as reporters prepare for the afternoon and evening shows, scouring the indigenous communities for news to share with the rest of Finland.
Every year the station’s place in the Finnish news market grows a little stronger as more programs and resources are invested in promoting indigenous culture over the airwaves.
“I could be in Brazil or China, but I am here and I am very happy,” says Pirita Näkkäläjärvi, Head of Yle Sápmi. ...Officially, there are just 3,000 people who speak any of the three Sámi languages in Finland, although there are many more with some understanding of them. As is the case with minority and indigenous languages around the world, the number is constantly falling as older speakers die and take a small part of the language with them.
But as the language wanes with the older generation, some younger Sámi speakers are starting to return to their indigenous roots. A new youth talk show conducted in two Sámi languages simultaneously is giving the ancient tongues a modern and popular twist.
“I was really determined to bring something for the younger people. We have such a vibrant young Sámi culture,” says Näkkäläjärvi about the hit radio program.
Connecting indigenous people of all ages with the rest of Finland is a key mandate for Yle. Giving a voice to the Sámi people helps the dialogue on both sides of the cultural divide.
“Most news in Finland are broadcast in Finnish, by Finns,” says Näkkäläjärvi. “Our job is to open up the Sámi perspective.” |
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This shows, once again, what a government can do for indigenous minority languages when there is a will and the funds to make that will a reality.
Poor Ladino doesn't have that level of support. Still, there is enough media available despite no Ladino translation of Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Seek and ye shall find.
Edited by iguanamon on 22 May 2014 at 12:42am
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