Blogs I've Commented On

I've posted comments on the following blogs this week:

• http://johnrecording.blogspot.com/
• http://brookesknitting.blogspot.com/
• http://ianhebrew.blogspot.com/

Week Before Project

Happy Spring Break! Happy Saturday! Happy Holy Saturday! Happy Doctor Who Day!

I've been a busy bee the last couple of days. I've been trying to focus on my Prezi and not my blog, since the former takes the most work. However, I'm back, with my Prezi almost completed! *Spoilers sweetie* I've decided not to go the endangered languages route or the what-can-you-learn about your own language route for my presentation. Instead, I'm going to talk about the different ways to learn a language and what you can do with a foreign language. I think I can include more information this way, and after all, Luxembourgish isn't endangered, as further research has taught me that it's spoken by everyone in the country in a variety of ways. I've been thinking that it was spoken by children at home and adults in the most casual of situations, but there are novels in Luxembourgish and it's used in schools and the government. I'm happy to be proven wrong, since languages are very important cultural cornerstones.

As I've stated before, my final product will be a video embedded in my presentation. I'll be using many of the things my lessons (completed!) talked about. I'll include nouns and adjectives, greetings, the present and past tenses, negations, and other things. I'll subtitle the video and pronounce things as best I can. Maybe I'll say a few ridiculous things to make people laugh. People like that. But my accent is awful. Ugh.

While researching different things I could do for my presentation, I've learned a lot, even about things I'm not including in my presentation. For example, Luxembourgers are very private and formal people. They don't tell anyone anything ever. Sounds a little bit stuffy and repressed, like they're Vulcans or something, but maybe they discuss personal things with their families. Anyway, language use depends on what situation you're in. Restaurants, use French. In the office, use French or German. At home with your family, use Luxembourgish. Speaking to a foreigner, use whatever they spoke or look at them very confused if they jabber away in Chinese. Unless you know Chinese, in which case good on you. I'm going to touch on these distinctions in my presentation when I talk about my own experiences with the language.

Let's go back to my lessons. I'm very excited. I learned the past tense, among other things liek complex sentences and yet more vocabulary. I've been waiting for this like I've been waiting for my shows and movies (I'm waiting for like 6 different shows okay and the next Star Trek movie and the Matt Smith-Ryan Gosling film, okay, this Luxembourgish is intense). Past tense actually really simple and it works like German. For example:

Ech hu en Auto gefuhr. -------> I have driven a car.

The subject, ech, comes first because we are not savages. We speak proper Luxembourgish here. Then comes the auxiliary (helping) verb which means 'to have.' We have this in English. After this is the direct object, the thing being used. Finally there is the past participle gefuhr. This is the equivalent of driven. Pretty easy. The website gave me a bunch of past participles of multiple verbs, and they're not that far from the originals.

Ask loads of questions at my presentation, please! I'm really looking forward to everyone else's! 

P.S. The pesky Hereditary Grand Duchess is still around. I'll break their spirits. One day.

Readings:

• http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/luxembourg.html
• http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Luxembourg.html

A Beautiful Vlog

Okay, so hopefully this will work. If it doesn't, here is a Vimeo link.

Ech sinn d’O’Neill. Ech wunne an d'Vereengte Staate vun Amerika. Ich brauch e Computer fir Aufgabe zie maachen. E Computer ass bëlleg. Si kaschten sechshönnert Dollar. Anerersäits sinn Bicher net bëlleg.
Si kaschten zwanzeg Dollar.

See? I told you it wasn't German.

Vimeo link:
https://vimeo.com/62192860

Week Four (I think)

My lesson for this week was jam-packed. The verbs kaschten, kafen, brauchen, kréien, comparison and degrees of comparison, pronouns, the fir ze locution, and the niceties, as well as using vocabulary from previous lessons. I also have to remember the 'n' rule (thank you Herr Boudoumit) which is kind of like saying 'a' or 'an' before a noun. It all makes sense and I know where these things go in sentences, but the trouble is memorizing the words, and in the case of the verbs, conjugations. Conjugations, like their endings, aren't regular at all and it makes me unhappy. For example:

To need           To buy

Ech brauch      Ech kafen

Du brauchs     Du keefs

Hie brauch     Hie keeft

Hatt brauch     Hatt keeft

Si brauch     Si brauch

Mir brauchen     Mir kafen

Dir braucht     Dir kaaft

Si brauchen      Si kafe

See? While some conjugations are similar, they're not exactly the same and I haven't been presented with any rules as to how to conjugate verbs. There aren't many Luxembourgish verb resources, so I have to do without and just memorize. It seems to m that this QuattroPole website is taking me beyond what would amount to Luxembourgish I. This is starting to get to Luxembourgish II. The intensity is building.

On the bright side I've been practicing my note cards and I've memorized a bunch of words. Simple stuff, like kitchen and grass and blue. Just going over them again and again is helpful for German and it's been just as effective for Luxembourgish. You can practice note cards anytime, anywhere. Also, activities like these, when you see the word with a picture and hear a recording of a person saying it, are excellent: 

For my final product I will still be making my video and incorporating it into my presentation, but I've decided upon some changes Since this TED Talk will be in the Audion and it'll be a bit awkward to do translations of things I just said, I'll make a video of myself saying certain phrases and show it to the audience. The video will still have subtitles and I might go into some rules of Luxembourgish, but my fabulous adventure won't be the sole topic of  my talk. I'm going to make a Prezi because they look really cool, but there are two possible topics I would talk about. I'm interested in dying/little-spoken languages (thank you, Drew Ells) and I've found a few things (here, here, and here) that talk about them and their importance. However, I think talking about how learning a foreign language helps you better connect to your own. I could definitely talk about either one for three to five minutes, with my video. Does anyone have any preferences or advice? Does anyone speak a dying language that can give insight? No one? No one? Latin counts, guys.

Okay, I think I've bored you long enough, but I have one more thing to talk about. Online flashcards sites. May the alien god Xenu bless and keep them. They're just as effective as note cards and I've come across some words I wasn't taught using QuattroPole. Very useful. Beautiful things.

Alright, now go off and do whatever it is you do when you're not stalking my blog. Go. Shoo.

P.S. I am still not Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Baby steps.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for my vlog later today.

First link:

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

Second link:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/tech/web/google-fights-save-language-mashable

Third link:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/

Flashcard links:

http://quizlet.com/12762320/luxembourgish-flash-cards/

http://flashcarddb.com/isl/study/luxembourgish

Comments- Week Three

This week I've commented on these blogs:

• www.ccphotograph.blogspot.com
• www.aslin7weeks.blogspot.com
• www.brookesknitting.blogspot.com

Week Three

Ech sinn d’O’Neill. Ech hunn en Computer. Ech femme net. Wien sidd Dir? Firwat femmes du?

My name is O’Neill. I have a computer. I do not smoke. Who are you? Why do you smoke?

I don't know why I asked why you smoke. For some reason whenever you learn a language one of the first verbs they teach you is 'to smoke.' I think they're trying to make a statement. Maybe they think I'll grow up to be a smoker. I sure hope not.

This week I’ve been reviewing and memorizing so that I can build up before moving on to harder stuff. I’m trying to focus on vocabulary and pronunciation, since I pretty much have the simple grammar down pat. I’ve made some fabulous note cards with the Luxembourgish noun, plural form, and pronunciation on one side and the English meaning on the other. I haven’t touched these yet, since I need to make another set for verbs and their forms. I want to get those through first. I’m trying to figure out how Luxembourgish verbs are conjugated so that I can memorize them more easily. I need methods, though I do have one....

Ech hunn, du hues, hien hutt, si huet, mir hunn, dir hutt, sin hunn. It's a song. I use songs now. Songs are cool. +10 to anyone who gets that joke*. But seriously, if anyone, +10 or not, has any suggestions for memorizing verb conjugations, then please put them in a comment. I enjoy getting comments, they make me feel loved. 

As with any language, Luxembourgish has pronunciation rules and weirdnesses, and they have a few letters we don’t have in English, like ë and é. I still have no idea how to pronounce é, but luckily I found this website and I've been reading up on pronunciation. It also has the Luxembourgish alphabet, which is something I only just realized I don't know.

Oh, yeah, and you know the IPA? No, not the IRA, the IPA? That International Phonetic Alphabet thing that everyone is supposed to understand easily? It is all a lie. It makes no sense to anyone who doesn't work in linguistics. I sure as heck don’t understand it or get how people can learn it without crying, but the website I want to use to help me with my pronunciation uses it. I’ll be referring to this for help with IPA.

Random segue (I just learned I've been spelling it like the Dean Kamen invention and not the actual word my entire life) to my next point, which is quite horrendous. Prepare yourselves.  

(Cue dramatic caps lock)

THERE IS NO WAY TO SAY ‘I LOVE YOU’ IN LUXEMBOURGISH. THERE IS NO VERB MEANING ‘TO LOVE.’

(End dramatic caps lock)

I was reading this blog post written by a woman living in Luxembourg when I found out this terrible piece of information. Luxembourgish has no verb that means ‘to love’ in a romantic way or to express intense like for something. Instead of saying ‘I love you’ Luxembourgers say 'Ech hunn dech gär' which means 'I like you' or 'Ech sinn frou mat dir’ which literally means ‘I am happy with you.’ For an animate example, I’m happy with a lot of people, but I don’t love a lot of people. For an inanimate example, I’m happy with a few TV channels, like NBC and CBS, but I only love one channel, BBC (which technically has a few channels, but that's for another time). The points is, this upsets me greatly, since to my knowledge basically every other language in the world has a verb that means 'to love.' I really hope Luxembourgish doesn't have any other surprises for me, since I'll just get upset whenever I have to use its weird phrases.

And do you know how I learned this? The same domain that has the pronunciation webpage has a page with useful Luxembourgish phrases, so I want to memorize those as well. I'll probably put them on note cards as well.

* (Whispers) It's Doctor Who.

P.S. The Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg is still married. But I’m working on it. 

First link:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/luxembourgish.htm
Second link:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/dictionary/ipa
Third link:
http://virtualbreath.net/curious/2008/02/02/missing-luxembourgish-expression-fehlender-luxembourgischer-ausdruck/
Fourth link:
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/luxembourgish.php

Comments- Week Two

I've commented on the following blogs for week two:

• http://ianhebrew.blogspot.com/
• http://gnisaacw.blogspot.com
• http://donnasgeniusproject.blogspot.com/