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
Oh, hey look, there's new Doctor Who today, eh? Well, I guess I'll be missing this season, too.*
ReplyDelete*Note to all: This line was designed for the sole purpose of infuriating O'Neill. I'm sorry, sister.
That's quite an interesting topic that you have for your presentation, but how many different ways have you learned languages? I can see you comparing the school's teaching of German and your learning of Luxembourgish, but what more do you have?
So, how fluent are you in Luxembourgish now, sis? Conversationally fluent? COMPLETELY fluent?
The video should be a fun component of your presentation. Maybe you can have it appear every once in a while to add something to your presentation.
It is extremely interesting that just in order to fit into society, Luxembourgers (pronounced Lux-em-burgers; mmmm...) have to be trilingual.
Luxembourgish has the same sentence structure as Japanese! That is all.
ETHAN. OH MY GOD. JUST SIT DOWN IN FRONT OF YOUR TELEVISION AND WATCH BBC 'MURICA. IT WILL NOT KILL YOU.
DeleteI am definitely not completely fluent in Luxembourgish, but as I said in my presentation, I'd be able to get by a bit if I was suddenly plopped down in the country. I have an atrocious accent, though, but I'm trying to improve. After all, a lot of stuff is pronounced like in French, which I'm not familiar with at all. In fact, the weird pronunication and silent letters is why I didn't take French.
Japanese, really? I thought theirs was a lot different. Hmmm.
But we don't get BBC 'MURICA with our silly Verizon package! McDaniels is right, we do need more TV providers around here.
DeleteDidn't know that Luxembourgish was like French; I thought it was mainly German. Would you say that it's a mix of them?
Yep, Japanese uses the subject-object-verb sentence structure, just like "I have driven a car" in Luxembourgish. I like that more than the English subject-verb-object.
I really like the approach that you are taking your your presentation! It is very original! I cannot wait to learn a little bit of Luxembourgish! (I probably spelled that wrong. Spell check is so confused.) I think that it is a good idea to teach your audience a little bit of what you learned. It will help to prove your skills.
ReplyDeleteAs a suggestion, I think it would be fun to learn a couple sentences in Luxembourgish, such as "hello", "how are you?", etc.
Good luck with tour video and presentation!
Your presentation concept seems pretty interesting. The idea of having a video clip is pretty solid proof of your skill. The fact that Luxembourgish people are very private and that they use french and german when out in public is pretty interesting, too. I am also happy that I can now say that I can speak a sentence in luxembourgish (Unfortunatley, it's not "I don't speak luxembourgish." I guess i'll figure that out later). I also find it funny how you mention that "we keep the subject because we are not savages," considering that there are languages such as Japanese where the subject is implied most of the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, are there any other times when luxembourgish would be the used language, other than with family?
Thank you for commenting! And don't worry, I can only say a few different sentences off the top of my head. Others take a bit of thinking.
DeleteAt least in Japanese you know what the subject is and it's sometimes there! I've seen people in my classes (English and German) that don't put subjects in sentences or put it in the wrong place, and it infuriates me. If it's not implied or there, then you need some help, my friend.
Luxembourgish is used in the early years of primary school, and later they use it during some class direction and things like that. But it's mostly at home or in more casual settings, as far as I'm able to make out.
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