Language learning

[Drago]

I briefly dated a welsh lass, and later discovefed that the supposedly innocent welsh language phrases she had taught me were all insults. It turns out that cau eich ceg does not mean 'good morning'.

In fact, looking back as I do now, I have had a pretty international love life.

 

[Ridgeway]

We don't have too much choice here, still only 3 official languages and one unofficial (Romansh) plus it's pretty standard to take a foreign language, Italian, Spanish and Latin are offered on top of English. My neighbour who works in a village cake shop grew up in the Grison region where her mother tongue was Romansh, it seems as a base it's a good education as she has no problem to speak 7 languages

I still like putting on DVD's in an alternate language and having the subtitles in English, like that you can hear the word being spoken, see how it was mouthed and yet still read it in your reference language to compute it all, it works quite well although a "pillow teacher" is often vouched as being the best as was mentioned earlier

No2 daughter is eagerly waiting for her grades to secure a path towards a veterinary degree, she has also recently understood that the 7 year degree course is only offered in German (we're French speakers in the South) a degree in another language certainly stretches your learning

 

[theclaud]

Gog fy hunan @theclaud .

I was wondering about Duolingo though for the people that use that method, what do they teach, north / south / a mixture?

A guy I used to work with is doing an online course as he has a house in Conwy and wants to move their one day.

I saw him recently and he very excitedly came out with his newly learnt phrase from his on line course but it was South Walian which won't do him a lot of good in Conwy. I gave him the North Walian version but it did leave me wondering if he was spending a load of money for not the correct teaching.

Would be very much like learning Brazilian Portuguese but living in Portugal where you would need European Portuguese.

I figured - there ain't no isio nor efo round this way!

Well I'm learning mainly via one of the Welsh Gov-subsidised courses, which are differentiated into N and S versions, but I did blitz through the DuoLingo course last year and I try to go back and do at least one practice lesson most days. They try and standardise it somewhat across the course as a whole, but when there are consistent regional distinctions such as gyda/efo gyda/gan dych/dach they chop and change, and sometimes you get a whole lesson of one or the other. Then there are specific things that get relegated to lessons about 'dialect', so sometimes the whole lesson is in Gog and sometimes in South Walian. I'd prefer it if you could opt for one version and then choose to do the odd lesson to familiarise yourself with variations, but there you go...

 

[Chislenko]

I figured - there ain't no isio nor efo round this way!

Well I'm learning mainly via one of the Welsh Gov-subsidised courses, which are differentiated into N and S versions, but I did blitz through the DuoLingo course last year and I try to go back and do at least one practice lesson most days. They try and standardise it somewhat across the course as a whole, but when there are consistent regional distinctions such as gyda/efo gyda/gan dych/dach they chop and change, and sometimes you get a whole lesson of one or the other. Then there are specific things that get relegated to lessons about 'dialect', so sometimes the whole lesson is in Gog and sometimes in South Walian. I'd prefer it if you could opt for one version and then choose to do the odd lesson to familiarise yourself with variations, but there you go...

It's good that they are now subsidised, turn the clock back pre 99 and they were full price.
Just to add a bit more confusion in Flintshire you will hear dech instead of dych / dach and they also use a one size fits all for past tense the word "ddaru" .

It is always said that if you turn the clock back 100 years because people didn't travel much, pre radio and TV a North Walian and a South Walian would not understand each other.

Certainly until the advent of S4c words like mamgu / moen etc were alien to me. In fact I have probably spelt moen wrong!!

 

[Chislenko]

I briefly dated a welsh lass, and later discovefed that the supposedly innocent welsh language phrases she had taught me were all insults. It turns out that cau eich ceg does not mean 'good morning'.

She must have been very well spoken drago as at least she told you in "formal Welsh"

The more commonly used phrase would be cau dy geg which is informal.

 

[cookiemonster]

Used to speak reasonable Mandarin Chinese when I was in China a lot. Pretty rusty now.

Mandarin (or Putonghua as it's called here) is nothing compared to Cantonese.

I mean, 9 tones!? . Putonghua has a mere 4.

 

[theclaud]

It's good that they are now subsidised, turn the clock back pre 99 and they were full price.
Just to add a bit more confusion in Flintshire you will hear dech instead of dych / dach and they also use a one size fits all for past tense the word "ddaru" .

It is always said that if you turn the clock back 100 years because people didn't travel much, pre radio and TV a North Walian and a South Walian would not understand each other.

Certainly until the advent of S4c words like mamgu / moen etc were alien to me. In fact I have probably spelt moen wrong!!

The gov courses are so cheap it's almost criminal not to give it a go. Also because it's advantageous for work I'm supported to do it, so I do the main lesson every week on work time.

Is that as in to want? It's moyn I believe! We've also got bishi for prysur!

 

[alicat]

I love languages and learning about other cultures. I'm fluent in Yorkshire (east Leeds flavour). I've also got a degree in French and Spanish and can do passable imitations in other Romance languages except Romanian. Today I spent 8 hours checking the translation of an AGM notice of meeting booklet. To say my head is spinning is putting it mildly.

 

[Chislenko]

The gov courses are so cheap it's almost criminal not to give it a go. Also because it's advantageous for work I'm supported to do it, so I do the main lesson every week on work time.

Is that as in to want? It's moyn I believe! We've also got bishi for prysur!

Yes as in want, told you I had spelt it wrong 😟

To be fair isio is just slang / colloquial for the proper word eisiau.

 

[cookiemonster]

Finnish is bonkers as a written language...all those aaaaaaaaa s ....no idea how it’s spoken though

Finnish is not as bonkers as you think. Speaking Finnish is easier than it looks as Finnish has no silent letters and that makes life so much easier. All you do is chunk it into syllables and pronounce it from there.

Prepositions tend to be at the end of a word and part of it, which can be confusing at first. Example, we would say 'In Helsinki' whereas in Finnish it's 'Helsinki in, Helsingissa,' (there should be 2 dots on the final 'a' but I have no Finnish keyboard). That then leads onto Soumi Vokalhormonia, Finnish vowel harmony and that's bonkers. You do need to lie in a darkened room with a wet towel around your head for an hour after that.

It's hilarious though when I hear people trying to Jyvaskyla (no dots again, sorry).

 

[Cathryn]

There’s a You Tube channel called ‘Learn French with Alexa.’ I use this to compliment what I know and add to it. She has live lessons too as well as 7 years of videos. Have a nosey.

Thanks. I'm teaching Y6 French now so this might work for them.

 

[Drago]

She must have been very well spoken drago as at least she told you in "formal Welsh"

The more commonly used phrase would be cau dy geg which is informal.

Aye, in the spoken form you're muchncloser the mark,msounds like cai da geg.

 

[nickyboy]

Mandarin (or Putonghua as it's called here) is nothing compared to Cantonese.

I mean, 9 tones!? . Putonghua has a mere 4.

I only learned the rude and swear words in Cantonese. It's a great language for that stuff. Haam saap and all that

Despite everyone's fear of Chinese it's actually not a hard language to become conversant in a knockabout way. The grammar is really easy. The problem is to become fluent you really need a firm foundation based on the characters.Generally they say you need to be able to recognise a couple of thousand. Now that's a whole different ball game

Needless to say I stuck with knockabout Chinese

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Os t'isio unrhyw help efo Cymraeg.

That's a kind offer, if it means what I think (do I want help with Welsh). Of course, going with my theory, I'll need to know the size of your bank account before deciding on whether to take you as a lover.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Gog fy hunan @theclaud .

I was wondering about Duolingo though for the people that use that method, what do they teach, north / south / a mixture?

A guy I used to work with is doing an online course as he has a house in Conwy and wants to move their one day.

I saw him recently and he very excitedly came out with his newly learnt phrase from his on line course but it was South Walian which won't do him a lot of good in Conwy. I gave him the North Walian version but it did leave me wondering if he was spending a load of money for not the correct teaching.

Would be very much like learning Brazilian Portuguese but living in Portugal where you would need European Portuguese.

In my limited knowledge they split north and south Wales (possession gyda gan so far), but you can't progress until you've done both I think. Actually I might check that as it would seem to be strange if you couldn't.