Month: June 2020

Interesting places to find Language Resources

You are a diligent language learner trying to complete your very first homework assignment but you are already stuck. As a minority language learner the search for resources is part of the struggle. Don’t spend all of your motivation before you even begin. Tackling a less common language means being creative. Keep reading for some unlikely places to find language resources.

Think back to your reasons for choosing your language and start from there.

Heritage:

Family, friends and neighbors.

Are you trying to learn the language of your family or your partner’s? Look right at home. Does grandma speak Ts’ixa? What about your great aunts or uncles, or their friends or neighbors? Ask around. Remember 6 degrees of separation? If grandma does not speak your language she might have a friend who has a friend. Don’t discount your own friends, everyone has a cousin who “knows a guy”.

Places of worship.

Is your language associated with a particular religion? You are in luck. Organized religions can be an excellent language resource. Head over to the nearest place of worship and ask for help. Any religion with a history of proselytization likely has religious materials in your language. Call and ask, I am sure they would be more than happy to send you something….. 😉

Bible translations

https://www.bible.com/versions

Employment:

Embassies, State Departments, Corporations, Non-profits

The United Nations, the World bank, the International Monetary Fund, are these language resources? Yes. They are all large organizations where knowing multiple languages is often part of the job.

State Department Language List:

https://2009-2017.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/orgoverview/languages/index.htm

World Bank

https://www.worldbank.org/en/language-resources

Interest:

Universities, Clubs, Folklore societies

If you are interested in it then someone else is too.

Let’s Begin

So it has come to this, I’ve started a blog.

I am basically a Luddite too, maybe not the violence part, but definitely the I’m-not-a-huge-adapter-to-technology-part. I keep my phones until they are updated out of existence (I stayed with Nokia until the bitter end).The fact that now, in their zillith year, I am now discovering blogs seems just about right.

Really, the only thing I know how to do with computers is type on them, so I have absolutely no business doing this. It is just that I need some help, some community, some accountability. (link?)

Language learning is hard……….

Learning a minority language is even harder. Not only do you have to work harder to find all the (any) resources, you are likely all on your own.

People who run marathons have groups, even people who run marathons in deserts have groups. People learning obscure languages should also have groups!

……….but much easier with someone else

I am not a polyglot, not an anything-glot. Just a regular person with a job and kids and poor time management skills….but I want to do this. I bet you want to do this too. Let’s do it together.

How should we start?

There are a few ways to do this. If you are at the absolute beginning of your language journey I recommend that you start with the set “homework”.(link) Spoken languages are structured via sounds. By starting with them way you set the base for everything else. (link) (link) (link)

What else?

The other way to do it is to check back here and see how I am coming along with my goal. I will be giving regular check-ins to share with you how I am (or am not progressing–feel free to write-in and remind me to get on it!)

Are you learning Irish?

So am I! I will have some specific post related to the joys and trials of trying for the ‘cupla focal’. If you are not, then write in and tell us what you are learning. Someone else out there is learning your language too. Send in your best tips (and gripes 🙂 about your language.

Let’s set some goals…..

Runners have races, gym rats track the weight they can lift. Language learners need milestones too. Maybe you want to have a complete conversation with your grandmother in her original language, or not seem too much like an idiot the next time your travel. Whatever it is, things seem to move along better when you can measure them. Find something specific and work towards it.

2020 Declension Destroyer!

Many languages have official testing bodies with fancy sounding names. They often give proficiency exams. These are excellent trackers. I know, what? I am going to start taking tests for fun? A test is just a tracker. You are out of school now, no one will rap your knuckles if you fail. This is for you to see how you are doing. It is just like the races that runners do (just no t-shirts; “I crushed my conjugations 2020”, “Verb-master”)

My goal for 2021 is to be able to take (and pass) the A2 TEG language exam when (if?, no let’s be an optimists, when) it is given in spring 2021.

What do you want to do? (link to lang exams)

(link to language milestones)

First Homework: Sound

Welcome to your language journey!

You came here for some support and accountability and here it is, your first homework assignment. I want you to go out and listen to your language.

Sounds

What, no memorization, no worksheets? “Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start.” Your first step is to listen to your language. “What, I won’t understand a word” you might be thinking.

Phonemes

We are indeed starting at the beginning, with the pieces of a language. A spoken language is made up of pieces (phonemes) of sound that when put together become representations of more complex things. The pieces themselves don’t have meaning, but without them nothing does. So first, learn about your phonemes. After you have the pieces, then you can start to put them together to say something. Read through the section on sounds in the Language tab for more information on why this is important. Next, check out opera singer Gabriel Wyner of “Fluent Forever” . He has a fabulous write-up about language and sound.

Check here (https://talkingdictionaries.app/) and here (https://www.eldp.net/here link) or here learnyourlanguage.com/interesting-places-to find some clips of someone speaking your language. Bonus points for children’s programing. Double bonus for songs or rhymes. Comprehension is not the goal right now, just cadence and flow.

Places to find sound clips

https://languageconservancy.org/

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/region

http://learnyourlanguage.com/Interesting-places-to

Your family

Seasame Street:

Embassy Websites

YouTube covers–Can you sing “Let it Go” from “Frozen” 40+ ways?? Irish, X, X

Sounds of Language

What does your language sound like? Does your language use tones? How many? Is vocal inflection used with questions? When?

Did you know that English has 44 different sounds? Did you know English has 20 different vowel sounds? If you are a native English speaker like me, then that answer is probably, no. Nor did you likely know that these sounds are called ‘Phonemes’. Phonemes are the legos of the language, the parts that are put together to transmit information. We humans were talking long before we were writing so these, rather than letters or characters are really the way a language is built.

The brain is adapted to learn a language via sound. This is how you did it. That is why I am starting our journey with sound.

So what does your language sound like? Does it have dialects?

A language is a living thing. Like all living things it is constantly changing. People move and their languages move with them. Their nicknames and abbreviations came along too. Just like in biology, separation causes a sort of ‘speciation’. First you may have a regional accent, the rules and words are all the same but the particularly the vowel sounds may change a bit. With accents the changes are technically minor. People from Wisconsin have no troubles understanding people from Alabama but they can both likely hear the differences in the others’ speech

After accents a language may develop dialects. Groups have been separated long enough that some words have changed, word order and other grammar rules may also be different. The sound of the language may be noticeably different. At this point native speakers will notice the differences but are unlikely to be unable to understand each other. Dialects can be tricky for learners, to us the “small differences” do indeed sound like another language. If I have learned “Conas atá tú?” in one Irish dialect and someone asks me “Cén choai bhfuil tú? in another dialect I may have no idea that they both mean, “How are you?”. A native speaker would have no difficulties but they would recognize that one speaker comes from the southern part of Ireland and the other from further north.

Learning Minority Languages

Why?

Why are you learning a minority language? Hearing some form of this question is probably the number one thing that we all have in common. Time is a precious resource and those around us may wonder why we are spending it on this, something with no perceived economic gain.

(add why posts/links)

Resources

Attempting to learn Chinese or Spanish for any non-native speaker is difficult, no doubt, but finding teachers, materials and apps, that is not a trial. Where I live I could probably walk less than a block and find native speakers, not to mention the explosive options on the web.

(add resource post)

(resource links)

Community

After you have finished explaining why you want to learn Aine or Rapa Nui and exhausted your motivation on finding resources, it would be nice to have someone to talk to about it all. Everything is easier with someone on your side.

Come and join us on a language journey!

This is the place for you. Everyone here understands why you are learning a minority language. All of us already understand that diversity of language leads to diversity in thought. Link up with other learners of your language through the comments. Share your struggles with us, we get it. Does your language have multiple genders or conjugate everything? We feel your pain but we will also encourage you. 🙂

Let’s Begin

How to start

(start your journey here)

(read about struggles and goals)

What is a Minority Language?

A Minority Language is a language that is spoken by a minority of the population in a particular area. It is also generally a language that is spoken as the mother-tongue of fewer than 100,000 people and therefore endangered.

Finding resources, or even recordings can often seem just as hard as attempting the language. In my case I am lucky. Irish, the language that I am attempting, has the support of 2 states (Ireland and Great Britain).

Myaamia, the language of the Miami tribe in North America does not have state support but it does have University support. Miami University (located in Ohio on, sadly, what was once Miami land) is developing classes and programs in Myaamia.

Those of you out there trying to learn other minority languages can hopefully find each other, share resources and attract interest.





Reasons Why I Started This Blog

1. Accountability
I have been plugging away for a loooong time. Hopefully some of you will join me in this process and we can all one day reach fluency.

2. Community
Trying to learn a language is hard, but trying to learn a minority language….that is something else. You feel quite alone. I would like for us all to share resources and just cheer each other on in our journey.

3. Boost Minority Languages
Language diversity is like biological diversity, important in unseen ways. As humans we need the multiple ways of thinking that minority languages preserve.