Language Learning Journal - Somali #1 - Vocabulary

A very good Sunday to you all!

I'm aware that I'm not posting too often at the moment, so I'm trying my hand at incorporating my blog into my language learning a little more ...to document my techniques and give you all a little insight into what works for me (and perhaps also what doesn't).

I'm going to try not to reflect so much on my posts being so polished and allowing them to be more ephemeral; to show a journey.  After all, making mistakes is key to learning a language, so I'd be a hypocrite to preach about language learning without showing my own!

I'm also hoping hereby to shame myself a little into progressing a little faster than I have been.

This evening's learning is Somali - a language that I started looking at around 18 months ago when I found myself suddenly unemployed and reflecting on the lack of applicable language skills that I possess - believe me, French and German do not get you very far in the jobs market!

I've not got very far - due to my being very much settled in a new job and also as Somali's a very tough nut to crack - but my desire to learn new languages never completely fails so I'm prepared to attack it with fresh vigour!

I'm finding that one of the complexities with Somali is the lack of available materials - be it text books or online resources - so here's how I've been going about learning new Somali vocabulary thus far: 

1 - Memrise

There are some decent user-created lists already to hand on Memrise (example: https://www.memrise.com/course/52251/somali-for-beginners/).  Unfortunately there aren't any sound files attached to aid with your pronunciation, so that will require a different approach.

2 - Google Search

In order to try and keep my vocabulary contextual I've been using Google to help me to further my learning on Memrise

This means simply typing my memrise vocabulary - one word at a time - into Google along with "Somali" to see what word combinations come back.  The top searches are likely to be the most frequently used combinations in the Somali language, so I record any complete ones.

3 - Google Translate

Whilst not an ideal tool for all types of translation, this is still a valid tool for garnering a basic understanding.  If I type my newly discovered phrase into Google Translate and it doesn't make sense then I can try breaking it down until it does.  This way I can learn new words and - more importantly - new constructs that will help me to build up my comprehension of the language.  If I understand the phrase but something still doesn't quite make sense I note it down for later - there's most likely a grammatical rule that I don't yet understand that's causing this!  Reversing the source and target languages often helps reveal things too!

4 - Back to memrise

Finally, I load my new vocabulary into my own vocabulary list on Memrise

5 - Repeat

To illustrate how this works...

I learnt from memrise that dayuurad means plane (1).  My first hit on Google gave me dayuurad ku burburtay Soomaaliya (2).

 which translated to "plane crashes in Somalia" in Google Translate (3).

This sentence makes perfect sense, but I still haven't learnt any new words.  I already know ku to mean "to", roughly, Soomaaliya is Somalia, so the only unknown is burburtay, which is a verb, and I don't yet understand enough about verb constructs to understand how this has been conjugated, or surmise an infinitive form.

...so I make a note to look into the basics of verbs in my next grammar session, and I will learn this phrase as a whole until I am able to understand its components (4).

If anyone reading this is also learning Somali I'd be very interested to hear how my own methods compare with your own!  I do also use mine for other languages, especially in the early days where my level is not sufficient for me to read longer texts.

GERMAN VOCAB - EYES TO REMEMBER

EINE AUGE - AN EYE

DIE AUGEN - EYES

Language Tools - Memrise

Today I post my first ever review, of sorts, of a language learning tool:  a website by the name of Memrise

www.memrise.com

I was introduced to this site only a few days ago by a friend, a fellow language-learner, and I am already waxing lyrical about it's sheer inventiveness in using modern trends to allow the user to learn language in a fun, creative, goal-orientated and interactive manner.

In fact I think this may be the first language-learning method that I have come across to combine all four of these elements.

Websites of this kind are rare as it is, even rarer with the impending closure of my previous favourite, Wordchamp.  But Memrise has an extra trick up its sleeve: you learn through memes, or 'mem's.

Sometimes these can take the form of text:

other times they can be images:

But, crucially, you can pick them yourself from user-submitted suggestions.  This means that:

1. You can pick a memory aid that resonates with you personally

2. Through selecting that aid you will be forced to process the other alternatives and anchor the word much more firmly by default.

3. If you have a better idea you can submit you own, that may go on to help other users.

Innovative, fun, creative, interactive.

You are then tested on your understanding of the vocabulary by multiple choice:

and by text input:

You are graded, and advised which words/phrases need revision, and how often, so whilst being engaging Memrise also manages to retain the need for goals and rewards that keep the learner on track and pushes them to do more.

Quite simply and outstanding tool!  If you're learning a language, especially as a beginner, I urge you to sign up and check this out.

I will most likely be creating lessons and memes of my own for my "Language Through Song" project that was looking a little too wordy and difficult to digest as a series of simple text posts.

A big 

THANK YOU 

to James for pushing Memrise my way!

LANGUAGE THROUGH SONG - WARLOCK (DORO) (#2)

32-46 seconds

GERMAN:

Keine Macht

Wird uns jemals trennen
(Ich) werde wie ein Tier d'rum kampfen
Du lernst mich kennen

ENGLISH:

No power

Will ever part us

I will fight like an animal for this

You are getting to know me.

VOCABULARY:

die Macht – power

jemals – ever

wie – like

ein Tier – an animal

darum; d'rum – therefore, for that reason

GRAMMAR:

Negation

“Keine Macht”

Negation is usually expressed in German by placing “nicht” [nisht] after the verb:

Ich sehe (I see) [ish zay-uh]
>

Ich sehe nicht (I don't see) [ish zay-uh nisht]

In the source text example, however, we are negating a noun rather than a verb, to express the idea of there being none of that noun.

so...

die Macht (power)

becomes...

keine Macht (no power)

The 'kein' word replaces the usual article ('the' or 'a' word), as instead of having 'the power', now we have 'no power'

The Nominative Case

“Keine Macht”

German has four cases, we will look at just one in this instance – the nominative case.

The nominative case acts on the subject of a sentence, or the person/thing in the sentence that is 'doing' the verb.

e.g. The cat sits on the mat.

In this instance 'the cat' is the subject of the sentence, as it is doing the sitting.

'The mat' isn't doing anything. It is being sat on, so it is the object of the sentence – the person/thing that the verb is being done to.

The nominative case is also used for some sentence objects – usually those being subjected to the verbs 'sein' (to be) and 'werden' (to become)

The articles for the nominative case in German are as follows:

Definite Article: (the)

masculine – der

feminine – die

neutral – das

plural – die

Indefinite Article: (a)

masculine – ein

feminine – eine

neutral – ein

plural – eine

The source text example uses a 'kein-' word, rather than an article. To get the correct form of this for the nominative subject, simply add a 'k' to an indefinite article:

eine > keine

VERBS:

trennen – to separate; to part (future tense)

Ich werde trennen – I will separate [v-air-duh trenn-un]

du wirst trennen – you will separate (informal singular) [veer-st trenn-un]

er/sie/es/man wird trennen – he/she/it/one will separate [veer-t trenn-un]

ihr werdet trennen – you will separate (informal plural) [v-air-det trenn-un]

wir werden trennen – we will separate [v-air-dun trenn-un]

Sie werden trennen – you will separate (formal) [v-air-dun trenn-un]

sie werden trennen – they will separate [v-air-dun trenn-un]

kampfen – to fight (future tense)

Ich werde kampfen – I will fight [v-air-duh kamp-fen]

du wirst kampfen - you will fight (informal singular) [veer-st kamp-fen]

er/sie/es/man wird kampfen – he/she/it/one will fight [veer-t kamp-fen]

ihr werdet kampfen – you will fight (informal plural) [v-air-det kamp-fen]

wir werden kampfen – we will fight [v-air-dun kamp-fen]

Sie werden kampfen – you will fight (formal) [v-air-dun kamp-fen]

sie werden kampfen – they will fight [v-air-dun kamp-fen]

kennenlernen – to get to know; to meet (present tense)

Ich lerne kennen – I am get too know [lair-nuh kennen]

du lernst kennen – you are get to know (informal singular) [lair-n-st kennen]

er/sie/es/man lernt kennen – he/she/it/one is getting to know [lair-n-t kennen]

ihr lernt kennen – you are getting to know (informal plural) [lair-n-t kennen]

wir lernen kennen – we are getting to know [lair-nun kennen]

Sie lernen kennen – you are getting to know (formal) [lair-nun kennen]

sie lernen kennen – they are getting to know [lair-nun kennen]

(#1).(#2)

LANGUAGE THROUGH SONG - MIKA

For a full run-through of the song's vocabulary, I've set up a lesson on memrise:

you can get a basic account for free, and more lessons will be going up in the future!

For those of you not interested in having your language tools dictated to you, there are a few useful phrases and grammar points below.  If there are any other points you'd like clarification on, please do leave a comment!

VOCABULARY

elle dit = she says
elle me dit = she says to me

être fier = to be proud

danse! = dance! (singular, imperative)

c'est quoi ton problème = what is your problem?

c'est ta vie = it's your life

fais ce que tu veux! = do what you want! (singular, imperative)

nul = rubbish

pourquoi? = why?

ça (ne) va pas bien = I'm/it's not well

j'aime = I like

un truc = a thing

GRAMMAR

ADJECTIVES:

Adjective Placement

“une chanson contente ...

une chanson déprimante”

Unlike in English, French adjectives usually follow the noun they describe.

There are instances where adjectives precede nouns, and there are rules for these, but they are extremely loose and exceptions are numerous.

Happily, though, the placement of the adjective depends on the adjective itself, so if you see an adjective following a noun, it is an adjective that will always follow its noun. The same applies for noun-preceeding adjectives.

So content and déprimant are two to add to your “noun-following adjectives” list

Adjective Agreement

“une chanson contente ...

une chanson déprimante”

French nouns have genders, and French grammar is often called upon to represent this – so adjectives have to agree in gender with their noun.

The same applies for plural nouns.

In most cases this just means adding an ending to the default form (the singular, masculine form) of the adjective.

For feminine nouns, add an “e”

For plural nouns, add an “s”

For feminine plural nouns, add both (“es”)

The “une” before “chanson” indicates that this is a feminine noun, so we add an “e” in this instance to our adjectives: contente, déprimante

More agreement – "tout"

"une chanson que tout le monde aime".

This segment follows on nicely from adjective agreement.

The word “tout”, meaning all/everything, also needs to convey gender and number.

In the given example “tout le monde”, we are talking, figuratively, about everyone in the world.

The “le” in “le monde” shows us that this is a masculine, singular noun, so we use the “tout” form.

Here are the other forms:

tout – masculine singular

tous – masculine plural

toute – feminine singular

toutes – feminine plural

Der One-Night Stand - vocab (Fr/De/En)

Wow!  How slutty are Anglophones that the Germans felt the need to steal our phrase for ‘one night stand’ as a snappy alternative to ‘sexuelles Abenteuer für eine Nacht’

Du meine Güte, wie wir Englischsprachigen schlampig sein müssen.  Wenn nicht, dann bräuchten die Deutschen unsere Wendung ‘One-Night-Stand’ nicht zu leihen

Peut-être que nous, les anglophones, soyons un peu trop coquines.  Il paraît qu’il ait fallu que les allemands nous y empruntent la phrase ‘one night stand’ (aventure sans lendemain).

ZIGGY PLAYED ... A STICK - vocabulary (French/English)

 

ZIG (masculine noun)

‘un zig’ or ‘zigue’ is an colloquial term that, depending on one’s disposition, can either mean ‘mate/buddy’ or ‘guy’ in the sense of ‘some idiot/generic unpleasant person’.  For any french speakers a more accurate description can be found here.

Colloquial as it may be, literary references, in the above link, containing the word seem to be limited to late 19th century to mid 20th century, so it’s not going to be the hippest slang ever - using vocabulary like this may force finger-on-the-pulse, language-deforming ados (teenagers) in Paris to bring out their best ‘WTF?!!’ faces and call you a pédé (fag, queer) or other similar derogatory terms.  It might be best to just stick to the more common ‘mec’ (guy) and have a secret ‘ziggy’ giggle to oneself.  Correct me if I’m wrong.

For any non-British anglophones, the photo above is of puppets Zig and Zag that frequently appeared on Saturday morning television in the 90s.  No, I have NO idea at all which one is Zig and which is Zag, sorry.

And if you enjoy having fun with the old-fashioned and innuendo then you might want to try this one on for size:

MAZETTE

which, if you choose to believe Wiktionary, means ‘bad little horse’ and as an exclamation means ‘My Goodness!’ in the sense of ‘Isn’t that a big’un!’

Original Photo by lemontreefreak21

DISCUTER A BÂTONS ROMPUS

‘to talk about this and that’

Once again I love the imagery that this phrase throws up when one attempts to approach it in a literal sense:

- discuter - to discuss- un bâton - stick- rompu - broken

Unfortunately I’m not sure what significance the ‘à’ has in this idiom, but either way it’s amusing to think of people talking about broken sticks/talking until sticks break.

Another interesting variant of an idiom:

je m’en suis mordu les doigts - I could have kicked myself

although the literal translation means ‘I bit my own fingers’

Original Photo by WaterFallFairy

AVOIR DE L’OSEILLE

This phrase translates as ‘to be rolling in it’, ‘it’ being ‘money’.

L’oseille is slang for cash, or ‘dough’ - an appropriate English equivalent considering that the literal meaning of the word has nothing at all to do with its usage in this context.  In reality, l’oseille means ‘sorrel’, a herb sometimes used in cooking.  So, remaining faithful to the structure of the british idiom translated of the French ‘avoir de l’oseille’, one could be said to be rolling around in herbs, or the sorrel, to be more precise.

Another slang term relating to cash brings us back to our old friend the bâton or ‘stick’:

un bâton - ten thousand francs

So if one were to be terribly American along the tradtion of ‘Hey darlin’, you look like a million bucks’, one could be misconstrued as having said ‘Hey chérie, you like like a stick’

…But that’s supermodels for you!

HE MADE THEM DO IT! - Vocabulary (French/English)

Original Photo by Feeferlump

IL LEUR EN A FAIT BAVER


...Interesting to consider the impact of pronouns of the meaning of a phrase.  Without the ‘en’ in this phrase, a word that has no real meaning in isolation, the meaning would be changed from …

He gave them a hard time - Il leur en a fait baver

to….

He made them dribble - Il leur a fait baver.

…which, frankly, makes this phrase unforgettable!


Vocab:


baver - to dribble
en baver - to have a hard time


Also note, placing faire in front of a verb makes it passive as in the following examples:

Je range ma chambre  - I tidy my room
Mon père me fait ranger ma chambre une fois par semine - my dad makes me tidy my room once a week. 

Je me coupe des cheveux - I am cutting my hair
Je me fais couper des cheveux - I am getting my hair cut

As the English version of this often uses the verb ‘to make’ in the sense of ‘to force to do’, it isn’t as difficult to translate as first glances may suggest.

... OF CABBAGES AND CATS - Vocabulary (French/English)*

 

original image by SmeeeRAWR

bête comme chou

this little phrase means ‘really easy‘  or ‘easy peasy’ in English.

A literal translation, however, suggests that the French are actually saying ‘stupid like a cabbage’, a collection of words that is not all that silly when you consider English phrases along the lines of having a pea for a brain.  something that is ‘bête comme chou’ is, therefore, so easy that even a stupid person could do it.

French website expressio states that this phrase dates back to the middle of the 19th century where ‘le chou’ didn’t just mean cabbage.  It could also mean head as well as bottom (the one you sit on).  At the time an intelligence that was considerably less than average what attributed to the posterior, rather than the cranium.  We are therefore lead to believe that if a person who is ‘bête comme chou’ (in the old sense of the phrase) can acheive something, then it must be very easy to do.

Faire chou blanc

To draw a blank.

The literal translation for this phrase reveals quite a cabbage-y theme for this particular set of vocabulary: ‘to make a white cabbage’

However expressio traces the phrase back to the 16th century, where a game of skittles played with no points scored was called a ‘coup blanc’, where ‘coup’ was pronounced ‘choup’ in the berrichon dialect….so maybe it doesn’t have all that much to do with cabbages after all…

original photo by richie07

Donner sa langue au chat

To give in.

Literally, ‘to give one’s tongue to the cat’.   In English, of course, cats and tongues would be more associated with the, mostly rhetorical, question ‘cat got your tongue?’ suggesting that the askee is speechless.

The origin of the French, however is from the 19th century, before which the phrase  ‘jeter sa langue aux chiens’ (to throw one’s tongue to the dogs) was used.  The phrase was changed because we throw to scraps to dogs, things that have no value, which seemed inappropriate to the meaning of the phrase.  What is more, cats were associated at the time with keeping secrets, being unable to divulge them.  At the very least the phrase comes about from a desire to soften the impact of ‘jeter sa langue au chien’, by replacing ‘jeter’ with ‘donner’ and replacing the dog with a less ferocious animal.

Avoir un chat dans la gorge

To have a frog in one’s throat.

The only word to have got altered in translation here is the name of the animal.  In France the saying is ‘to have a cat in one’s throat’.  The interchangeability of nouns in such a way is not specific to the French language.  I recently read in Mona Baker’s textbook on translation In Other Words that the it rains old ladies and sticks in Wales, where we get cats and dogs.

Il n’y a pas un chat

The place is deserted.

Tis literally translates as: ‘There is not a cat/There is not a single cat’.  Is anyone else starting to notice a proverbial cat obsession?