Learning languages And Listening to Words Being Spoken

Problems
Tinycards and Pronunciation
I just started trying to say hello in 50 languages, suggested by Duolingo's Tinycards. I had been using Duolingo's free ap to learn Spanish and decided to use the free Tinycards ap on Spanish fruits. The two systems are differnt. Duolingo gives you short sentences. So you learn to speak. The Tinycards are handy if you have a short attention span, it's late at night, and you want a few words of one type such as foods such as fruit to read a menu or labels in a supermarket.

Duolingo and Sounds
I have started learning twelve different languages, at first just three, Spanish, Italian and German, Welsh for a weekend in Wales, the Russian, Greek and Hebrew languages because lesson one is the alphabet and I know two or three letters from each alphabet and would like to know the whole alphabet, and others such as Portuguese, to see how it differs, and Romanian because I was hiking there.  The Duolingo main system gives recordings most of the way through.

Tinycards Without Sounds
The tiny cards don't have recordings, just one word on each side of the card, often with a picture. You click to reverse the card two or three times and then answer the question.

Learning Words For Hello In Fifty Languages
I was doing all right on the French word bonjour, which I would normally translate literally as good morning. But when I got to the second set of cards the words were Polish, cseść for hello; and Lithuanian sveiki. Firstly, no point in learning to say the wrong thing. Secondly I was stumped as to how to say it.

Accented letters
I tried Google translate which gave me the Polish.
ś=sh The accent is like adding another letter, turning the s into a sh.
ć=ch
cz is ch as in the Czech word for Czechoslovakia.
i=sounds like yeh (e as in bed not ay as in bay)

Lithuanian
But the Lithuanian isn't there. I presume no Lithuanians have yet volunteered to help.

I didn't know how the recordings were done. In a forum on one of the languages, I leanred that words have an occasional blip because in on-line dictionairies you don't have a native speaker reading every word.

Earworms
You do have a native speaker saying every word, a native speaker who is introduced and who gets the credit on the CD cover, in systems such as Earworms. That is the short version of Berlitz with background music which does all sorts of magic things, simultaneously keeping you focused whilst helping you relax.  About 200 first easy words for conversation on the plane and conversating with the flight attendant, the person sitting next to you, asking for directions, and asking the price or thanking the taxi driver.

Commputer generated voices work best when there's only one way to pronounce a word.

Let's come back to my problem, the Lithuanian and Polish prounciation.

To find the Lithuanian, I did another Google search.

YouTube
First I found a Youtube video.

Omniglot
Then I found omniglot which has a slide bar you click on to hear sounds.

Berlitz
Berlitz has schools in many countries where you can sign up for lessons.

MONEY OFF
I just went to one of their websites and they offered 30% off if I signed up by the end of this month (October 2017).

If you don't want to sign up for a course with a human teacher, you can buy their books and discs.

http://www.berlitz.de
www.earwormslearning.com
https://www.duolingo.com
https://www.tinycards.duolingo.com
https://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/lithuanian/hello3_lt.mp3
https://www.googletranslate.com

You can also learn English and other languages from films with subtitles or set the TV to show subtitles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41516251 Can you learn English from Eastenders? (How one boy did so).

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.

Say Something in Cornish, Dutch, Latin, Manx, Welsh

Problem
Where can I hear and practise saying something in Cornish, Dutch, Latin, Manx or Welsh? Why would anybody want to do so?

Answers
You can learn all these languages on several separate or group sites, and the five are grouped together in a website called 'say something in'.

Looking logically at the subject of languages, I drafted this post starting with the one I was currently learning and on which I had written recent posts, Welsh. I started looking at Welsh this year, in early 2017 before a planned trip to Wales, which I visit almost every year.

However, when writing a post, I find it easier to cover subjects alphabetically. That helps me make sure I have not forgotten any country or language. It also helps me scroll up and down the page to the language I need and helps you to read it. So, if you are only interested in Welsh, skip to the end. But, if and when you have time, go through the languages alphabetically as I have re-ordered my post. So, let's start with Cornish.

Cornish
I have seen advertisements and links to Cornish but I have never looked at Cornish before today. But with the popularity of Poldark on TV it seems to be in the news.

Cornwall is lovely. I went there as a child to the sandy beaches of St Ives. I remember waving at trains from the window of a good value guest house and walking through the woods. As a teenager and a twenty something I drank cider; I had discovered that I didn't like the strong sherry offered at sherry parties to students. As an adult, I still occasionally drink cider when I can't get anything else low alcohol.

Cornish is related to Welsh. On the omniglot website which gives a paragraph translated I can immediately see several words which look similar to English. For example, reason in Cornish is r e s o n. Just drop the letter 'a'. In is 'y n' .  I have inserted spaces to prevent any automatic spell check making changes and because it is easier to concentrate on each letter when they are separated.

Read on. The websites for further reading on all the languages in this post and the individual languages are grouped at the end.

Dutch
I meet people who speak Dutch in Holland and in Flanders, Belgium, when driving through Belgium to other countries, and at travel trade shows. I have also visited Sint Maarten (Saint Martin in Dutch) in the Carribean. A knowledge of Dutch would have been helpful in South Africa because Dutch is related to Afrikaans.

Wikipedia says of the Dutch language:

Outside of the Low Countries, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname, and also holds official status in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Historical minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France^[7] and Germany, and in Indonesia,^{[n 1]} while up to half a million native speakers may reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined.^{[n 2]} The Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa have evolved into Afrikaans, a mutually intelligible daughter language^{[n 3]} which is spoken to some degree by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia.^{[n 4]}

Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English^[

Just three easy words I have picked out:
Good morning is almost the same as the German. Goedemorgen.
Hello is almost the same.
Hi is hoi.
Thank you is almost the same as the German. Bedankt. The word sounds like be thanked.

To me German sounds sharp, as if you are telling somebody off, or making a definitive statement. German seems to stamp on the first syllable. The German sound more like 'uh-huh' or stamping 'foot'. Dutch sound more sing-song, with the second syllable rising like politely asking a question. It sounds like OO-ER!

Latin (See next post.)

Manx
Only spoken in the Isle of Man. I had a lovely visit there, seeing the Big Wheel, and learning about the Manx cats. Other people go there for the motor cycle race.

The language is a a novelty if you are outside.

For a quick view, look at the article in Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article handily gives a few everyday phrases. (I like Wikipedia. It can be complicated, but you can skip down to the bits you want. Unlike some language sites, I never have to sign in with passwords, listen to instructions before I start on page one, nor do anything else.)

Manx is also known as Manx Gaelic, so if you are into Gaelic from elsewhere you might like to compare the history and vocabulary with Manx Gaelic, called Manx for short.
From Wikipedia this handy chart below.

At first glance I thought it was horrendously difficult. Then I took a second look and it became quite easy. How are you is Kys t'ou, a bit like the French tu for you, and the old English thou. (My memory aid would be 'kiss too is how are you - and if you've got a cold I won't kiss you'.

Remembering Manx
Very well is Feer vie, which looks like Faring or fairly well. Thank you is Gur mie ayd. My memory aid for that would be 'Thank you, (Grateful for me/my aid - slurred as if you are drunk, gura my/me aid). And yourself is As oo hene? Memory aid, And you how, well-heeled, As oo hene? Isle is Ellan. Ellen went to the Isle of Man so it isn't Ellen but Ellan. Man in a van - Man in Max is Vann-in. Internal rhyming or assonance, and repetition to the eye, Ellan - Vannin.

Phrases[edit]

Some simple conversational words and phrases:

English (Baarle)	Manx (Gaelg)
Good day	Laa Mie
How are you?	Kys t'ou?
Very well	Feer vie
Thank you	Gura mie ayd
And yourself?	As oo hene?
Goodbye	Slane Lhiat
Isle of Man	Ellan Vannin

Welsh

I started looking at Welsh after seeing signs on the train from Paddington through Reading and Swindon to Wales on my annual journey to Writers and Artists Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. (The summer courses have stopped but they still run the cheaper courses in the off season. Next one in February 2018.)

As soon as I discussed speaking Welsh to a group of half a dozen people having a drink in the bar or the Fishguard Bay hotel, I found one of my new friends had been speaking Welsh fluently since her childhood in Wales.

Then I heard the Welsh male voice choir. If I had wanted to talk to any of them in the bar, I am sure they would have been delighted to tell me the words of their national anthem or any of the songs they had sung in Welsh.

The harpist sang a Welsh song. After I got home I started looking up the words of Welsh songs on line. You don't have to go to Wales to do this, to have your curiosity arouse, to do the research. I must say, listening to soprano Katherine Jenkins singing in Welsh is one of the most enjoyable language lessons you can have.

I meet people who speak Welsh in Wales or at meetings about Wales and events on music and travel. (So can you.)

Tips
CORNISH
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cornish.htm
DUTCH
http://www.dummies.com/languages/dutch-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/

ALL FIVE LANGUAGES:
Cornish, Dutch, Latin, Manx, Welsh
To hear the languages, try:

www.saysomethingin.com

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Teacher of English and other languages. Lessons in London, Singapore or on Skype. Private one to one lesson: Ten pounds for ten minutes. Thirty pounds for thirty minutes. Sixty pounds an hour. £180 for three hour morning, afternoon or evening session. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Contact: annalondon8@gmail.com