How to learn Japanese characters with visual mnemonics or visual clues

Today’s blog post is about Japanese again, this time about how to learn the Kana and Kanji characters easily with visual mnemonics. I’d like to introduce and review two books that I found very useful for learning and memorizing the characters, especially for strongly visual learners like I am. The books are entitled Kanji Pict-o-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics and Kana Pict-o-Graphix, both by Michael Rowley.

When I started to learn Japanese several years ago, I found it really very difficult to memorize the Kana syllabaries and kept forgetting the characters, and was unsuccessful in learning them for weeks. Until I came across the tiny booklet ‘Kana Pict-o-Graphix’, which helped me to learn both syllabaries in just two days (!), after having tried for so long! The strong point about the book is that it presents not only the character in a visual way, which in itself is really helpful for committing characters to memory, but it also provides a sentence with a clue on how to pronounce the Kana-character. This combined method really helps to retain the characters for a long time.

The book also exists for learning the Kanji, ‘Kanji Pict-o-Graphics’, and introduces about 1000 characters of the mandatory 1954 Japanese characters required for being able to read texts. Each basic character is rendered with a visual picture, which it also (mostly) retains in compound characters that follow which the book introduces. Each cluster of pictures for a character is then followed by a sentence that combines the elements into a small ‘story’ or memorable sentence, which helps you to recall them later on when you come across them again.

Here you can have a look inside the book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0962813702

I also use the 3 books ‘Remembering the Kanji’ by James W. Heisig, which have their own strengths and are more comprehensive, and which most learners use, but for me as a very visual learner using the ‘Pict-o-Graphix’ book is much easier to efficiently learn, retain and revise the Kanji.

The vocabulary of Harry Potter – part 2

Author: Oxyman via Wikipedia Commons

Today’s blog post takes up the topic of the last blog post, namely the vocabulary of the Harry Potter books in some further languages 🙂 .

Catalan

In Catalan, Harry goes to L’Escola Hogwarts de Màgia i Bruixeria and takes part in the Triwizard Tournament or el Torneig de Tres Bruixots in Book 4. Moaning Myrtle is known as Gemma Gemec, and Dumbledore’s Army is l’Exèrcit de Dumbledore. Horcruxes are horricreus and the Death Eaters are els cavallers de la mort. The Weasleys live in ‘El Cau‘ (The Burrow).

The Ministry of Magic is called la Conselleria d’Afers Màgics and the young Voldemort is called Tod Rodlel instead of Tom Riddle. (For those among you speaking German, Tod means death or ‘mort’ in German, so it is an interesting translation for his name in Catalan from a multilingual perspective!).

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

Croatian

In Croatian, Harry attends the Škola vještičarenja i čarobnjaštva Hogwarts and likes to play metloboj or Quidditch. The subject Herbology is Travarstvo and Čarolije is Charms. Diagon Alley in London is known as Zakutna Ulica and the Forbidden Forest is the Zabranjena šuma and the Shrieking Shack is the Vrištava daščara. Werewolves are vukodlaci and the Smrtonoše are the Death Eaters. Fluffy, the three-headed dog from Book 1, is called Bundi.

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

Turkish

In Turkish, Harry attends Hogwarts Cadılık ve Büyücülük Okulu where the seçmen şapka or the Sorting Hat puts him into Gryffindor. Nearly Headless Nick is Neredeyse Kafasız Nick. The Forbidden Forest is Yasak Orman. A hortkuluk is a horcrux. The Ministry of Magic is the Sihir Bakanlığı and Diagon Alley is Diagon Yolu. The Weasleys live in the Kovuk instead of in the Burrow.

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

Permission to use the photos of the paper castle was kindly granted by the people from Ecoturtleupcycling, and it is available in their Etsy-shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/EcoTurtleUpcycling?ref=pr_shop_more)

The words of ‘Harry Potter’ in various languages

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

Today’s blog post is about the words of ‘Harry Potter’ in various languages and how the different characters and places in the books are called in translations of the books around the world. 🙂

French

Hogwarts castle is called Poudlard in French and Muggles are les Moldus. The 4 houses are: Gryffondor (Gryffindor), Serpentard (Slytherin), Poufsouffle (Hufflepuff), and Serdaigle (Ravenclaw). Severus Snape is called ‘Severus Rogue‘ and Draco Malfoy is ‘Drago Malefoy’. Hogwart’s caretaker Argus Filch is called Rusard and his cat Mrs Norris is ‘Miss Teigne‘. The Death Eaters are les Mangemorts and the Dementors are les Détraqueurs. Le Choixpeau magique is the Sorting Hat. House elves are les elfes de maison. The Whomping Willow is le saule cogneur.

Famous places: Le Chemin de Traverse (Diagon Alley), Le Chaudron Baveur (the Leaky Cauldron), la voie 9 3/4 (platform 9 3/4)

Afrikaans

Hogwarts is called Hogwarts Skool vir Heksery en Towerkuns, Hermione is called Hermien, Snape is Snerp, Dumbledore is Dompeldorius, the Burrow is die Konynenes, Quidditch is Kwiddiek and Diagon Alley is Diagonaalstraat. Moggels are Muggles and the 4 houses are: Griffindor, Hoesenproes (Hufflepuff), Rawenklou and Slibberin (Slytherin).

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

German

Hermione is called Hermine in the German version, Diagon Alley is Winkelgasse, the Death Eaters are die Todesser, the Pensieve is the Denkarium and the Burrow is der Fuchsbau and Honeydukes is der Honigtopf.

Dutch

In the Dutch version, most magic places and persons get a Dutch term that is different from the English original: thus, Hogwarts is called Zweinstein Hogeschool voor Hekserij en Hocus-Pocus and Harry’s friends are called Ron Wemel and Hermelien Griffel. Draco Malfoy is Draco Malfidus, Marcel Lubbermans is Neville Longbottom. The teachers: Albus Dumbledore is Albus Perkamentus, Professor McGonagall is Professor Anderling and Snape is Sneep. The Death Eaters are de Dooddoeners. Harry lives in Ligusterlaan nummer 4 with de Duffelingen (the Dursleys). Diagon Alley is de Wegisweg and the magic bank Gringotts is Goudgrijp. Muggels are Dreuzels. The 4 houses are Griffoendor, Zwadderich (Slytherin), Ravenklauw and Huffelpuf. Quidditch is Zwerkbal and the Sorting Hat is de sorteerhoed.

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, used with permission

Italian

In the Italian translation, Harry goes to la Scuola di Magia e Stregoneria di Hogwarts where Albus Silente (Dumbledore) is the headmaster and where Severus Piton (Snape) and Miverva McGranitt (McGonagall) teach. Binario 9 e 3/4 is Platform 9 3/4 and il Paiolo Magico is the Leaky Cauldron and il Platano Picchiatore is the Whomping Willow.

I Babbani are the Muggles, i Mangiamorte the Death Eaters, i Dissenatori the Dementors and La Tana is the Burrow. Neville Paciock is Neville Longbottom, Horace Lumacorno is Horace Slughorn and Sibilla Cooman is Sibyll Trelawney (why she was given this pseudo-English name is a bit of a mystery though…?) . The 4 houses are: Tassorosso (Hufflepuff), Corvonero (Ravenclaw), Serpeverde (Slytherin) and Grifondoro (Gryffindor).

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, photo used with permission

Czech
Also in the Czech version, just like in the Dutch translation, nearly all Hogwarts-related vocabulary gets a Czech term: Hogwarts is called Bradavice or with its full name Škola čar a kouzel v Bradavicích. The 4 houses are Nebelvír (Gryffindor), Mrzimor (Hufflepuff), Havraspár (Ravenclaw) a Zmijozel (Slytherin). Professor Dumbledore is called Albus Brumbál, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart is called Zlatoslav Lockhart, Professor Sprout is Professor Prýtová, Professor Flitwick is Filius Kratiknot and Professor Slughorn is Horácio Křiklan.

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, photo used with permission

Spanish

Hogwarts is called Colegio Hogwarts de Magia y Hechicería and the Weasleys live in la Madriguera (the Burrow) and Diagon Alley is el Callejón Diagon. The Weasley twins work at Sortilegios Weasley (Weasleys Wizard Wheezes) and the Leaky Cauldron is el Caldero Chorreante. The Death Eaters are los Mortífagos, and Dobby is un elfo doméstico. The Marauders’ Map is el Mapa del Merodeador and the Sorting Hat is el Sombrero Seleccionador. Legilimency is known as legeremancia, a Pensieve is un pensadero and a Howler is una carta vociferadora.

Author: Ecoturtleupcycling, photo used with permission

Bulgarian

In the Bulgarian version, the Hogwarts-related terms largely keep their English names, and are only transliterated. So the 4 houses are: Грифиндор (Gryffindor), Слидерин (Slytherin) , Хафълпаф (Hufflepuff) and Рейвънклоу (Ravenclaw). Lord Voldemort is Лорд Волдемор. The Marauders Map is the Хитроумна карта, the Shrieking Shack is the Къща на крясъците and Honeydukes is Меденото царство.

The great DIY paper castle in the photos is available from the friendly blog over at Ecoturtleupcycling https://www.etsy.com/shop/EcoTurtleUpcycling and permission to use the photos was granted.

How to learn languages time-efficiently

Today’s blog post is about time efficiency in language learning. Learning, and keeping up, multiple languages does not necessarily take up a lot of time. Much more important for any success in language learning is a clever use of the time you have at your disposal, not the ‘free’ time you have overall each day. The secret is to use the time which would otherwise go ‘unused’ or be lost in trivial daily activities, like grocery shopping, commuting, manual activities like housework or gardening, etc. and make it available for language learning. This is actually quite easy and does not require any special skills or methods.
1. When you are doing housework, cooking or performing similar manual tasks like gardening or making crafts, etc. listen to an audio course or a course CD that accompanies a textbook. This will train your listening comprehension while you go about your daily chores.
2. When out and about, carry a list with vocabulary to be learned with you. Learn the words when you have to wait for the bus, train or other transport or when you have to stand in line at the supermarket or while waiting in a waiting room – in short, learn them during the minutes that would otherwise be ‘lost’. These will add up over time!!
3. Learn or practise two languages at the same time by using textbooks and learning materials written in a language other than your native tongue. This only works when you already speak a language at least at an upper intermediate level, or better: at an advanced level, because you will need to understand nearly everything when using these materials to learn a new language. By learning in this way, the language you already speak will be reinforced and practised while learning a new language at the same time 🙂 .
4. Follow your usual pastimes or hobbies, but do it in your target language. For example, watch that movie you want to see or read that book you want to read in your target language instead of in your native language. Read the news in your target language. So while doing these ordinary daily activities, you will practise your language skills at the same time.

These extra minutes of language learning might seem negligible or like ‘nothing’, but they will add up over time. If you just make some extra 5 minutes for your language learning available each day in this way, this will be an extra hour spent practising your target language each week! 🙂

Latvian and Lithuanian: Vegetables

Today’s blog post is taking us to two Baltic countries and to their closely related languages, namely Latvian and Lithuanian, and the vocabulary for some vegetables.

Focus on architecture: Hórreos (Galicia, Asturias, Northern Portugal, Basque Country)

Author: Josep Renalias, via Wikipedia Commons
Soajo – Espigueiros

Today’s blog post is taking us to the North of the Iberian Peninsula and to a type of building typical for that region: the hórreos. A hórreo is granary built on pillars which lift it above the ground to protect the stored grain and produce from water seepage. The pillars are topped by the so-called ‘staddle stones’ which prevent the access of rats and vermin. The oldest hórreos still in existence date from the 15th century. There are about 18,000 hórreos and paneras (hórreos with more than four pillars) in Asturias. There are several different types of hórreo, which vary according to the materials used for the pillars and decoration and the characteristics of the roof (thatched, tiled, slate, pitched or double pitched). Hórreos can be built in stone or made from wood and slits in the side walls allow ventilation.

Author: Ramón via Wikipedia Commons
Hórreo en Sietes, Asturias

Hórreos are known under different names, according to their region: In Galicia, they are called hórreo, paneira, canastro, piorno or cabazo, in Asturias hórreu or horru, in Basque they are called garea, garaia or garaixea and in Portugal espigueiro, canastro, caniço or hôrreo.

Author: Sitomon via Wikipedia Commons
Pegollo de hórreo en Eiros, Tineo (staddle stones)

Also the staddle stones, which protect the grain from rodents, have different regional names: mueles or tornarratas in Asturian, zubiluzea in Basque and vira-ratos in Galician. The pillars are called pegollos in Asturian, esteos in Galician, and abearriak in Basque.

Author: Hernantron via Wikipedia Commons
Horreo en Fonseca

Author: Ramon Piñeiro via Wikipedia Commons
Asturian horreo

Author: Rolf Thum via Wikipedia Commons
Gondomar, Galicia

Author: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen via Wikipedia Commons
Horreo in Galicia

Author: Jsanchezes via Wikipedia Commons
Hórreo del Monasterio de Santa Fe en la provincia de Navarra

Author: Certo Xornal via Wikipedia Commons
Hórreo da reitoral de Bealo, Boiro

Cantiga de Santa María CLXXXVI – Monjes rezan ante hórreos llenos de grano (siglo XIII)

Welsh (Cymraeg): Some survival phrases and Welsh cakes

Author: Wikityke via Wikipedia Commons
Caernarfon Castle

Today’s blog post will take us to the United Kingdom and more precisely to Wales Cymru and the Welsh language, which is called Cymraeg in Welsh. The word Cymru is derived from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning “fellow-countrymen”. Welsh is a language of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. Apart from being spoken in Wales and by people in England near the Welsh border, there is a Welsh colony in Chubut Province in Argentina, called Y Wladfa.

Here are a few survival phrases in Welsh:

Sut mae = hello

Hwyl = goodbye

Beth ydy’ch enw chi? = What’s your name?

.… ydw i = I am ….

Diolch yn fawr = thank you very much

diolch = thank you

croeso = you are welcome

Os gwelwch yn dda = please

Esgusodwch fi = excuse me

Mae’n ddrwg gyda fi = sorry

Iawn = OK

Dych chi’n siarad Cymraeg? = Do you speak Welsh?

Dw i ddim yn deall = I don’t understand

Author: zingyyellow via Wikipedia Commons
Welsh cakes picau ar y maen

Welsh cakes picau ar y maen are a traditional dessert in Wales. They are baked on a bakestone (maen) or cast-iron griddle and are made from flour, fat, baking powder, sultanas, raisins, and/or currants, and may also contain spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. They are round and usually measure about 7–8 cm (3 inches) in diameter and are 1–1.5 cm (0.5 inch) thick. Welsh cakes are served hot or cold dusted with caster sugar and are sometimes split and spread with jam.

An interesting article on the meaning of Welsh place names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_toponymy

Author: Herbert Ortner via Wikipedia Commons
Caernarfon Castle

Author: Blisco via Wikipedia Commons
Llyn y Fan Fawr

How to boost your fluency by learning vocabulary more effectively

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 156

Today’s blog post is about some tips and tricks to learn vocabulary more effectively to boost your fluency in your target language. While there is no shortcut to learning your vocabulary, there are some ways how you can make your learning more organized and effective to yield better results.
1. Instead of just learning words individually, learn them also as collocations (a collocation is a combination of words that frequently occur together, e.g. ‘to read a book’, ‘to go by train’, etc.). This is especially useful for languages which are governed by cases, like Russian, Polish or German, because when you memorize collocations, you won’t always have to think about the correct declination or case the words must be in in frequent expressions. Knowing frequent collocations by heart will therefore boost your fluency when speaking or writing your target language.
2. Learn frequent phrases and expressions by heart from a phrasebook. While a phrasebook alone will never suffice to learn a complete language, learning frequent phrases or ‘building blocks’ of expressions by heart is a good way to develop some conversational fluency especially at the beginning when you start learning a new language.
3. Use thematic vocabulary lists to learn words around a given topic. This is very useful when you want to speak or write about a given topic or theme, e.g. a hobby, because a good list will teach you not only expressions that you are likely to need in this context and words which are likely to occur together and which you will encounter, but also synonyms and antonyms for this context, collocations or groups of related words based on a word stem, and useful verbs, adjectives and nouns to talk about the topic of your choice.

4. Subscribe to a Word of the Day for your target language(s). While this will not help you directly to be able to speak about a topic, a ‘Word of the Day’-subscription is nevertheless highly useful both for regular repetition of random words and for seeing and hearing the words used in the context of a sentence which will help you gain more fluency in the long term. Since fluency depends on being instinctively familiar with words that occur and are expected in a certain context and situation, the more often you see and hear and come across words, the more familiar you will be with them and the more easily they will pop into your mind when you need them in a conversation or when writing a text. The ‘Word of the Day’-function is therefore not only an excellent means for repetition but also to keep up the languages you already speak.

The names of the months in Lakota (Lakhotiyapi) and the Ojibwe legend of the origin of the dreamcatcher

Author: John C.H. Grabill, digital restoration by Michel Vuijlsteke via Wikipedia Commons
Oglala girl in front of a tipi

Today’s blog post will take us to two First Nations in the US and Canada, and will be about the names of the months in Lakota or Lakȟótiyapi (also known as Sioux), a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota nation (Lakȟóta) in North and South Dakota in the United States, and tell the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) legend of the origin of the dreamcatcher.
The Lakȟótiyapi word ‘wi’ means ‘moon’ or ‘month’, and ‘wiyawapi’ means ‘a months count or calendar’.
January wiocokanyan (lit. ‘the middle moon’) or wiotehika (‘the hard moon’)
February cannapopa wi (‘the moon when trees crack because of the cold’) or tiyoheyunka wi (‘moon where the frost is settling on the inside wall of the house or tent’) or wicata wi (‘the raccoon moon’)
March ištawicayazan wi (‘the moon of prevailing sore eyes’) or ištawicaniyan wi (‘the moon of sore eyes’) or šiyo ištohcapi wi (šiyo ‘grouse, prairie hen’; ‘moon of the grouse and of sore eyes’)
April wihakakta cèpapi (‘wihakakta’ means ‘the fifth child’, so called because it was usually the last child or the youngest; ‘cepa’ means fat; the youngest wife had to crack the bones and people would get fat on the marrow)
May canwapto wi (‘moon in which the leaves are green’ from ‘canwape’ [from can ‘tree’ + ape ‘leaf’] meaning ‘leaves’ or ‘small branches’) or wójupi wi (‘the moon of planting’)
June tínpsinla itkahca wi (‘the moon when the seedpods of the wild turnip blossom’) or wípazuka wašte (‘wípazukan’, a red berry growing in small bunches in June; ‘wašte’ meaning ‘good, pretty’; therefore ‘moon of the good red wípazukan berries’)
July canpasapa wi (‘the moon when the choke-cherries are black’) or wiocokanyan (‘the middle moon’)
August wasuton wi (‘the harvest moon’)
September canwape gi wi (‘moon in which leaves turn brown’)
October canwape kasna wi (‘the moon in which the wind shakes off leaves’)
November takiyuha (‘the moon when deer copulate’) or waniyetu wi (‘the winter moon’)
December tahecapšun wi (‘the moon in which deer shed their horns) or wanicokan wi (‘the mid-winter moon’)
What is quite interesting is that the word ‘wiocokanyan’, meaning the ‘middle moon’, can refer to both January and July.

Author: Arturo de Frias Marques via Wikipedia Commons
American bison ‘Tatanka’

And some Lakhotiya words:
Tatanka the male buffalo

Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka – lit. ‘the sacred’ or ‘the divine’, usually translated as ‘the Great Mystery’; the term refers to the power or sacredness that resides in everything, resembling pantheistic or animistic beliefs. Every creature and object has some aspects that are considered wakȟáŋ (“holy”).

Author: Media123 via Wikipedia Commons

iháŋbla gmunka (iháŋbla ‘to dream, to have visions’, gmunka ‘to trap’) ‘dreamcatcher’, a handmade object made from a willow hoop and sinew or cordage made from plants, which is woven around the hoop to form a net or web. The dreamcatcher is decorated with sacred items such as beads and feathers which all have a symbolic meaning. Dreamcatchers actually have their origins in the Ojibwe nation, where they are called bawaajige nagwaagan meaning “dream snare” or asabikeshiinh (the inanimate form of the word for ‘spider’), but have been adopted by Native Americans of different nations in the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960’s and 70’s as a symbol of unity and identification with the First Nations. However, other groups see dreamcatchers as offensively misappropriated and misused by non-Natives. The circular shape represents how giizis (Ojibwe, meaning ‘the sun, moon, month’) travels each day across the sky.

There is an ancient Ojibwe legend about the origin of the dreamcatcher: the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi, took care of the children and the people on the land. Eventually, when the Ojibwe Nation spread all over North America, it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children from willow hoops in the form of dreamcatchers which would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter the mind, making the bad dreams disappear once the sun rises.

Finally a booktip for those of you who are interested in Native American spirituality and culture in general and the Lakota Nation in particular:

‘The Lakota Way – Stories and Lessons for Living’ by Joseph M. Marshall III

If you live in the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0142196096

If you live in the US: http://amzn.com/0142196096

Vocabulary: Clothes in Turkish and Azeri (Azerbaijani)

Today’s blog post is about vocabulary again, this time the words for some items of clothing in Turkish and Azeri (Azerbaijani), two closely related Turkic languages. For those of you speaking Russian, note the Russian influence on Azeri vocabulary (e.g. Russian галстук and Azeri qalstuk).

Polyglottando

A blog about languages, multilingual living and cultural diversity

How to learn Japanese characters with visual mnemonics or visual clues

The vocabulary of Harry Potter – part 2

The words of ‘Harry Potter’ in various languages

How to learn languages time-efficiently

Latvian and Lithuanian: Vegetables

Focus on architecture: Hórreos (Galicia, Asturias, Northern Portugal, Basque Country)

Welsh (Cymraeg): Some survival phrases and Welsh cakes

How to boost your fluency by learning vocabulary more effectively

The names of the months in Lakota (Lakhotiyapi) and the Ojibwe legend of the origin of the dreamcatcher

Vocabulary: Clothes in Turkish and Azeri (Azerbaijani)