Fiddler on the Roof, Netanya, Israel. Wiki article on Fiddler on the Roof.
You probably already know a few Yiddish words. Chutzpah (cheeky, showing effrontery, brazen and bold action).. Shpiel (game or long story). You may have picked up a few words from the Film Fiddler On the Roof, written by Sholom Aleichem (a pen name meaning peace to you).
Shtetle means small village.
I have picked up an assortment of greatings and exlamations.
Oh veh - oh my goodness.
Mazel tov - good luck, good fortune, congratulations.
Good shabbos. (A mixed language greeting, good sabbath.)
Mixing two languages is called code mixing or code switching.
But why learn more?
Why learn a language?
1 To gain control of your understanding of the world.
2 To communicate you needs for transport, food and accomodation when travelling.
3 To understand the grammar and structure of another language in order to clear confusion and avoid embarrassing mistakes.
4 To sell and make money, to buy proftably, and then possibly sell on later at a profit.
5 To connect with elders and ancestors
6 To write a novel, psrinkling it with phrases, proverbs, idoms, aphorisms.
7 To understand the structure of English contrasting it with other languages.
8 To get a job in the hospitaliy industry or by translating live, or for websites selling goods, and packing for consumers.
9 To undnerstand danger and talk our way out of trouble.
10 To follow conversations so as not to feel left out, and establish rapport.
I have two reasons for learning Yiddish.
1 I wish to add phrases to my novel series starting in Ukriane in 1880 and moving on to Londo, England.
2 Yiddish is the last language I need to present on slides in my introduction to languages for LILT only languages club. LILT for Languages for Inteerest, Learning and Travel.
3 A few Yiddish words are used in the USA.
What is Yiddish?
Yiddish is mostly German words, written in the Hebrew alphabet. It was the language used by Ashkenazi (Hebrew for German) Jews. The German name for Yiddish is Jewish German.
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In WW2 a woman caputured by her enemies survived by being an interpreter. She was multilingual.
In 2023 another women, an Israeli, saved many of her community from attackers because she knew Arabic.
In between these two events, some time ago in the USA, a Japanese man was shot in the uSA. It was ahlloween and he'd been told to dress up for a party.
He went to the wrong house, the neighbour's. ht neighbour told him to freeze. He ignored the command an marked up and banged on the door. getting no answer he banged harder. The householder shot him dead. They say every event has a silver lining. The only silver lining was for teachers of English in Hapan, because the Japnese started urgently learning American slang.
I have found myself in everyday predicaments several times when travelling. In France, where I speak the language well, I stopped to take a photo. My group disappeared into a nearby restaurant. I raced downhill but could not find them. Eventually I found a local person who showed me where they were. An upstairs restaurant back uphill, above where I had stopped.
The Korean alphabet is used in north and south Korea and by the Korean communities and restaurants worldwide. In South Korea it is called Hangul. The Hangul alphabet has 24 letters. 14 are consonants. Ten are vowels.
Wikipedia, half way down the article, on the Korean language, handily explains
The name combines the ancient Korean word han (한), meaning great, and geul (글), meaning script.
The letters come in blocks for sullables. Like Hebrew, when there is a vowel startin a word, you have a silent consonant to alert you to the start of a new word. (In Hebrew is is even more important, being practical as the vowels are teeny dots and dashes which you might not notice. Also the visual effect is neater.
Originally Korean was written in the Chinese writing (symbols) which has many shapes and is so hard to learn that many people were illiterature. the king in the 1400s created a system of writing which awas easy for the average person to learn, to create universal literacy.
the alphabet starts with the consonants and ends with the vowels.
For example, the letter N consiste of an upright meeting a horizontal above, , because to make the N sound your tongue touches the roff of your mouth.
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Useful Websites
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea
Map from Wikipedia article on Korea.
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LILT is the polyglot club, for those aspiring to be bilingual, muktilingual or just to learn a few useful words for when traveling. Or for those who wish to buddy up.
Japanese Food
At our meeting on Japanese online on Zoom on Sunday 18th Feb 2024, we discovered that three people, Caroly, Langeline and Clement are keen on eating Japanese food. Langeline likes to eat Japanese food every week. A recommended restaurant in Singapore is a possibility. This was one of our hopes when starting the club, to help learners of the language to buddy up in pairs or more to talk about the language, speak the language, learn new words and discuss and eat the food.
Our original plan was to look at English and a European language one week, and an Asia language the following week. Now I think we should do both languages in each meeting, to keep everybody coming to every meeting.
Weekly Meetings
The point of having weekly meetings is triple. It is easy to remember the day of the week when meetings are held, and you don't need to know whether it is the first or second, thrid or fourth or fith or any combination. it is always in that tday of the week. Secondly, you form a habit of blocking that time. You have another meeting while you still remember the previous one and feel enthusiastic. You meet often enough to establish camaradeire, and rapport. And to feel under an obligation or goodwill to help out. You meeti often enough to feel free to speak.
Future Meetings
Our meeting on Sunday Feb 25th 2024 will include speeches on Latin, Korean and a recap of Japanese learned last week.
To give you some preview.
Latin Language
Latin is the basis for many short and long words in English and the related romance langues of Italian, Spanish and French and Portuguese. For example, our English word agriculture comes from the Latin word for field, ager. Horticulture comes from the Latin words hortus for garden. Latin is used in names for plants.
Latin is related to Italian but you can only read Latin on Roman archeology, in Roman museums, places like the Colosseum and Pompei, formelry in Italian churches and sevices worldwie. It is still used in legal terms. We still say etcetera and vice versa.
Latin uses the roman or western alphabet.
Japanese - easy or difficult?
The Roman or western alphabet can be used to learn to speak Japanese, but Japanese offers another challenge, whte writing system in symbols.
Japanese writing
Japanese, unlike Latin, is spoken in Japan and by Japanese people. You won't find a Latin restaurant service dormice. You can find a Japanese restaurant with a Japanese menu and often Japanese speaking staff.
Japanese can be written in sign or symbols, the same as Chinese. If you learn Japanese symbols you can read the Chinese ones and vice versa. Two languages learned from the time spent on one.
You can also read the sounds of the words spoken, transliterated into the Roman or western alphabet.
Japanese is used for foods such as suchi (rice with a protein such as raw fish), and Kobe beef from a place called Kobe.
Clothes such as the kimono. Or a yukata.
Japanese martial arts.
Popular places include the capital Tokyo, and means of transport the bullet train.
Korean
Korean is a challenging style of writing, not related to any other. Korean was devised by a king who wanted a written language. The shapes of the letters echo the shapes formed by your lips.
The food includes kimchi (pickles).
Teachers of English are now in greater demand than previously. Korea has switched over to teaching in English at university because so many scientific and internatioanl research papers are written in English. The cost of Korean translation is so high, that it is better to teach Koreans to read the English. (They can also then write papers in English, instead of paying for translation.)
So, learn Korean in order to teach English to Korean students. Either visiting the country or online. More Koreans will be able to talk to you if you are looking for a Korean speaker who is keen to buddy up in a win win language pairing.
Japanese - English
aligato/arigato - thank you
konneecheewa - hello
sayonara - goodbye (longterm) / farewell
English - Japanese
goodbye (longterm) - sayonara
hello - konneecheewa
Thank you - arigato/aligato
Latin - English
ager - field
hortus - garden
English - Latin
field - ager
garden - hortus
To keep words in your mind, for frequent repeition, credit card size laminated cards by ooozu.com are handy.
I initially bought a card with Greek on it for a trip to Cyprus. Then I bought a second card with Spanish on it for a trip to Spain. Then the system noted me down as a buyer and sent me an offer to buy 11 cards at a slightly reduced rate. I thought that was a good idea, because I am orgnaizing LILT language club meetings and want to open each meeting with hello in that week's featured language or languages.
Useful Websites
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Present
Angela Lansbury- President
Carolyn Street - VPE and joint founder
Langeline Leong 'LL'
Sharon Kam (Lam) SG
Clement
Surya
Saurabh Sethy
Apologies for absence from Mike Ma (did not know the login)
Medhavi (children's school holiday)
LILT is the polyglot club, for those aspiring to be bilingual, muktilingual or just to learn a few useful words for when traveling. Or for those who wish to buddy up.
Food
At our meeting on Japanese online on Zoom on Sunday 18th Feb 2024, we discovered that three people, Caroly, Langeline and Clement are keen on eating Japanese food. Langeline likes to eat Japanese food every week. A recommended restaurant in Singapore is a possibility. This was one of our hopes when starting the club, to help learners of the language to buddy up in pairs or more to talk about the language, speak the language, learn new words and discuss and eat the food.
Japanese - English
aligato/arigato - thank you
konneecheewa - hello
sayonara - goodbye (longterm) / farewell
English - Japanese
goodbye (longterm) - sayonara
hello - konneecheewa
Thank you - arigato/aligato
The next Lilt meeting will be on Sunday evening, on zoom, in Singapore 9.30 pm, evening, the Uk 1.30 pm lunch time. Contact Angela or Carolyn Street rhough Facebook with your full name to be given the zoom login and right to be admitted to the meeting.
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Learning languages is easier if you learn a language with the same grammar structure or pronunciation or vocabulary. However, it is also easier if you understand at a glance the basics of another system.
German & Japanese
English and other Subject Verb Object Languages
Subject Verb Object is SVO for short. English is SVO. I love you. German is SOV. The verb is usually at the end of the sentence.
Some languages and some lengths of setnece or sentences copied from other languages change this rule.
Chinese - The Missing Verb To Be
Some languages do not use the ver to be. Instead of I am Angela, I can simply introduce myself as I Angela. That happens in Chinese. So the pronunciation might be difficult, but the grammar is easier. Think of it as having either pronunciation or grammar to make the meaning clearer or more precise.
Without the verb to be, you can say in other language, I Angela, I happy. That would mean I am Angela. I am happy. Those are statements. Equally easy are questions. You Susan. That would mean are you Susan. You happy would mean you are happy or are you happy.
There are not only two sentence structures, but six. fortunately most well known languages use the two most common structures.
Useful Websites
Simple Wikipedia SVO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93verb%E2%80%93object_word_order
https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/global-english/
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