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May 2017

Make it two, please!

I have never heard anybody to say: do not learn languages, it is a waste of time! Language learning has been boosted in almost every school system and for small counties, strong language policy is a must. Learning languages opens the world to you (and makes you smarter)! 

Here are some advantages listed by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association:

  • Being able to learn new words easily
  • Playing rhyming games with words like “cat” and “hat”
  • Breaking down words by sounds, such as C-A-T for cat
  • Being able to use information in new ways
  • Putting words into categories
  • Coming up with solutions to problems
  • Good listening skills
  • Connecting with others

The New York Time’s article: Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

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Bend and twist

I cannot generalize but I can speak with the voice of experience when I say Finnish is a living and creative language. I’m sure other languages are flexible too but with Finnish is.. well, playing in its own league. The system maintains supported thanks to regulated written Finnish.

In practice, there are so many dialects that sometimes I ask myself how on earth we understand each other.

Another really interesting aspect with Finnish is that it re-creates itself daily. Everyone can come up with a new expression and if it gains enough popularity, soon it spreads from one city to another.  In spoken language, everything goes! Eihä kukaa jaksa vaa pönöttää ku vois duunata jotaan muutaki, mennä vaik sufeelle.

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One more to join the club

 

Too often news about dying languages are heard. Several minority languages are vanishing due to a lack of speakers. To mention one Sami language faces a dark future when young people emigrate to the south. Despite all the efforts in language teaching in primary school, Sami is spoken less and less. Still, the Government and countries’ language policy can make a huge difference in maintaining a language live.

However, unpredictable things happen in life – new languages are still born! In Australia, a language called Light Warlpiri is making it’s debut. Yei! 

 The New York Times’ article “A Village Invents a Language All Its Own”

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False friends

Sometimes one gets over-confident about one’s language proficiency… There are words which sound familiar and known BUT, wrong, the actual meaning is completely another.

Most of the times the misunderstandings are funny and a possible conflict passes with a laugh.

However, be aware with some of these: Foreign-words-which-could-get-you-in-a-lot-of-trouble

Hello mother seal.
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“I hate Mondays.” – Garfield

 

Some time ago there was writing about Disney’s effect on language use. Expressions like pixie dust and Bambi’s eyes are, if not in every-day-use, familiar to everyone who has spent hours in front of the TV. Oxford English Dictionary has also adopted Winnie the Pooh characters as nouns. To mention one example, the adjective ‘Eeyorish’ can be used to describe a pessimistic person.

Cartoons and stories have a surprisingly wide influence in language use. Kids know their favorite series and movies by heart. Even getting older some expressions to remain. I find my self still quoting Bugs Bunny asking my friends “What’s up, Doc?” And what’s more, the language has such a strong relevance that seeing, to mention one example, the Simpsons dubbed into Spanish the whole series seems to be wrong. “Marge doesn’t speak that way, what has happened to Bart’s voice?”

In my opinion, dubbing is like a double-edged sword. It is important to protect and use actively all the languages but the content transforms. It comes more local, more culture-bound which makes undubbed cartoons an entertaining and efficient way to learn a foreign language.

T-t-t-t-that’s all folks!

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