Found in Translation

Appreciating the linguistic & cultural variety of our metropolitan lives... in the eyes of a 伦敦人/اللندني/Londonien/ロンドン市民/Londoner... var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-8425840-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[lianghh]

London, the linguistically most diverse city in the world #languages #london #diversity #multilingual #multicultural #伦敦 #Londres #ロンドン #лондон #런던 #لندن (Taken with Instagram at Potters Fields Park)

[lianghh]

🇨🇳 Practising #Chinese #vocabulary #中文 #汉字 #学 #作业 #大学 #汉语 #生词 #languages #studying #السينية #chino #chinois #mandarin (Taken with instagram)

[lianghh]

Punjabi support for London 2012

[lianghh]

Thank-you-note to a colleague who baked a whole cake for the office (Taken with instagram)

[lianghh]

A lot of languages are becoming extinct these days. But luckily, new ones are also developing. The BBC looks at the translation of a part of the Bible into Jamaican patois: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16285462

A few Jamaican patois rules

Plural nouns are made with the word "dem" ("they" or "them" in English) - so the plural of "uoli prafit" ("holy prophet") is "uoli prafit dem", and the plural of "enimi" ("enemy") is "enimi dem"

The past tense is marked by the word "did" - so "he lived" is, in patois, "im did liv"

The future tense can be marked with " a go" or "wi" ("will") - "Im a go siev" is "He will save", and "Yu wi nuo" is "You will know"

Examples:

Jos laik ou im did taak chuu im uoli prafit dem - Just like how he talked through his holy prophets

Im a go siev wi fram wi enimi dem - He will save us from our enemies

So yu wi nuo se wa yu ier a chuu - So you will know that what you hear is true

[lianghh]

Eid Mubarak

[lianghh]

Oriental Pride?

Have you ever seen someone eating Japanese sushi with a fork? Then why do people eat Chinese food with it? Do you know any Japanese people that introduce themselves as Johnny or Suzy? So why do Chinese not take pride in their real names? I think Chinese people should demand less ignorance for their culture by foreigners. What do you think?

[lianghh]

Altar in a Mauritian home. Next to Hindu deities, there are also pictures of Jesus and Mary, a result of the multi-religious heritage of Mauritius

[lianghh]

Swaminarayan Temple (Neasden, North London)

The biggest Hindu temple outside India is in London. It was made traditionally with limestone and marble. Over half of the UK's Hindu population lives in London, making up a fifth of the population in some areas in North London.

[bum-iver]

[lianghh]

doihaveyoghurtonmyface:

See the World: A multilingual eye chart by Byte Level Research

I love different writing systems. Deciding whether to learn Chinese and Arabic, their different writing system was definitely an attracting factor for my decision.

[lianghh]

At Bubbleology

[lianghh]

New York City

This post is going to be about New York. I usually post things related to languages. The reason today is, however, as a gay person I'm joyful that New York became the sixth and largest US state to allow gay marriage. The gay population of New York city is estimated at over half a million.

Back to languages: 72% of New Yorkers speak English mainly but 28% speak another language at home. One of the below sentences is each understood by at least 100,000 New Yorkers:

Él lo ama. 他愛他。 Lui lo ama. Он любит его. Il l'aime. Li renmen l '. ער ליב אים. On go kocha. 그는 사랑.

The languages are the most commonly spoken by New Yorkers in this order: Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Russian, French, French Creole, Yiddish, Polish and Korean. Read more on this here.

[lianghh]

Inti Raymi (Quechua: inti = the sun; raymi = celebration)

Inti Raymi is the celebration of the God Sun, the most venerated god in Inca religion. According to Inca tradition, Pachatutec, the first Inca, created the Inti Raymi to celebrate the winter solstice which marked the first day of the New Year in the Inca calendar. The winter solstice begins on June 21 but according to the Incas, the sun stays in the same place until the 24th when it finally rises. Therefore, every year on June 24 the festival of the Inti Raymi takes place in the city of Cusco... Read more

[lianghh]

Monolingualism limits your brain functionality. Bilingualism is healthy. Trilingualism is healthier...

Speak English? Parlez français? Habla español? Those who can say yes, oui, or sí to all three questions are significantly more likely to avoid cognitive problems late in life than those who speak only two languages...

[whatmichellesreading-deactivate]

[lianghh]

whatmichellesreading:

Learning multiple languages may change the structure of your brain. By William Lee Adams, published on March 01, 2006

Carlos do Amaral Freire, a Brazilian linguist, easily translates 60 languages, including Chinese, Portuguese and Sanskrit.

Is he a genius? A freak of nature? Surprisingly,...

Many people think I am some sort of weird genius when I tell them I speak 5 languages. Fact, my IQ is somewhat around 100, so I'm not. I just am interested, so I try hard! Monolingualism is curable :)

[lianghh]

My photos from the 16th London-HK Dragon Boat Festival at Royal Albert Dock/London 19th June 2011. 二〇十一年倫敦香港龍舟同樂日

[lianghh]

Tânisi! Aiguuq! Aaniin!

The 21st of July is National Aboriginal Day in Canada and this is how you say hello in the three most widely spoken languages and dialect groups of native Canadians or “First Nations”. These are Cree, Inuktitut (language of the Inuit/”Eskimo”) and Ojibwa.

The stop sign above from Quebec is written in Canada’s two national languages and Cree.