lingvistikk

A side-account I use to store all language-related information and references. Fluent in Norwegian and English, close to fluent Swedish. Language goals, in order of priority: > Russian. Advanced but not fluent. > Estonian. Unexperienced. > Polish. Unexperienced. > Icelandic. Intermidate.

[polnitsch]

How'd you start teaching yourself polish and reach b2 level??and can you recommend any good blogs of people currently learning language/general good language blogs?also any good polish sources?sorry for asking for so much!!

(Edit: sorry this ended up really long!)

So, I have to be honest, my start with Polish was pretty rocky. The point where I started to actually get somewhere with it was when I bought the Teach Yourself Get Started In Polish book and cd (I recommend a cd when starting Polish but you won’t always need one). It keeps a good pace throughout the book and it doesn’t get very grammar heavy (which if you’re like me, is good when starting Polish). I will note that I think the book overestimates what level you will finish at; it claims B1 (CEFR scale) but I would say it’s more of an A2.

Then I found Colloqial Polish in a charity shop and after the first few chapters it got waaay to grammar heavy for me, and I didn’t like the lack of actual English translation (Teach Yourself had an English translation all the way through, but after a few chapters Colloqial Polish switched to giving vocab that was in the text), so but that on a back burner.

Then I joined lang-8 to start working on actually formulating some Polish (I’d been learning Polish for several months and basically never written or spoken my own sentences which was not too great). Which, if you’ve never used it, you should not be scared of! Everyone there was really nice and gave me thoughtful answers if I didn’t understand one of the corrections.

Then I found a Polish person! We worked at the same place and I went almost every day to his office for a half-Polish half-English chat (the few months I was there I took up so much of his time I genuinely wonder how he even kept his job). I tried to keep it all Polish but I knew very little and kept switching to English out of frustration. Though I always went home and looked up words that I remembered wanting to use, and practised imaginary conversations with him with this new vocab. It was around this time that I realised my grammar was sorely lacking and took another look at Colloqial Polish. It was so much more helpful now that I actually wanted to learn more grammar and had a bit more vocab. I also started reading Harry Potter in Polish to get a bit more vocab. And memrise courses!

Then came Poland. I went to Poland for two months (I would have stayed longer but I had exams) and spoke nothing but Polish. I got quite frustrated, not because I didn’t have the words I wanted (though at the beginning I often didn’t), but because I was staying with family and the two adults there basically only spoke to me in English. I kept quiet on how much it irritated me but it really did. Especially since I didn’t feel comfortable just saying ‘in Polish!’ like I used to do with my work colleague when we were speaking too much English. Anyway, I went to a Polish course there as well (IKO) and by the end of my stay I was apparently at a B2 level according to them. Phew.

So, language blogs:

Polish learners/speakers:

speutschlish 

learning-polish (native)

uselesspolish (native?)

wordfully (native)

languageowl (native)

dependsoncontext (native)

I’m sure I’ll have missed some out…

general:

lavidapoliglota

linguisticsyall

speutschlish

laperiphrase

jaimetalangue

languagesarerad

ikealanterns

languageloser

I like loads of other blogs obviously but I don’t have time to write them all out! 

So Polish resources are pretty rare tbh, and mostly only for beginners. But here are a few:

ba ba dum (vocab only but I like it)

babbel

livemocha

digital dialects

ipolish

polishpod101 (they have a podcast and can email you a word of the day)

this list

and this one (smaller)

and that’s all I can think of. You can come back to ask something else any time :)

[did-you-know]

[pyongyangofficial-deactivated20]

what the f*** is cotton candy

[theclockexorcist-deactivated201]

O.O 

why would you call it cotton?

It’s food. Not some material.

[knightsofthegaytable]

No, you are all wrong. It is called candy floss.

[davidbowowie]

SUGAR SPIDER

[thewildfireaspect-blog]

The French call it “ barbe à papa” - which means “Daddy’s beard”

[scoutemmanuel]

okay so what i have learned from this post is that other countries are really f***ing weird

[fialansari]

arabs call it “shar al banat” which means girls hair.

[transboynepeta-blog-deactivated]

in india we call it “buddi ka baal” which means old lady’s hair so yeah

[kurtwagnermorelikekurtwagnerd]

christ

[lingvistikk]

In Norwegian it's called spinned sugar. Which - hold on - actually makes sense.

[lingvistikk]

If you as a native English speaker ever wondered what your language sounds like to foreigners, just listen to the sim language because that's pretty much it.

[russiangrammar]

Word of the day

круглый krúglȳĭ round, perfect, complete Example sentences:

Он носит круглые очки, как у Джона Леннона. He wears round glasses, like John Lennon. Монблан круглый год покрыт снегом. Mont Blanc is covered with snow all the year round. Он действительно круглый болван. He is really a perfect idiot.

[russiangrammar]

Word of the day

сутки sútki 24 hours, day and night Example sentences:

Я дам тебе сутки на размышление. I’ll give you a day to think about it. Ему приходилось тяжело работать сутки напролет. He had to work hard day and night. Даже сломанные часы дважды в сутки показывают правильное время. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[kozacy]

the norwegian word for semen is pronounced just like the english word sad. tragically beautiful

[kozacy]

Set the language on video games, editing softwares, social networking sides, skype etc. to the language you’re learning.

Have song lyrics in the language you’re learning translated until you understand all(or most) of it and listen to these songs over and over. This helps you getting used to words and phrases as well as their meanings.

Write memo notes, grocery lists etc. in the language you’re learning.

Find a penpal who is a native speaker of the language you’re learning, and who also needs help with learning your native language(or another language you know fluently). Write to each other in the languages you’re learning for the other one to correct it. (examples of websites to find penpals for language exchange: interpals.net, busuu.com, sharedtalk.com)

http://ivona.com/ pronounces any text pretty accurately in a good selection of languages.

Watch films in the language you’re learning, first subtitled in your native lanaguage so you understand it, then watch it over again subtitled in the language that’s spoken.

Read fairytales and watch children’s cartoons in the language you’re learning.

Listen to speeches in the language you’re learning. Here it’s usually made an effort to make the words as clear/difficult to misinterpret as possible, which will make it easy for you to catch up with.

Use the language whenever possible and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Ask a native speaker to tell you how sounds are oftened ‘simplified’ in casual speech. An example of this in English, “what do you want to do?” would be ‘simplified’ to “whaddaya wanna do?”.

[lingvistikk]

Put a number in my ask - languages

1: Your native language.

2: Which languages you know.

3: Which languages you are learning, or want to learn.

4: Does anyone in your family speak a language that you don't?

5: Your favourite language to listen to.

6: Your least favourite language to listen to.

7: Your favourite word in your native language.

8: Your favourite word in your second language(if you know one).

9: Your favourite word in a language you don't really speak.

10: A list of your favourite words in any language.

11: A song you like in a language other than English.

12: If you could pick one language to learn automatically without having to work for it, which language would you choose?

13: Have you ever seen a whole movie in a language you don't understand?

14: A language you like, but wouldn't put the effort into learning.

15: Write a short introduction of yourself in a language other than English.

[lingvistikk]

person: do u speak this language

me: no

me: but one day

me: one day i tell you

me: i will know all the languages

me: all of them

me: you hear me

me: one day

[laslanguesromanze]

Why I recommend studying Latin

Even just a single semester.

Read More

[lingvistikk]

spanish and italian: So THESE words are feminine and THESE words are masculine, and you ALWAYS put an adjective AFTER the noun.

french: haha i dont fuckin know man just do whatever

[linguadolce]

Here is a list I have compiled from various internet resources that I have found to aid in the adventure of learning the language of opera. This list will try not to repeat anything from this lovely blog. No, this will not contain a list of Italian-related tumblr blogs. Find those yourself.

[ubungmachtdenmeister]

It makes me so happy that the movie Inglorious Basterds is actually in English, French, German, and Italian where it should be, and not just completely in English. :D

[russiangrammar]

Word of the day

предприниматель  (m) predprinimátel’ entrepreneur Example sentence:

Хороший предприниматель знает, как зарабатывать деньги. A good businessman knows how to make money.

[cellularlanguages]

Apps for mobile phones such as WhatsApp have made it possible for people to text instantly regardless of the fact that they live in different countries. Because of this, and because of how easy it is to set touch-screen phones’ keyboards to different languages (even…

[amybuzzlightyear]

Polyglot Alex Rawlings on BBC Breakfast.

Reblogging this video despite - or maybe because of - how annoyed it made me.

So you’ve got Alex Rawlings very articulately explaining that language learning is a skill that can be developed, and John Worne from the British Council rightly arguing how important it is for Brits to engage with other parts of the world by at the very least learning some common courtesies in the language of the country you’re visiting.

And then you’ve got the presenter in the red tie, on the mere possibility of children learning Mandarin Chinese in school: “It is pretty impenetrable, isn’t it… …there’s something inherently difficulty about Mandarin Chinese.”

(John Worne: “800 million people have managed to get there.”)

"Alex, going to put you on the spot then." Say this thing in this language. Now say it in another language. Do your trick, Alex. It’s a trick, isn’t it? It’s sorcery. Are you a wizard, Alex? noPE I cannot elarn language is too hurrd

[quietcarriage]

Yes, these are all very funny words you’ve never heard of. It’s almost as if another culture lived here first and didn’t have ‘normal’ english words and picked these silly made up words.