Learn Hebrew with Jonah

If you are learning Hebrew, animatedhebrew.com has developed a handy resource. You can listen to the Hebrew text read by your choice of three readers and follow along with the comic book images for comprehension. What a great resource! 

Hebrew Learning Aids

Several individuals involved in teaching Biblical Hebrew have collaborated together to build an online platform called BibleLing: http://hebrew.bibleling.org The goal is to host audio visual learning tools that various educators are happy to make available to be freely used by anyone with a desire to learn worldwide. To this end we envision expanding the navigation interface to include more world languages. 

The platform does not own the material but is a catalyst to allow free multimedia learning aids to be more easily found and accessed. These materials may be used to supplement formal courses and aim to help learners learn their first words as well as practice reading simplified stories and Bible passages.

An Android app is in development and Beta testers are welcome. One feature that is especially helpful (in the contexts that many of our translators find themselves without regular internet) is the ability to download lessons offline to take on the go even out in the bush. https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.bibleling.hebrew.langapp

Feedback and suggestions on how to continue to make this platform useful are welcome.

(repost of Caleb S's article at MAP)

Ethnologue.Bible

Ethnologue:Bible is a new initiative to organize language data. It is still in beta testing, but it looks to be a great place for Bible translators and the church to access information for prayer and strategizing.

Here's what the Ethnologue:Bible says about itself:

Get a complete picture of Bible translation - in one place....Ethnologue:Bible ties together information from many partners to provide a comprehensive view of Bible translation across the world, based on language - including translation need, program status, and available products. All in one place.

Francophone Week

10 words are chosen each year as part of a week of celebrating the French language. This year, they chose words largely borrowed from the French and used in other languages: bouquet, coup de foudre, vis-à-vis, cachet, savoir faire, unique, atelier, équipe, protéger, voilà.

How many of the 10 do you recognize?  Beware of the faux amis (false friends)!

Some statistics cited in an article about this week include:

• 220 million speakers of French globally
• 80% of them are in Africa
• Speakers of English outnumber speakers of French 20:1

Excellent Clip Art (for Language Study) Website

Check clip art etc out!  Well-organized, alphabetical by collections (e.g. animals, home, people, places, plants), un-distracting and uncluttered images. Helpful. But not entirely contextualized for Africa - hey you can't get it all in one place now, can you!

Their explanatory blurb:

Welcome to quality educational clipart. Every item comes with a choice of image size and format as well as complete source information for proper citations in school projects. No advertisement-filled pages with pop-up windows or inappropriate links here. A friendly license allows teachers and students to use up to 50 educational clipart items in a single, non-commercial project without further permission.

HT: Phillip 

Catchy Banner Ad on Language

Saw this banner ad recently (quick parenthesis: I rarely look at banner ads as they are usually a waste of time and quite spammy, but as this one had to do with ridiculous claim to learn language in 10 days, it caught my eye).

So this launched me into finding out what method this guy uses, and discovered it was the Pimsler Method.  Essentially, the method focuses on oral retention and oral production of what is heard, rather than working on written text of the language.

Mark Kaiser, a Language Center administrator at Berkley, posted this critique:

I suppose we could engage in some nitpicking: could the "sneaky linguistic secret" referred to in the ad be the audio lingual method? After all, the Pimsleur method is basically listen and repeat, which is hardly a secret and hardly sneaky. And while one might be free from the computer, one will still be tethered to some kind of audio production device. And just what is meant by "speaking another language" in 10 days leaves volumes unsaid. At the college level we have students speaking after the first 50 minutes in the classroom, so take that!

As for my small critique, on the one hand, it seems there are some commendable aspects of the Pimsleur method: the fact that listening and oral retention is focused upon, and the stress on active participation over rote memorization. However, on the other hand, I am not thrilled about the false sense of accomplishment, not to mention the potential harm done to one's long-term language production by hastening the oral production of what is heard. Accurate production comes from active listening over time, and only when the words surface closer to the top of the "iceberg" does a high level of successful production result (exceptions made, of course, for basic survival and greeting phrases, etc!).

1 Corinthians 15:58 in 6 Cameroonian Languages

1Kolìn15 : 58

‘‘Ma kæ sɨ nà be sɨ̂ zɨ̀ a woyn-nà ghem ghɨ jûŋ na, yì faytɨ̀ ghal ibɨmi i;zɨ-i, ka yì na neʼà. Yì na ghâblɨ̀-à, felɨ̀ sɨ̂ Bôbo kɨ̀ mɨlvɨ ɨ̀n jɨ̀m bòm ta yi n-kya na ifêl ì zɨ-i sɨ̂ ŋweyn kàʼ yi bû læ̀ lê salû.’’ KOM

1Kɔrinto 15: 58

‘‘Né-ɔɔ́, a-baányaŋ bé edəŋge, nyésumɛn bwâm, dyamdyam déē-hɔ̄btē nyé mekuu ásē. Nyébɛ̂ nyékɛɛe nsɔ́n ḿme nyébənlɛɛ́ Sáŋgwɛ́ɛ́ áʼsō. Nyêbíí nɛ́n bán nsɔ́n ḿme nyébɛnlɛɛ́ Sáŋgwɛ́ɛ́ ké nhɔ́g méesaá ngɛ̂n.’’ BAKOSSI

1Korè15:58

‘‘Nə̀ wèŋ rì də bum yèꞌsə vɛꞌnə fana wèeŋ təəŋ gʉgʉŋ, nə kà sə tsòhò. Wèeŋ gʉ fàha Tà nùumbu pweꞌ bə ntʉʉm awèŋ lòoŋ, bʉ̀ʉsə̀ wèŋ sə gʉ̀ fa Tà sə kà wà cà, bwema am wèŋ na.’’ YAMBA

1ŋwàʼne á mbwò pʉ̀a Korento 15: 58

‘‘Mefɛ́ pɔ́ɔn pentʉ nzẅìŋ, páʼ áa púʼu la, pi tʉte tʉte, tà nÿɔʼ, pi kẅiʼi faʼ mefàʼa Cʉ̀apʉ̀a ńdɔg ńgʉa pɔ́ lê mvfò, ńgwɔ faʼ ńne ńzsé ngie fàʼ gie pi fàʼa, ńtí nue pi ee pʉ̀a Cʉ̀apʉ̀a, á té ge cʉ̀a sẅɛ̀ɛ wɔ́.’’ NGIEMBOON

1 Korinto15: 58

‘‘Mfamfá ŋkhuŋnyə, a pá poʼo po tɔm, ka po seŋ; po kattʉɔ nə faʼ Cyəpɔ ba gɔ dzə, ba jyə́ ga yɔ nə yɔgoʼ tə sɔʼ cyə́ méné nə Cyəpɔ pa.’’ NGOHMALA

1 Korintô15: 58

‘‘Fèt tshàm tse nkôni, ndùlala kà bin magte, kà bin nyiʼte, bin dun nkôni nefaʼ faʼ Tshùaben njon ngelan fa, ndèn ndù faʼ sin ke bʼa banban num Tshùaben.’’ EDOUMBA

 
1Corinthians 15: 58
''Therefore, my beloved brothers, stand firm. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.'' English

Prayer Request: OT Course on 2 Kings

A member of our organization started an Old Testament course on 2 Kings last week in the North, a course which will last until the end of this week. Please pray for the five teams who are participating: Mandara, Matal, Podoko, Zulgo and Mofu (who already have eight chapters translated). Pray for their families in the village to be safe and healthy. 

Basaa Excursion Tonight

Elizabeth and I went with a friend from the Cameroonian translation organization across the street from us, to a literacy seminar on the Basaa language.  Our friend was one of the two teachers, both native speakers of the language.  They already have the Bible translated in their language but in an out-dated writing system (which had been restricted to the French alphabet).

Some Basaa Facts:

• Spoken by about 230,000 people 
• Bantu language family
• One of the scholars we met at B4NTU Conference (Larry Hyman) has done work on the language

About tonight's seminar:

• 3 different levels met (beginner, intermediate, and advanced)
• Attended by all generations - some of the French-speaking younger generation are learning it because it has not used in the academic domain (writing and reading)
• Learned a portion of the alphabet
• Practiced some total physical response with the commands 'sit', 'stand', 'give it to me', etc.
• Interacted some with the writing system, e.g. the tone markings

For more info, visit our post on Bantu languages.

Bantu Languages in Africa

Two months ago we attended the Bantu language conference, knowing that:

• Bantu language family is the largest in the world (~400 languages)
• Bantu translation projects are in Cameroon 
• The family's origin's (cf. Zone A below) are said to be in Nigeria and Cameroon

For a good glimpse into the conference we attended:

French Language Resource

Bescherelle 3: Grammaire Pour Tous: (French Edition)

Recently, I have started reading the Bescherelle French Grammar reference.  If you are not really into grammar, this may not interest you.  However, if you are determined to learn French, I have a couple reasons I think you should consider reading or at least skimming this grammar, even if grammar "n'est pas votre truc."

1. Grammar is important to the French society.  You can see this in their writing system (a good deal of spelling reflects the grammatical value of a word instead of its phonetic value), you can see this in France's school system (the Bescherelle Grammar and Conjugation references are must-haves for every student), and you can see this in everyday interactions (In my observations it seems to me that French speakers delight in viewing their language as grammatically complex and they have a very secure language attitude in relation to this). 

2. This grammar can serve as a source for input flooding in written form.  There are both grammatically correct and grammatically incorrect (marked clearly) examples in this grammar.  The ability to compare the two is particularly helpful for learning which constructions are acceptable and which are not.
(RTW)

Trash Can: Who Invented It?

A French man Monsieur Eugène Poubelle (poubelle = 'trash can' in French), of course!

Wikipedia recounts and confirms what our French teachers told us:

Becoming préfet of the Seine was significant [for Poubelle, 1831-1907] because more local administration, at town halls, had been largely removed in Paris. On 7 March 1884 Poubelle decreed that owners of buildings must provide those who lived there with three covered containers of 40 to 120 litres to hold household refuse. It was to be sorted into perishable items, paper and cloth, crockery and shells. 

The population of Paris, close to two millions, needed a system to empty the containers regularly. Parisians began to name their boxes after Poubelle, a habit encouraged by the newspaper Le Monde, which called them Boîtes Poubelle. But the boxes met resistance, owners of buildings resenting the cost of providing and supervising the bins and traditional rag-and-bone men, the chiffoniers, seeing a threat to their living. The boxes deteriorated but the principles of what Poubelle established survived. But not until the end of the Second World War did dustbins and their collection by municipalities become common. By then poubelle as a noun had been established by a supplement of the Grand Dictionnaire Universel du 19ème Siècle in 1890.

French Academy, II: de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas (1585-1650) had a thorough knowledge of the French language, and the "correctness" of his speech won him a spot as one of the original members of the Académie française in 1634. He is considered to be the one who "purified French diction" with his book called Remarques sur la langue française (1647).

His connection to us now?
1. His father Antoine Favre was a powerful Président du Senat of Savoie (around 1600) which was in our town. Antoine Favre's statue resides in the city center where the market is held every Saturday, a spot not far from our home here.

2. Another with the same name de Vaugelas, Jeanne Marie de Vaugelas, our French teachers tell us, gave the definitive shape to the French language as we have it today, around the time of the French Revolution (1789). The regulations regarding the use of the subjunctive, for example, are credit to him.

French Academy

The French Academy is a French learned body that discusses and makes decisions regarding the French language.  Almost daily, we talk about what l'Académie Française has determined as regulative for French.  Our English-speaking readers from the USA might find this unusual, since no such comparative body exists for English.

Other facts regarding the Académie Française:

• Officially estab. in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII
• Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution
• Restored in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte
• Oldest of the 5 académies of the Institut de France
• Consists of 40 members (called immortels)
• New members elected by the Académie itself
• Académicians hold office for life (but removal possible for misconduct)
• Publishes an official dictionary for French
• An official language authority, but its rulings are only advisory

Tomorrow, I will post on one of the original members of the Académie, a member we have been hearing about in our French classes.

Perseverance, II: Humility Serves Longer Than LL

My good friend Ibukun wrote the following as a comment on one of my perseverance posts on the language blog.  I thought it might be as encouraging to you as it was to me so I asked her permission to post it a bit more prominently. 

"I think it's always good to realize that language learning is a life-long process--there's always going to be a new level of proficiency to aspire to, so in a sense you shouldn't feel discouraged if you're not at some genius level just because you've been at it for six months. I've been studying Dutch for much, much longer than that and there are still days when I sound like a complete idiot in my own ears. But usually the people around me understand me better than I think they do, so that also encourages me at such times.

But the most important thing, I think is realizing that the Lord who's given you this opportunity and brought you this far will certainly take you the rest of the way. Plus, He has plans and purposes for your weakness in French. For me, having to use simpler language in Dutch than I'm actually capable of has been a humbling process, which is far more valuable an experience than simply mastering a new language. Humility will serve me much longer than Dutch will. And, I'm always amazed when God uses me, with my less than 100% Dutch, and God gets more glory 'cause I know for sure it wasn't my own strength! So, think of learning French as part of the sanctification process!"

Perseverance in Language Learning

I am blogging some at my language blog about perseverance in language learning as this is now our sixth month in France, and so we face the danger of plateauing and discouragement.  There is so much to learn, and we are far from fluent participants in French language and culture!

Please pray for us!

Philosophy of Language Learning

Listened to this fascinating radiolab episode today about language.  Their summary:

• Susan Schaller believes that the best idea she ever had in her life had to do with an isolated young man she met one day at a community college. He was 27-years-old at the time, and though he had been born deaf, no one had ever taught him to sign. He had lived his entire life without language--until Susan found a way to reach out to him. 
• Charles Fernyhough doesn't think that very young children think--at least not in a way he'd recognize as thinking. Charles explains what he means by walking us through an experiment in a white room. And Elizabeth Spelke weighs in with research from her baby lab--which suggests a child's brain begins as a series of islands, until it can find the right words and phrases to bridge the gaps. 
• James Shapiro, a Shakespeare scholar at Columbia, argues that Shakespeare behaved more like a chemist than a writer: by smashing words together--words like eye and ball--he created new words, and new ways of seeing the world.

(via Jonathan)

Language Learning...

I recently posted a video of an example of one of the activities we do during our language sessions, on my language learning blog.  The activity is called a reverse role play, and the post gives more details about how the activity works for language learning.

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

At the Relearning the World blog, I was thinking about the Does Your Language Shape How You Think? artcile: "This article, by Guy Deutscher, critiques Whorf's theory that our minds are 'imprisoned' by our native language and yet it sheds light on how our native language may influence which aspects of life are most prominent in our thoughts.

Deutscher's take that language influences our thought processes (or worldview, you might say), is further support that language learning must be world learning.  And it is good motivation to learn more than one "world" so to speak.

Might the reverse of Deutscher's claim be just as true?  That our worldview influences the development of our language?  Maybe your comments will influence a future post of mine on this.  What are your thoughts?"

Our French Vocabulary

Elizabeth has been blogging some about the French language learning experience, and lanuage learning in general.

One of her recent posts included pictures that represent some French words with which we are now comfortable.