Language Trainers Blog

German immigrants migrated to Texas in the mid 1800’s, and integrated their culture and language in the generations to follow. Unfortunately, the German language is now dying off with its current generation. As a result of World War One and Two, areas in Texas that taught and conducted business primarily in German switched to the English language. The German dialect quickly fell out of favor, and that caused the language to not be passed on to children of the fifth and sixth generations. Those who spoke German in Texas created a new dialect known as ‘Texas German.’ Texas German is a combination of different influences, often mixing English and different German origins together with a southern twang!

For example:

German: Die Kuh ist über die fence gejumpt.

English: The cow jumped over the fence.

Notice the similarities? The words jump and fence make an appearance in both sentences.

German linguistic professor, Hans Boas, at the University of Texas has been working closely with the last generation of Texas German speakers. The youngest speakers are between the ages of 50 and 60. Hans began the Texas German Dialect Project to preserve what little Texas German is still spoken. He has interviewed over 400 German descendants and recorded about 800 hours of interviews to be archived in the Texas German Dialect Project.

Texas Germans also keep their language alive by partaking in different groups and activities to promote their culture. Some join the local German American Society, try out the neighborhood all German choir or even enjoy some friendly competition with German bowling nights!

Why not join Germans from Texas in preserving their language by trying some German classes?

Our North American neighbor, Canada, is often the butt of American jokes. I’m no better than my countrymen when Canadian relatives visit and their slang evokes pure hilarity. Fortunately, my relatives and most Canadians could care less about American’s poking fun at them. Because French and English are the two official languages, Canada has it’s very own slang:

Here are a few popular slang terms Canadians use:

Aboot: Canada’s pronunciation for the word “about.” - “What’s all your hollering aboot?”

Canuck: a nickname for Canadians. - “I have only love for my fellow Canucks.”

Washroom: bathroom without a bath in the room. -“Excuse me, can I use your washroom?”

Loonie: Canadian dollar coin. As a hilarious accompaniment, Toonie is their two dollar coin. - “Since my cookie cost just one loonie, I decided to purchase a second with a toonie.”

Eh?: you’re a true Canadian when this word is added to the end of a sentence. It means “don’t you agree?” - “Americans are quite crazy, eh?”

Pop: soft drinks like Coke or Pepsi. - “Waitress, I’d like a pop to drink please.”

Hydro: electricity - “No lights today so the hydro is probably off.”

Serviette: napkin - “I spilled a glass of pop all over me, so a serviette would be helpful!”

Most slang originated from Canadians speaking both English and French. In Toronto, a city in the province of Ontario, Canadians fluent in French benefit from the mix of slang terms because those who solely speak English can understand them easier. Why not try some English classes the next time you visit Toronto? Canucks will surely appreciate your ability to understand their slang!

During my travels abroad, I have immersed myself in many different cultures, dined on unique and exquisite foods, enjoyed meeting people of different ethnicities, and shared a global hate for all things to do with fanny packs! Fanny packs are the bane of my existence in the world of travel. In case you’re not familiar with said item, here is the official definition:

Fanny pack: a small zippered pouch suspended from a belt around the waist.

Fanny packs were once acclaimed as a helpful security measure for travelers, offering protection for passports and money. Thieves were deterred because the packs weren’t easy to pull and run off with. (I personally believe thieves were deterred because of their ugliness) Also, travelers found an ease in accessibility for their money or personal items during trips.

Unfortunately, locals were able to spot a tourist from miles away because of their fanny pack fashion choice.

My most memorable experience of fanny pack shunning was in Spain. As I walked down Las Ramblas in Barcelona, a group of teenagers began laughing hilariously at a few old timers walking down the Boulevard. Immediately I knew why: fanny packs. Some of the teens even yelled “riñoneras tontos,” the Spanish words for silly fanny packs, as they pointed to the group of seniors. Luckily the kids weren’t mean spirited and just wanted to poke fun at the silly waist purses. The seniors never noticed, and walked down the Boulevard confident and proud of their fanny packs. After the Spain incident, I decided to learn how to say fanny pack in different languages along with a few other words: silly, ugly, and hideous. Why don’t you take the fanny pack language challenge and learn how to say it in different languages as well? Click here for more information.

New York is more than my home, it’s a brilliant city of merging cultures often called the world’s melting pot. On the days I don’t have any interest in cooking (which is quite often), my neighborhood offers an abundance of culinary options. As of late, my favorite cuisine has been Spanish food. Spanish food in New York is not only delicious but a medley of rich ingredients shared among Latin Americans in the area.

One of my favorite Spanish dishes is arroz con pollo, which means chicken with rice in English. Although the name seems basic, there is nothing simple about this delicious dish. Arroz con pollo is actually a traditional dish in Latin America from Puerto Rico to Columbia. Its roots originate from Spain as a type of pilaf. Mixtures of rice, chicken, stock, saffron and sofrito along with spices make this dish a complex yet modest meal.

The Spanish restaurant in my neighborhood has an amazing chef who serves up arroz con pollo with fried plantains, better known as tostones in Spanish. The chef became so use to my presence around dinner time, he decided I should start ordering in Spanish if I wanted to eat his food! Luckily for him, my stomach influenced the decision to start learning menu items in Spanish! Now, when I venture over to his restaurant instead of meekly asking for chicken and rice, I yell out “ARROZ CON POLLO por favor (please)!”

Perhaps you should try taking Spanish lessons in New York so you too can try ordering directly from a Spanish menu. Your server and stomach will appreciate the effort!

Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy series on HBO based off George R.R. Martin books. What’s even cooler than the books being adapted to a television series is the creation of a made-up language called Dothraki. Thanks to the brilliance of David Peterson, a language creator for the Language Creation Society, Dothraki came to life in the Game of Thrones television series.

Dothraki, although a made-up language, has a dictionary with over 3000 words. In the dictionary, readers cannot only learn words but the proper way to form sentences and phrases. This might be quite helpful if you’re trying to pen a Dothraki love poem to someone special or send a unique birthday greeting.

Want to take a try at Dothraki? Here are some popular phrases:

Aena shekhikhi! Good morning!

Asshekhqoyi vezhvena! Happy birthday!

Yer zheanae (sekke). You’re (very) beautiful

So good luck with your Dothraki and please let us know how it goes by adding a comment below. If you fancy a challenge that will actually be useful for you one day (apart from just impressing your friends and yourself), why not try Arabic lessons instead?

eBooks written in foreign languages have been selling like hotcakes. Amazon reported a seventy percent rise in eBook sales during 2012 both within the United States and international markets. Foreign language eBooks offer readers the opportunity to read popular books translated in various languages, and often at a lower price than the print version.

Authors gain a wider audience due to accessibility. Notable examples include JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series translated to La Collection Complète des eBooks Harry Potter or Bram Stoker’s Dracula in French. If you would like to challenge yourself and read a foreign language book, why not take French classes in New York to get started.

 When they plan to learn a foreign language most people probably don’t fully appreciate that this is the start of a lifetime of learning. One of the great things about studying a second language is that you can carry on picking up new words and phrases while having fun long after you have learned the basics.

However, the hardest part of all may be at the very beginning, when you might get frustrated at what you see to be a lack of progress on your part. If this is the case then here are some tips to see if you can increase your learning speed.

Take a Trip

Ideally, you will have the chance to take a trip somewhere you can speak your new language with the locals. Clearly the language you are studying and where you live are the two factors which are most going to influence whether this is possible or now. Having said that, a bit of lateral thinking might help you come up with interesting solutions even when this appears to be impossible. For example, if you can’t go to Latin America then you could practice your Spanish taking classes in Miami!

Source: alljapaneseallthetime.com

Here’s an interesting map showing some of the main writing systems used throughout the world, with the word “Wikipedia” written in each alphabet.

The source website is in Japanese, but you can still see the wide variety of writing systems used, from the Latin alphabet in North and South America and most of Europe, to the various pictograms and syllabic systems used in Asia (Chinese Hanyu, Korean Hangul, Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana), to Arabic scripts in the Middle East, to Cyrillic alphabets used in Russia and Eastern Europe, and many others besides.

Click on the image below to get the full sized version.

It’s amazing to see how many different scripts are used on the Indian subcontinent, where different (but similar) alphabets are used depending on where you are and which particular Indian language or dialect you use, including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and several others. Considering that both North and South America essentially only use the Latin alphabet, it’s interesting to see how some smaller regions have several scripts while huge areas use a single alphabet across many different languages!

Source: mentalfloss.com

Blogger M. Asher Cantrell from mentalfloss.com recently put up a very interesting post on 12 letters that have at some point existed in the English alphabet, but have since been phased out.

Among them are familiar symbols such as the ampersand (&), ash (æ) and ethel (œ), which are still seen today, though not considered part of the Latin alphabet.

An interesting one is the letter thorn (Þ), which was used in the word “ye”, an old English form of “the”. Contrary to popular belief, the ‘y’ was actually a Þ, and was pronounced ‘th’ – so those people who try to sound old-timesy by saying “ye” this and “ye” that are actually wrong!

Check out the full article for more interesting facts about disused letters and digraphs!

Source: reddit.com/r/etymology

Reddit user imkharn took an interesting approach in making a map of the USA – he used the literal English translations of the etymology for each state name.

For each item I followed the etymology back until it was translatable to English. For some states this meant more then one step.

Louisiana comes from Louis which comes from the Frankish word hluda wiga which means heard of or Famous War.

Washington comes from Old English and means estate of a man named Wassa. Wassa in turn is an Anglo-Saxon name for Genius of the Woods.

While it isn’t perfect (other users have already poked holes in imkharn’s etymological derivations), the result is a very interesting version of a map with which we’re all intimately familiar. While some places have simpler and understandable derivations (e.g. Oregon meaning “beautiful”, Texas meaning “friend”, or Maine meaning “mainland”), some go through numerous derivations and become pretty surreal (for example Washington becomes “estate of the genius of the woods”, and Florida becomes “flowery Easter”).

Click for the full size version.

Perhaps we’d all know what Washington originally meant if we were to take on some of the English classes Washington offers through Language Trainers!