Photo taken by Jurgis at Marceliukes Kletis
As you know, I'm trying to learn Lithuanian. So far, I'm enjoying it. It's completely different to any language I know (yeah, I know SO many haha!).
One lesson I really enjoyed and which I've been meaning to blog about for a while now is the simple:
How are you?
I'm fine, thanks!
Lithuanians take the "I'm fine" to a whole new level and one I really like.
First, to break it down:
Kaip = How
gyventi = the verb 'to live'
good = gerai
So a question would read:
Kaip jis gyvena? = How's he doing? or How's he living?
The answer... ?
Jis gyvena gerai! = He's doing well! or He's living good!
Taip, Gyvenimas yra Geras! (Yes, Life is Good)
Asta, as I'm still learning, please, please feel free to correct me : ) There may well be grammatical issues with this post.
AWESOOOOME!!!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the Lithuanian. I've been fooling around with Hungarian lately.
ReplyDeleteJó estét kívánok. (the polite way to say Good evening.)
I love languages, I wish I could learn with you.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! But it seems a difficult language to me!
ReplyDeleteRiete, is isn't easy. Lithuanian is the oldest European language. I'm enjoying learning though. Having said that, I'm still a beginner, so I'm still at the easy stuff haha!
ReplyDeleteKat, you can. There are so many language learning sites and applications out there.... all free!
Stormy (or is it Bryce?), welcome and thanks for that. You have my daughter and her friend all excited. My daughter is a volunteer worker in England and one of her fellow volunteers is Hungarian. I can't type Lithuanian properly. I know the codes for a few of the letters, but my keyboard doesn't have the symbols.
Tat... yes... it is, isn't it? *waves at Andrea*
Does your husband speak Lithuanian? It would be really easy to learn if someone spoke it all the time. I never could write languages as easily as I could speak them.
ReplyDeleteWe're all learning the language and my husband isn't the best person to practice with lol That would frustrate me no end. I do practice with Tat when I get a chance though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I took German in school, on the first day our teacher told us it would be the last time we heard English in her class. She would only speak German from then on. I think she did end up being forced to speak English to us (lots of blank faces tend to encourage that) but mostly, it was all German. And I learned so fast!! It was great.
ReplyDeleteThen pick up your German again : )
ReplyDeletehttp://tintalasia.multiply.com/journal/item/158/German_word_of_the_day
ReplyDeletehttp://www.transparent.com/wotd/today/german.html
Transparent.com has so many languages to learn for free. You can get a word of the day delivered to your mailbox, which gives you pronunciation and how to use it.
cool! Thanks. I don't really have an opportunity to speak German anymore...my grandparents are all gone, and I have no plans of travelling...I did watch Inglorious Bastards the other night, and it would have come in very handy then!! I could barely read the subtitles haha.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, an extra language is never wasted. The number of times I've seen job offers where they've said something like, "fluency in Xyz an advantage" or words to that effect.
ReplyDeleteWow. I'm with Riete, that does sound complex and a little difficult. And even moreso it seems nearly impossible to pronounce! *laugh* I'd hate to see what the Lithuanians would think of me if I even tried.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that Lithuanian was Europe's oldest language! Is it related to Sanskrit, or is it a whole separate branch?
ReplyDeleteSome of them are available on the English International Keyboard. You may also be able to set your keyboard to Lithuanian via Microsoft Language options. I know most languages have optional keyboard layouts. You just need to have a map handy - I can't type at all fast in Hungarian (English either, for that matter...)
ReplyDeleteit is actually very interesting to follow a process of someone learning a language which is native tongue to myself. Funny, but I kind of would never visualize that one can reconstruct simple 'How do you do" the same way you did.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with learning. So far it seems you're doing just fine. Tau puikiai sekasi ;)
Learning a new language will keep your brain cells nice and healthy! There's something about doing your brain a world of good when you keep learning and challenging it as you get older. Good for you and have fun!
ReplyDeleteKippy, the pronunciation is very different, but not too hard. The sounds are somewhat Germanic, which I'm accustomed to.
ReplyDeleteIen, the language is Indo-European, which apparently comes from the Sanskrit, if I understand it correctly. If anyone is interested in linguistics, there is a really interesting article here: http://postilla.mch.mii.lt/Kalba/kalbarast.en.htm
Stormy, that's an idea. I currently have my keyboard set to Portuguese, as I often need the characters. If I activate my language toolbar and print a keyboard map, I should be able to toggle keyboards nicely. I'm going to look into it.
Asta, I know what you mean. As an EFL teacher here, it's been a fascinating experience seeing how they learn a language I take for granted. I was worried when posting this that I might have the whole thing wrong :) I appreciate your input. Ačiu!
Faye, absolutely! It's also been proven that learning new languages wards off alzheimers. That, I think, is a good reason to keep studying :)
So Tint how are you living at the moment? :)
ReplyDeleteGerai, ačiu! : ) Though I think the dog is planning to sue me for copyright infringement of his bark.
ReplyDeletehi tint!
ReplyDeletei have had some students from Lithuanian, mostly students. they have told me about how different their language is from the other north-european languages, and this information was proved by their difficulties. but after a year, they could communicate in norwegian.
any language can be learnt!
several women married to norwegian men, are living here in our village. they came here in order to earn money during the summertime, employed by farmers. and some of them had good reasons to stay.
Well, as a matter of fact, have you ever noticed, that even dogs all over the world do bark in different languages? Here in Lithuania, they bark "Au, au", the ones in most English speaking countries goes "Woof, woof", etc. I wonder, if it's only people, who tend to interpret their bark differently, or do they really bark in lots of languages? ;)
ReplyDelete@ Elfoflamia: That's really cool! In Brazil, they bark "Au au" as well! Maybe the pronunciation is a bit different, but either way... That's really interesting! Thanks =D
ReplyDeleteAmalie, I read today that Lithuanian has some Finnish in it or is it the Finnish that has some Lithuanian in it... I can't remember now, but yes, it is very different.
ReplyDeleteAsta *laughing* Dog-speak does change. We watched 101 Dalmations last night and my dog didn't understand the Disney dog-speak ; ) But it's true... I think in America they say 'arf, arf' and, as Tat said, in Brazil they also use 'au, au'.
:) But...it's music to your ears, isn't it Tint? You'll be a polyglot in no time!
ReplyDeleteTatiana, wow, it is really nice to learn, that there is a slight chance that at least Lithuanian and Brazilian dogs might be barking the same way. I always kind of wondering, if ours are the only ones to bark 'Au, au' C:
ReplyDeleteHope you are doing well , having a great day. Language is interesting. It's difficult for me to learn a new language my Dad spoke Finnish and then English , his grandparent's came from Finland . I know very little of the language however .
ReplyDelete