Nina Schmidt ~ Vancouver German and Spanish Lessons

Tag: learning

  • Cultural Corner: Latin Society

    Cultural Corner: Latin Society

    Family cooking at home

    When studying a new language  it is important to understand the culture that envelops and supports that language to truly understand it. North American society and Latin society have many similarities but also some differences. Below I will discuss two fundamental institutions in Latin society; family and church.

    Latin society is a collective society. North American society is different, we are raised to be independent and  to put our own opinions and goals ahead of those of the family as a whole. While many North Americans celebrate birthdays and other occasions only with friends or their romantic partner, Latin people celebrate an anniversary, birthday or wedding with the entire extended family. The concept of the nuclear family doesn’t really exist as it is common to live with, or very close to, extended family members such as grandparents, uncles and cousins. To this end, people often have closer relationships with their extended family members than are found in North America.

    In addition to the family, the Catholic Church plays a relatively large role in the everyday lives of most Latin people. Many attend church regularly such as every Sunday or even every day.  The church is not only a place to pray, but also serves as a basis for the community at large. All of life’s major milestones are tied to the church such as baptism, marriage and death.

    The type of Catholicism found in Latin America differs from that found in Europe in countries such as Italy, Spain and France. When the Spaniards brought the Catholic faith to the New World around 500 years ago, it was adopted by the native indigenous peoples. However, they did not completely give up their own traditional beliefs but rather created a fusion of beliefs. Therefore, while many Latin Americas believe in Jesus Christ, they also have local patron saints they worship. Latin people are also quite superstitious and often adorn their homes and cars with small altars and good luck charms.

    In Latin American society, as in North American society, most public holidays revolve around the main religious festivals: Christmas (Navidad), Easter (Pascua) and All Souls Day (El dia de los muertos). The occasions of Christmas and Easter offer time off of work and school in which to celebrate  or commemorate a variety of  rituals surrounding the holiday. Even individuals who are not practicing Catholics may take this as a time off to enjoy time with family.

  • Grammar Tips: Stem Changing Verbs

    te quieroA number of verbs in the Spanish language undergo a stem change in the present tense form. There are three categories of stem changing verbs and dozens of verbs in each of the three categories. These verbs must be memorized individually. Below are examples of each.

    1. dormir-to sleep (o-ue)

    duermo                  dormimos*                  *note: ‘nosotros’ is not changed

    duermes                  x

    duerme                  duermen

    Other verbs that have the same change include:

    volver -to return, encontrar-to find, poder-to be able to, recordar- to remember

    *There is one unique verb in the Spanish language ‘jugar’ which means to play games and sports. This is the only verb which undergoes a u-ue stem change. For example, Yo juego al golf.

    2. querer-to want, to like, to love (e-ie)

    quiero                           queremos

    quieres                          x

    quiere                           quieren

    Other verbs that have the same change include:

    pensar (en) -to think (about), comenzar (a)-to begin (to) , cerrar- to close, entender- to understand

    3. pedir-to ask for, to request (e-i)

    pido                           pedimos

    pides                           x

    pide                           piden

    Other verbs that have the same change include:

    servir-to serve, repetir-to repeat

     

  • Cultural Corner: Tapas and Sangria

    Cultural Corner: Tapas and Sangria

    Table full of appetizers

    Tapas are a type of food popular in Spain. People in Spain eat differently and at different hours than those in North America. Generally breakfast is very light consisting of only a coffee with milk and perhaps a churro, a cylindrical deep-fried pastry similar to a doughnut. Lunch is served around midday and is often followed by a siesta, a midday nap. Siestas help people to avoid working in the extreme heat found throughout Spain in the summer months and in the South most of the year. Many stores are closed during this time and as dinner is served very late by our standards, (9 PM or later) tapas serve as a holdover.

    Tapas are served in bars and restaurants between the hours of four and six in the afternoon. The expression comes from the Spanish verb ‘tapar’ which means “to cover.” As open air food in hot climes is often subject to insects landing upon it, proprietors took to covering the food to protect it. Served on small plates perfect for sharing among friends, tapas commonly consist of olives, nuts, french bread, shrimp, chorizo (a spicy sausage), octopus, pickled onions and more!  Spanish restaurants are creative in their tapas and some get a reputation for specializing in a specific kind. For some ideas on how to make your own tapas visit here.

    The most common beverage served with tapas is sangria, or sangría in Spanish, an alcoholic beverage made with a mixture of red wine, carbonated water or soda, and fruit juice. It also features sliced citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges. Commonly a dash of rum or other liquor is added along with a handful of ice cubes. Outside of Spain sangria is particularly popular in the summer months as it is refreshing but it can be ordered year-round in Spanish restaurants. The name originates from the Spanish word for blood, sangre, due to its rich red colour. For a great sangria recipe click here.

     

     

  • Grammar Tips: The German Case System Explained

    Grammar Tips: The German Case System Explained

    Foto Hintergrund

    Every language has some way of showing the function of nouns and pronouns within a given sentence. Some languages, such as modern English, rely heavily on word order and prepositions whereas other languages rely on declensions. Declensions are the changes that occur to the endings of articles, pronouns, possessives, adjectives, nouns etc. to show their function in a given sentence.  (Changes that occur to verbs are called conjugations).

    Declensions in Modern English

    Modern English has retained declensions mostly in pronouns only. Look what happens to the word “he” as it goes through its three manifestations for English as its function in the sentence changes from subject, to object to possessive.

    1. He is a pilot.                     ‘He’ as subject-the person/thing doing the action

    2. I see him.                          ‘Him’ as object-the person/thing receiving the action

    3. His friend is here.          ‘His’ showing possession

    Declensions in Modern German

    German features one extra case to distinguish direct from indirect objects. Indirect objects receive an action indirectly; it shows to/for whom something is done. English relies on word order or prepositions to make this distinction.

    Therefore, German has four cases in total each of which has been given a Latin name: subject = nominative case, direct object = accusative case, indirect object = dative case, possessive = genitive case.

    1. Er ist Pilot.                        ‘Er’ as subject of the sentence.  = nominative

    2. Ich sehe ihn.                    ‘Ihn’ as direct object                      = accusative

    3. Ich gebe es ihm.             ‘Ihm’ as indirect object                = dative

    4. Das Ei des Mannes.   ‘Des Mannes’ as the possessor   = genitive

    The advantage of the case system found in German is more flexibility with word order:

    Ich sehe ihn./Ihn sehe ich. = I see him.

    Objects of Prepositions:

    In German, nouns and pronouns can also become objects of specific prepositions forcing them into the accusative, dative or genitive case (the nominative does not have any prepositions) depending upon the preposition used. One must memorize with which case each of the prepositions is associated.

    1. Ich lebe ohne einen Hund. = Accusative

    2. Ich lebe mit einem Hund.   = Dative

    List of Prepositions by Case:

    Accusative

    durch (through), entlang (along), ohne (without), um (around, at), gegen (against), für (for)

    Dative

    aus (from), ausser (except), bei (at, near), mit (with), nach (after), seit (since, for),  von (from, by), zu (to),  gegenüber (across from)

    Two-Way 

    These prepositions may be used with either the accusative or the dative case.  The accusative is used if there is motion from point A to B whereas the dative is used if there is no motion, or motion within a restricted area i.e. pacing back and forth.

    in (into, in), über (over, above), an (to, onto, on), unter (under, below), auf (onto, on), vor (in front of), hinter (behind), zwischen (between), neben (next to)

    Genitive 

    trotz (despite), während (during), wegen (because of), (an)statt (instead of)

  • Grammar Tips: Spanish Compound Nouns

    1112637_coconut_2Spanish and English generally do not create compound nouns in the same way. Examples of compound nouns in English include: open-heart, breakwater, basketball.  English features adjective + noun (blackboard), verb + noun (breakwater) or noun + noun (football) combinations. English also frequently hyphenates words. The Spanish language has few hyphenated words as generally they are only used in cases of adjective + adjective or noun + noun combinations in which both elements are of equal importance, as in relaciones sino-estadounidenses (Chinese-US relations).

    To avoid the use of hyphens, Spanish often uses phrases in place of single words, such tigre que come hombres (man-eating tiger). For the majority of its translations for the equivalent of English compound nouns, Spanish relies on the preposition ‘de’ to function as a bridge between words, such as the following word for iceberg: la montaña de hielo (que flota en los mares del norte) =  the mountain of ice (that floats in the seas of the North).

    Specially constructed compound nouns

    An interesting subcategory of compound nouns in Spanish exists in which the third person singular of the present tense of the verb  is coupled with a plural noun. These nouns are nearly always masculine in gender and form the plural by simply changing the article. As in the word for can opener, singular: el abrelatas,  plural: los abrelatas. Some of these specially designed compounds are for items around the house, tools and parts of the car while others are more figurative and even humorous. Here is a sampling:

    abrelatas — can opener (it opens cans)

    calentalibros — bookworm (he/she warms books)

    comecocos — something that confuses or brainwashes (it eats coconuts)

    cuidaniños — babysitter (he/she cares for children)

    cumpleaños — birthday (it fulfills years)

    espantapájaros — scarecrow (it scares birds)

    lavaplatos — dishwasher (it washes dishes)

    matafuegos — fire extinguisher (it kills fires)

    matasanos — medical quack (he/she kills healthy people)

    parabrisas — windshield (it stops breezes)

    parachoques — bumper (it stops crashes)

    paraguas* — umbrella (it stops water) *the extra ‘a’ has been dropped

    picapleitos — shyster lawyer (he/she encourages lawsuits)

    quitamotas — flatterer (he/she removes defects)

    quitasol — sunshade (it removes the sun)

    rascacielos — skyscraper (it scratches skies)

    rompecabezas — puzzle (it breaks heads)

    salvavidas — lifeguard, various safety devices (it saves lives)

    tragamonedas — slot machine, vending machine (it swallows coins)

     

     

     

  • Grammar Tips: German Compound Nouns

    Grammar Tips: German Compound Nouns

    One unique feature of the German language is its ability to create extremely long compound nouns. While this can seem daunting at first, it’s simply a matter of breaking down the noun into its component parts to understand its meaning. For example, Busfahrerin (Bus + fahrer + in). The first word here shows the mode of transport, the second the action (fahren = to drive), and finally the female suffix (-in) shows the gender of the driver.

    German compound nouns can take one of numerous formats:

    1. nouns only: der Milchmann

    2. adjective + noun: die Großmutter

    3. verb stem + noun: die Waschmaschine

    4. Preposition + noun: die Vorlesung

    Learning to interpret compound nouns:

    Here is an example of a long compound noun in German:

    das Fussballweltmeisterschaftsqualifikationsspiel

    1. To start, it’s helpful to break up the word into its component parts:                                                                                                          
    das Fuss-ball-welt-meister-schaft-s*-qualifikations-spiel                                                                             (*sometimes an extra letter is inserted for ease of pronunciation)

    2. Now let us translate the independent parts:

    foot-ball-world-master-ship-qualification-game

    3. Now let us translate into English:

    World Cup soccer qualifying game!

    4. Now try to translate the following compound nouns into English:

    die Blumentopferde

    die Gutenachtgeschichte

    die Rufnummernanzeige

    der Organspenderausweis

  • Further Learning: Interesting Facts about the Spanish Language

    Further Learning: Interesting Facts about the Spanish Language

    Windmills and castle of Consuegra. Spain

    It’s always an advantage when learning a new language to know a bit about its history and relevance in the modern world. Here are some interesting facts about the Spanish language:

    1. Spanish and English are roughly tied for second place after Mandarin for the number of native speakers in the world at around 335-340 million individuals. Spanish accomplishes this in roughly half the number of countries as English, with 21 versus 42 in which Spanish and English are the official or co-official language.
    2. The mother language of Spanish, and indeed all Romance languages, (i.e. Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Catalan) is Latin. Modern Spanish formed in the late 14th century in the region of Spain known as Castile. It is for this reason that Spanish may also be referred to as castellano.
    3. Spanish has undergone far less changes than English in last 500 years. Therefore, fluent speakers of modern Spanish have little trouble reading the literature of Cervantes. Cervantes was the author of Don Quixote, arguably the first modern novel, and a contemporary of Shakespeare. English readers on the other hand generally need footnotes to interpret works by Shakespeare.
    4. As English and Spanish are both Indo-European languages with a strong influence from Latin they share a lot of similar vocabulary allowing English speakers to learn Spanish with relative ease. Some of the largest differences between the two languages include: the existence of gender in Spanish for all nouns, Spanish having a more expansive number of verb tenses and the relatively common use of the subjunctive mood in the Spanish language.
    5. While English has borrowed words in from numerous languages around the world it is Arabic that has had the greatest influence on Spanish, aside from Latin. Roughly 3000-4000 words have made their way into the Spanish language. Most of this occurred during the years between 711-1492 when Arabic people were in control of the greater part of the Iberian Peninsula, home to the countries of Portugal and Spain. Some of these words have also filtered down into the English language. For example, the Spanish word for cotton is algodón. Once you know that ‘al’ represents the word for ‘the’ in Arabic and isolate ‘godón’ you can start to see the connection to the word ‘cotton.’
    6. While Spanish is originally from Spain, the number of native speakers in Latin America is now roughly 3 times that of modern-day Spain.  Minor differences between the languages are found in vocabulary and idiomatic expressions but there are also some major differences. First off, most speakers of Spain speak with a lisp forming the sound of ‘th’ when pronouncing the letter ‘z’ and the letter combinations ‘ce’ and ‘ci.’ (Much less commonly, some regions also lisp the letter ‘s’). Secondly, speakers in Spain distinguish between informality and formality when addressing more than one person at a time by using vosotros for informal “you all” and ustedes for the formal. In Latin America, the latter is used for both.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Further Learning: Memory Aids for Language Learning Part II

    This is part two of a two-part blog on memory aids for language learning. In the first blog (written November 21,2012) I covered subconscious memory aids such as employing colors, smells and music to expand the power of your mind to recover information. Here, in the second part, I will focus on consciously developed techniques such as: mnemonics, the memory palace, labeling and intermittent review.

    Mnemonics

    Mnemonics is a well-known system designed to help people remember. It may consist of acronyms, images and linking words. How many of you remember learning the colours of the rainbow in elementary school with the acronym ROY-G-BIV? (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). A funny example from my first-year Spanish course at University was how to remember the word for swimming pool in Spanish.  The word is spelled piscina and it is pronounced (pis-I-na). My professor said it’s easy to remember as young children often “piss in a {pool}!”  I have developed quite a few acronyms for German. For example,  I use DOG-WUF to help my students remember the accusative prepositions: durch, ohne, gegen, wider, für and um. Students can even invent their own mnemonic devices often with great success.

    Memory palace

    Another trick that works for some people is called a memory palace. This technique allows people to memorize something by picturing a scene in their minds and then linking specific words to the images. For example, you might picture a family photo you are familiar with and then go in and imagine everyone wearing a piece of clothing bearing the name of their relationship to you in the target language. For example, your grandmother may be wearing a shirt with an “Oma” logo on the front. Some people develop this technique further and imagine themselves walking through various scenes in a story with each scene providing new clues to words they wish to remember.

    Labeling

    Sometimes,  simply labelling items around the house helps. You can buy predesigned labels online or make your own. When studying a gendered language, it’s important to include each noun’s gender on the label. This is a great way to build vocabulary for items around the home especially in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Some people even label their office or classroom environment. Try to engage the labels by creating sentences in your mind as you go about your daily tasks.

    Intermittent Review

    Sometimes frustrations arise when you see or hear a word you know you’ve encountered before but simply can’t remember what it means! This is often true of words that don’t appear frequently in common conversation. It’s important to write down any words you have trouble with on a special page in your binder or notebook titled “troublesome words.” This page should be reviewed every time you go to study. In general, any new vocabulary you learn should be revisited within 24 hours, then again in three days, a week and finally a month. Studies have shown that students who follow this review pattern have upwards of a 90% retention rate for newly learned vocabulary.

    Have you had success with any of the above memory aids or any others? Feel free to share below.

  • Book Review: Speak

    Speak: a short history of languages, was written by Tore Janson, a Swedish linguistics and language professor. The book uncovers the history of how the world’s languages have evolved over the years from prehistory through to modern day touching on the earliest civilizations of Africa, Asia and Europe. The book gives a good overview of the world’s large language groupings and explains how languages go from being spoken in small isolated areas, to becoming the majority or ‘big language’ of a large number of speakers.

    I especially enjoyed Chapter 2 titled The Large Language Groups, which focuses on the histories of Germanic, Slavic, Romance and Bantu languages. The author describes how Bantu, a grouping of Southern African languages, was comprised of a number of scattered speakers as recently as 3000 years ago but with the development of farming there was a massive expansion in population and an increase in settlement throughout the southern half of the African continent. Currently there are about 180 million speakers of an approximate 300-600 Bantu languages of which only the major ones such as Swahili, Zulu and Xhosa are well known to outsiders.

    In Chapter 11, How Languages Disappear, Janson discusses the various reasons why languages die out. The author makes a point of saying that most languages undergo a slow death rather than a rapid decline. Generally this occurs as over a number of generations another language comes to prominence in a given area, as knowledge of a more largely spoken language becomes more economically important. Globalization in general is causing large shifts in the use of language throughout the world with more and more people speaking one of the world’s major languages in addition to their local dialect. In future, these local dialects may be seen as unnecessary and die off as has happened with many indigenous languages around the world.

    Currently there are between 6000 and 7000 languages in use globally, but Janson hypothesizes there may be as few as half as many within 100 years. He states, “the 60 largest languages, in terms of numbers of speakers, share more than 4 billion speakers among themselves. That is, about 1% of the [world’s] languages are used by about 75% of the speakers.” The breakdown of the number of languages per continent is roughly: Africa 30% of the world’s total with 2000 languages, the Americas at 15% with 1000 languages, Asia at 32% with 2200 languages, Europe at 3% with 230 languages, the Pacific at 19% with 1300 languages including the island of New Guinea with an estimated 1000 languages alone!

    In the final chapters, the author hypothesizes what the language situation on earth may be in 200, 2000 or 2 million years. I have often wondered about the future of languages. No doubt, the English spoken far in the future will be nearly unrecognizable to today’s English as languages are always changing as long as they are in use. It is hard to visualize this as a learner or speaker of a modern language as the changes happen so slowly as to be easily overlooked in one or two generations. Nevertheless, if you pick up a book written a mere 200 years ago there will be a lot of grammatical structures and phrases unfamiliar to the modern speaker.

  • Further Learning: Memory Aids for Language Learning Part I

    Further Learning: Memory Aids for Language Learning Part I

    The ability to memorize is crucial to learning a language as an adult. Unfortunately, some students give up, claiming they simply can’t learn because they have a “bad memory.” In reality, healthy people are born with similar potential but not everyone has the skills or techniques to maximize their memory capacity. As everyone learns differently, trying out a few of the techniques outlined below is best, as the first one you try may not be right for you.  In this blog, I will focus on subconscious memory aids including: colors, smells and music. Part II will focus on consciously developed techniques such as: mnemonics, the memory palace technique, labeling and intermittent review.

    Colors

    Colors can be extremely useful in helping your brain store information. For example, you may wish to designate a certain color such as red to all the feminine nouns in your target language. Then, when you go to recall that noun, its gender will come to you automatically as you will picture it in that context. Not only gender can be memorized like this, you can also use varying colors of ink or paper for verb conjugations or case systems such as those found in German.

    Smells

    This is a great technique for high school and university students who need to remember a lot of information come exam time. Choose a scent you easily associate with a specific language. For example, perhaps you associate lemons with Spanish as it has a tropical undertone. Then, every time you go to study Spanish, cut open a fresh lemon and allow the smell to permeate the air. Then, before heading into your exam rub some lemon scent on the inside of your wrist. While you are in the exam, smell this periodically when you are struggling, close your eyes and the information will come flooding back! This also works with essential oils and perfumes for those who are not fragrance sensitive.

    Music and other audio

    Some people need absolute quiet to study, but most of us actually benefit from background noise. Personally, I found listening to Latin music extremely helpful in my early studies of Spanish. It put me in an upbeat mood and opened my mind to the possibility that one day I would understand all the lyrics if I kept at my studies. I began playing specific artists while studying specific themes. For example, salsa beats for verb conjugations. Soon enough I was conjugating along to the beat of the music! Other audio, such as dialogues in the target language or vocabulary tracks, can also help you immensely in learning a new language.  Even if you are not actively repeating what they are saying,  consistent exposure enables the student to get a feel for the pronunciation and rhythm of the language.

    If you have had success with any of the above techniques or others please share by posting a comment here or on my Facebook page (link below).