Las lenguas romances

Hablas Español? comprendes el portugués? o hablas francés y comprendes el italiano? Bien sûr =) hoy voy a introducir la historia de las lenguas romances !

Lenguas romances son una rama de las lenguas itálicas, que son una rama de la familia indoeuropea. Por todo el imperio romano, la lengua hablada era el Latín, pero, habia el latín classico, o científico, hablado por la realeza y personas instruidas, y el latin vulgar. (vulgaris, significaba “común”). Vamos comprender la diferencia.

El Latín clássico y el Latín vulgar

Había en el império Romano una δίγλωσσος (Diglosia), el mismo pueblo usaba una combinación de dos idiomas, en cuanto el latín clássico estaba estancado  por la gramática compleja y una lengua es una cosa viva, la población en las calles hablaba el latín conocido por Vulgar y la diferenciación sufrida por los dialectos que comprendían el latín vulgar fueron responsabiles por la origen de las lenguas romances.

Las principales diferencias: 

En el latín vulgar habia el uso de las palabras estranjeras, venidas de la lengua griega, el céltico y el germanico. la versión vulgar amplió el significado de las palabras, por ejemplo, mulier, puede significar Mujer o esposa, y eso puede ser visto en muchas lenguas derivadas del latín. Hay tambien la predileccion por los diminutivos en el latin vulgar. por ejemplo: auris (latín classico)  =  auricula (Latín vulgar) =  oreja  (Español) = Orelha (Portugues) = oreille (Francés) = orecchio (Italiano) = ureche ( Rumano).

 

El Español: 

Vamos para la Invasión musulmana de la península ibérica en el siglo VIII.Originando zonas diferenciadas, En la zona musulmana habian Mozárabe y además, el próprio árabe, en cuanto la zona cristiana sufrió la evolución divergente, donde surgen varias modalidades romances.

En el Siglo XI comienza la nivelación linguística,  entre los dialectos románicos que tiene como resultado El dialecto románico castellano.

El español se extendió por la península por la reconquista, o, la expansíón del cristianismo, mas tarde, el español se expandió por la América, tierra colonizada por el pueblo europeo.

El Portugués:

Desarrollado al oeste de la Península Ibérica, también evolución del Latín vulgar que ha sufrido influencias de los vizigodos y se enriqueció con léxico germánico. Año de 1143, Portugal se independenció y el idioma se diferenció mucho del Español, hasta que el Rey Dionisio ha proclamado el Portugués como lengua oficial y el portugués se expandió porque el país de Portugal ha colonizado la tierra donde hoy es el Brasil.

El Francés:

Donde hoy es Francia, habia los Galos, pueblo que fue subjugado por el imperio Romano, y hay aqui la entrada del Latín, pero con el declive del imperio, otros pueblos de origen germanica llegarón, y los principales, los Francos, pero, adoptarón el Latín vulgar, ya hablado en (Francia). Por eso, la lengua hablada fue una variación del latín vulgar con influencias germanicas.

El Italiano: 

La lengua se originó del dialecto toscano, hablado en la región de la Toscana, pero, por razones políticas y culturales, se oficializó y expandió para adelante de la región, principalmiente por la obra de Dante Alighieri está escrita en dialecto Toscano y es una de las mayores obras literárias mundiales, y la primer obra en lengua moderna.

El Rumano: 

La provincia de Dacia (Hoy, Rumania) fue subjugada por el imperio Romano y adoptó el latín vulgar, pero, aquí, con el declíve, fue probablemente la primera lengua  que escindió del latín, y hoy es la que mas conserva elementos del Latín y tambíen es la lengua que sufrió influencias eslavas, probabelmente por eso es la mas distinta dentre las principales lenguas de la família.

Un tramo de la declaración de los  derechos humanos:

• Español: “Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros”
• Portugués: “Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e em direitos. Dotados de razão e de consciência, devem agir uns para com os outros em espírito de fraternidade”
• Francés: “Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité”
• Italiano: “Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spírito di fratellanza”
• Rumano: “Toate fiinţele umane se nasc libere şi egale în demnitate şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu raţiune şi conştiinţă şi trebuie să se comporte unele faţă de altele în spiritul fraternităţii”

 

 

 

 

How to find a good language partner?

Most of you probably learn a language without a teacher, right? Anyway, with or without a teacher, you cannot learn a language alone. So, if you have no teacher, you must find at least a language partner. Do you know how to do it?

1 – Best tools:

First of all, my favorite app in the world. You definitely should check it out! I am talking about HelloTalk. I have no financial interests here, I just recommend it because I really believe in this app and it changed my life.

In case you have tried and you want some more, try the communities on Facebook, in fact you can try general ones, like Polyglots (The community) or something more specific, with focus on the language you are learning.

2 – Time to talk! Jump-start!

Ok, now you have HelloTalk but you are too shy to try it. Well, this app has a lot of options, you can try audios or you can send written messages, it is up to you. Just remember one thing. We are all here to make mistakes and learn with them. So, don’t worry and if someone doesn’t answer you, just ignore it and try someone different.

You can always start with basic stuff, like good morning, I am XXX, could we talk? But sometimes it can be a little bit boring. Try to be yourself, ask about musics, movies, try to find some common interests. Please, do not see it like a website to date . Forget about say stupid things for girls/boys in there, it is rude and you can be banned, we are here to learn languages, ok?

3 – Building a relationship

It is pretty boring when you just say: Hi, I am from Brazil, I speak your language, I like to read. and then, the person says, oh, I am XXX and I am from Egypt, I speak your language and I like to travel. This is the end, so you start to talk with someone else and use the same sentences.

You need to feel empathy for him/her. Try to talk with the same person, again and again, expose yourself, show who you are, face it like you were friends. It is.. fake it until you make it, and it is true! With time, you will be friends, you will share cultural background, you will expose yourselves to each other, and then, poof! Like magic! Now you are friends!

4 – My example:

For each language I speak or learn, I have a language partner ( I don’t like these words). Why don’t I like these words? Because we are friends. Sometimes I have more than one for the same language. All of them have my Facebook, most part of them have my Whatsapp or my Skype, we are always in contact. I make all my effort to keep the friendship alive. Is it selfish? No! it is good. In fact, we care about each other and this is the point! Languages are just tools! The key is communication! If I could put one sentence inside your head, it would be:

Do you want to learn languages? Simply make some friends!

Can you efficiently quit?

Would you like to learn all the languages of the world? I hope so! Me too, but, let me share a secret with you… We are not super humans! We all have limits. We can expand our minds, but in some point we will find the limit.So Patrick, are you saying that we have a certain number of languages that you believe impossible to go ahead and learn some more?

No! I saw Luca Lampariello and 13 sounds too much, then Tim Doner and 20 sounds too much, than Ioannis Ikonomou and.. c’mon! 32 languages? It is amazing, but let me tell you one thing.. this is not the goal.

Recently I saw some people saying… I speak X languages, and then, another one saying… really? I speak more than you! So, third person saying.. I speak more than both of you! Let me say… this is useless. It is not a competition.

A few considerations here. First, if you learn the language but don’t respect the culture, you lost the point. If you fix in this description bellow, think again.

“My native language is XXX and I speak a little YYY, a little ZZZ, a little WWW, a little QQQ, a little RRR, a little TTT, a couple of sentences in FFF and I am very begginer in DDD. I know nothing about any cultural background of these languages and I cannot hold a conversation in any language (Just my native one). ”

It is a joke, but it is sad too. That’s why you need to know how to quit! Let me share my example first.

I started to learn Japanese, Hebrew, and then, Greek, Arabic, after this, Romanian, could I speak these languages? Just a little! So… I gave up Romanian, I stopped with Japanese, and I postponed Arabic. Now my Hebrew is better, so, I came back with Arabic and Greek.

It is not a reason to feel bad! There is a concept in business named lean startup, and let me keep it simple. you need to cut things to be efficient, adapt yourself, and another point.. Romanian is a beautiful language and it doesn’t deserve to be studied like this, we need time to deal with each language.

Now, I just keep my old languages and I am spending time with my 3 loves (Arabic, Hebrew and Greek. New videos coming soon). I don’t feel bad about it! I feel that now I am more efficient and that is the point!

You need to speak the language not to play with it! Cut to build!

 

Studying a language to learn another one!

Hey ! Here we go again. Do you know the best way to spend your time while practicing the languages you already know? Well, let me tell you something. It is totally OK if you are learning a new language and you need to practice an old one, so you can combine both of them to improve your routine.

Let me explain you a little trick right now. I bet you had the experience of learning a new language and create all the kind of connections with your native one, that is normal and predictable, once this is your anchor. What do I mean? The structures of your native language work like your foundation, it is an automatic move for your brain, now.

Did you get what I mean? Yes, now, let me say something to you. You can and you should change this Anchor! Let’s think about this metaphor. Imagine you are a Jiu-Jitsu fighter, cool, isn’t it? Ok, so you are familiar with the techniques about this sport, and them, you decide to learn Judo. I bet you will use the first sport as a foundation and you will learn by the differences.

Let’s imagine now that you decide to learn how to run, I mean, as an athlete, so, it is a very new experience, you can use some points of Jiu-jitsu, but it is all new to you. Ok, now, our athlete and fighter wants to learn how to be a professional cyclist. There are two ways here. you can use Jiu-jitsu as a foundation, but the smarter choice is not this one. It is better if you adopt running as your foundation now!

Bringing the concept to language learning

Do you know the origin of the language you want to learn? You should. The point here is, the smarter choice is to change the anchor and use one language to learn another, that is the key point. If your native language is not english and you are reading this, so you could try to learn another Germanic language using English as your Anchor, try German for example.

There are two great benefits here. First of them, you will make things easier to you, once you are picking the smarter way, you will use running to learn how to become a cyclist and not Judo, so you will have more chances to reach your goal in a shorter period of time.

Benefit number two, you will be improving the language number one, or, your anchor. Once your Anchor is not your native language, you need to improve it. Doing this, you will reach double results with the same time and effort.

Just be careful, if you want to chose a foreign language as your anchor, sou you must manage this language very well, you need to be comfortable with this language! otherwise you will face a dangerous trouble. You will mix the structures and make your way harder and that is not the smarter choice.

A personal example. I have been studying Spanish since I was a child, so it is a very comfortable language to me, then, when I started to learn French I simply used Spanish as my Anchor, and this is not the first time. English was my Anchor to learn German. When I teach German to Brazilian students I use English (instead of Portuguese) as the Anchor too (when it is possible, of course).

Now, let me give an example that you should avoid. I studied Romanian a few months ago, but I quit, anyway, something about this language still remains inside my mind, now, imagine that I want to learn Italian (Language that I don’t speak), so, if I use Romanian as an Anchor, I will make a bad choice. I will mix structures, vocabulary and it will be a bad experience. Your anchor needs to make you feel comfortable.

Good luck!

The Mindset to always learn languages

Hey! Here we go again. This time I am here to give the proof of some very special point. You do not need to stop your life to learn languages and even if you have no free time you can keep learning.

Recently I finished my first bachelor Degree. Did I study something about languages? No! In fact, I was studying finance. More specifically, my paper was about Capital Markets. So, I had no reason to study languages there. Right? Wrong!

 

First, I refused to read translated books, so, I got a lot of books in English, Portuguese, Spanish and some articles in German, so, I keep practicing, even working a lot on my paper.

Another interesting point was… my object of study was the Greek market, because I wanted to analyze the financial crisis and the impact on the Greek markets, so, I started to search for news in Greek, and I started to learn the language in a very different way.

I have no reason to say that it was easy, but it made me to wish to learn Greek in a more deep way. The main point here is, no matter what you have to do, if you have the correct mindset so you can never stop studying and you will be always improving and learning new languages.

Now I really want to improve my Greek, it is a fantastic language and I hope to have more time to write here again.

 

Ah, here we have the end of this running…

Series to watch in different languages

Do you like to spend a lot of your time watching movies and Series? Sometimes you feel like… I need to focus on X language but I need to watch the end of this season!

So you are a fan of The walking dead, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad?

What if you could do this two things together?

I am not talking about dubbed things, I mean, series produced in the target language, to catch expressions, ways to talk, a lot of things…

Below, my personal list!

 

• Romanian

 

– Umbre (TV Serie)

if you like GTA, you will like this one. In this Serie, Relu is a man of family, but also a worker for a local mobster, so he lives a double life. The point is, the family doesn’t know about his work and the gangsters doesn’t know about his family!

 

 

• English:

Sounds stupid, but it is not. If you are not an English native speaker, so it can help you. My point is… don’t watch it like a lazy guy, use it to learn new words, catch Expressions… If you like the American way, want to catch the Californian way for example, try this:

Californication:  Hank Moody is a writer with a mental block, he is inspired in the writer Charles Bukowski, check the trailer Below:

 

 

If you like the British way, try Sherlock Holmes!

 

• Portuguese:

Are you learning Portuguese? So, try this one. It is my favorite.

Dupla Identidade:

The serial Killer Edu Borges lives a double life, as a admirable man and member of Brazilian Politic, but, inside, he is a monster! It is very similar to the serie The fall.

 

• Spanish

Los Hombres de Paco.

A policial Serie, but showed in a funny way! Showing the daily life of cops, the idea is Genial!

 

• German:

Verbotene Liebe:

Ok, it is a Soap! But, became popular to talk about Tabus, like, Incest, Rape, Suicide and a lot of bad things, but in a “Normal” way… the Main point is the Stories of 2 young people that fall in love without know that they are twins! haha Check it out.

 

• Russian:

Ангел или Демон (Angel ili Demonn)

Kind of a young romance with weak terror elements. A girl was bor in Moscow, but she is an angel, so.. a family of Demons try to bring her to the evil! It is cool, check it out!

 

 

• Hebrew

Hatufim (חָטוּף)  (Prisoners of war)

If you like Homeland, it is your way. For 17 years, Israeli soldiers were prisoners after a failed mission to kill a member of a Jihad, after this, the government makes a deal to release them. Check this out:

 

 

Blogs of diamond (episode 1 0f 4)

For the next 4 weeks I will interview my favorite bloggers to talk about experiences, Tips and good stories!

 

First interview with Alex Rawlings

 

The interview:

I got a C1/C2 level, what’s next?

Hi!

You know this feeling… you hear some language, you become curious, you start to ask, you research something, soon you will start to study… You can use a lot of methods, you can do it with or without a teacher, the beginning is so great!

 

So the time goes by… You will notice, the first love is gone. you found the end of your course, now you can keep a conversation, you can understand a lot, you feel that feeling of… well, It’s done! What’s next?

A lot of people fall in this part. They start the negligence, it is something like… have nothing left to learn.  It is a fatal mistake, it is a right way to freeze the language  you worked hard to learn. In a few months you will have a dormant language in your brain.

All you have now is that memory that once you spoke that language, but now you cannot do it anymore. I can guarantee that it is sad! I had an experience, some months ago…

I started to study Hebrew together with Arabic, but I gave more attention to Hebrew, so my Arabic was stopped, that’s why I didn’t do any videos until now. So what’s the point? I forgot to study Russian. One of my first foreign languages. When I feel that it was going away, it makes me almost cry, now I study my old languages each day, BEFORE the new ones. I prefer to have a slow progress than let my old ones behind.

Once you have a good level, what’s next? 

Well, now, you have only one way to stop the process of that language’s death. You know it, now it MUST be Part of your life. To stop the death here I give 3 steps that you can simply follow and see the results, instead of see you effort dies you can improve more and more.

• 1 – Read in that language everyday:

You can read the news, trough the internet, you can read novels, articles, what else, but NEVER stop reading. At least 15 minutes for each language, could be the news, during your breakfast for example. I always read Der Spiegel, Pravda and Ambito each day before my day starts.

• 2 – Listening:

It is simple, never stop to listen to your languages, you can use musics, podcasts, news, interviews, at least once each two days. Always ! For example, I watch at least 6 – 10 interviews each week, it keeps the language sounds inside your mind.

• 3 – Talking is never too much!

Native speakers. It is my favorite. I ALWAYS say it. Make friends! It is natural to talk to your friends always. What if these friends speak the language you want to maintain? You will never see it as a boring study time, but as a good time to spend talking to your friends.

The hardest point is to avoid English. Try to speak in the language you want to practice. With these steps you will maintain and Improve and will never have a Dormant language.

 

Golden rules to study a language without teachers

If you, like me, study a language or want to do it, without a teacher, there are some things you should considerate.

First, let me say, I am not against traditional studies with teachers. I studied some languages with teachers, but I love to study a lot of languages, some of them, hard to find good teachers, and even if I do, it would be very expensive. (Imagine afford classes in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Romanian, German, Russian, Japanese…)

Study about the language first!

It is like a battle. A warrior who study the field first is wise, but the one who just go straight to the battle is a fool. Spend some time researching ABOUT the language, the structures, the hard points, the easy points, listen to people. It will worth a lot.

My example in this case: I gave myself a short time to hold a 20 minutes conversation in Japanese. So, when I started, I researched the language. They have 2 alphabets, and a great number of Kanji. So, I knew that I should avoid the writing to reach my goal. Now, I already did it and I am free to study it with all my heart.

Remember that you have to study the language. Don’t spend ALL your time studying about languages. Once you feel that you have enough information about your battle, simply go for it!

Time to decide which material will you use. 

I like to use more than one at the same time, other way you can get stuck in memorized dialogues and make a “fake” progress. In other hand, don’t try to use at the same time all the materials you found, it can makes a mess inside your brain.

My example:

To study German, I used Assimil, Deutsche Welle, HelloTalk and news. While, with Russian another things, Hebrew, Another. There is no rule for that, you need to find what makes you comfortable.

The routine! 

Time to build your routine, you need to deal with your impulse. you can be very excited now, but with time, you get tired, or maybe you don’t have the time you would like to. So, think in goals that you can REALLY reach. Don’t do it like: I will spent 5 hours each day if you only have 30 minutes. It is important to avoid frustration.

Aim small, but never stop!

Think about small goals for your week, don’t think like… I will start today and in 2 weeks I will be fluent. Think about it: I will star today, and in the end of the week I will introduce myself, or order some food. But never stop, increase your goals each week.

Native speakers: 

You can study without a teacher, but you will need a help from experts, in this case, Native people, it is wonderful, it is the best part, to know new cultures, perspectives. How would you know if you are using the tones of Mandarin correctly without a native speaker? Count on them, it will be precious for your journey. Don’t use them as a tool, use the language as a tool to build friendship with them!

Don’t get lazy when you get better!

If you study a language for a long time, you will get better and better, so, with time you will study less because you know more. The point is, don’t stop to study! If you do it, with time you will lose that language and will have a blocked language in your brain, what is sad and you don’t want.

If you feel that you know a lot and feel boring when start to study, it is time to change your habits. Read the news in that language! Listen to the radio, watch series, add that language to your normal routine. Speak to your friends (Native speakers that helped you in the beginning) in that language. Don’t think that you know enough and don’t need to study anymore! We always have something to learn!

 

 

 

The best way to learn new alphabets

How many times did you struggle in the process of learning a new language because of the alphabet?

I did it, more than once. My first experience with new characters was 1,5 years ago, when I decided to study Russian. It is normal that we feel some hard point with the first different alphabet, but, I almost killed my brain to catch it.

To be honest, I spent almost an entire month just learning the characters, and then, after a long time, I could read! What did you think I could read? Nothing! I knew how to read but I didn’t know the meaning of nothing. It was very annoying and I was very upset.

I almost quit. The only reason why I didn’t, was because I really love this language and I couldn’t live without learning it, so, I keep fighting, now I can read, write, speak I am maintaining Russian, but I love different alphabets.

Then, I started with Hebrew. New characters! I know them, but I am still improving, At the same time, I am learning Greek (Other Alphabet) and I came back to Arabic (Jordanian Arabic)  aaand, I am still learning the Japanese writing system. I am not quitting and I am not struggling.

So, why I had trouble with one alphabet and now I learn 4?

I was doing it with a bad method. I was using massive repetitions for memorization. It is not the best way.

First, I have different feelings for each one of this languages, what makes me to not mix up them. I don’t have the same level in all of them. Which I think is a helpful thing.

What do I use?

Memrise. Yes, a lot. It is very cool and it is the best way of learn a new alphabet. If you try to learn entire words at once, you can fail, but Memrise teachs you character by character and them you start to learn the words.

I spent 20 – 30 minutes each day just practicing writing/reading skills for each language. It is not all.

I love Memrise, but there is a last trick.

Musics for children. I am not lying! It is not a joke. Go to youtube and search for (My target language) Alphabet song. Listen until you got the lyrics. I am sure you know a lot of lyrics of musics which you like. If you learn this one, the lyric will be the alphabet you want to learn!

 

Some examples: