Merry Languages

Yucatec Maya language sounds

Rachel — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:16:40 +0000

It’s really interesting. What Yucatec Maya language really sounds like? For note: Yucatec Maya is spoken among the indigenous people of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Some interesting aspects of the language are that it has no word for yes, there is no word for please and the way of saying “thank you” literally means “God pays.” Also the Maya word for fine or okay sounds almost like malo, the Spanish word for bad. It is easy to imagine the early encomenderos/slavers problems in understanding this subjugated people. So, now you can hear it:

Difference between ‘think of’ and ‘think about’

Rachel — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:19:15 +0000

Sian Harris, the Manager of English Language Training & Development at the BBC World Service, and runs specialist courses in London and overseas for BBC staff. Before joining the BBC, she spent 10 years as an English language teacher, examiner and academic manager in schools and colleges in London. answers:

Basically, ‘think of’ usually means ‘imagine’ whereas ‘think about’ tends to mean something closer to ‘consider’, so the differences would arise in certain contexts. For example, if I say I’m thinking of a tropical beach, please don’t interrupt me! I mean I’m imagining it or daydreaming about it. However, a sentence like ‘they’re thinking about whether to agree to the sale,’ means they’re considering the sale. In these cases, it’s just natural usage patterns that tend to favour one form over another

But when we are talking about people, we often tend to use them both in a similar way: For example, if my friend had an accident and went to hospital, I might send a card and some flowers with a message which could either read: ‘I’m thinking of you,’ or ‘I’m thinking about you’, and the meaning wouldn’t be significantly different.

sourse:BBC

There is time to grow

Rachel — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:40:09 +0000

When trying to develop a new skill, the important thing isn’t how much you do; it’s how often you do it.

Say you’re trying to memorize a list of new words. You’d probably go with one of two familiar strategies. The fancy term for the first approach is spaced presentation and it just means spreading out the studying over time. On the other hand, massed presentation (ie. cramming), helps keeps the words in your short-term memory, and is actually more effective if you have an exam the next day—just as working out right before you hit the beach makes a noticeable, albeit temporary, difference. In psych-speak, this is known as the spacing effect, and it explains why you can’t seem to remember anything you learned in college.

read more – http://jackcheng.com/30-minutes-a-day

Portuguese language

Rachel — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:58:38 +0000

Portuguese language is one of the most beautiful languages. If you want to learn Portuguese, there are a range of quality of Portuguese courses online offering Portuguese language courses in Portugal and Brazil run throughout the year where students are gethering to study Portuguese language from around the world. You can also start to learn it right now, online, free:

Like all other languages of the group, Portuguese is a direct modern descendant of Latin, the vernacular Latin of the Roman soldier and colonist rather than the classical Latin of the cultured Roman citizen. It developed in ancient Gallaeci (modern Galicia, in north western Spain) and in northern Portugal and then spread throughout present-day Portugal.

Portuguese owes its importance (as the second Romance language, after Spanish, in terms of numbers of speakers) largely to its position as the language of Brazil, where more than 150 million people speak it. In Portugal itself there are about 10 million speakers. It is estimated that there are also some 4,6 million Portuguese speakers in Africa (some of whom also use creole) and about 500,000 in the United States.

Actually there are five main Portuguese dialect groups, all mutually intelligible: (1) Northern, or Galician, (2) Central, or Beira, (3) Southern (including Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve), (4) Insular (including the dialects of Madeira and the Azores and (5) Brazilian.

Typical of the Portuguese sound system is the use of nasal vowels, indicated in the orthography by m or n following the vowel (e.g., sim “yes”, bem “well”) or by the use of a tilde (~) over the vowel ( mão “hand”, nação “nation”).

learn English Online

Rachel — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:02:22 +0000

I’ve found a very useful and free online video lessons for all thoose who want to learn English well

Free Online Language Courses

Rachel — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:02:14 +0000

The fact is the best way to learn any foreign is to live some time in the country, among people speaking on language you want to learn. It’s no problem today to get a tour anywhere you want but if you have not enough time for such trip one has to find other ways and one of them is taking online free or not language course online.

Check out the international learning community livemocha.com that offers

Free Online in 36 different languages, over 160 hours of lessons for each, helpful tips from native speakers, focusing on conversation skills.

No doubt Language learning is fun and effective when you practice with native speakers. You can join community to learn to speak a foreign language today!

Basic Italian

Rachel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:58:04 +0000

If you want to get dynamic and effective key to successful Italian language learning it’s great idea to use youtube . All what you need is to have
1. good motivation
2. make a strong decision
3. don’t postpone it for tomorrow, start right now
There are many online free Italian learning resources you can get help with – from beginner to advanced level and to a large and complete self-studying variety of Italian learning materials designed specifically to help people who need to learn Italian fast, fluently, and forever.

If you have used some of free online language learning courses and suppose it’s very helpful and effective site please do share with it here!

Common Italian Phrases

Rachel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:03:28 +0000

Planning travel somewhere, to the countries you’ve not been yet you probably have to prepare to be understood there, I mean learning a couple phrases in the language of country you are going to visit is not bad idea at all!

As to me, I’m planning Italy vacation and despite I love Italian culture, writers, music, recipes very much I dont know Italian Language. So I put here some most common Italian phrases with the pronunciation that must be learned by me. But first beautiful Italian song from the movie I love very much:-)

yes – si – (see)
no – no – (noh)
excuse me – mi scusi – (mee skoo-zee)
hello – buon giorno – (bwon jor-noh)
goodbye – arrivederci – (ah-ree-vuh-dare-chee)
thank you – grazie – (grah-tsee-eh)
yesterday – ieri – (ee-air-ee)
today – oggi – (oh-jee)
tomorrow- domani – (doh-mah-nee)
what? – quale? – (kwal-eh)
where? – dove? – (doh-ve)

The Shopping Phrases
How much does this cost? – Quante’e, per favore? – (kwan-teh pair-fuh-vor-eh)

What time do you close? – A che ora chiude? – (ah keh or-ah kee-yoo-deh)

I am just looking. – Sto soltanto guardando. – (stoh sol-thahn -toh gwar-dan-doh)

I would like… – Vorrei – (vor-ray)

Do you accept credit cards? – Accettate carte di credito? – (ah-che-tah-the kar-teh dee creh-dee-toh)

The Restaurant Phrases
breakfast – colzaione – (koh-lah-tsee-oh-neh)
lunch – pranzo – (prawn-tsoh)
dinner – cena – (che-nah)
waiter – cameriere – (cah-mair-ee-air-eh)
dessert – il dolce – (eel dole-che)
carbonated water – l’acqua minerale gassata – (lah-kwah mee-nair-ah-leh gah-zah-tah)
non-carbonated water – l’acqua minerala naturale – (lah-kwah mee-nair-ah-leh na-too-rah-leh)
garlic – aglio – (ah-lee-oh)
steak – la bistecca – (lah bee-steh-kah)
coffee – il caffe – (eel kah-feh)
cheese – il formaggio – (eel for-mah-joh)
ice cream – il gelato – (eel jeh-lah-toh)
milk – il latte – (eel lah-the)
bread – il pane – (eel pah-neh)
knife – il coltello – (eel kol-tell-oh)
fork – la forchetta – (lah for-ket-tah)
spoon – il cucchiahio – (eel koo-kee-eye-oh)

Numbers
one – uno – (ooh-noh)

two – due – (doo-eh)

three – tre – (treh)

four – quattro – (kwa-troh)

five – cinque – (cheen-kweh)

six – sei (say)

seven – sette – (seh-teh)

eight – otto – (oh-toh)

nine – nove – (noh-veh)

ten – dieci (dee-eh-che)

twenty – dodici – (doh-dee-chee)

thirty – tredici – (treh-dee-chee)

forty – quattordici (kwah-tor-dee-chee)

fifty – quindici – (kwin-dee-chee)

sixty – sessanta (seh-sahn-tah)

seventy – settanta – (seh-tahn-tah)

eighty – ottanta – (oh-tan-tah)

ninety – novanta – (noh-vahn-tah)

one hundred – cento – (chen-toh)

Time Phrases

one hour – un’ora – (oon-oh-rah)

one minute – un minuto – (oohn mee-noo-tah)

Monday – lunedi – (loo-neh-dee)

Tuesday – martedi -(mar-teh-dee)

Wednesday -mercoledi – (mair-koh-leh-dee)

Thursday – giovedi – (gee-oh-veh-dee)

Friday – venerdi – (ven-aire-dee)

Saturday – sabato – (sah-bah-toh)

Sunday -domenica – (doh-men-ee-kah)

Here is also Vasco Rossi – Un Senso lyrics of the song

Voglio trovare un senso a questa sera
Anche se questa sera un senso non ce l’ha

Voglio trovare un senso a questa vita
Anche se questa vita un senso non ce l’ha

Voglio trovare un senso a questa storia
Anche se questa storia un senso non ce l’ha

Voglio trovare un senso a questa voglia
Anche se questa voglia un senso non ce l’ha

Sai che cosa penso
Che se non ha un senso
Domani arriverà…
Domani arriverà lo stesso
Senti che bel vento
Non basta mai il tempo
Domani un altro giorno arriverà…

Voglio trovare un senso a questa situazione
Anche se questa situazione un senso non ce l’ha

Voglio trovare un senso a questa condizione
Anche se questa condizione un senso non ce l’ha

Sai che cosa penso
Che se non ha un senso
Domani arriverà
Domani arriverà lo stesso
Senti che bel vento
Non basta mai il tempo
Domani un altro giorno arriverà…
Domani un altro giorno… ormai è qua!

Voglio trovare un senso a tante cose
Anche se tante cose un senso non ce l’ha

A meaning
I want to find a meaning to this evening
Even if this evening does not have a meaning

I want to find a meaning to this life
Even if this life does not have a meaning

I want to find a meaning to this story
Even if this story does not have a meaning

I want to find a meaning to this desire
Even if this deasire does not have a meaning.

You know what I think
That it doesn’t have a sense
Tomorrow will come…
Tomorrow will come anyway
Feel what a beautiful wind
There is never enough time
Tomorrow another day will come…

I want to find a meaning to this situation
Even if this situation does not have a meaning

I want to find a meaning to this condition
Even if this codition does not have a meaning.

You know what I think
That it doesn’t have a sense
Tomorrow will come…
Tomorrow will come anyway
Feel what a beautiful wind
There is never enough time
Tomorrow another day will come…
Tomorrow another day… is already here!

I want to find a meaning to many things
Even if the many things does not have a meaning

lyrics and translation was taken from http://lyricstranslate.com

Portuguese and Spanish

Rachel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:06:15 +0000

Very often don’t knowing Spanish or Portugal language enough well then one can confuse them because they sound almost equally. Another example is Russian and Ukrainian languages that are also very similar and one could hardly to identify each of them correctly as well. Regarding Portuguese and Spanish, they are among the most widely spoken languages in the world today and despite the two ones are very closely related, they have very significant differences.

Spanish Rosana

On the one hand with this similar sounding and great number of words spelled the same, very often it’s pronounced differently and on the other hand there are other words, which are pronounced almost the same but spelled differently.

Beautiful Portuguese

Besides that, while the Spanish language has kept most of the Mozarabic vocabulary of Arabic origin, the Portuguese language do not have this Mozarabic substratum but replaced it with with Latin roots. In Portuguese language, one can see the influence of French while in Spanish language, there is a great influence of the autonomous and Mediterranean-oriented.

The two languages are very much different in grammar too. They have difference in their tenses, prepositions, cardinal numbers, reflexive pronouns and a lot more.

Portuguese is the official and first language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe. It is also one of the official languages of East Timor (with Tetum), Macau (with Chinese) and the gabonese-equatoguinean city of Cocobeach (with French and Spanish).

The list of countries and territories with Spanish as an official language includes Argentina Bolivia Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba
Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala
Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico Spain Uruguay Venezuela

Other countries where Spanish is important are Andorra Belize and Philippines.

Italian Lessons: 1

Rachel — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:51:05 +0000

Italian Phrases

English Greetings – Italian Greetings:
Hi! – Ciao!
Good morning! – Buongiorno!
Good evening! – Buona sera!
Welcome! (to greet someone) – Benvenuto!/ Benvenuta! (female)
How are you? – Come stai?/ Come state (polite)?
I’m fine, thanks! – Bene, grazie!
And you? – e tu? e lei? (polite)
Good/ So-So. – Bene/ così e così.
Thank you (very much)! Grazie (molto)!
You’re welcome! (for “thank you”) Prego!
Hey! Friend! Ciao! Amico!
I missed you so much! Mi sei mancato molto!
What’s new? che c’è di nuovo?
Nothing much Non molto
Good night! Buona notte!
See you later! A dopo
Good bye! Arrivederci!
Asking for Help and Directions
I’m lost Mi sono perso/ persa (feminine)
Can I help you? Posso aiutarti?/ posso aiutarla (polite)?
Can you help me? Potresti aiutarmi?/ potrebbe aiutarmi? (polite)
Where is the (bathroom/ pharmacy)? Dove posso trovare (il bagno/ la farmacia?)
Go straight! then turn left/ right! Vada dritto! e poi giri a destra/ sinistra!
I’m looking for john. Sto cercando John.
One moment please! Un momento prego!
Hold on please! (phone) Attenda prego!
How much is this? Quanto costa questo?
Excuse me …! (to ask for something) Scusami!/ Mi scusi! (polite)
Excuse me! ( to pass by) Permesso
Come with me! Vieni con me!/ Venga con me! (polite)

۞ To Save this Page Press (CTRL D) or E-mail this Page! ۩ Free Translation
How to Introduce Yourself

Do you speak (English/ Italian)? Parli (inglese/italiano)?/ Parla (inglese/italiano)? (polite)
Just a little. Solo un po’.
What’s your name? Quale è il suo nome?
My name is … Mi chiamo …
Mr…/ Mrs.…/ Miss… Signor …/ Signora …(usually for both Mrs. & Ms)
Nice to meet you! è un piacere conoscerti!/ è un piacere conoscerla (polite)
You’re very kind! Sei molto gentile!/ lei è molto gentile (polite)
Where are you from? Di dove sei?/ Di dove è? (polite)
I’m from (the U.S/ Italy) Sono (statunitense, italiano).
I’m (American) Sono americano.
Where do you live? Dove vivi?/ Dove vive? (polite)
I live in (the U.S/ Italy) Vivo (negli stati uniti / in Italia)
Did you like it here? ti piace qui?
Italy is a wonderful country L’italia è un paese meraviglioso.
What do you do for a living? cosa fai per vivere?
I work as a (translator/ businessman) Lavoro come (traduttore/ uomo d’affari)
I like Italian Mi piace l’italiano.
I’ve been learning Italian for 1 month imparo l’italiano da un mese.
Oh! That’s good! Grande!
How old are you? Quanti anni hai?
I’m (twenty, thirty…) years old. Ho (venti, trenta …) anni.
I have to go Devo andare
I will be right back! Torno subito!
Wish Someone Something
Good luck! Buona fortuna!
Happy birthday! Buon compleanno!
Happy new year! Felice anno nuovo!
Merry Christmas! Buon natale!

Congratulations! Congratulazioni!
Enjoy! (for meals…) Buon appetite!
I’d like to visit Italy one day Mi piacerebbe visitare l’Italia un giorno di questi!
Say hi to John for me Saluta John da parte mia!
Bless you (when sneezing) Salute!
Good night and sweet dreams! Buona notte e sogni d’oro!
Solving a Misunderstanding
I’m Sorry! (if you don’t hear something) Sono spiacente!
Sorry (for a mistake) Scusami!/ Mi scusi! (polite)
No Problem! Non c’è problema!
Can You Say It Again? Potresti ripetere per favore?/ Potrebbe ripetere per favore? (polite)
Can You Speak Slowly? Puoi parlare lentamente? Potrebbe parlare lentamente? (polite)
Write It Down Please! Scrivilo per favore!/ Lo scriva per favore (polite)
I Don’t Understand! Non capisco!
I Don’t Know! Non lo so!
I Have No Idea. Non ne ho idea!
What’s That Called In Italian? Come si chiama quella cosa in italiano?
What Does “gato” Mean In English? Cosa significa “scusami” in inglese?
How Do You Say “Please” In Italian? Come dite “please” in italiano?
What Is This? Cos’è questa cosa?
My Italian is bad. il mio italiano è orribile.
I need to practice my Italian ho bisogno di fare pratica con il mio italiano
Don’t worry! non ti preoccupare !
Italian Expressions and Words
Good/ Bad/ So-So. Buono/ Cattico/ Così e così
Big/ Small Grosso/ Piccolo
Today/ Now Oggi/ Adesso
Tomorrow/ Yesterday Domani/ ieri
Yes/ No Si/ No
Here you go! (when giving something) Eccolo!
Do you like it? Ti piace?
I really like it! Mi piace davvero.
I’m hungry/ thirsty. Sono Affamato/ Assetato.
In The Morning/ Evening/ At Night. Di mattina/ Di sera/ Di notte.
(also Stamattina/ Stasera = this ~)
This/ That. Here/There Questo/ Quello. Qui/ Li.
Me/ You. Him/ Her. io/ tu, voi (you polite). Lui/ Lei
Really! Davvero!
Look! Guarda!
Hurry up! Sbrigati!
What? Where? Cosa? Dove?
What time is it? Che ore sono?
It’s 10 o’clock. 07:30pm. Sono le dieci precise. le sette e trenta
Give me this! Dammi questo!
I love you! Ti amo!/ Ti voglio bene!
I feel sick. Mi sento male!
I need a doctor Ho bisogno di un dottore!
One, Two, Three Uno, Due, Tre.
Four, Five, Six Quattro, Cinque, Sei.
Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten Sette, Otto, Nove, Dieci.