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benevolentbirdgal · 3 years

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“Thirteen” Tips on Writing Jewish Characters / Some Jewish Identity Stuff Explained

So you want to write a Jewish character, but don’t want to write a caricature? Or are worried they won’t register as Jewish to readers, or something will be off or wrong? Well I, friendly (virtual) neighborhood Jewish professional, am here to help!

Note: The Jewish community is made up of roughly 14 million people worldwide with all sorts of backgrounds, practices, life circumstances, and beliefs. I’m just one American Jew, but I’ve had exposure to Jewishness in many forms after living in 3.5 states (at several different population densities/layouts), attending Jewish day school and youth groups, doing Jewish college stuff, and landing a job at a Jewish non-profit. I’m speaking specifically in an American or Americanish context, though some of this will apply elsewhere as well.

Let’s start with the word “Jew.” It’s not inherently a slur, but can absolutely be used as one. I am a Jew. You can call me a Jew, just not a Jew. Like most minority groups, there are slurs against us, but Jew is the proper demonym. It can be used disrespectfully as a noun, but isn’t inherently disrespectful. Think “Chava is a Jew” versus “You’re being such a Jew.” 1a. Any use of Jew as a verb by gentiles (non-Jews) is not okay. Your Jewish characters should be horrified by someone telling them they “Jewed down the price.” 1b. Any use of Jewess by gentiles is not okay and your Jewish character should not be cool with it. 1c. Many Jews would actively prefer to be called such because that’s what we are and “Jewish person” is stepping away from our Jewishness. But I get that not everybody is going to be comfortable calling us Jews. That’s okay, and “Jewish person/people” or “X is Jewish” is TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE. 1d. With that said, Jewish people refers to ourselves as Jews. If Sarah is Jewish but is squicked about referring to herself as a Jew, your Jewish readers will immediately know she’s written by a gentile. 1e. Actual slurs against Jews is a post for another time (did you know K*ke literally means circle?).

Your Jewish-American character likely does not speak Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, or any other Judeo-Language (languages that are a mix of Hebrew and at least one other language, typically written in the Hebrew abjad). Three notes on this, however: 2a. If your character is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant, they might speak the Judeo-language of the old country. The most common will be Israeli-Americans speaking Hebrew, but families still speaking Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, and other families do still exist. The children of Jewish immigrants might also speak another language that isn’t a Jewish one, like Russian or Spanish. 2b. If they are in a VERY religious Ashkenazi community, they might speak Yiddish at home and in the community. 2c. Odds are decent, however, that your American Jew can read but not understand Hebrew. If your character went to Jewish Day School or Yeshiva, they definitely read Hebrew, and will have some understanding of it (but likely not fluency).

Despite what I just said above, your Jewish-American character likely drops a lot of Yiddish words and phrases into their day-to-day speech. Which words/phrases in probably a list for another time, but the most common will be foods, family names (i.e. “Zayde” instead of Grandpa), and sassy expressions. They may incorporate some Hebrew to a lesser extent.

There’s not just one version of kosher. There’s kosher, kosher-style, Halav Yisrael, glatt kosher, etc. Depending on your character’s level of kosher, they’ve need a hecksher (kosher mark) on any given item or only eat at kosher restaurants, although not all Jews keep kosher and many keep “kosher-style” (i.e. only eat theoretically kosher things).

Your Jewish character should be a whole character, both in general and in relation to their Jewishness. This means, among other things, that they aren’t obsessed with Israel and I/P discourse one way or the other and that while writing you remember that not all Israelis are Jews and not all Jews are Israelis. Your Jewish character is not constantly agonizing over the I/P situation, has a life outside of their Jewishness, and shouldn’t be a cardboard stand-in for your desire to discuss the middle east.

The Jewish experience varies dramatically with geography. Jews living in Omaha, Richmond, Philly, Kansas City, Boca Raton, and New York City are all American Jews. They will have drastically different Jewish experiences. I strongly recommend doing research on the Jews in the specific place your story takes places, but generally: 6a. The closer you are to the northeast coast and NYC (except south Florida) the better and more varied your Jewish resources. 6b. NYC has the highest Jewish population of any city on the planet. Big cities like Boston, Chicago, and L.A., as well as just outside of NYC in NJ and NYS, and suburban/exburb south Florida will have lots of Jewish resources: day schools (Jewish + secular education mix), maybe Yeshivas (Jewish focus), multiple synagogues, a Jewish Community Center, Jewish dating services, social stuff, Jewish charities, and youth activities. Your character will have other Jewish friends and their gentile friends will likely know other Jews. Antisemitism is still a problem and usually takes the form of excluding Jews from activism, thinly-veiled stereotyping or excusing antisemitism from people from other oppressed groups, but it’s usually not as overt as elsewhere. Almost always safe to disclose Jewishness. 6c. Small and mid-size cities Denver, Virginia Beach, Charleston, and Harrisburg will have a JCC or Jewish federation, multiple synagogues, and maybe a Jewish day school. Your character is not the only Jew their gentile peers have met, but the bagels are meh. They will have other Jews to bond and commiserate with. Antisemitism here is mostly like that in big cities with occasional burst of overt incidents and attacks. It is generally physically safe for them to disclose Jewishness. 6d. Big towns and small cities in the south or mid-west will have maybe one synagogue - probably reform or Chabad. Your character will have to seek out Jewish spaces, but they will be easy to find. They will not be everybody’s First Jew, but it will be unusual. Antisemitism here is mostly overt - most of the antisemites your character deals with will be very obvious and many will be violent. Jews in such situations will not hide their Jewishness per se, but will be more selective in choosing to disclose it. 6e. Rural areas and small-small towns will not have a synagogue. Your character and their family may be the only Jews or there might be a small group that meets on occasion or carpools to the nearest synagogue. They will have to actively seek out the others Jews and they will be difficult to find. Disclosing their Jewishness is a serious consideration and not always safe. Odds are they are many people’s First Jew, which gets really weird real fast. Beyond the harmless ignorant-but-trying-to-learn-from-their-first-Jew types your character will interact with, there’s also violent and overt antisemitism here. 6f. If your character is in college, they will likely have a Chabad and/or a Hillel on campus if they are at a large school or a school with a significant Jewish population.

Related: when Jews meet each other for the first time, a game of “Jewish geography” ensues as they try and trace people they know in the other person’s state/city/community.

Jews come in all shapes, colors, sizes, genders, sexualities, politics, and religious beliefs. There are all sorts of Jewish people with tons of different intersecting identities. Don’t box yourself in to writing one kind of Jew. Just research a ton on the particular subsection of the Jewish community your character is a part of - a Mizrachi-Jewish Persian-American bisexual woman is going to have a different experience than a straight Ethiopian-American Jewish man who is going to have different experience from a queer Ashkenazi-Jewish-American girl with non-Jewish family. 8a. Jews with Ashkenazi (eastern/northern European) ancestry and customs are the biggest group in the U.S., but by no means the only group or representative of every Jew. Sephardi (Spanish/southern European/north Africa), and Mizrachi (north Africa and the middle east) are the next biggest groups. It would not be unusual for your character to have Polish-Jewish, Iraqi-Jewish, Moroccan-Jewish, or Russian Jewish ancestry or a mix. 8b. Each of these groups have their own customs, Judeo-languages, local holidays, and local historic tragedies. Generally, historic Sephardi communities were linked between themselves, historic Ashkenazi communities were linked between themselves, and historic Mizarchi communities were linked between themselves. The three had some, but limited contact. Additionally, all three major groups have subdivisions within them. 8c. There are also smaller groups that don’t fall within the three traditional categories, like the Ethiopian Jews, the Cochin Jews (India), Chinese Jews, Gruzim (Georgian), and more. Most of these smaller groups were not in contact with the wider Jewish world. 8d. All Jewish groups start from the same base texts (the written Torah), and the majority include the oral Torah as well. Local interpretations and traditions develop, these are referred to as minhag(im) (customs). For example, the biblical commandment is to not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk. Some communities extend this to mean no chicken and milk, others reason that chickens don’t produce milk so the mixture is acceptable. Both are equally valid interpretations rooted in tradition, but they are different. 8e. Marrying between Jewish subgroups in the U.S. is super common and outside of extreme or really intense groups is not frowned upon. Traditionally, the father’s minhagim are followed, i.e. a Syrian-Jewish father and a Spanish-Jewish mother would follow the Syrian-Jewish minhagim with their children. Many modern couples choose the mother’s traditions or mix them up, but that’s the traditional route.

Unless they are VERY religious, your character’s family is unlikely to be particularly wound up about them being LGBTQ the way a comparably Christian family might, at least not because they’re Jewish. Samuel’s Jewish mother is likely unconcerned he likes boys and is much more empathetic than he must marry a Jewish boy and raise any kids Jewish.

There are so many Jewish holidays, and they are not all celebrated the same or with the same intensity. Probably enough material for its own post, but the ones most likely celebrated by your character: 10a. Shabbat and/or Havdalah. Shabbat starts Friday nights with candles, wine/grape juice and challah bread, Havdalah ends Shabbat with a braided candle, wine, and aromatic spices. Shabbat dinner is usually a meat meal and it is common to invite guests or eat with friends and family (in normal times). 10b. The “High Holidays” - Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Jewish students often skip school for these. Yom Kippur is a 25 hour fast with services all day, Rosh HaShanah has services in the evening and morning. 10c. Passover - arguably the most important holiday. Celebrated with two sometimes agonizingly long Seders (ritual meals), family gatherings, and abstaining from leavened bread for 7/8 days. 10d. Hanukkah - Not actually that spiritually important, but culturally important for American Jews. Typically celebrated with candle lighting, presents, visits to family members, and greasy food.

There’s a lot of wine involved in Jewish ritual, so it’s unlikely your character’s Jewish family are teetotalers.

Jewish families tend to be very intense, loud, opinioned, caring, and involved, compared to many other assimilated American families. Shabbat dinner is not quiet. Dissent is a Jewish value - differing opinions are allowed (and expected in many circles), as is the ability to argue/defend competently.

Jewishness can mean ethnic identity, cultural identity, and/or religion. There are several major denominations religiously, although that needs to be its own post in detail. The noteworthy movements at this point are Orthodox (further subdivided into Ultraorthodox and Modern Orthodox), Conservative (middle of the road, no relation to conservative politics), Reform, and Reconstructionist (both very “choose your own/your community’s adventure).

Probably will write more parts in the future, but this is heinously long already! Hope this is helpful!

#jewish #jewish writing #jewishwriting #jewblr #writeblr #writing advice #jewish identity #jews #jewishidentity #super long post sorry not sorry #writing jewish characters #writing jews #jewish writing help #jumblr

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wandering-----wonderings · 4 years

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A glimpse inside everyones favorite hyperpolyglot, Sydney Bristow. (Yes, I childishly cut Danny out of the picture because I prefer Sydney with Noah, but I like this picture, so there you go.)

Let's start this off with a quick quote from Recruited: I speak five languages (six if you count pig latin. From Shadowed, we also know this: for SD-6 agents, mastering five or six languages was the bare minimum. So right out of the gate, before she even starts working at SD-6, she's already met the 'bare minimum' requirement. Sort of; I'm not sure if SD-6 would count English - or pig latin for that matter.

My current wondering is: what five languages (six including pig latin) did she know before starting SD-6? English would be 1, obviously, and Pig Latin would make two. I'm assuming she's counting her Spanish and Mandarin college electives when she said that (unless she already spoke those languages and just took them as electives to get more of a background on them), so that would be 3 and 4. So what were 5 and 6?

Truthfully, I have no idea. Wikipedia has a list of her speaking 30 languages: English, Russian, German, Greek, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian.

Now this is completely a supposition, but the Wikipedia list doesn't mention Latin - it doesn't mention pig latin, either - but I would think that one of the languages she knew before coming into SD-6 would be Latin; it just ... sorta seems like it would be the first language she would learn with her being as studious as she is since, while being considered a dead language, it's still quite present in today's world, especially in the sciences. So my guess for language-number-5 would be Latin.

The sixth language is more of a long-shot. Seriously. In the pilot episode, in the SD-6 briefing room, we hear this:

Sydney: ''What is that? Hieratic?'' Sloane: ''Good try. That's what I thought. Actually, it's demotic. Taking notes in ancient languages was just one of Muller's quirks.''

A quick Google search showed this:

Now, she obviously doesn't know Hieratic or Demotic, otherwise she would've been able to translate right off. However, she was able to recognize it. So my theory is that she either learned the 'parent language' or one of the other 'child languages'. None of them are on the Wikipedia list. Most kids are interested in hieroglyphics but usually not enough to actually learn them (at least, such was the case with me), but I think we can all agree that when it comes to languages Sydney is a bit different - in a good way. So my long-shot-of-a-guess is that her 6th language is 'Egyptian'. Granted, she'd been at the agency for about seven years when we see her in the pilot episode so she could have learned it within that time.

Now that we've done that, let's review her language history in the books (at least, all of the one that I can remember off the top of my head). (I don't think she spoke in anything but English in Sister Spy, Father Figure or Skin Deep, but I may be wrong.)

Recruited: she's taking Spanish and Mandarin as electives, and she also says that she can speak a total of six languages (prior to being recruited)(see above). Spanish is also used later in the book. A Secret Life: she's was trying to teach herself Russian. French was used in this book, but she couldn't understand it. Disappeared: she had to learn Romanian (which she was distracted and didn't do too well at, but I assume she went back and learned it properly later). She also states that after the events in A Secret Life, she came back to L.A. and learned French as if her life depended on it. Free Fall: had her brushing up on one of her ''better languages'' - French. She was also able to translate an one-sided phone conversation she was eavesdropping on, from Russian. Infiltration: her Russian is described as amazing (and at times she'd been ahead of her SD-6 tutor), she says the Romance languages had been easy to learn (I haven't got a clear answer as to how many there are), Japanese took an impossible amount of concentration, and says it was difficult to keep the Oriental languages straight when she threw Cantonese and Mandarin into the mix (which, she should have already knew a fair bit of Mandarin since, as stated above, it was one of her electives). Vanishing Act: speaks in 'flawless' Dutch. (Also, she asks a woman working in a bookstore if she has any first additions of Chekhov, and when the woman ask if she wants it in English [the book], Sydney says she wants it in Lithuanian. This doesn't necessarily mean she speaks Lithuanian since it was a code phrase and it's not listed in her Wikipedia languages, but maybe she learned at some point.) Shadowed: she had recently brushed up on her Greek, and had learned German at some point.

Think about that for a minute. Did you catch what I did? She was recruited in the fall of her freshman year (a few weeks into the school year) and Free Fall says this happened in September. Shadowed itself happens in October of her sophomore year. Which means, Sydney learned 11+ languages in a year. So, aside from learning stuff for school, learning bank stuff (so she would be able to lie more efficiently to anyone who asked what she did on a daily basis for Credit Dauphine), and learning cool spy stuff and going on missions, she managed to cram in 11+ languages amidst carving out time for a social life with Francie (and a few dates with Noah) in one year's time. At the age of 19 and 20 years old. If you didn't think she was superwoman before, you should now.

Not to mention, that that's just the languages she speaks. While Sydney's trading card lists her languages as ''numerous'', she obviously knows a various amount of codes and ciphers as well; which, to me, counts as a language. We know she knows Morse code (2x18) from her mother's earrings, the Substitution cipher from when her dad encrypted her crossword puzzles (4x12), and Skip Sequencing Cypher Text (2x19) from when she was trying to get a message to Vaughn and an ever-helpful Weiss. That's just the ones I can remember right off, I'm sure she knows quite a few more.

As a side note, on Noah Hicks' trading card, it claims he only speaks three: English, French, and Russian. Oddly enough, the Russian was episode based while the French happened in the books - it's odd because I like to find what's different between the show and novels, but that's something that lines up. I'm sure he knows more languages - as it's said, five or six was the minimum - but it's not stated in the novels, the show, his Wiki page, or his trading card.

((Update: Ok, so two things. One, one the back of her season 3 trading card, it has one of Sydney’s languages as Taiwanese, so I guess that bumps her (known) total to 31 languages. Secondly, I did forget about a language from Vanishing Act; ''... a circle filled with words in what Sydney immediately recognized as Latin.'' Now again, it said she recognized it and not knew it (though, that’s probably the same thing for her), but I feel it’s further evidence supporting my theory.))

#Alias #Sydney Bristow

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intheirlanguage · 6 years

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Typing in your Target Language

I know most langblr’s have like miles of photos of neatly handwritten practice sheets and that seems to be what everybody strives for. And while yes, handwriting is important and has been shown to aid in learning, sometimes, you gotta type. Either ‘cause you’re emailing a penpal, writing an essay for class, or you’re someone who learns better with the computer and typed text. So here’s a little typing positivity post with a few tips and resources about learning to type like a pro in your target language. Please note that regardless of how my writing may indicate a particular audience, this is really intended for just about everybody, it’s just really hard to write if I don’t narrow things down to a small imagined audience or people who use a QWERTY keyboard like me. This also focuses on using a computer such as a laptop or desktop which are slightly more complicated than typing in a new language on your smartphone, something which most of you are probably already doing.

The most important thing: If you really want to be typing in your target language the absolute most important thing is that you switch your keyboard to that language. Although there are many ways to achieve various accents without ever leaving the English keyboard (or whatever language you most use) as well as online keyboards, if you really want typed success you need the proper keyboard. Selecting a particular keyboard means you’re using a keyboard layout that has been specifically designed for that language. This will enable you to type faster and easier in that specific language, not to mention it’s been formatted for language specific punctuation as well. If you’re using a word processor go ahead and download the necessary dictionary and change the necessary settings for spell check (seriously spellcheck has saved my Spanish so many times I never know where the accents go but spellcheck has my back and my accents). Below I’ve included a few links for how to get your new keyboard set up if you’re not sure.

Changing Keyboard Layout Windows

Changing Keyboard Layout Mac

Keyboard Learning Curve: Let’s be real, learning to type was hard enough (anybody else have Mavis Beacon teaches typing? Because I’m haunted by that damn thing). And if you don’t know how to properly type I highly suggest you learn, it’s an incredibly useful skill in today’s digital world, though a bit of a pain to learn, you’ll be thankful you did (Mavis Beacon may haunt me but I’m still grateful for all she did, thanks to her I can almost type as fast as I think).

Learn How to Type

Now that you’ve got your keyboard and mad typing skills it’s time to learn your new keyboard. If it’s a latin based alphabet it should be familiar to what you already know, the only thing to learn is special characters and punctuation. If it’s an entirely different alphabet such as Cyrillic you may find yourself lost before you’ve even started. Many people find things such as keyboard stickers and keyboard covers with the characters on them incredibly helpful, I do to. However, if you can’t afford these kinds of things (or you’re just really possessive over your computer and don’t want to mess it up with stickers) there’s an easy trick you can do using a program that’s already on your computer. What you want is an on-screen virtual keyboard.

Virtual Keyboard Mac

On-Screen Keyboard Windows

This onscreen keyboard will change when you change your keyboard settings between languages. You can use this to reference your actual keyboard so you can visually see where all your keys are. If you’re practiced with a keyboard using this as reference while you type shouldn’t take long. If you’re unfamiliar it may take a bit longer to get used to things but soon enough the new letters will be ingrained in your muscle memory. For example, I’m gonna type some Russian. Да свиданя. Now I KNOW I totally spelled that wrong (don’t judge me, it’s been awhile) but even just by the end of the word I was already getting faster with letter placement. All I did was study my on-screen keyboard and let my fingers do the finding. However you decide to practice your new keyboard, just remember to be patient with yourself. No matter how good your typing skills you’ll probably hit the wrong letter 50 times before you finally learn where the right letter is, and that’s perfectly okay. Go at your own pace. Don’t judge yourself. And remember typing on your smartphone can help you learn letter placement on your keyboard, so long as the two are formatted the same.

Fonts: When you’re working in various languages, as much as you may love that pretty script font, Times New Roman is going to be your friend. Times New Roman as well as other base system fonts (Arial, Helvetica, etc.) should be your go to because they have a massive cross compatibility and the ability to support oh so many different letters and characters and ligatures and basically just about everything. If you really need a pretty font you’re going to have to look into language specific fonts, there are various resources around the internet and I know many of omniglot’s pages have links to free fonts for specific languages, you may even get lucky and find out that a favorite font of yours has all the right stuff to type in your target language. Another great resource is Google Fonts, it’s got tons of free fonts you can download or use on the web and you can even sort them by language.

And remember, it’s important to use a font that you’re comfortable with. Some research supports that writing things in hard to read fonts can help you remember them, but if you can’t read it at all then it’s not going to help you at all. This is especially important for people with any kind of disability that makes reading and writing more difficult, use what works and don’t let anybody judge your font choices.

And that’s the basics of typing in your target language. Below I’m going to write a few language specific tips:

Arabic, Hebrew and Persian/Farsi: You gotta be careful when typing with these languages because many programs can’t handle the written direction. Watch out for programs literally flipping your letters, flipping entire words, or not connecting letters properly. While I’ve heard many programs are getting better at it, your best bet is to do your own research and make sure that whatever programs you’re using they can handle right-to-left typing, and be aware you may have to download new programs for it to work.

Chinese and Japanese: Typing in these two languages is a bit more complicated than others because of the character system. The typing system is a bit different in that you’re basically typing into a small program that then outputs the characters. While you can download cute keyboards for these, my experience of them has always been that they’re vaguely annoying. I recommend you stick with your built in system keyboard. These are fairly easy to use and fun to work with, and remember you can type entire sentences and the program can guess the characters based on context so you don’t have to go searching for the right characters after every word. Just be sure to learn the layout and the romanisation system that the computer is using. It may be more complicated than you think.

Type in Japanese

Type in Chinese

Other Non Alphabetic Languages: If you’re working with a language that doesn’t use an alphabet (for example, syllabic systems like Devanagari, Thai, etc.) you’re going to need to do your own research on how the keyboard system for that particular language works when it comes to typing. They will probably function similar to the languages listed above in that more likely than not, you just need to hit the right key on your keyboard and the computer does all the work for you. The key is finding that right key because in some cases you may be typing with numbers and punctuation as if they were letters in order to get what you need, or the placement of letters may be shifted from what you’re familiar with. Use the tips above to help you handle this shift.

#language #language learning #langblr #typing #tips #studyblr

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allthatwonderwander-blog · 6 years

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Why Learn a new language and how i am learning!

Salut!/ Oye!/ Dia dhuit!/ Salaam ‘alaykum/ Salam!/ Bonjourno!/ Priyvet!/ Hello! <3

Now being a Linguistic anthropology major you can tell right away that i love to learn new languages, but when i tell people how many languages i am learning i get questions like “How do you keep them straight in your head?” “Why do you need to know so many languages?” and my favorite “You are a blonde, white girl, why do you want to learn Persian and Arabic?” well, my friend, ill tell you why!!!!

Being an American, you can verify that there are only two languages that most people speak, being English, and Spanish. America has a long history of being a melting pot of different culture and languages, some of which stay alive in the family of those former immigrants that wanted to find a new and better life for their family due to the growing opportunities and the famous “American Dream” complex arising. However, there’s a lot of dark history in these Immigrants stories; due to the pushing of assimilation as well as American nationalism of the time, and still happening in modern day, some families lost their culture and diverse language to fully become an English speaking, Anglocentric American. For instance, my family are descendants of Irish, Scottish, German and English immigrants (everyone in America, except Native Americans, are descendants of immigrants) and yes, we speak English, being that it is the official language of the USA, but that’s as far as I am connected to my English history; you don’t see me whipping up English tea and blood pudding for breakfast. As far as my German side, we celebrate Christmas with a Christmas tree just like everyone else; but HEYYYYYYYY bonus fact, the tradition of the Christmas tree was started in Germany ---> (https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees). But as far as connection to my heritage, when you look at me you can pick out what I am based on my features and that is pretty much it.

Now how does America compare to the rest of the world based on Language education? Well simply, America is very America centric with most of its citizens only speaking English fluently, and some can speak at a beginner to intermediate level of another language, most popular being French and Spanish because those are provided in the public-school system. As for Europe and Africa, most of my European/African friends speak many language; for example, my French buddy can obviously speak French, and English, I also have English speaking, as well as regional native speaking, friends that are Persian, Italian, Ivorian (Cote d’ivore), Egyptian, Swedish, German, Irish (yes, Irish people have their own language), Welsh (yes, they do as well), Romanian, and Russian. All of them speak their native language, as well as English, but also speak other languages on top of that! For instance, my Ivorian friend speaks English and French as well as many native tribal languages. So why is America so unilingual while a lot of the world is polylingual? I believe it’s geography. Going back to my Ivorian friend, she comes from Cote d’ivore where their Official language is French, but the common people still hold on to their tribal roots and have continued the native tribal languages, so when she goes to the market she needs to know these languages so that she can communicate with individuals that speak another tribal language, as well as for English, she moved to America when we were in high school, so for her to communicate she learned English. In America, our neighbors to the north speak majority English, so in North America unless you are going to Mexico or Quebec, Canada, there is no real need to learn a different language; even if you do go to Quebec or Mexico you don’t need to know the respective languages because chances are there will be English speakers in these areas, or at least understand enough to help you. So, Why learn a new language even if you are not traveling to a different country, or even thinking about traveling to a different country? My answer is quite simple; Understanding. In America everyone can pretty much agree that the news platforms are biased towards the news that they think either will or won’t boost their views and rating. Which is a smart strategy when you’re just looking at the success of the news group, but when it comes to understanding different cultures an ocean’s away from our own, it can create prejudices, and stereotypes. Why I chose to learn new languages, I did it to understand more about the Iranian Nuclear conflict, as well as the Israel/Palestine conflict; I’m a huge history and politics buff if you couldn’t tell. So, since I was only getting the American side of what I was learning, I decided if I truly wanted to see both sides I would have to understand the language of the other side of the argument, because I was always taught, history is written by Victor. So, I took to the internet to find a way to learn languages, and found websites books and apps, while they are great for practicing and learning the written language, but they don’t help you KNOW the language in the sense of being able to speak to a native speaker. So, I went to find Pen pals, what is a pen pal? They are people just like you from all over the world that wish to see what life is like for citizens of different parts of the world from their own, also they are perfect for language exchange. I came across this great website called interpals.net and set my status as “Trying to learn Persian, would someone like to help?” and I got a message not too long after saying [Hello, my name is {Persian friend} and I am from Tehran and now live in Azerbaijan for university. I saw you wanted to learn Persian, I would be honored to be your Persian friend.” That was my first pen pal and now we have been talking for almost 2 years. We talk about visiting each other and truly seeing what our respective countries look like. But I learned how to say Salam Sobh bekheir, chetori chakhabar? (Hello good morning, how are you?) sorry if the spelling is wrong I speak it not write it xD.

But since learning these languages I have found out what they see as important in their society, for example in Arabic there are manyyyyyyyyyyyyyy words for the word “love,” as well as the history of the nation because language is an adaptive thing, it changes from nation to nation and you can see where the people came from based on language families, as well as seeing the history of the conquered nations based on the official languages of the country, for example in Ukraine they speak Russian but they also speak Ukrainian, which is another Slavic language, this shows that not only did Ukrainians and Russian hailed from similar ancestors, but at one point Russian had political power over Ukraine.

So, now the question you all been asking (maybe…). How do you even learn a language? I don’t want to pay 100s of dollars to sit in a classroom confused? Well you don’t have to! Go online or travel and find a friend that speaks the language you wish to learn! That’s how I learned! Get them to teach you as many phrases as you think you can handle a day by just throwing them into conversation and provide a translation, from there you can try and throw those words into similar context in your part of the conversation. I also find it really helps to learn how the language is spoken as well as accents of the language by watching foreign movies, television shows and by listening to music from a different country. But the one thing that is the biggest help in practice is language apps, like Duolingo, which I use. Duolingo uses pictures, sentence translations, matching and speaking exercises to help you study, and the app does talk to you if you are an auditory language learner like myself!

Language learning is practice but if you want to connect with another culture through their language, the work is well worth it!

“if you talk to a man in his second language, you’re talking to his brain, if you talk to him in his mother language you're talking to his heart.” --Nelson Mandela

#language #understanding #language learning #europe #africa #america #english #french #farsi #arabic #lingustics #irish #welsh #learning #friends #pen pal

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Georgian presidential front-runner aims at multilateralism to thaw frozen conflicts | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW

Salome Zurabishvili is an independent candidate for the Georgian presidency endorsed by the Georgian Dream party. Born in Paris to a family of Georgian emigres, she was educated in France and served as a career diplomat, and was appointed ambassador of France to Georgia in 2003. She left that post to become a foreign minister in then-President Mikheil Saakashvili‘s government (2004-2006). Expected to emerge victorious in last Sunday’s elections, she is now facing a runoff election after narrowly placing first.

DW’s Zhanna Nemtsova spoke with Zurabishvili about how the country has changed since Saakashvili’s era and what she thinks about recent criticism of her French accent in Georgian.

Deutsche Welle: You position yourself as an independent candidate, but you are supported by the ruling party “Georgian Dream,” which is chaired by Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who controls the country politically. So you’re an independent candidate only rhetorically, aren’t you?

Salome Zurabishvili: I am independent. I presented my candidature before the ruling party made a decision whether to present one of their own or to support someone. That doesn’t change me and my principles.

Read more: Georgia set for runoff vote between ex-French envoy and government critic

So you are not controlled by Bidzina Ivanishvili?

I’ve not been controlled by anyone in my life. I’m not going to be controlled by Mr. Ivanishvili because I didn’t have any agreement with him before being supported. I didn’t have any preconditions.

You quit politics in 2010 and you were quoted as saying there is no effective democracy in the country. Has Georgia become more democratic in a decade after Saakashvili stepped away?

Of course.

So the fact that Ivanishvili controls everything does not prevent Georgia from stepping away from democratic principles?

He doesn’t control more than Saakashvili did – in his time he controlled also the parliament. Today there are two strong opposition parties in the parliament that have their say. There are some local authorities that are not controlled and the media are not controlled at all, although they used to be one hundred percent in the hands of Saakashvili. Today you have five television stations that are in the hands of the opposition. So we are now in a free-expression democratic country, where maybe the balance of power is not yet good enough, where there should be more multipartyism. That’s what Georgia has always wanted to be heading for.

Your program touches upon many different issues, including the problem of occupied territories (Editor’s note: Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared their independence from Georgia in 2008, which was recognized by Russia) and the NATO accession. Do you really think that you can bring some change in this respect?

The president has, if anywhere, a big power of representation in the foreign policy. And I know this field quite well from my past posts in France and Georgia. I know that it depends a lot on personal initiatives, ideas and contacts – three things plus the experience which I have. But now in this case it will depend on our relationship with our European and American partners. It doesn’t depend on a direct new type of relationship with Russia that would be “go alone without those partners.” And we have to try to figure out with our partners what would be the new ways for Georgia to move from this rather stagnant situation where we couldn’t do anything with these occupied territories.

It’s almost every other day that we have people abducted from there. We have to discuss with the European mission (Editor’s note: EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia) what additional measures could be taken without demarcating a border because that’s our red line.

Read more: Georgia slams Russian ‘occupation’ ahead of NATO war games

You were born in France and were a French career diplomat who became a Georgian politician. Your relatives moved to France in the beginning of the 20th century; they were political emigrants. Why were they forced to flee the country back then?

My grandparents moved to France because of the Russian aggression after the first independence of Georgia in 1918. Three years of independence were crushed by the invasion of the Russian army. At that time people who were in the government or around the government left to Turkey. They thought they would keep the government in exile alive in order to be able to return as soon as the Russian army would be defeated. This exile took longer than they thought. Turkey remained with Russia at that time.

And then the Georgian official immigration had to move to France, which was a country that continued to recognize the government in exile the longest, until 1974. But the treaty that France signed with Russia in 1974 included a clause that said that France had to stop officially recognizing the government in exile. Still, the immigration stayed in France, which remained a main host country for the Georgian political emigration.

What could you respond to those who criticize you or just make a remark that your Georgian is not perfect, that you have some French accent?

The first time I came to Georgia I was 36 years old. I had learned Georgian in my family and then by myself by reading and translating. And during my youth we had practically no contact with Georgians except for those living in the immigration. There was no social network, there were no TVs. So the language was really “home based.” So I’m quite proud of it. I’ve been living in the country for 16 years, I’ve been a foreign minister, I’ve been elected as a member of the parliament and it’s very interesting that the criticism has started just two months ago. I have an example of the Latvian President [Vaira] Vike-Freiberga who returned to her country, Latvia, from Canada. She was also criticized for her language. And she was elected president and brought Latvia to the EU and NATO. So I’m ready to be criticized if I can manage the same result.