parrot time - issue 16 - july / august 2015

Parrot TimeThe Thinking of Speaking Issue #1 6 July / August 201 5

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PPllaayyiinngg GGaammeesswwii tthh LLaanngguuaaggee

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Spanish E-trraining –The ‘Big Bang’ InvestmentAA llooookk aatt hhooww ccoommppaann iieess ccaanniimmpprroovvee tthheeii rr wwoorrkkffoorrccee

LLooookk bbeeyyoonnddwwhhaatt yyoouu kknnooww

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Contents

Parrot Time | Issue #16 | July / August 2015 3

34 At the Cinema - La Casa del Fin de los Tiempos

1 6 Playing Games with LanguageLearning vocabulary for a new language can be boring andtedious. But what if it was fun, like a game, and you gotrewards for doing it? Enter the newest trend in learning:gamification.

56 Book Look

55 Where Are You?

30 Can a Language Die?We talk about languages dying and becoming extinct, as if theywere creatures. While that is a romantic notion, a language isnot really alive, so how can it die?

Parrot TimeParrot Time is a magazinecovering language, linguisticsand culture of the world around

us.

It is published by ScriveremoPublishing, a division of

Parleremo, the language learningcommunity.

Join Parleremo today. Learn alanguage, make friends, have fun.

Departments

Features

05 Letter From The Editor

Editor: Erik ZidoweckiEmail: [email protected]

Published by Scriveremo Publish-ing, a division of Parleremo.This issue is available online fromhttp://www.parrottime.com

The editor reserves the right toedit all material submitted. Viewsexpressed in Parrot Time are notnecessarily the official views ofParleremo. All rights of reproduc-tion, translation and adaptation re-served for all countries, exceptwhere noted otherwise. All copy-right material posted in the public-ation retains all its rights from theoriginal owner. Parrot Time, Par-leremo, officers and administra-tion accept no responsibilitycollectively or individually for theservice of agencies or persons ad-vertised or announced in thepages of this publication.

Cover: Guides to the 2015Polyglot Gathering in Berlin ontop of a collection of variouslanguage books.

44 Words in Your Mouth - Apple

38 Languages in Peril - Scottish Gaelic

26 Spanish E-training – The ‘Big Bang’ InvestmentHow can organizations prepare employees to communicate inSpanish to see top-line growth? Guest writer Kendal Knetemannshares her thoughts and experiences.

52 Celebrations - Nag Panchami

6 Polyglot Events All Around The WorldSometimes when we study independently, we can feel isolatedin our language pursuits. However, as Jimmy Mello shows us,there are language meetings going on all around the world, andwe are not alone!

60 At A Glance

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LLeeaarrnnaallaanngguuaaggee,,MMaakkeeffrriieennddss,,HHaavveeffuunn!!

wwwwww..ppaarrll eerreemmoo..oorrgg

Letter From The Editor


FFor those living in the Northern hemisphere, these monthsof July and August are the glorious months of summer.We head to the beach to soak up the hot temperaturesand recharging sun rays. Swimming and people watchinground out this annual pilgrimage to the shore.

Or if the sunny beaches are not quite your thing, you arehopping in a car or on a train, plane or boat to get some-where, anywhere, away from your current location to takea relaxing vacation or tackle a new adventure.

Many of us might feel guilty about doing this, and mayeven hold back from it, because we feel we are neglectingour language studies. How can we be memorizing newvocabulary while we are splashing around in the ocean?What will happen to our Memrise and Anki decks if weskip them for a few days or weeks while we have somefun?

My advice is simple: let it go! Your languages are not goingto abandon you if you just take an extended break. We allneed to power down and walk away to revitalize our mindsand bodies. Even schools around the world have breaksduring this time to let the students enjoy themselves for a while without being plagued withconstant reading, writing and maths work.

These times of relaxation are short, so you must take advantage of them while you can!

If you feel you really must study instead of going to the beach or vacation, there are still ways.You can take along portable versions of your study books to the beach, or employ the use of aportable device and use ebooks and applications. You can also slip a digital player into yourbag or pocket filled with your favourites Pimsleur or Michel Thomas audio courses.

Whether you give yourself a break or continue studying into your summer activities, make sureyou have fun while doing it. And be sure to take along Parrot Time to make your summer com-plete!

Studying in Summer

Erik ZidoweckiERIK ZIDOWECKIEDITOR IN CHIEF

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EEvveennttss AAllll

AArroouunndd TThhee

WWoorrlldd

YYoouu AArree

NNoott AAlloonnee

Marlon Couto Ribeiro, fromSekrety Poliglotów, givinga presentation to a room oflanguage enthusiasts

Polyglot Events All Around The World - You Are Not Alone

8 Parrot Time | Issue #16 | July / August 2015

hen you think about Berlin, you maythink about the Second World War, or-

ganization, or polite and organized people.But, for me and for many polyglots in ourgrowing community, it is the city of friend-ship. Yes, every year, we meet over 300 peoplefrom all round the world to exchange know-ledge, experience and practise languages. It isthe Polyglot Gathering, organized by the tal-ented team of Judith Meyer and Chuck Smithalong with many marvellous volunteers.

In this article, I’m going to share somethoughts and reflections about this year’sGathering.

First, what is a gathering?The talented polyglot Richard Simcott decidedwith other polyglot friends to create a PolyglotConference, and the first one took place inBudapest, Hungary. This was the first step to-wards big events. Some very well known You-Tube Polyglots attended the event, whichlasted only two days. Besides lectures, it in-cluded some cultural activities. After the Con-ference, the German Polyglot Judith Meyerdecided to create a similar event, but follow-ing a more informal, casual structure, in-spired by the Esperanto events. So, in theyear of 2014, the language of many polyglotsreally started to change. It’s a polyglot versionof “out of the closet” because from every part

of the world, from Brazil to China, from Ar-gentina to Japan, and including Italy, UK,Poland, Russian and many other countries,people came to attend. It started to bring outtalented polyglots not as famous who, due tothe gathering, got the chance to spread andinspire many others. Emanuelle Marinne, atalented polyglot from Italy, is just one ex-ample.

Gareth Popkins, Jimmy Mello and Ruslan Kokorin

Jimmy Mello presenting at the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin, 2015

http://polyglotberlin.com/

http://polyglotconference.com/

http://polyglotconference.com/



What is the purpose of this?Well, after taking part in it twice, I consider itas my yearly meeting with my good polyglotfriends, and as Berlin is quite central, it’seasy for everybody to attend. During thisyear’s gathering in 2015, the number of parti-cipants doubled that of the first one, and it isa perfect environment for networking, lan-guage practice, exchanging of materials andmaking new friends. We also get updatedabout languages in general.

Is is expensive?Not at all! Everything is created to be afford-able, it’s a nice and convenient venue, and it’spossible to share rooms with other parti-cipants and improve your relationships withyour new friends. If you have a more intro-spective personality, you can share a roomwith one person or stay on your own. For aminimum extra charge, you get the breakfast,lunch and dinner (meat, vegetarian and even

vegan), so it is definitively worthy investmentin yourself.

Ok, I got I, but should I attend to thisevent?Oh, if your are a language learner, enthusiastor polyglot, you should not attend - you mustattend! This is the chance to show that we area strong and friendly community, and thatPolyglotism is not only available to a few ofus. You have to stand up, and show thatpolyglots are real people, and we can inspireothers.

Who usually goes to the Gathering?Everyone from newbies, that is those whohave just arrived and are starting right now tolearn their first language, to experts, like thebestseller Benny Lewis from Fluent in ThreeMonths, Richard Simcott, the organizer ofPolyglot conference, Lindsay Dow, the bloggerfrom Lindsay Does Languages, Jimmy Mello,

Polyglot Workshop in London with Olly Richards, Alex Rawlings (presenting) and Richard Simcott



the founder ofMello MethodOrganization and thepresenter of the well knownPolyglot Podcast and Televi-sion, My Polyglot, OllyRichards, the man behind Iwill teach you a language siteand podcast, and others.

What sort of lectures, howlong and how many arethere simultaneously?There are two auditoriumsand some small classrooms,so usually you have to chooseamong them, but don’t worry- the organization recordseverything and put them forfree on the YouTube channel.

The lectures are abouteverything, as you will be ableto see in the images of thisarticle. We talks on subjectsranging from language re-searches to intro lessons froma language, along with mallbut dense workshops, likeone on Simultaneous Inter-pretation this year, deliveredby Lydia.

Are there other events likethis during the year?Yes. Though we have decidedcollectively and democratic-ally to keep the gathering in******, for the sake of every-one the Polyglot Conferencetakes place in different placeslike Budapest, Novi Sad, and,

this year, New York City. Wehave other small events likethe Polyglot Clubs and Poly-glot Workshop, taking placein many cities and hosted bymany important polyglot.

During the gathering we havethe opportunity to practiceand improve our languages.

Polyglot Workshops andSecret of the PolyglotsOther events which happenevery now and again are theworkshops. Last July, I hadthe opportunity to attend thePolyglot Workshop in Londonrun by Olly Richards, RichardSimcott and Alex Rawlings.This workshop happens dur-ing a whole day and is smal-ler than the Gathering, withusually around 20 people,which means that you canhave direct contact with thespecialists, ask them yourown tailored questions, andtake the answer from thesource. This event is headed

Various language lovers at the Polyglot Club

Jimmy Mello showing his goods at the Book Fair

http://polyglotworkshops.com/



by Richard and Alex, butfrom time to time they havethe company of other poly-glots, as Olly in London, andI, Jimmy Mello in Belo Hori-zonte, Brazil. During theworkshops, the speakerspresent the subject, but theyinvite you to take part insmall groups, deciding andbuilding the knowledge to-gether.

It is a nice event to get intouch with other polyglotsand language enthusiasts. AsI mentioned before, this sortof event is the perfect tool tokeep you motivated and intune with your aims.

On the other side, wehave another, bigger event,but this one is held only inPoland and in the Polish lan-guage. It is usually cheaperthan the Polyglot Workshopsand is headed by the talentedpolyglots Konrad (Polish) andMarlon Ribeiro (Brazilian).Like the Workshops, theyhave other polyglot guests.The main difference betweenthese events is that the firstone has lots of practice andgroup activities and is morefocused on polyglots, whilethe second is full of preciouspieces of information, mainlyfocused on newbies. Unfortu-nately, I could not attend theSecrets ofthe Polyglots yet,but I had the chance to readtheir books. That is anotherdifference - you can purchasethis important material to fol-low after the event.

Finally, we have the Poly-glot Conference, which is alsoheaded by Richard Simcott,and this year, Alex Rawlingsand Ellen Jovin will be join-ing him in running it. Ihaven’t been to this event yet,but as I’m going to attend to

the next one in NYC, I will beable to judge and give you myimpressions. As far as Iknow, it is a little bit differentfrom the Gathering, first be-cause the presenters do notaccept speakers; they choosethem according to their owncriteria. This year, it seemsthat it is an 80% North Amer-ican event and is supposed tobe more academic, eventhough some presenters haveno academic background inthis area. Another differenceis the length, as it is only twodays long, compared to theGathering which is 4 and 1/2days long. I’m really lookingforward to attending it and

better understanding theircriteria.

As you can see, you arenot alone. The polyglot com-munity is really growing upand getting organized. I’mproud to be part in this nicecommunity, and not only be-ing there, but taking partactively. I strongly believethat we are responsible for apolyglot world, with fewerbarriers and more respect. Inour events, it doesn’t matterthe colour of your skin, yoursexual orientation, your reli-gion or anything else. It issupposed to be the best self-created community thatreally works. PT

http://www.sekretypoliglotow.pl/



Jimmy Mello is a neurolinguist and holds two degrees: one in Linguistics and other in Educational Science. He is a

polyglot and has been learning and teaching languages for over 20 years. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian

and Portuguese, and he can also speak Catalan, French, German, Dutch and Polish at different levels. He has

developed a new method suitable for teaching any foreign language. He currently lives in Brazil where he runs his

own language school, which he established in 1995. Find him at: www.mellomethod.com, www.mypolyglot.com,

Twitter.com/jimmymello, and www.facebook.com/jimmymelloreal.

Scenes from events

(clockwise, from left to right): Picnic after the

Gathering; Special event during the

Gathering called Jomo Concert in 25

languages; Huge crowd at the Polyglot

Conference in Novi Sad; Presenter Konrad

Jerzak at Sekrety Poliglotow (Secrets of the

Polyglot); Polyglots Olly Richards, Jimmy

Mello, Alex Rawlings and Richard Simcott

http://www.mellomethod.com

http://www.mypolyglot.com

http://www.twitter.com/jimmymello

http://www.facebook.com/jimmymelloreal

PPllaayyiinnggGGaammeess wwiitthhLLaanngguuaaggee

Learning vocabulary for a newlanguage can be boring andtedious. But what if it was fun, likea game, and you got rewards fordoing it? What if you werecompeting with others? What ifdoing well helped you win a biggergame or solve a quest?

Playing Games with Language


ne of the current ideasbeing put to use in learn-

ing systems online is that ofgamification. That 5-syllableword essentially means tak-ing something which is nor-mally a lot of work to do andmaking it fun, like a game.The idea isn’t new. Peoplehave been trying to makeboring chores fun for dec-ades. Even that famousnanny Mary Poppins ex-plained “In every job thatmust be done, there is an ele-ment of fun. You find the funand snap! The job’s a game.”

Putting this strategy towork on the web, however,is not always so simple.There are a couple differentapproaches available thatcan be using independentlyor alongside others. Natur-ally, people have beenworking to apply thesegamification techniques tolearning languages. Hereare some of the most popu-lar forms:

And the Award Goes ToGiving out awards whensomeone performs a certaintask is the most basic methodof funning up your learning.These awards usually takethe form of badges, which arejust graphic images displayedon a person’s profile. The ideais that people will want toshow how much they are

achieving, and will thus try toearn all the badges they can.

Because a badge can begiven out for pretty muchanything, this gamingmethod is the easiest toimplement across mostsystems. For example, on alanguage site, a personcould earn badges just forparticipating in a forumdiscussion, responding to aperson’s question on a lan-guage, or uploading a linkto a new site. I’ve even seena few systems in which youget rewarded just for show-ing up each day, like an at-tendance award. That oneencourages people to comeback daily to the site.

A popular learning sitethat takes this method to a

unique level is Busuu. Thissite revolves around theidea of a “languagegarden”, in which yoursuccess is reflected in avisual, animated garden.For example, if you havelearned the basic vocabu-lary for fruits, a fruit treemight appear in yourgarden. If you did a unit ontransportation, you mightget a car or an airplane.

Furthermore, as youpractise on the site, youare awarded “Busuu Ber-ries”, which can then beused to “purchase” otheritems, like a scarecrow or agarden gnome, to fill outyour garden. If you pay forthe Busuu premium mem-bership, you get a largervariety of extras to add, sothe gamification is evenused to entice you to buystuff with real money.

Practice Makes PerfectWhile handing out badgesmight be the simplest way toimplement a gamificationelement, actual games wouldbe the most obvious. It is also

Busuu uses images and icons to show a user's achievements

Just like trophies in real life, awards can be given in online learning



fairly easy to utilize, but onlyto a certain point.

For learning languages,you would most likely usevocabulary and phraselearning for this. One gamecould be simple multiplechoice questions, in whichthe person is given a wordor phrase in one languageand be asked to select theclosest match from a fewpossible answers in theother language. Multiplechoice questions have beenused in classrooms for overa century as a means fordrilling lessons as well astests.

A slightly more modernimplementation of the mul-tiple choice system is toenhance the text answerswith images, or even re-move the text answer com-pletely and let the playerchoose from the best pic-

ture. This is pretty muchwhat passes now for “les-sons” in some big namesoftware and languagesites, like Rosetta Stone /LiveMocha. Selecting frompossible matches might bethe only component, or itbe part of other testingmethods, like filling in ananswer, in a single lesson.

Other games which arepopular are Memory, inwhich a person turns over“cards” to find matchingpairs of words (one in eachlanguage), Word Searches,in which the player looksfor words in a two dimen-sional grid of letters, andHangman, in which theperson tries to guess aword, one letter at a time,without making too manywrong guesses.

Would You Like to Play aGame of Chess?All of these games listedabove are played alone, withthe person not competingagainst anyone else. The nextlevel of gamification is havinglearners competing with oth-ers, either directly or indir-ectly.

The indirect way looksalmost the same to thesingle player system, ex-cept that you earn pointsfrom each game and thosescores are compared toothers. For example, ifplayers Alpha and Betaboth play single versions ofa memory game and earnpoints for the fewest wronganswers and time taken tocomplete, then their scoreswould be displayed forothers to see.

The displaying of scorescan be a very strong com-ponent of gamification.People like to see how wellthey are performing com-pared to others. Whilebadges let them displaytheir progress personally,direct comparisons on aleaderboard take the com-petition to a whole newlevel.

Leaderboards, as thename implies, show whichpeople are scoring thehighest, or leading, in anycompetition. These arenormally used in mostcompetitions so people caninstantly see who is thebest. The Eurovision SongContest uses a leaderboardto instantly reflect compet-ing countries scores,changing their positions onthe board as each votecomes in.

Using images as part of a multiple choice exercise



A variant of the indirectcompetition format is toplay in a tournament set-ting. For this, a certainnumber of people startplaying the same game fora limited amount of time,and the players then getpoints on who plays thebest. For example, if youhave four people that startplaying a multiple choicegame, that game couldhave a five minute timelimit. The time limit is tomake sure that all playersfinish within a certainamount of time so that theoverall competition can bedecided.

After everyone has fin-ished, the person with themost points would be infirst place, the person withthe next highest scorewould be in second place,and so on. This is moredirect than competing witheveryone else in pointswithout actually playingagainst another person.

Naturally, the directway of competing involvestwo people directly playing

the same game againsteach other. This is a morecomplicated setup, for itrequires both people to beinvolved in “real time”.That means that after oneperson has a turn in thegame, the other personmust be ready to play theirturn. If one personwanders off, the other oneis left waiting forever.

Let’s look at thememory game again. In thesingle approach, the playersimple keeps turning overpairs of cards, looking for

matches, until they findthem all. In a direct ver-sion, the people would taketurns turning over thepairs of cards. This makesthe game more interestingas well as difficult, becauseany mistake you make maybe used by your opponent,and you can also use hismistakes. The one who getsthe most matches at theend is the winner.

Now it might seem,then, that both people

must be learning the samelanguages, since they areusing the same cards. Inthe real world, that wouldbe the case, but in the on-line world, where the play-ers are seeing differentinterfaces, it is possible toactually syncronyze thecards so that while eachplayer is using differentlanguages, the pairs havethe same correlationbetween both interfaces. Inthis way player Alphacould be using English andItalian while player Beta is

using German and Arabic.Even more complex

games could be introducedwith this idea. The boardgame Battleship involveshidden game boards onwhich each player hasplaced “ships” of varyinglength. The players thentake turns guessing at theposition of the other per-son’s ships, being told eachtime if it was a “hit” or“miss”. Each player keepstrack of their guesses, andthe first player to sink allof the other’s ships is thewinner.

Now, that has nothingto do with languages, obvi-ously, so how can thatkind of game be used?Well, what you can do isrequire each player to an-swer a correct multiplechoice question for thelanguages they are learn-ing in order to complete ahit, or indeed, for everymove.

That means that notonly do they have to belucky at guessing posi-tions, but they also need to

Kids getting excited about winning against an opponent

A real world chess board. Even this could be used in teaching languages



be good at their new language. And sinceeach player is using their own interface,they can be doing completely differentlanguages and vocabulary categories.

Using the method of requiring a playerto answer a language question before tak-ing a move could be applied to almot everygame, even chess!

Choose Your Own AdventureUp to this point, the games have been essen-tially drills, and while these are useful, theycan’t really advance a person in a languagebeyond a certain point. Another method hasto be used, and that involves reading.

Back in the late 1980’s and early1990’s, there was a popular series ofbooks called “Choose Your Own Adven-ture”. As the title suggests, the reader waspart of the story and they had to make de-cisions which affected how the story went.

The flow was surprisingly simple: aperson reads a few paragraphs which de-scribe what is going on. After that, theyare given a few choices as to what theywant to do, and each choice tells themwhat page to turn to in order to continue.Once they turn to the right page, they aregiven more of the story to read and morechoices.

This kind of game emphasizes the per-son’s ability to read and it can easily bedone with a computer. The reading itselfcould be enhanced by offering complete orpartial translations of the text, so thatboth beginner and advanced readerscould use the system.

The problem with this setup is in theamount of design involved in creating thestories. Most people have a difficult timewriting a single story of any length, andthis requires multiple variants of the samestory. Even if a person does write all thevariants and paths, in order for manypeople to use it, every part has to betranslated into other languages.

That amount of preparation is why,despite this being such an interesting andfun idea, few places actually take the timeto build it. Such a creation would involvea lot of good writers and translators.

We Are On a MissionWhile the multiple choice adventure game isdifficult to implement, there is an even morecomplicated system to build, and thus it re-mains a sort of “Holy Grail” in the languagelearning world. That is the fully interactive“quest”, which allows players to explore aworld, interacting with other characters,either artificial or real players, while prac-tising their reading and vocabulary skills.

There are actually two possible formsthis layout could take. The first is all text.Similar to the early computer adventuregames like Zork, a player would be toldwhat they see, and they can then type incommands for what they want to do. Thisis far more complex than the Choose YourOwn Adventure method, because whilethat one gives you limited choices, this

Choose Your Own Adventure book, representing a morecomplex gamification method



approach needs to be ableto interpret what you tell itand react to it.

Normally, this could in-volve puzzles to solve, oftenrequiring you to performcertain tasks or findingspecific items beforesomething else can bedone. This kind of interac-tion is difficult at the mostbasic level, because thecomputer would have to beable to properly under-stand the input from a per-son who is just learning alanguage. For a human,this is a rather simple dailyfunction, but for a com-puter which has no realunderstanding, it is verycomplex.

The other version in-volves a video game like in-terface, allowing a personto move around in a two orthree dimensional worldusing keys or a mouse,rather than typing com-mands. Along the way, theycould encounter other

people and items and per-form simple tasks, likepicking up an object orspeaking to a person.

For this case, speakingto a pretend person is nor-mally done using a simplereply to the characters text.For example, one charactermight ask in Italian howthey are doing, and theplayer could choose from afew different possible an-swers, to which the charac-ter is programmed tohandle. This is more likethe Choose YourOwn Ad-venture, but since you havemore control over whereyou go and what youchoose, the game play ismuch more versatile.

As you can see, this fin-al method is very close to afull immersion game, butrequires the greatestamount of time and effortcreate. An entire playingarea has to be mapped outand put into an interactivesystem, while all the char-

acters have to be pro-grammed with what to sayand how to react.

I have seen a few peopletrying to put such a gamingsystem into place, usuallyasking for a few thousanddollars in donations tomake it work, but I haven’tyet seen a working game.

ConclusionGamification is a seriousbusiness. Applying gamifica-tion to something as complexas language learning is par-ticularly difficult, and eachmethod has its drawbacksand limitations. Even thoughI wrote a good amountt of de-tail on each, there are farmore issues involved with allof them, as well as variations.

I would like to hearyour own experiences withlanguage learning gamific-ation, as well as any of themethods you’ve seen that Ididn’t list. Play on! PT

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sseekkrreettyyppoolliigglloottooww..ppll

Spanish E-training – The ‘Big Bang’ Investment


ne out of every six Americans is Hispanic.Professionals in the workforce need to

know how to interact positively with this rap-idly growing population.

Traditionally, law enforcement depart-ments, hospitals, school districts and organiz-ations have offered Spanish training to theiremployees in the form of a 2 to 5 day seminar,providing only 16 - 20 hours of classroom-style language training which has proven tobe ineffective. No one can learn a new lan-guage in days. While the training might betop-notch and feedback might be great, ifpeople can't apply what they learn on the job,then the training will not stick and will ulti-mately fail to produce long-lasting results.

The method organizations use today totrain needs to be revisited, since ever tighten-ing budgets are forcing organizations to flushmany valuable programs ‘down the commode. ’Ten years ago e-training was a novelty, buttoday e-training is becoming the norm as or-ganizations experience greater ‘bang’ for eachbuck invested.

Learning online is a very effective methodof studying Spanish. Online training givesthe learner access to practice and repetition(the keys to success in learning a new lan-guage) anytime, 24/7. Instead of a one-shotseminar, the flexibility and lower costs of on-line learning are ideal to implement at anytype of organization.

Spanish e-training pays off big for organ-izations. First, the scheduling and implement-ing is less time-consuming than planning andrunning day seminars. Second, the training

takes place in the convenience of the employ-ee’s space, eliminating travel expenses andother expenses associated with seminars.Third, online training can hold employeesmore accountable than a traditional seminarbecause attendance, assessment scores,activities, course completions, and participantprogress can be monitored and immediatelyreported through learning management sys-tems. Most important;y, online training allowsorganizations to provide a dependable, con-sistent and high quality training experiencefor every employee.

When selecting a Spanish training pro-gram, organizations need to consider a fewcore components including the cost, programcontent, program restrictions and require-ments. There are additional concerns to con-sider when evaluating an e-training program.These other considerations include the meth-od of teaching, the availability of teachers forlive support, and how the online platform en-gages the learner.

SSppaanniisshh EE--ttrraaiinniinngg ––TThhee ‘‘BBiigg BBaanngg’’ IInnvveessttmmeenntt

by Kendal Knetemann

Spanish E-training – The ‘Big Bang’ Investment


In my 25 years of teaching Spanish, I havefound the most effective method of studyingand learning a new language is by using thespacing effect, also referred to as “drip ap-proach” method. Imagine a dripping faucet,where each drop will collect to form a puddlethat keeps expanding. Similarly, this methodfocuses on learning the language in small in-crements. Think of each word as a drop,phrases and sentences as small puddleswhich becomes a large pool of Spanish know-ledge providing success with language learn-ing.

I recommend MySpanishTeacher.com(MST) for using the drip approach plus con-centrating on meeting the needs of the 3 dif-ferent individual learning styles (visual,auditory and kinesthetic learner) . MST alsofocuses on culture awareness to help thelearner completely understand the conversa-tion with a Spanish speaker. Spoken lan-guage is only 7% to 35% of communication.Even though we use words, it turns out weconvey most of the meaning via non-verbalmethods. Very few online Spanish programsstress the importance of cross cultural com-petence and non-verbal communication, butthis program understands the importance ofmore than words. As you review differentprograms, ask questions that should addressyour concerns in implementing the appropri-ate Spanish program within your organiza-tion.

Here are 10 sample questions you couldask when evaluating an online Spanishtraining program:

• What learning approach is used in the on-line program?• What styles of learners does it address?• Does the program offer individual and groupaccounts?• What is the cost per seat?• Is there a way an administrator could mon-itor the training?• How long does the employee have to view allmaterial and complete the training? (Manyprograms lock you out once the lesson iscomplete. )• Is there a contractual agreement to sign?• Does it provide live teacher support? If not,

how can a student ask questions about thetraining?• Is the program available on a mobile device?• How does a student review his/her pro-gress?

In my opinion, one last component the e-training must have to be successful are gamesand activities to make the learning experiencefun and educational.

When employees are engaged in theirlearning, they take greater ownership. Mostof us agree that games are a great way to en-gage in learning and improve retention. Ittakes time to become confident in a language,games make the learning process fun, inter-active and rewarding. Besides engaging, theirknowledge increases, performance improvesas well as their confidence to communicate inSpanish.

It is estimated the Hispanic communitywill increase by 24 percent by 2050 in theUnited States. Employers including Spanishtraining in the annual training budget willwith no doubt see top-line growth. PT

Kendal Knetemann is a cross cultural communication

consultant, a language blogger and Spanish instructor.

You can read more about her at LingoHut where you’ll

find free language lessons, activities and articles on how

to make language learning easier, or visit LingoHut’s

Facebook page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacing_effect

http://www.myspanishteacher.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

http://lingohut.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LingoHut

https://www.facebook.com/LingoHut

Can a Language Die?


any people involved with languages are con-

cerned about endangered languages. When

too few people speak a language natively, that lan-

guage is at risk of becoming extinct. Once the last

speaker of it dies, there is no one left to speak it,

and so it no longer exists.

The reasons that languages become en-

dangered is usually due to oppression and domin-

ation of the people who speak it, or it may fall into

disuse when another, more popular language

draws people away from it. Why learn or continue

speaking a less used language when everyone else

around you is speaking another?

There are numerous projects that exist in vari-

ous forms which attempt to save these languages.

Most of them involve attempts to record all the in-

formation about a language that can be gathered,

such as the Rosetta Project. Others involve lin-

guists travelling to remote parts of the world and

working with the last of the native speakers to

map out the language and, when possible, obtain

recordings of it.

But while people will often debate what is to

be done about dying languages, how to revive

them, or even if we should, we never seem to ask

“Can a language actually die?”.

Despite the way we like to think of a language

as a living organism that can grow, evolve, and in

some ways, even reproduce (in the forms of dia-

lects and pidgins), it is really people that are mak-

ing those things happen, and not the language

itself. A language is a set of rules about grammar,

syntax, morphology, etc. , combined with a vocabu-

lary. When no one is speaking it, all of that still re-

mains, in the same way that when someone isn’t

using a dish, the dish still exists; it doesn’t just

vanish in a puff of air.

So why can’t a language be brought back to

life after it has “died”. We can take that dish and

use it again, and it still performs its function. If

people start actively using a language again,

doesn’t that make it living?

It seems to me very odd that we tend to view a

language as “dead”, even while it is being used and

taught. I took classes in Latin during my years in

High School, and we read stories in it, sang in it,

even played games using it. It has literature and a

culture, and we have the rules and the vocabulary.

The proper pronunciation might be somewhat de-

bated, since no one living has ever heard it pro-

nounced by a native speaker, but that shouldn’t

be enough to make it unusable.

And indeed, it is still in use. The Vatican uses

it in certain situations, people use it during Cath-

olic Mass, and it provides the basis for many of

our modern medical, biological and legal terms.

So why is it called a “dead language”. Is it like

some zombie, in which a person has died but has

just refused to stop moving? Is it a strange kind of

This book is written in Latin. How can it be dead ifpeople still use it?

CCaann aa

LLaanngguuaaggee DDiiee??

Can a Language Die?


“undead” language? What con-

stitutes life for a language, if not

it being used?

I suppose the argument

could be made that it needs

enough people speaking it as

their native language to be truly

“alive”, but then what does that

say about auxiliary languages

and pidgins? Neither of those

have a huge amount of native

speakers. A pidgin language re-

quires a certain number of those

before it can become a creole.

Yet no one talks about those or

an auxiliary like Esperanto being

endangered or dead.

How about constructed lan-

guages in general? A conlang

rarely has more than a few

people using it, yet we don’t talk

about them being endangered.

We still define them as lan-

guages, even though no one ever

speaks them as their native

tongue.

So perhaps the question

should be “What makes a lan-

guage alive?”. If that can be

properly defined, then why can’t

it be used to bring back these

preserved “extinct” language

back into existence? What good

is preserving them if we never

actually use them? That’s like

breaking a dish then carefully

wrapping up all the pieces and

placing it a cupboard, never to

be used again.

Whether a language should

be saved or brought back, if that

is possible, is a matter of debate.

I want to know what stops us

from doing so? Why must what I

learned in my Latin classes

forever be dismissed as dead?

Then, we can start discuss-

ing the making of the linguistical

horror film, “Night of the Undead

Languages”! PT

Is a language which is no long spoken dead, or just frozen, like this statue?

These languages are nolonger actively used, but couldthey be reborn if peoplestarted using them again?Coptic (left), Syriac (right),Eteocypriot (below)

ppoollyygg lloottccoonnffeerreennccee..ccoomm

At the Cinema - La Casa del Fin de los Tiempos


don’t normally watch horrorfilms, mainly because most of

the time I find them to be overtlygory and violent while having noreal plot. They are attempting tosimply gross out the audience orscare them with lots of suddenbangs and movements.

The first Venezuelan horrorfilm, “La Casa del Fin de los Tiem-pos” (The House at the End ofTime) is not your normal horrorstory, however. It starts out withthe gruesome part of the story,then changes to a thriller andmystery which will explain theopening events.

We first see the main characterof the movie, Dulce, as she is lyingunconscious on the floor of ahouse. She is bloodied by a largecut down her cheek and surroun-ded by broken glass. She awakens,slowly realizes where she is, thenbegins to search the house, grow-ing more frantic as she calls outfor Leopoldo, her son.

As she descends staircases fur-ther down into the house, shestumbles across the body of herhusband, Juan José. He has beenstabbed in the neck by a large kit-chen knife. Dulce continues fur-ther into the lower reaches of thehouse until she sees her sonstanding in a doorway. Fearful forhis safety, she calls to him to cometo her. He seems terrified, but fin-ally takes a step towards her. ToDulce’s horror, he is suddenlygrabbed back into the darkness,

the door slamming shut after him.Dulce screams, opens the door,

and descends yet another flight ofstairs into what appears to be anunderground chamber, but thereis no sign of her son. She failed tosave him, but save him from what?

Next we see Dulce being ledout of the house by the police, asshe has been accused of themurder of both her husband andson. Found guilty, as there are noother suspects and her finger-prints were found on the murderweapon, she is put in jail.

We jump forward thirty yearsto 2011 , when Dulce, now a grey-haired elderly woman, is being re-leased from jail due to her healthand put under house arrest in thevery house where the murderswere carried out. As she enters, wesee a flashback to her in a kitchenas two young boys come in. One isLeopoldo and the other is hisyounger brother, Rodrigo. This be-gins a series of flashbacks whichcontinue throughout the film,showing present events as well asthe past leading up to the crime.

A priest soon comes to visit

LLaa CCaassaa ddeell FFiinn ddeellooss TTiieemmppooss

La Casa del Fin de losTiempos1 01 minDrama / Horror / Mystery21 June 201 3 (Venezuela)

Country: VenezuelaLanguage: Spanish

“All this leads upto an astoundingtwist which bringspast and presenttogether in aunique waywhich is whatmakes this suchan amazing filmand one I reallylove.

Dulce searching for her son in the house

AAtt tthhee CCiinneemmaa



her, wanting to hear from her what reallyhappened. Dulce dismisses him, telling himshe has given up on God, but she takes himto the lowest part of the house where she sawLeopoldo vanish. She tells him the housekilled her husband and took away her son.

Another flashback shows the boys ridingtheir bikes to meet up with other neighbour-hood kids and have a fun day throwing urinefilled balloons at adults and playing baseballin a small lot. We learn that while life forthem outside the house is happy and exciting,life in the house is draining and hard foreveryone. The children are scared ofsomething in the house, and while Dulce con-soles them, she has her own darkness to con-tend with.

When Juan Jose comes home, we learnthat the couple has grown apart. Juan is un-able to provide for his family and Dulce hascome to resent him. After some bitter words,Juan heads back out into the night, leavingDulce in her bedroom.

After he leaves, the door handle to thebedroom starts rattling, as if someone is try-ing to get into the locked room. Dulce thinksit is Juan and shouts at him to go away, butthe rattling gets more intense. Meanwhile, wesee someone is also trying to get intoRodrigo’s room. Somehow, both doors becomeunlocked and open. Using the child logic ofprotection, Rodrigo yanks a bed sheet overhimself as a small figure enters the room andapproaches him.

Meanwhile, Dulce’s door has a chain lockto prevent the door from opening more than afew inches. As Dulce approaches to see who isthere, an arm thrusts in slams her againstthe door as it attempts to undo the latch.Dulce screams and manages to get the door

shut again, after which there is silence for amoment. Then she hears a scream as Rodrigohas the sheet yanked off him by the intruder.

After some frantic running around tryingto find the proper keys, Dulce manages to findboth her children, safe, but apparentlyshaken up by something. She can find no signof an intruder. The police come the next dayto investigate, but there is little she can tellthem. Leopoldo has seen something, and fin-ally tells Dulce that he saw a woman who toldhim not to play with Rodrigo and she gavehim a note to give to Dulce which says thatJuan will try to kill her son.

All this is revealed in the flashback, andthe priest decides to do some of his own re-search on the case. He soon finds other stor-ies about similar events which happened inthe house, with people disappearing in 1951as well as the original occupants in 1921 .

Present day Dulce knows there issomething evil in the house, as she sees anold man holding a knife a few times, but eachtime he disappears quickly for others to seehim. She also finds five pairs of ones writtenon a mirror in what appears to be blood.

Through more flashbacks, we see Dulce

Dulce and Jean, trying to make sense of their livesDulce in the kitchen as her sons quickly eat breakfast

Leopoldo and Rodrigo facing off in sibling rivalry



tell Juan that she is leaving him and takingthe children after she shows the note to him.He threatens her so she stays, but she seeksout a medium to find out what is going onwith the house. Contact is made withsomething, and she hears a conversationbetween two people, one claiming not to bethe other’s father with the other pleading notto kill him. She sees the old man that ourpresent day Dulce has seen and accuses themedium and her aide as trying to scare her.

Then tragedy strikes when during one ofthe baseball games, Rodrigo takes a direct hitto the head from a ball Leopoldo hits, whichkills him instantly.

In the present, the priest has finallyfigured out what the numbers mean. They aredates and time - November 11 , 11 :11 :11 - thatvery day. He returns immediately to the houseto tell Dulce only to find her preparing to com-mit suicide. He stops her and tells her thatshe just needs to get through this night, andeverything will be fine, but he isn’t allowed tostay longer because she is still technically aprisoner and it is not a “visiting day”.

In the past, while the family mournsRodrigo’s death, Juan goes through Dulce’sstuff and finds an old letter hidden at the bot-

tom of a drawer. It is from another man, re-vealing that Leopoldo is not Juan’s son andencouraging Dulce to marry Juan. Enraged atthis revelation, broken by Dulce’s resentment,and grief over the death of his only true son,Juan snaps and goes after Leopoldo to killhim.

All this leads up to an astounding twistwhich brings past and present together in aunique way which is what makes this such anamazing film and one I really love. The movieis never boring, which is a huge credit to theboth the director and the actors, even whenthe action itself seems slow, as your brain isalways trying to solve what is really going on.When you do begin to see it all as a whole,your brain will thank you for giving it such awonderful puzzle to solve.

Coming from Venezuela, the film is obvi-ously in Spanish, and there really isn’t anyother language or cultural aspect to it whichwould make it appealing to a languagelearner, I confess. But, if you are looking foran intelligent thriller with a superb ending towatch while practising your Spanish (or evenif you aren’t) , this is a definite must see film!PT

Old Dulce showing the priest where she lost her son

Dulce consulting a medium to figure what is happeningin her house

Dulce being attacked in her bedroom by an unknownintruder

The priest meeting old Dulce after she returns to the house

Languages in Peril

SSccoottttiisshh

GGaaeell iicc

bbyy MMaauurreeeenn FF MMiillllwwaarrdd

ot all endangeredlanguages are

ones you have neverheard of. Even aknown modernlanguage can bethreatened, as in thecase of Scottish Gaelic.Guest writerMaureen Millwardshares her knowledgeand experience of thestruggle of thislanguage to survive.

Languages in Peril - Scottish Gaelic


hroughout the last twentyyears or so that I have

spent learning languages, thelanguages I chose to learnwere always for work or travelpurposes. This changed lastyear when I decided to focuson something different. I hadalways wanted to learn Scot-tish Gaelic, the language ofmy ancestors, but I had neverhad the time due to othercommitments. Once I decidedto make the time for it, therewas no going back. My great-grandfather taught Gaelic toadults in Glasgow but thelanguage was never passeddown any further within thefamily. This is a typical storywithin Gaelic speaking famil-ies over the last century.

The number of Gaelicspeakers in Scotland today isestimated to be around60,000 people. However,nobody is certain how manyof those are native speakers.The language is currently stillspoken mainly in the WesternIsles with the Isles of Lewisand Harris having the highestpercentage of Gaelic speakersper head of population. Thereare now very few places inmainland Scotland whereGaelic is commonly heard.

The Gaelic language is aCeltic language and is be-lieved to have been broughtto Scotland from Irish settlersaround the 4th century. Thetwo languages are still verysimilar today. By the 10thcentury, Gaelic was the dom-inant language in north andwest Scotland.

The decline of the Gaeliclanguage started around the19th century when there werearound 300,000 Gaelicspeakers in the year 1800. By1931 , there were just

130,000 speakers left.Throughout the 18th and19th centuries, there weresome major factors whichcaused the decline of theGaelic language. Firstly in1707, there was the Act ofUnion with England. In the

1870s, Gaelic was banned inschools and teachers had toenforce English within theclassroom. The 19th centurywas a sad period for the Gael-ic people in history. Many ofthe Gaelic-speaking popula-tion were tenant farmers andduring this period, many landowners evicted their tenantsin favour of populating theirland with sheep. This causedmany of the Gaelic speakersto leave Scotland altogether

and seek new opportunities.Some were promised land tofarm on in Canada, Australiaand New Zealand. Thesepeople took their languagewith them and most neverreturned to Scotland. Facedwith having to learn Englishin their new country, manythought it unnecessary topass on the Gaelic languageto their children and it even-tually died out in many fam-ilies. A small numbermanaged to keep the lan-guage alive and as a resultthere are still around 1 ,000Gaelic speakers in Nova Sco-tia, Canada.

In recent years, the Scot-tish government has tried toimplement some measures toreverse the sharp decline inGaelic speakers. Gaelic wasre-introduced into schools inrecent years and the firstGaelic medium high schoolwhere all subjects are taughtin Gaelic was opened inGlasgow in 2006. More re-cently, another Gaelic medi-um high school was opened

A sign giving directions in both Scottish Gaelic and English

Despite the lack ofnativespeakers and plentifulresources that exist withthe more mainstreamlanguages, Gaelic is stillpossible to learn to adecent level.

Languages in Peril - Scottish Gaelic


in Edinburgh. There are sev-eral Gaelic medium primaryschools, particularly in theWestern Isles and someyoung children now join theseschools before they start tolearn English. � Classes forparents are encouraged sothat they can support theirchildren in learning Gaelicand there are now manyadult classes within the com-munities throughout Scot-land.

Seeing as I now live out-side Scotland, my only optionfor regular tuition in Gaelicwas to take up a distancelearning course through acollege on the Isle of Skye.The course consisted of oneweekly telephone tutorial in agroup and then an exam atthe end of term. I did well inmy first level exam and forthe second level, I am plan-ning to attend a week-longintensive course at the collegein Skye. To enhance my Gael-ic learning experience, I tooka trip to the Isles of Lewis andHarris earlier this year. I ar-rived in Stornoway and heardGaelic being spoken in thefirst shop I went into. I tookthe opportunity to practisewith the shop owner and thefollowing day, I drove into themore remote parts of the is-lands where Gaelic is stillquite widely spoken. I waslucky enough to stop atRavenspoint Cafe (who alsorun Gaelic courses) and prac-tise some Gaelic there andthen I went to the village ofGravir and attended a church

service all in Gaelic includingthe unique and traditionalsinging of the Gaelic Psalms.This was a truly worthy ex-perience of Gaelic culture andafter the church service, thefriendly locals were all happyto speak in Gaelic to me.

Despite the lack of nativespeakers and plentiful re-sources that exist with themore mainstream languages,Gaelic is still possible to learnto a decent level. It's just acase of searching for the rightresources to help you. Thereare children's books, DVDsteaching Gaelic, language

courses, an online dictionary,useful websites, a televisionchannel (BBC Alba) and evenfiction by well-known Scottishauthors such as Ian Rankinhas been translated intoGaelic. Despite the chal-lenges, I have thoroughly en-joyed my Gaelic learningexperience so far and it hasopened up cultural aspects ofmy home country which Inever knew existed before Ibegan my Gaelic journey. PT

Parrot Time is always looking for guest writers, so if you are interested in writing for us or donating somethingyou have written for your own blog, please contact us at [email protected].

We look forward to your contributions!

Maureen Millward is a Polyglot and Accountant from Scotland. As well

as English, her native language, she is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and

Portuguese and also speaks Norwegian, French, Gaelic and Arabic at

various levels. She is currently learning Greek and German. As well as

languages, she has a passion for travel & photography which she talks about

on her blog Mo's Language Learning Journey

https://languagelearningjourney.wordpress.com/

Maureen Millward on the Isle ofLewis, the largest island of theWestern Isles of Scotland

https://languagelearningjourney.wordpress.com/

Book Look


Apples growing in an orchard. Thetrees are so young and frai l , theyare supported by wooden stakes

Words in Your Mouth - Apple


e take a bite out of ajuicy topic this month:apple.

Few fruits are as univer-sally recognized as the apple.These handy fruits can beeaten directly from the tree,cooked along with meat forextra seasoning, or mashedinto a sweet “sauce” fordessert. The juice is verysweet, and is imbibed in itsnormal state, or, when mixedwith the pulp of the fruit, ascider. The apple even plays arole in mythology, from the“knowledge fruit” of the Bib-lical Garden of Eden to theApple of Discord, which star-ted the Trojan War. There iseven a computer companythat took the name “Apple” torepresent them, and men-tioning it to some computerusers may be creating yourown discord.

Apples, the fruit kind,vary widely in size, shape,colour, and acidity. Most areround and some shade of redor yellow. The largest produ-cers of apples are the U.S. ,

China, France, Italy, andTurkey. Apples provide vitam-ins A and C, carbohydrates,and fibre.

All of the European lan-guages, except the Romancelanguages, (meaning most ofthe Indo-European lan-guages, including the Celticlanguages) use a word with aroot of “ap”, “ab”, “af”, “ep”, or“av” for apples and appletrees. That can be seen in theEnglish (apple) , Old English

(aeppel) , Celtic (aballo) , IrishGaelic (abhal) , Welsh (afal) ,Icelandic (epli) , Russian(яблоко - jabloko), and Polish(jablko) . This comes from theProto Indo-European “ab(e)l”,with the changes being madein the various languages dueto pronunciation standards.Originally, this term appliedto all fruits, which might helpexplain why the apple wasthe biblical “fruit of know-ledge”. It wasn’t because the

WWoorrddss iinn YYoouurr MMoouutthh

AAppppllee

Person pouring apple slices into a tray to make a pie



apple was anything specific,but rather the word was usedto represent any fruit.

Before Christianity be-came the official religion ofthe Roman Empire (4th cen-tury AD), the Latin “malum”meant “apple”. Once Chris-tianity took over, because ofits symbolic importance inthe Bible, the term “pomum”,meaning “fruit” was used torefer to the apple as the “fruitof fruits”. From this“pomum”, we get the French(pomme) , Catalan (poma) , andWalloon (peme) .

The Italian word “mela”comes from the Latin “mila”,which is the plural of “mi-lum”, and this replaces theClassical Latin “malum”.“Malum” could come “malamatiana”. The “matiana”would be from the adjectivematianus, referring to CaiusMatius, who was an import-ant author of agriculturaltreaties.

There is also speculationthat the “Matius” comes fromanother of Caesar’s friends,

who had written a cookbook.It could also come from theadjective mattianus, referringto the Germanic city of Matti-um. Thus, “mala matiana”would be Matius’ apple, orMattium apple. “Malum” isalso the source for the Ro-manian (măr) , the Spanish(manzana) , and the Por-tuguese (maçã) .

Following these, we cansee the Quechua “mansana”is taken from the Spanish,and the Guarani “masã” iseither borrowed from thePortuguese, or taken from theSpanish and simplified.Tetum “masán” and Tagalog“mansanas” are probablyborrowed from Portuguese.

The Greek “μήλο” [milo]comes straight from ClassicalGreek “μῆλον” (μήλον) [mel-on] , “an apple” or, generally,“any tree-fruit”. This may alsobe another source of the Lat-in “mila”, and this shows justhow much etymologies arelargely speculative. We canobserve patterns, but not besure what influenced what.

One such observation isthat Faroese for apple is“súrepli” and potato is “epli”,which would seem to contra-dict the earlier statementabout the “ep” root. Theprefix “súr-” comes from theadjective “súrur”, meaning“sour”. This may once againbe related to “epli” having alarger meaning, but being re-

Apple strudel for breakfast

Bins of apples on sale at a market



duced later to refer to a singlefruit. In this case, it wasaffixed to potato, and the“súr-” was used to differenti-ate the apple.

Further evidence of thiscan be see when looking atthe names of some otherfoods in other languages. Areference to “apple” is oftenhidden in other names. In oldEnglish, the world for “cu-cumbers” was “eorþæppla”(earth-apples) . In French, wefind “pomme de terre” (earth-apple) referring to “potato”. InEnglish, there is “pineapple”,which is a reference to theway the fruit resembles thecones of pine trees.

There are even more ex-amples of this. Chinese 苹果/ 蘋果 is composed of “apple”and “fruit”. Korean 沙果 iscomposed of “sand (-like) ,granulated” and “fruit”. Ja-panese りんご [ringo] can bewritten as 林檎 , but that’srarely done in modern Japan-ese. That is a composition of“forest” and the name of asmall type of apple. It seemsthat 林檎 in Chinese canmean “wedding gift”. Viet-namese is “quả táo”, whichseems to follow the samemodel of the Chinese variantsand the Korean word (just re-versed, following Vietnamesegrammar):quả : fruit (old, “fruit”)táo: apple (possibly old,“jujube”, “Chinese date”)

Sámi has both “ebel” and“eappel”. The first seems tobe from Baltic, the secondfrom Germanic. Since bothBaltic and Germanic taketheir roots from the samesource, this might show howwords get altered over time. It

would appear both versions ofthe word remain active inSámi.

IdiomsThere are a few idioms inEnglish that involve apples.“In apple-pie order” means“neat and tidy”. The term“apple-pie” itself is often usedto refer to the “goodness” ofAmerica, as in “as Americanas apple-pie”. The “apple ofone’s eye” refers to a personor item that is held in thehighest regard. When youcompare two things incor-rectly, you are “comparingapples to oranges”.

British slang has thecockney rhyming schemes torefer to things, and one is“apples and pears” meaning“stairs”. When one “upsetsthe apple cart”, it meanscarefully made plans are dis-rupted. Perhaps the mostcommonly heard usage,however, is “the Big Apple”,referring to New York.

ConclusionHowever you slice them,apples are delicious and

healthy, as well as interestingfrom a linguistic point ofview. An English idiom pro-motes them with “An apple aday keeps the doctor away.”so munch on them as oftenas you can, and think abouthow if it wasn’t for apples, SirIsaac Newton would neverhave discovered gravity, andhow fruitless our world wouldbe without that! PT

Chocolate covered apples on sticks. Yum!

Apple farmer in Norway



Other pictures related to apple

From top left, clockwise: Apple pastries; Basket of freshly picked apples; Bowl ofapplesauce; A slice of apple pie; Sl iced apples on a plate with a banana; Apple cider on a hotsummer day



GERMANICWestern

Afrikaans: appelDutch: appelEnglish: appleFrisian: appel / apelGerman: ApfelLow Saxon: AppelLuxembourgish: ApelOld English: æppelOld High German: aphulOld Saxon: appulYiddish: (epl)

NorthernDalecarlian: eppelDanish: æbleFaroese: súrepliGutnish: epliIcelandic: epliJamtlandic: epli [Ep_h:@r` ]Norwegian: eple (bokmål and nynorsk)Swedish: äpple

EasternCrimean Gothic: apel

CentralCentral Germandialects: Appel/Abbel

SLAVICWestern

Czech: jablkoPolabian: jobkúPolish: jabłkoSlovak: jablko

EasternRussian: яблоко [jablaka]Ukrainian: яблуко [jabluko]

SouthernBulgarian: ябълка [jabălka]Croatian: jabukaProto-slavonic: ablekoSerbian: јабука [jabuka]Slovenian: jábolko

ITALICAragones: mazanaAsturian: mazanaCatalan: pomaFrench: pommeGalician: mazáItalian: melaLadino: pomLatin: malum / pomum / abellaNeopolitan: mélaPortuguese: maçãRomanian: mărSpanish: manzanaWalloon: peme

ITALIAN DIALECTSBergamasco: pómBolognese: mailaBresciano: pómCalabrese: puma / mela / pumuLeonese: manzanaLombardoOccidentale: pòmmMantuan: pomParmigiano: pomReggiano: pòmRomagnolo: mèilaSardinian: melaSicilian: pumaTriestino: pomoValencian: pomaVenetian: pomoViestano: mel'Zeneize: meia

CELTICGoidelic

Ancient Irish: ubullGaulish: avalloIrish: úllScots-Gaelic: ubhal

BrythonicWelsh: afal

לֶפע



ALBANIANAlbanian: mollë

GREEKGreek: μήλο

ALTAICKorean: 사과 (沙果 ) [sagwa]

INDEPENDENTBasque: sagarJapanese: りんご [ringo]

FINNO-UGRICEstonian: õunFinnish: omenaHungarian: almaIzhorian/Ingrian: ommeenaLivonian: umarSámi (North): ebel / eappelVotic: õuna

URALIC-MORDVINErzya: umaŕ

MALAYO-POLYNESIANBahasaIndonesian: apelBahasa Melayu: epalHawai‘ian: āpalaMalagasy: pômaTetum: masán

MĀORI - TAHITICReo Māori(Aotearoa/New Zealand): āporoReo Māori(The Cook Islands): ` āpara

MESO-PHILIPPINETagalog: mansanas

SEMITICArabic: [tuffah]Hebrew: [tapua]Maltese: Tufieha

SINO-TIBETANChinese: 苹果 (蘋果 ) [píngguǒ]Cantonese: 蘋果 [ping4 gwo2]Taiwanese(Hokkien): 刮果 [gua\geo] /

椪果 [pong\geo]

BALTICLithuanian: obuolysLatvian: ābols, ābelePrussian: âblê

KADAIThai: ลูกแอปเปิ้ล

[luuk aaep bpeern]

NIGER-KHORDOFANIANSwahili: tofaa / tufaha / tufaa

ANDEAN-EQUATORIALQuechua: mansana

TUPIGuarani: guavirana’a ; masã

ESKIMO-ALEUTKalaallisut: kimminaujaqInuktitut: kimminaujaq

AUSTRO-ASIATICVietnamese: quả táo

CONSTRUCTEDCanis: mæloEsperanto: pomoAllun: ůtti (ůtti l~)

OTHERMudnés: pàm

حافت


Celebrations - Nag Panchami

n the fifth day of the Shravan, the NagaPanchami, or “Festival of Snakes” is cel-

ebrated all over India. This is usually in Julyor August, and this year it is on August 19th.

Snake worship evolved partially out ofpeople's fear of the creatures, and thus pray-ing to them not to hurt them, and also to theiridea that serpents are immortal (due partiallyto their shedding of skin to be “reborn”) .

LegendsAs many celebrations are based around le-gends, this one is also based around a few.

In the Mahabharata epic poem, Janame-jeya, the son of King Parikshit of the Kurudynasty, was performing a snake sacrificeknown as Sarpa Satra, to avenge the death ofhis father, who had died from a snake bite.The snake who bit him was the king ofsnakes, Taksaka. The Sarpa Satra was to des-troy all the snakes, called nagas, of the worldin retribution.

A great sacrificial pit, or Yaghna kunda,was built and when the sacrifice was per-formed, all the snakes of the world weredrawn to it and destroyed. All, that is, exceptfor Taksaka himself. He had fled to the netherworld of Indra, Lord of Heaven, seeking pro-tection. The sages performing the sacrificelearned of this and increased their chanting,eventually becoming so powerful as to begindragging even Taksaka, along with Indra, to

the fire.The gods became scared of this and asked

Mansa Devi, goddess of snakes, to intervene,and so she sent her son, Astika, to requestJanamejeya to stop. Astika explained to Ja-namejeya that his father had been killed byTaksaka because Janamejeya’s ancestors hadburned an entire forest, killing all the snakesexcept Taksaka, to clear space for a city. Ja-namejeya was impressed by Astika’s know-ledge and wisdom, and offered him a boon, orfavour. Astika requested that the sacrifice bestopped, and so it was.

Taksaka was grateful to Astika for savinghim, and so he also offered Astika a boon. For

A Statue of Naga being worshipped on Nag Panchami

Celebrations

NNaagg PPaanncchhaammii

Celebrations - Nag Panchami


that, Astika requested that the snakes shouldstop harming people and anyone who told thisstory would be immune from snake bites. Andso the hostility between humans and nagaswas ended.

Another story tells how the supreme deityKrishna, as a boy, fell into the river Yamunaand was confronted by the terrible snakeKaliya who lived there. Krishna jumped on thesnake’s head and caught it by its neck. Kaliyapleaded with Krishna not to kill him, andKrishna, showing mercy, let him go afterKaliya promised not to bother anyone again.

A third legend tells of how a farmer acci-dentally killed a nest of baby serpents whiletilling his field. The mother serpent took re-venge and killed the entire family, except forthe daughter, who she found praying to theNagas. This act of devotion restored the familyto life. For this reason, plowing a field on thisday is forbidden in some parts of India.

HistoryThere existed a clan called Nagas in ancient

India. During this pre-Aryan time, snake-worship was very popular. After the Aryan in-vasion of India (or migration - historians areunsure which), the snake-worshipping wasadopted into Hinduism. The snake is alsoconsidered sacred in Buddhism and Jainism,where legends say that snakes played a signi-ficant role in protecting the lives of bothBuddha and the Jain Muni Parshwanath.

CelebrationOn the Naga Panchami, several means of cel-ebration are performed. Women draw figuresof snakes on the walls of their houses using aspecial mixture of black powder, cow dung,and milk as a way to protect their family. Milkis also considered a vital offering, and it is leftoutside snake holes or actually poured dir-ectly in, as well as being taken to Devitemples. In some parts, snake temples arecrowded and offerings are given to stone ormetal icons of the cosmic serpents, Anantaand Sesha. Other places, a “snake” made ofdough is created and buried. Snake charmersalso travel from house to house carrying co-bras in baskets, asking for alms. PT

A scene from Mahabharata, depicing the huge snake sacrificeby the king Janamejaya

Roadside snake charmer in Agra, India

POLYGLOTWORKSHOPS

ppoollyygg lloottwwoorrkksshhooppss..ccoomm

Where Are You?

55 Parrot Time | Issue #6 | June 2013

This capital city is the economic, political, educational, and cultural center of its country. It sits inan ancient lake bed which is bordered on two sides by narrow river valleys. It is also part of the40th most populous urban areas in the world.

Historically, the region was home to tribes of indigenous people called Ketagalan tribes beforethe eighteenth century. After that, settlers from another province moved in after the governmentof a dynasty gave them permission to develop the area. It was made the temporary capital forthe province in 1886 and later made a formal provincial capital in 1896.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, the state was made a colony of Imperial Japan with this city asthe capial. During that time, an extensive project was undertaken to build up the infrastructure,including railroads.

When the Republic of China took over in 1945 after the Japanese surrender of the Second WorldWar, it went on to become its provisional capital. The city expanded greatly in the followingdecades and was declared in 1967 as a special centrally administered municipality.It was giventhe administrative status of a province and expanded even further, annexing severalneighbouring cities, eventually bringing the population to over 1.5 million.

Today, it remains one of the world's most densely populated urban areas, and received over 6million visitors a year, making it 15th most visited city in the world.

Where Are You?

Last month's answer: Vienna, Austria

Can you name this location and country?

Book Look


he book in review this month is FluencyMade Achievable: A Simple Practice Plan

for Training Core Language Skills by KerstinHammes. It is available from Amazon in bothpaperback and Kindle formats, as well as partof a wonderful bundle package featuring thisbook, an audio copy of the book, anotherbook of hers called The Vocab Cookbook, andaction sheets to help put what she talks aboutto work for you.

Kerstin is a native German speaker who iswell experienced in working with and teachinglanguages. Not only does she tutor in Ger-man, but she runs a very successful blog andpodcast, all about achieving fluency in lan-guages.

Fluency Made Achievable is a short book, withonly around 70 pages in the printed format,but don’t let the size fool you. This book is apowerhouse of great information for peoplelearning a language for the first time or exper-ienced learners who want to pick up somenew ideas as well as refine their current studymethods.

So let us begin right there, at the kind of con-tent. Fluency Made Achievable is not going towaste your time by of spoon feeding you con-cepts and using cute attempts at trying to beyour friend, which is what so many modernself-help books seem to do when they have noreal message. Kerstin presents her material ina straight forward manner which is easy tounderstand while also being very useful.

This book is also not going to try to give you

“secret methods” orlearning shortcutswhich too often form thebasis of many languagelearning aides. She isn’t promising youfluency within a fixed time as long as you ad-here to a magical formula she has developed.She does provide a three-week structure,however, which you can tailor to meet yourlearning needs.

People learn in all different ways, and nosingle method is the best for everyone. Thebook recognizes that and presents the learnerwith several suggestions for each study area.

The first part of the book focuses on outliningthe four core language skills of listening,reading, writing, and speaking. Kerstin ex-plains that while many teaching systems em-phasize one of these skills over the other, youreally need to be challenged and grow equallyin all areas to truly master the language.

Kerstin gives the learner the basic questionshe or she needs to be asking themselves toassess their current learning practices whilelaying out the tasks they should do to becomeexperienced in each skill. She then sets up agreat mechanism to allow you to determineyour weakest and strongest areas, so you canmove on to tailoring your study routines.

The real meat of the book is in section two,where the learner can take what they learnedabout their skills in the first part and exploremany ways of improving and fine-tuningthem.

Fluency Made Achievable: The Fluent Guide to CoreLanguage Skillsby Kerstin HammesLanguage: EnglishI tem Rating:

BBooookk LLooookk

*****

Book Look


This part really showed me how well Kerstin’sunderstands the learner and the teachingprocess. She goes into specific detail on thereasons, gives examples, and discusses vari-ous ways a learner can improve their listen-ing, reading, speaking, and writing.

You are probably thinking that you alreadyknow how to study all those things, and I amsure you know some good ways. I also knowthat you are going to find many of the tipsKerstin to be highly insightful and helpful.She doesn’t just list things you can do; sheaddresses the mindset behind them and in-forms you of things to look for while you arestudying.

For example, in the writing section, it mightseem fairly obvious that we can practise put-ting down our thoughts in text in the new lan-guage then having another person, preferablya native speaker, read it over and make cor-rections. But something I hadn’t thoughtabout was the power of taking the correctedversion and writing it all out again. Why? AsKerstin explains, seeing your written workcoming together correctly is a huge psycholo-gical boost. You aren’t just taking the correc-tion and thinking “I’ll do better next time”.You need to really work through it again, forboth your morale and your memory.

In fact, almost the entire writing section couldbe taken out and used as a great guide towriting in general, like for a blog or other pub-lication. Here you can understand how shehas come to be such a good author - she hasdone as she preaches and is passing it on toyou.

One of the most valuable tips that hit homefor me is “Forget about what you ’should’know”. It addresses the mindset of how wecan get wrongly caught up in all the smallthings, like perfect pronunciation or hugevocabulary, because the person to whom weare talking isn’t trying to judge us on that.They are interested in what you are trying tosay. Focus on the broader aspect of commu-nicating; the smaller details will come after.

The last section of the book contains severalshort interviews with experienced learners.Each of them describes what a differencelearning another language has made to them.They also each give a unique tip or exercise tohelp in the study process.

My favourite of these, shared by Mickey Man-gan, is to randomly select a word from thedictionary - without looking at the meaning -then seek out a native speaker to help youpronounce it properly. Keep at it until you canrepeat it perfectly, then go back and look upthe meaning. Because you spent so muchtime on the word itself and then wanted tofind out the meaning, it will stick much morefirmly in your mind and you will be able torecall it easily.

Overall, I think the biggest theme I took awayfrom the book is that you really need to applyyourself to learning a language, and you needto tackle all four skills together, so you have abalanced learning experience. That mightseem obvious, but too many people nowadaysseem to want a quick trick to learneverything, when there really isn’t one.

If you are serious about learning a new lan-guage, or about improving your currentlearning methods, then you definitely shouldhave this book on your shelf. You need toread it through completely. Then read itagain. Then read it a third time. Seriously.There is so much intelligent thought andpractical ideas in it that you will need to re-visit it a few times to make sure you absorbevery ounce of it.

Then, if you haven’t already, you need to visitKerstin’s blog Fluent Language(fluentlanguage.co.uk) and keep up on hernewest thoughts and tips. You should alsofind her podcast on iTunes, in which she of-ten interviews other language teachers, in-novators, and polyglots, discovering theirmethods for learning, teaching, or both. Iguarantee you will have fun as you learn! PT

At A Glance


General Language

The Polyglot Project

The idea behind the Polyglot Project is to help you get

fluent in whatever language you're trying to learn. They

have pulled together a library of foreign language

content for you to work with, starting with classic

literature from all over the world.

http: //www.polyglotproject.com/English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Greek, Polish,Portuguese, Danish, Catalan, Czech, Norwegian, Turkish, Finnish, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish

Language Schools and Institutes

Goethe Institute

The Goethe Institute is a non-profit German cultural

institution operational worldwide, promoting the study

of the German language abroad and encouraging

international cultural exchange and relations.

https://www.goethe.de/de/index.htmlGerman

Language Course Sites

Lingolía

Lingolía is for people of all ages who wish to learn

foreign languages and offers effective help for the

languages English, French, Spanish and German. The

grammar of these languages is the main focus.

https://deutsch. l ingol ia.com/de/English, French, Spanish, German

Specific Language

Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language

This is a website dedicated to teaching both Indonesian

and Malay. It has basic courses and links on culture,

giving a little background about both Indonesian and

Malay.

http: //ipl l .manoa.hawaii .edu/indonesian/Indonesian, Malay

At A Glance


Specific Language

University Of Hawaii Khmer

This site is from the University of Hawaii and has a lot

of information on the Khmer language. It has links for

Khmer classes, Khmer fonts and learning materials. It

also has a lot of cultural information. They offer a

course at the University as well as an online course.

http: //learnkhmer.net/index.htmKhmer

Newspapers & Magazines

Blesk

One of the most widely circulated Czech newspapers,

Blesk is a daily tabloid published in Prague, the Czech

Republic. Its name translates as “flash”. It covers

celebrities, events, games and gossip.

http: //www.blesk.cz/Czech

Naya Patrika

Naya Patrika is a daily newspaper in Kathmandu,

Nepal, covering local news, sports, business, jobs, and

community events.

http: //www.enayapatrika.com/Nepali

Vientiane Mai

Vientiane Mai is a Laotian language newspaper

published by the Government of Laos. It reflects the

position of the Government and the Communist Party.

http: //www.vientianemai.net/Lao

Credits

62 Parrot Time | Issue #15 | May / June 2015

Letter From the EditorWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages: Petey: Woman on beach

Polyglot Events All Around The World - You Are Not AloneWriter: Jimmy MelloImages:Polyglot Workshops: Trio of polyglotsJimmy Mello: Marlon Couto Ribeiro giving presentation (title); J immy Mello presenting; Polyglot Workshop inLondon; Jimmy Mello at the Book Fair; Polyglot Club; Picnic after the Gathering; Jomo Concert; Konrad Jerzak atSekrety Poliglotow; Polyglots Richards, Mello, Rawlings, Simcottunknown: Polyglot Conference in Novi Sad;

Playing Games with LanguageWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages: Petey: Trophies; Kids on laptop; Chess board; 3D Minecraft sceneSources:• The screenshot of Busuu belongs to Busuu.com.• The screenshot of Rosetta Stone belongs to Rosetta Stone.• The cover of "Choose Your Own Adventure book - Cave of Time" is copyright Bantam Books.

Spanish E-training – The 'Big Bang' InvestmentWriter: Kendal KnetemannImages: Petey: Auditorium (title); Classroom; Computer

Can a Language Die?Writer: Erik ZidoweckiImages:ralfh: Statue in snowJun: Eteocypriot writingPetey: Stone inscription in Latin (title); Latin book; Day of the Dead skeletons; Coptic l iturgic inscription; Syriac bookscript

At The Cinema - La Casa del Fin de los TiemposWriter: Erik ZidoweckiSources:• "The House at the End of Time" Internet Movie Database <http: //www.imdb.com/title/tt2640474>All images are copyright Centro Nacional Autónomo de Cinematografía (CNAC) (I ), Fundación Vil la del Cine, JEMDFilms, Rodando Films, TRES Cinematografía, X Rojo Producciones, Xenon Films, Épica Producción

Languages in Peril - Scottish GaelicWriter: Maureen F Mil lwardImages: Maureen F Mil lward: View of Scotland; Multi l ingual sign; Maureen in Scotland

Credits

Parrot Time | Issue #14 | March / April 2015 63

Words in Your Mouth - AppleWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages: Petey: Apples in orchard (splash page); Collection of apples (title); Person pouring apple sl ices; Applestrudel; Bins of apples; Chocolate covered apples; Apple farmer; Apple pastries; Basket of apples; Bowl ofapplesauce; Slice of apple pie; Sl iced apples on plate; Apple cider

Celebrations - Nag PanchamiWriter: Sonja KrügerImages:Krish Dulal: Statue of Naga being worshippedGregor Younger: Snake charmerPetey: A snake shrine (nagabana) (title); Scene from MahabharataSources:• "Nag Panchami" Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Panchami>• "Nag Panchami" Rudra Centre <http: //www.rudraksha-ratna.com/nag-panchami.html>• "Nag Panchami" Maps of India <http: //www.mapsofindia.com/events/india/nag-panchami.html>• "Naga Panchami" i love india <http: //festivals. i loveindia.com/naag-panchami/>

Where Are You?Writer: Sonja KrügerImages: Petey: Mystery image

Book LookWriter: Erik Zidowecki

At A GlanceWriter: Erik ZidoweckiAll screenshots are property of their respective website owners

Jimmy Mello retains all copyright control over his images. They are used in Parrot Timewith his expressed permission.

Maureen Millward retains all copyright control over her images. They are used in ParrotTime with her expressed permission.

All images are Copyright - CC BY-SA (Creative Commons Share Alike) by their respectiveowners, except for Petey, which is Public Domain (PD) or unless otherwise noted.

parrot time - issue 16 - july / august 2015

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