What language (other than English) do you speak?

[GoktimusPrime]

I use the toilet...

Okay, I say "toilet" too, but given a choice between 'dunny' and 'bathroom,' I'd definitely take dunny. I've never ever referred to a toilet as "the bathroom," maybe unless the toilet itself was located inside a bathroom.

[Bidoofdude]

Okay, I say "toilet" too, but given a choice between 'dunny' and 'bathroom,' I'd definitely take dunny. I've never ever referred to a toilet as "the bathroom," maybe unless the toilet itself was located inside a bathroom.

Isn't the word 'toilet' taken as offensive in the US? I recall hearing that's why they say bathroom.

[Thurmus]

Hey GoktimusPrime,

My daughter is in Grade 3 next year. At her primary school, (public) they do Japanese. She enjoys learning it.

Are there an good books or CDs I could get her to help her?

I know they were also learning some of the writing this year and her teacher said she is going well but needs to practice.

Thanks in advance.

[GoktimusPrime]

Hi Thurmus,

Here are some tips:

+ Use flashcards to help her learn Hiragana. I recommend trying 1 or 2 sets at a time (e.g. あ(a) い(i) う(u) え(e) お(o) as one set, か(ka) き(ki) く(ku) け(ke) こ(ko) as the next set etc.). She should be able to sight read them pretty quickly in the first session; once that happens, reduce the amount of time that she has to look at each character before eliciting her to tell you what it says. e.g. show her the card for あ(a); give her 3 seconds before putting the card away and ask her to tell you what it is. Next time give her 2 seconds, then 1 second, then a fraction of a second. Shuffle the cards and repeat. This is why they're called 'flash' cards because you're visually "flashing" them before her eyes.

+ Play flash card games. Once you have gone through all of the sets, shuffle them and repeat the above process. You might also give her some simple Japanese words and ask her to form the words using the cards (which should be spread out in front of her in random order), e.g. you might say "sushi," and elicit her to find the flash cards for す(su) and し(shi) and place them in order. I've found that the use of flash cards helped my 5 year old daughter learn to read Hiragana really well (she reads with about 80% accuracy now). Here's a pretty good site for Hiragana flashcards that you can print out:
http://happylilac.net/hiragana-match.html
And there are other good printable Hiragana resources for children here:
http://happylilac.net/hiragana-h.html

+ Flash cards for sight words. This is something that I'm going to do with my daughter soon. It's similar to what they do in Kindy when they're learning to read with the high frequency words (e.g. this, that, he, she, was, were etc.).

+ As for books, I would just recommend reading children's books in Japanese. My daughter is currently read Frozen in Japanese. I'm not familiar with Japanese book stores in Melbourne. Amazon Japan does ship books internationally, and I think Kinokuniya has online shopping. Japanese books can be somewhat expensive when purchased new (especially from import stores), but second hand stores are a LOT cheaper, but again, I don't know of any 2nd hand Japanese book stores in Melbourne. Also, 2nd hand stores have a more limited range.

[Bidoofdude]

I slacked off a lot in my first 5 years of Japanese (since Prep). I didn't bother learning all the hiragana until Grade 5. I'm pretty down pat now and I'm heading to Japan in September. Hopefully I can use some conversation skills.

(Planning to get TFs too though, and hopefully a Japanese Pokemon Emerald game with the Old Sea Map)

[GoktimusPrime]

Attempting to transcribe the lyrics for the Multilanguage version of Frozen's "Let It Go." Please let me know if I've made any mistakes.

Anything changes made as per advice from others is marked in green.

-----------------------------------------------------------
(ENGLISH)
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
(FRENCH)
Un royaume de solitude
Ma place est là pour toujours
(GERMAN)
Der Wind, er heult so wie der Sturm
ganz tief in mir
(DUTCH)
Het werd mij te veel
hoe'k mijn best ook deed
(CHINESE, Mandarin)
别让他们进来看见 bié ràng tā men jìn lái kàn jiàn
做好女孩就像你的从前 zuò hǎo nǚ hái jiù xiàng nǐ de cóng qián
(SWEDISH)
Visa ingenting, vad du än gör,
allt är förstört!
(JAPANESE)
ありのままの姿を見せるのよ ari no mama no sugata miseru no yo
(SPANISH, Latin American)
Libre soy, libre soy, ¡libertad sin vuelta atrás!
(POLISH)
Wszystkim wbrew na ten gest mnie stać
(HUNGARIAN)
Jöjjön száz orkán, és közben a szívemen ül a jég
(SPANISH, Castilian)
Desde la distancia,
¡qué pequeño todo es!
(CATALAN)
I les pors que em dominaven
per sempre han fugit
(ITALIAN)
Non è un difetto, è una virtù
e non la fermerò mai più
(KOREAN)
내맘데로 자유롭게 살래 nae mamdaero jayulobgae sallae
(SERBIAN)
Сад је крај, сад је крај sad je kraj, sad je kraj
На крилима ветра сам na krilima vetra sam
(CHINESE, Cantonese)
誰亦要隨心歌 shui yik yiu tsui sum gor
忘掉昨天悲歌 mong diu jork tin bei gor
(PORTUGUESE)
Estou aqui, e vou ficar
Venha tempestade
(BAHASA MALAYSIA)
Kuasaku buat hidup bercelaru
(RUSSIAN)
Подвластны мне мороз и лёд, podvlastny mne moroz i lёd,
ну что за дивный дар nu čto za divnyj dar
(DANISH)
Og som krystaller star
en tanke ganske klar
(BULGARIAN)
Ще спра да бъда аз shte spra da bada az
на миналото плен na minaloto v plen
(NORWEGIAN)
La den gå, la den gå
Jeg skal stige lik solen nå
(THAI)
ปล่อยออกมา เลิกซ่อนเร้น pl̀xy xxk mā leik s̀xn rên
เด็กดี ไม่เห็นมีค่า dĕk dī mị̀ h̄ĕn mī kh̀ā
(FRENCH, Canadian)
Je suis là, comme je l'ai rêvé
(FLEMISH)
En de storm raast door...
De vrieskou, daar zat ik toch al niet mee

[GoktimusPrime]

I was talking to a Year 7 class today about language dominance shift -- which is what can happen if someone stops speaking a language for a long time and/or vigorously speaks a new language in a sustained manner. Obviously people can become more fluent in a language w/ continual practice, but they can also become less fluent in a language if they reduce or stop practising it.

Here's an example: Barack Obama vs Kevin Rudd (note: this is NOT a political discussion, I'm purely using two public figures to demonstrate the acquisition and deterioration of language; please do not deviate from this focus)

Barack Obama
As a young boy, Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and step-father where he lived for several years of his childhood, and attended a local school. As a result, he learnt to speak Bahasa Indonesia. Forty years later, Obama returned to Indonesia, however his Indonesian only appears to be partially conversant. In this short excerpt of Obama's 2011 speech at the University of Indonesia, we can see that Obama is predominantly speaking in English, with a few Indonesian sentences and words here and there. Presumably Obama may not have spoken much Indonesian (if at all) since moving out of Indonesia, thus the deterioration of this proficiency in that language may likely be a result of those decades of disuse. Compare this with...

Kevin Rudd
Learnt to speak Mandarin Chinese as a university student, so he was already a young adult -- and learning a language in adulthood is considerably harder than in childhood. Then of course, Rudd went on to live and work in China. It is widely known that Rudd is perfectly fluent in Chinese.