7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 96

The sound of "ph", Learning with webtoons, Highest working countries, and the beautiful Jeju language!

Hey language lovers,

I hope you all had a lovely 2 weeks!

Updates

Mine were fun but still felt intense!

For languages, I played the new Pokemon Violet completely in Korean which allowed me to discover tons of new words through each new Pokedex entry. I also played a bunch of other games in German (most notably Harvestella, an RPG and actual farming game).

I also read about 40 pages of The Vegetarian by Han Kang in Korean. I had left the book untouched for weeks so it felt good to get back to it!

As for other news, I went to Belgium visit some friends and had tons of fun discovering Antwerp and hearing Flemish for 3 days.

As the end of 2022 approaches, I’m spending more time reflecting and preparing for 2023. As I’ll be leaving Europe in about a month and a half, a lot of preparation needs to be done which reduces my available writing time.

And yet, the last deep dive into a Lesser-Known Language (LKL), about the Jeju language, will come out next Monday for paid subscribers. I expected it to be pretty similar to Korean but the verb system feels like the most complicated that I’ve ever seen. Comparatively, French conjugation is a joke.

You’ll find a (very) shortened version at the end of this week’s newsletter to get you thirsty for more.

Alright, let’s dive into what you came for now!

---

7 Bullet Points

Each week, I share 7 things about languages.

I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.

A quick reminder first: I’m not affiliated with any resource so far. Every recommendation you find below comes from my own research and experiences.

🎥 One video

5 Golden Habits for Language Learning — By Zoe.Languages

In this video, Zoe shares 5 great habits to learn languages better. I’ve seen this kind of video countless times but I love that Zoe shares actual examples to really understand where she comes from with each piece of advice.

I’d recommend you watch these habits in context to remember them better but if you’re out of time, here they are:

• Write your language learning in your calendar — So you don’t skip it and learn regularly. (Especially useful when you’re starting)

• Take smart notes — So you can review anytime anywhere

• Active recall rather than passive review — So you strengthen memories!

• Talk to yourself — So you get some extra active practice even when you’re not at a desk.

• Note your weaknesses — So you can focus on them at a later time.

📚 One article I read

Why does “ph” make an “f” sound? — By Zui, on The Language Closet

Do you ever have a need to find the answer to a question you never asked yourself? Well, that’s what I had when I saw that title. And it satisfied my thirst for knowledge right away.

In short, it comes from the Latin words that took the Greek letter φ found in words like “philosophy.” When I read this, I thought “oh right, makes sense.” But here’s what surprised me:

When the letter entered the Latin language, it wasn’t pronounced as an “f” in either language but rather a [pʰ] (aspirated p). This means both languages evolved, separately, in the same direction of softening this sound toward the “f” sound we find today.

Nice 🤓

✍🏽 One article I wrote

Why Webtoons May Be Your Way Out of the Intermediate Language Learner Plateau

Webtoons are a gift from heaven for us language learners. If find they are the perfect middle-ground to start using real content without being lost because there’s an overload of text.

In this piece, I went discussed why everybody should try them. You included 😉

🎧 One podcast episode

How to Speak a Language More Confidently - The Language Learning Show (Azren)

I felt seen while listening to this episode.

In it, Azren explains that it’s common to feel less confident as an intermediate learner than as a beginner because we know we’ve learned a lot and believe there are mistakes we shouldn’t make anymore.

As an advanced speaker of Japanese and high-intermediate of Korean, I’ve felt this way countless times. I’d even go as far as saying I feel it almost every time I say something in either language!

Azren’s solution seems simple: create a familiar environment with people who make us feel comfortable (teacher, friend, or else). Looking back at my life, it makes sense. I only worry about my skills with people I don’t know yet!

And isn’t it as awkward in our native language when we meet people for the first time? I know it is for me.

So let’s make ourselves comfortable and gain confidence 😆

🌎 One cultural aspect to discover

Work hours in Mexico and South Africa

This week, we’re turning to the two countries fighting for a prize nobody wants: the country with the highest number of hours/worker in a year.

That prize could go to Mexico with a total of 2,255 hours/worker but South Africa is a close second with 2,209 hours/worker in 2017. This being said, more recent data from Mexico shows its hours fell to 2,128 hours/worker in 2021. I couldn’t find 2021’s data for South Africa unfortunately.

Either way, workers in these two countries clearly work more hours than most of the world.

This may be because they are currently growing economies and history has shown an increase in hours worked followed by a decrease in hours worked after a while.

In my research for their work hours, I found some interesting facts about work culture so here they are:

• South Africa

  • There’s a nuance between saying something will be done “now now” and “just now.” The first means shortly while the second implies a farther future.

  • Unions have been an important part of society in the fight for democracy. Today, a quarter of the population is a member of a labor union.

• Mexico

  • The first 9 hours of overtime must be double the normal pay and anytime above is triple the hourly rate.

  • The typical workweek isn’t 5 days but 6, apparently a residue of fear of unemployment.

  • A bonus known as aguinaldo is paid during the Christmas period. If it is not paid by December 20, the company could pay a penalty of up to 5,000 times the legal daily minimum wage.

Interestingly enough, the legal amount of work hours that South Africa and Mexico worked didn’t feel that much higher than other countries: 45 for South Africa and 48 for Mexico.

The end result, however, shows why it’s important to think long-term. A few extra hours each week add up to a lot in a year!

Knowing this, I can’t help but laugh when I hear the French complaining about the 35-hour workweek being too long!

📜 One quote to ponder

“There is no language for which nothing at all can be done.” -Joshua Fishman, found in this interesting post from Everybody Talks

🌐 One Lesser-Known Language (LKL)

Jeju Language - The Korean language you didn't know existed

Jeju is the island furthest south of South Korea. Often considered an idyllic island, it is a beauty of nature that is also home to the tallest mountain in the country: the active volcano Hallasan.

Despite having spent years learning Korean and gone to the country multiple times, I’ve never found the opportunity to go visit it so I’ve also never looked much at Jeju island…which is why I only recently discovered it had its own language: Jejueo (제주어), also called Jejun-mal (제줏말) by the island’s inhabitants.¹

Jeju used to be known as the Tamna Kingdom (탐라국) and was a separate entity from the rest of Korea. Legend says that the Tamna kingdom was founded after the landing of three gods on the island, around 2340 BCE.

As the Korean kingdoms grew in power, Tamna became a tributary state and was finally officially annexed in 1105 AD and turned into the Jeju province in 1404, under King Taejong of Joseon.

The Jeju language was considered a dialect until very recently. In fact, it wasn’t until the 2010s that the term “Jeju dialect” began being called “Jeju language,” after UNESCO designated it as “critically endangered”, the highest level of language endangerment possible.

Since then the language has been growing again, through efforts of the community, although this still seems too slow to save the language as most speakers are elders.²

The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) has built a collection of audio and video recordings of the Jeju Language being spoken by native speakers.³

Alright, let’s touch a bit more about the grammar.

First, let me insist on how different Jejueo is from Korean. In a 2014 survey, Koreans from outside of the island understood about 10% of what was said.

The Jeju language even has a letter that doesn’t exist in Korean: ㆍ

Yes, you saw right. A dot. It’s a vowel that sounds like “aw”(/ɒ/) and is a Middle Korean phoneme lost in Standard Korean in the 18th century:

• 역ᄉᆞ (yeoksaw) = history

• ᄉᆞᆫ아이 (sawnai) = man

But it doesn’t stop here. Double this dot and you get the sound “yaw”, as in ᄋᆢ라 (yawra) which means “several.”

When it comes to the language’s grammar itself, it follows the same structure as Korean. It’s a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) language that relies on suffixes to indicate purpose and tense. Here are a few, that always need to be followed by a sentence ender.

• -아ᇝ- (-ams-)→ Indicates the present continuous aspect

  • ᄀᆞᆯ개비 ᄎᆞᆽ아ᇝ어 (gawlgaebi chawj-ams-eo) = S/he is looking for the frog.

• -어ᇝ- (-eoms-) → Indicates the past continuous aspect

  • 울어ᇝ저 (ul-eoms-jeo) = S/he was crying.

• -엇- → Past tense

  • 철수 몸 ᄀᆞᆷ앗저 (Cheolsu mom gawm-as-jeo) = Cheolsu washed his body.

• -을- → Future tense

  • 이거 느가 먹을라? (I-geo neu-ga meog-eul-la?) = Will you eat this?

These vary a lot so I’ll touch on this more in the deep dive next week. For now, you can remember that verbs usually have multiple suffixes, each leaving its own impact.

Particles are also added after each part of the sentence to indicate what the part represents (subject, object, etc.). Again, we’ll dive more into this in the deep dive.

To finish, I’ll leave you with a video. If you’ve learned some Korean or watched a few K-dramas in the past, you’ll notice how different it sounds!

---

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Mathias Barra

1. You may remember me mentioning it in week 86, full of wonder!

2. A common problem for all endangered languages, unfortunately.

3. You can register for free to listen in and find videos of elders chatting in the language. A beauty.