7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 97
Reading tips, Good advice gone wrong, Giving up, Christmas traditions, and the Piedmontese language!
Hey language lovers,
I hope you all had a lovely week!
Updates
Mine felt so short I don’t really remember actually doing much.
And yet, I went to visit my best friend in the Champagne region (and drank loads of champagne as that’s his field), and I did more of the usual: reading webtoons in Korean and German, playing video games in Korean and German, and dabbled in a few other languages.
One of those was the Jeju language as I was reviewing and modifying some parts for the deep dive piece I just published yesterday for paid subscribers.
It was a tough one because I really wanted it to be as complete as possible, covering the entire history of the Jeju island and its language’s construction, filled with examples.
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
How to Make Time for Language Learning with a Full-Time Job — By Izzy Sealey
I binge-watched Izzy’s videos since I discovered her channel a few weeks back. Not only do I absolutely love her accent, but her content is also on-point!
I got scared when she mentioned “learning styles”1 but she was talking about figuring out whether we’re night owls, early birds, etc. (which is indeed a good factor to take into account if your job allows it!)
The rest of her pieces of advice are even more
FYI: She’s got loads of content specifically about learning Chinese. I’d recommend this video if that’s your case too!
📚 One article I read
Learning a Language by Reading Books: 5 Super Strategies — FluentU blog
I mean, the title says it all, doesn’t it?
This useful article gives 5, indeed, useful strategies but beware of the first one.
As the writer mentions, children’s books do use simpler sentence structures which is great for new language learners but the vocabulary isn’t always as straightforward.
For example, the famously recommended book “The Little Prince” is filled with words most adults don’t need like “caterpillar,” “fox,” or the now defunct job of “lamplighter.”2
Still, the other strategies rock!
✍🏽 One article I wrote
3 Perfectly Fine Reasons for You to Quit Learning Languages
I wish everybody was learning foreign languages and loving it. Unfortunately, I also know this isn’t possible. Everybody’s different.
I’ve seen many people give up on a language and feel awful for it. Hell, even those who give up one language for another feel somewhat bad for doing it. I know I did.
And that’s exactly why I wrote this piece. So you can be a bit kinder to yourself if you ever want to give up. And, who knows, reading about it might make you want to continue instead? 😉
🎧 One podcast episode
Episode 28: Good Advice Gone Wrong, Round 2 — Love, Joy, and Languages
Heidi made a great point in this episode. I mean it. It’s one I’ve felt but subconsciously tried to ignore.
Doing things we like in our target language isn’t always a good choice.
As she explains, switching things we love doing in our native language to using the target language may not fit well if we’re not at the right level. It may even get us disgusted by said thing.
This is why, while still being a good piece of advice, it’s important to set some limitations, to adapt what we do accordingly.
It reminded me of how frustrating it was to try to exercise with videos in Thai as a beginner in May! It gives me chills just thinking back about it.😬
🌎 One cultural aspect to discover
Christmas Traditions in North East Asia
I’ve been holding onto this since I began writing about cultural differences last January. Christmas traditions is a topic I love because it takes countless faces depending on where you live.
To kick this off, we’re talking about where I lived for over 5 years: Japan.
While not a Christian country, Christmas celebrations have grown to become part of the Japanese culture. And while the West associates Christmas meals with turkey and cake above all, Japanese people turn to… KFC!
Yes, you read right.
You must reserve weeks in advance if you wish to eat KFC on Christmas day. Why? Well, this dates back to a successful campaign in the 1970s. So successful, in fact, that it’s still growing despite already getting 10 times more customers than normal every year!
Across the East sea, South Koreans celebrate Christmas in a quite similar fashion to Christian countries3 of the west. One interesting change, however, is the colors attached to Santa, also known as Santa Harabeoji (산타 할아버지, literally "Santa Grandpa"). Indeed, instead of the famous red and white attire, Santa Harabeoji often a traditional blue or green robe and a historic flat-topped hat known as a gat, which was worn during the Joseon Dynasty.
This tradition is, unfortunately, slowly getting overtaken by the western version.
Food-wise, Christmas in Korea is a family celebration around bulgogi, sweet potato noodles, and (of course) kimchi. The dessert usually is a steamed rice cake decorated with fruits known as baekseolgi (백설기).
In China and Taiwan, Santa is called 聖誕老人 (圣诞老人, shèngdànlǎorén, “Christmas Old man”).
Nothing much else from the commercial aspect and decorations is found in Taiwan but China has embraced the Christmas spirit in its own form. Indeed, Santa is often found holding a saxophone (a “western” instrument apparently) and followed by his sisters instead of elves.
When it comes to gifts, China has a uniquely fun tradition of giving apples wrapped in gift paper. Why? It is said to be because the words for apple (píngguǒ 苹果) and Christmas Eve (Píng'ān Yè, 平安夜) sound similar!
One final interesting aspect is the existence of a Christmas town in the most northern city of China, Mohe! You can find snow structures, Santa’s home, and many other Christmas-themed aspects each December!
📜 One quote to ponder
“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.” —Kofi Annan
🌐 One Lesser-Known Language (LKL)
Piemontèis - A language fighting to get proper recognition in Italy
I spent most of my life believing Piedmont was a French region and that Piedmontese was just one more French dialect. It was only earlier this year when my brother went there that I realized it wasn't. It’s another part of the Alps close to where I used to go but on the other side of the border.
The moment I heard this, Piemontèis became a lot more interesting to me. It was a way to get some exposure to a different place's culture and language while digging into a specific region. And I was right. I got to learn more about truffles—the region's specialty—, boats, its wines, and the hot springs present deep in the mountains.
I also learned about a bunch of other languages and dialects of Italy through videos like this one and this one. In fact, hearing that Sicilian is considered by some linguists as the earliest evolution of Latin almost made me switch to that language but I figured I could just dig into it in 2023.
The Piedmont area borders France and Switzerland, which means it got some influences from French, Occitan, Catalan, and German but, of course, its largest influence was Italian and the surrounding other minority languages like Lombardese and Ligurian.
Piemontèis is a language spoken by about one or two million of the 4.7 million inhabitants of the Piedmont region. Some Italian piece states there are 1.5 million who speak the language and 1.5 million who understand it, but I haven’t found proof of this.
It’s a language UNESCO classified as “Definitely Endangered,” the first of the “Endangered” categories. Right above “Vulnerable” and before “Severely Endangered.”
Efforts are made by some people to save the language, like this YouTuber putting some introductory videos about the language but efforts from the province and government will be needed for true results. Unfortunately, Italy only recognizes Piemontèis as a dialect so no real support is provided.4
Alright, let's get nerdy.
Piemontèis is a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language, like all Romance languages. Despite "sounding" closer to Italian, I found that more words in this list comparing Piedmontese, French, and Italian were closer to their French equivalent than the Italian one. This false perception might be due to the conjugation in Piemontèis seeming quite close to the Italian one and the intonation seems to stay close to it too.
The language's grammar is also quite similar to Italian in that it doesn't require a pronoun before the verb (while French does require one5)
One curious aspect of Piedmonteis' grammar is that the present requires a particle before the verb itself. This particle is i for the first person singular and plural, as well as the second person plural, but it is it for the second person singular. Finally it changes to a for the third person (singular or plural). This is particular to Piedmontese as it doesn’t exist in surrounding languages:
A parlo → They speak
A parlerà → He/She will speak
A l'han parlà → They spoke
Piemontèis also doesn’t use ordinal numbers (ie. “fourth”…) past 7. From there on, they say “Col che a fà XX.” This translates to “That which makes XX.” For example,
Col che a fà des → Tenth
Like French and Italian, Piedmontese is a gendered language. Genders are usually the same in Piedmontese and Italian but, while the latter often ends male nouns with -o, Piedmontese gets rid of said -o:
A Sense → Italian: senso | Piedmontèis: Sens
The negation is expressed with the word “nen” or “pà” added after the verb:
I son pà fòl → I am not stupid
Lor a bèivo nen → They do not drink.
Piedmontese also has feminine nouns of Greek origin but these are unvariable, such as anàlisi which means “analysis.”
If you wish to learn Piedmontese, knowing Italian will open many doors to you as the best free resources are in it, such as this website all about Piemontèis, this grammar free online book, or this free online course. You can also find a list of resources in French or Italian on the Lexilogos website.
For English speakers, the only resource seems to be this website, although the Piedmontese Reddit might give you more information.
Finally, here are a few sentences to give you a feeling for the language:
I l'hai durmì → I have slept.
A l'ha fiocà tuta la neuit → It has snowed all the night.
Ti it i andras → You will go there
Cos l'has-to fàit? → What have you done?
Chièl a-i é nen → He isn’t there.
Bondì → Good day (polite “Hello”)
If you want some peculiar expressions, check these 5 ones!
Well then,
Ciao! Arvëdse! (Bye! See you again!)
Thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
Since, you know, they don’t exist.
I bought a bilingual version in Korean when I started learning the language and had to stop reading because it killed my motivation.
Korea is the most Christian country in Asia.
Despite the Council of Europe and UNESCO recognizing the Piedmontese as a language and not a dialect.
For example, "I take" is "je prends" in French and requires the pronoun while the Italian version is "'(io) prendo" and the Piedmonteis one is "(mi) i pijo", both capable of skipping the pronoun.