Hi guys!
Long time no see. Hope all is well.
Quick video about a cool place I found!
The other week my sister, mom and I decided to..."be sick"...on a Wednesday and head into NYC for a matinée presentation of The Lion King on Broadway. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING, you guys have to see it!
But that's besides the point...
It started raining so we ducked in a building, only to look inside and find a 3-story bookstore filled with everything Japan-related you could think of!
Books, grammars, travel books, novels *in* Japanese, stationery, magazines, etc.
Too cool!
It's called Kinokuniya, and their main location in New York City is pretty impressive. Here's the site:
http://kinokuniya.com
I picked up some pretty cool grammar books and charts, and also a book on North Korean art.
Here they are:
- Japanese Fundamentals chart by Mebane Boyd (here at Amazon)
- Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar book by Rita Lampkin (here at Amazon)
- Essential Japanese Grammar book by Everett Bleiler (here at Amazon)
- Art Under Control in North Korea book by Jane Portal (here at Amazon)
Check 'em out in the video, and remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Love ya!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Resources for Learning North Korean Dialect - North Korean vs. South Korean - #11
Hello everyone!
Quick update video today with some cool new resources I found recently while learning about North Korea (DPRK) and its language and culture.
I have always been fascinated about Korean and had never really taken the step forward to dive into its grammar and intricacies. Not sure how much I'll learn but it's very cool!
However, being someone who loves lesser-common languages, I wanted to have a niche for my learning so I decided to focus on the dialect spoken in North Korea.
There's not much out there on this language or country itself, and the mysteriousness of it all really attracted me...
I want to learn how these people work and how their government operates, so I can help advocate for their safety and rights perhaps in the future as a diplomat.
Anyway, however I may use this, North Korea is an interesting place and I encourage anyone to check out some documentaries on YouTube to learn more before you judge.
When I decided this I had no idea how difficult it would be to find resources specifically geared towards this country! I did, however, find a few and I wanted to share them with you on this video.
A couple links explained in the video:
"Learn Korean on Your Own" CD by KCC Multimedia out of DPRK @ eBay here
"Learn Korean on Your Own" book one, currently unavailable but here @ Amazon
North Korea Books, an online emporium of material relating to North Korea (the guy who runs it is really nice, I emailed him about my interest and he provided me with some helpful tips)
Anyway, here we go with the video!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe.
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Quick update video today with some cool new resources I found recently while learning about North Korea (DPRK) and its language and culture.
I have always been fascinated about Korean and had never really taken the step forward to dive into its grammar and intricacies. Not sure how much I'll learn but it's very cool!
However, being someone who loves lesser-common languages, I wanted to have a niche for my learning so I decided to focus on the dialect spoken in North Korea.
There's not much out there on this language or country itself, and the mysteriousness of it all really attracted me...
I want to learn how these people work and how their government operates, so I can help advocate for their safety and rights perhaps in the future as a diplomat.
Anyway, however I may use this, North Korea is an interesting place and I encourage anyone to check out some documentaries on YouTube to learn more before you judge.
When I decided this I had no idea how difficult it would be to find resources specifically geared towards this country! I did, however, find a few and I wanted to share them with you on this video.
A couple links explained in the video:
"Learn Korean on Your Own" CD by KCC Multimedia out of DPRK @ eBay here
"Learn Korean on Your Own" book one, currently unavailable but here @ Amazon
North Korea Books, an online emporium of material relating to North Korea (the guy who runs it is really nice, I emailed him about my interest and he provided me with some helpful tips)
Anyway, here we go with the video!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe.
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Rosetta Stone for Navajo, Mandarin Chinese Grammar, Pacific Languages - Language Holiday Gifts! - #10
Hello my friends!
Wishing everyone a joyful holiday and new year!
Wanted to make a quick video about three cool language-related Christmas gifts I received this year.
One is the lovely Rosetta Stone...for Navajo! Yes, the Navajo Language Renaissance organization (their site is here) received a grant from Rosetta Stone to help revitalize the language and create their own version of this popular immersion software.
Too fun! Check out my opinion of the Rosetta Stone environment in the video.
Second was Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar by Claudia Ross and Jing-heng Sheng Ma. Needed a nice reference grammar for Chinese (my focus language, check out a lolzy video of me speaking it here), and I think this should do the trick.
Last but not least was a really cool introduction to the languages of the Pacific, suitably named Pacific Languages: An Introduction by John Lynch. Definitely the best resource for the amazing and understudied languages of the beautiful islands.
Enjoy the video!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Wishing everyone a joyful holiday and new year!
Wanted to make a quick video about three cool language-related Christmas gifts I received this year.
One is the lovely Rosetta Stone...for Navajo! Yes, the Navajo Language Renaissance organization (their site is here) received a grant from Rosetta Stone to help revitalize the language and create their own version of this popular immersion software.
Too fun! Check out my opinion of the Rosetta Stone environment in the video.
Second was Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar by Claudia Ross and Jing-heng Sheng Ma. Needed a nice reference grammar for Chinese (my focus language, check out a lolzy video of me speaking it here), and I think this should do the trick.
Last but not least was a really cool introduction to the languages of the Pacific, suitably named Pacific Languages: An Introduction by John Lynch. Definitely the best resource for the amazing and understudied languages of the beautiful islands.
Enjoy the video!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Papiamentu Language Books, Curaçao Bookstore, Travel and More - #9
Hi guys!
I'm back with a random little vloggish video about a couple of things — sort of tying up loose ends.
So, this spring break I had the opportunity to travel to Curaçao, in the Caribbean ABC Islands. It was a lovely trip; the island and its beaches, towns, and other attractions are beautiful.
The language that is spoken in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and others), or the now-diffused Netherlands Antilles, is Papiamentu (also spelled Papiamento in Aruba).
Papiamentu is a cute little creole, spoken by the around 330,000 in the region, based on Romance languages and the English and Dutch influence on the history of the islands. (More at Wikipedia and more at Omniglot)
So anyway, I had become interested in this not-widely-known-but-very-cool language about 3 years ago (as I do...), and had always thought it would be cool to learn it, let alone go to Curaçao.
When I found out earlier that our family had decided on Curaçao as a destination, I was so thrilled and did kind of a crash course on Papiamentu using the Papiamentu Textbook by E. R. Goilo (here and here on Amazon) that I had purchased awhile back.
I also started a blog called iPapiamentu, which I began to write in eagerly up until and through the majority of my trip to Curaçao.
However, as fun Internet projects often do, the blog kind of died down and I never got to do my close-up post on the trip, or the post on the books I had purchased while there.
Long story short, I really wanted to kind of bring my blog back to life, and also talk about the lovely language books I got at the bookstore, so I figured it would be awesome to make a vid here at Brian on Language.
By the way, I was inspired by R. K. Harrison of Papiamentu-Tur-Dia to not only make the blog, but to make this video tonight, from the comment sent to me.
Hope you guys enjoy it; I know it's long, but, I do a little review on the books :D! Fun, right?
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
P.S. - Again, shout out to R. K. Harrison for the comment and for reading my blog before! You're awesome!
P.P.S. - I'm posting this vid down at iPapiamentu! Be sure to check it out! Thanks guys.
I'm back with a random little vloggish video about a couple of things — sort of tying up loose ends.
So, this spring break I had the opportunity to travel to Curaçao, in the Caribbean ABC Islands. It was a lovely trip; the island and its beaches, towns, and other attractions are beautiful.
The language that is spoken in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and others), or the now-diffused Netherlands Antilles, is Papiamentu (also spelled Papiamento in Aruba).
Papiamentu is a cute little creole, spoken by the around 330,000 in the region, based on Romance languages and the English and Dutch influence on the history of the islands. (More at Wikipedia and more at Omniglot)
So anyway, I had become interested in this not-widely-known-but-very-cool language about 3 years ago (as I do...), and had always thought it would be cool to learn it, let alone go to Curaçao.
When I found out earlier that our family had decided on Curaçao as a destination, I was so thrilled and did kind of a crash course on Papiamentu using the Papiamentu Textbook by E. R. Goilo (here and here on Amazon) that I had purchased awhile back.
I also started a blog called iPapiamentu, which I began to write in eagerly up until and through the majority of my trip to Curaçao.
However, as fun Internet projects often do, the blog kind of died down and I never got to do my close-up post on the trip, or the post on the books I had purchased while there.
Long story short, I really wanted to kind of bring my blog back to life, and also talk about the lovely language books I got at the bookstore, so I figured it would be awesome to make a vid here at Brian on Language.
By the way, I was inspired by R. K. Harrison of Papiamentu-Tur-Dia to not only make the blog, but to make this video tonight, from the comment sent to me.
Hope you guys enjoy it; I know it's long, but, I do a little review on the books :D! Fun, right?
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
P.S. - Again, shout out to R. K. Harrison for the comment and for reading my blog before! You're awesome!
P.P.S. - I'm posting this vid down at iPapiamentu! Be sure to check it out! Thanks guys.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Review - Kiribati (Gilbertese) Peace Corps Language Handbooks by Steven Trussel - #8
Hi guys! Back, sorry for the long delay. Thanks to all new subscribers and readers.
Today I have some exciting new library books to share.
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to access these hard-to-find Peace Corps Language Handbooks for the Kiribati (Gilbertese) language.
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribahss) is a cute little island nation in the center of the Pacific Ocean comprised of atolls and a coral island.
Their language, spoken by around 100,000 people, is of the Nuclear Micronesian branch, and is VSO.
(More at Wikipedia and Omniglot)
In this video I share about how I was able to loan these handbooks via the Interlibrary Loan of a local university. A reminder to anyone involved in an academic institution to really take advantage of the library access you have.
Usually I would put a link to buy these, but they really can't be purchased.
Instead, here is the website of the author Steven Trussel, who has the Grammar and Communication handbooks up to view online free.
The site also has a ton of great info on Kiribati and other topics as well (including Nauru).
Shout out and thank you to Steven Trussel for his work with Kiribati and for the insight over email! :)
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link.
Sorry that this video is a bit odd. I recorded it kind of split-up and was a little out of it...haha, enjoy!
Today I have some exciting new library books to share.
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to access these hard-to-find Peace Corps Language Handbooks for the Kiribati (Gilbertese) language.
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribahss) is a cute little island nation in the center of the Pacific Ocean comprised of atolls and a coral island.
Their language, spoken by around 100,000 people, is of the Nuclear Micronesian branch, and is VSO.
(More at Wikipedia and Omniglot)
In this video I share about how I was able to loan these handbooks via the Interlibrary Loan of a local university. A reminder to anyone involved in an academic institution to really take advantage of the library access you have.
Usually I would put a link to buy these, but they really can't be purchased.
Instead, here is the website of the author Steven Trussel, who has the Grammar and Communication handbooks up to view online free.
The site also has a ton of great info on Kiribati and other topics as well (including Nauru).
Shout out and thank you to Steven Trussel for his work with Kiribati and for the insight over email! :)
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link.
Sorry that this video is a bit odd. I recorded it kind of split-up and was a little out of it...haha, enjoy!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
第一个中文视频！ First Chinese vlog practice thing - #7
Hey guys,
I'm back! Had a nice little vacation and now back onto the routine. School soon!
Anyway, decided to something different in making a video, so I made my first Chinese vlog!
It's kind of bad I have to say; I was very nervous when making it. But here it is! Gotta start somewhere.
Hope to make more soon and also continue with language books.
Any requests for videos? Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
I'm back! Had a nice little vacation and now back onto the routine. School soon!
Anyway, decided to something different in making a video, so I made my first Chinese vlog!
It's kind of bad I have to say; I was very nervous when making it. But here it is! Gotta start somewhere.
Hope to make more soon and also continue with language books.
Any requests for videos? Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Review - Basic Chinese Grammar and Sentence Patterns by A. D. Syrokomla-Stefanowska & Mabel Lee - #6
Hi guys,
Back with another review for ya' tonight. Another Chinese book came in the mail, so we're back to C (check out Intermediate Chinese and Learn Dutch for English Speakers too!).
A little bit tired in this one, sorry -- I hope I don't go in circles too much. The content's there though. I have to say this is a nice review manual book and kind of fun/something different.
By the way, I wanted to let you guys know that I'll be away for a week so may not be able to do language resource reviews; I might do a vlog or two, though, who knows.
Thank you to all of my new subscribers and YouTube friends! If any of you are reading this blog please leave a comment :)
Enjoy this review!
Chinese is spoken by around 1.3 billion China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and communities around the world.
(More at Wikipedia and more at Omniglot)
This video is an overlook of A. D. Syrokomla-Stefanowska and Mabel Lee's Basic Chinese Grammar and Sentence Patterns.
Check it out on Amazon here or search it on Bookfinder here.
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
Back with another review for ya' tonight. Another Chinese book came in the mail, so we're back to C (check out Intermediate Chinese and Learn Dutch for English Speakers too!).
A little bit tired in this one, sorry -- I hope I don't go in circles too much. The content's there though. I have to say this is a nice review manual book and kind of fun/something different.
By the way, I wanted to let you guys know that I'll be away for a week so may not be able to do language resource reviews; I might do a vlog or two, though, who knows.
Thank you to all of my new subscribers and YouTube friends! If any of you are reading this blog please leave a comment :)
Enjoy this review!
Chinese is spoken by around 1.3 billion China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and communities around the world.
(More at Wikipedia and more at Omniglot)
This video is an overlook of A. D. Syrokomla-Stefanowska and Mabel Lee's Basic Chinese Grammar and Sentence Patterns.
Check it out on Amazon here or search it on Bookfinder here.
Remember to comment, rate and subscribe!
Feel free to email me here as always.
Below is the video or you can watch it at this link. Enjoy!
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