Category: All Levels

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Try Learning Estonian!

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, and is spoken by about 1 million people. It is a Uralic, Finnic language, but borrows many words from German and Russian, so the vocabulary might not be as daunting as it would seem if you’ve studied or speak other Indo-European languages. There are many dialects, but the two main groupings are the northern dialects, associated with the city of Tallinn (left), and the southern dialects, associated with Tartu (right). Standard Estonian is based on the one in Tallinn, so that’s probably what you’ll find in most language programs for it.

If you want to give it a try, the Estonian government started a language program called Keeleklik where you can take courses for free in Estonian. Aside from that, one of my favorite ways to practice language is watching cartoons.

On Youtube, you can find many Estonian cartoons from the 1970s made by Tallinn Film Studio, or Tallinnfilm, such as this one. These are fun to watch, and the Estonian is simple and slow, so you can try and keep up!

There’s also loecsen, which has lessons on basic phrases for traveling to Estonia, along with other languages you might want to learn.

 

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LanguageTool

LanguageTool is a web-based grammar tool, useful for correcting texts in many languages or for checking your spelling. 

LanguageTool supports a large number of languages, including many not offered at Reed. These include: Asturian, Belarusian, Breton, Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, French, Galician, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Perrsian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Ukranian.

LanguageTool is much more powerful than its competitors BonPatron and Reverso, allowing 20,000 characters (about 2,500 words). It also allows for correction of different dialects/regions, e.g., Swiss and Austrian German, or Brazilian vs Portugal Portuguese.

Grammatical explanations are only in the language, for example French or German. LanguageTool also has a useful Google Chrome extension and a Google Docs add-on, which allow the user to correct text while typing online or in a Doc, as well as an add-on for Microsoft Word.

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Media Recommendation: “Sommers Weltliteratur to go”

“Sommers Weltliteratur to go” (Sommer’s World Literature to go) is a German YouTube channel made by Michael Somme, and originally presented by Reclam (those little yellow books every German student knows and loves). Each episode summarises a literary work, from the German classics like Faust and Parzival to modern literature like Der Hobbit and Harry Potter.

The fun twist is that Sommer presents these works in vignette form, using Playmobil figures…

The episodes are fairly short, normally between 6 and 12 minutes, and are a great way to brush up on your knowledge of German literature (and other classics), while also practicing your listening skills.

The language in the episodes isn’t too complicated, but it is sometimes spoken a little fast. I’d recommend starting with some books you’re already familiar with. Start with something like Der Herr der Ringe (The Lord of the Rings) or Der große Gatsby (The Great Gatsby) before moving on to Goethe, Brecht, and Kafka!

 

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Russian Film Database: Mosfilm

 Мосфильм (Mosfilm, https://www.mosfilm.ru/main.php)

Mosfilm is one of the largest and oldest film studios in Europe. The studio was established in 1923, and by the end of the Soviet Union had produced over 3,000 films. They’ve put many of them up on this website, including works by Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, or even adaptations of books you might read in literature classes, like Anna Karenina or War and Peace. Aside from the large variety of types of films, they also have pictures of old posters, sets, costumes, and cars that you can sort through. This website is great if you want to watch films of varying topic or Russian-language difficulty, and also good for learning about Soviet culture and Russian film culture.

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Die Heute Show: German Late Night TV

Based on shows like The Daily Show and The Tonight Show, the heute-show is a satirical late-night program presented by Oliver Welke.

The heute-show presents the news in a comedic way, often tying in interviews, skits, and a whole lot of sarcasm. Episodes are shown Friday nights, and you can either watch live on their website, or find clips on their YouTube channel.

The language level is intermediate/advanced, since it requires understanding of the subject and its humor, but the visuals are helpful for understanding the materials provided. The heute-show also often covers American stories.

 

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An Introduction to Russian News Sources

Since it is sometimes hard to find unbiased news sources, the Russian media can be hard to navigate. Here are just a few suggestions when trying to learn about the various facets of Russian media and culture.

Russia Today

https://www.rt.com/

This is a state-funded news outlet that is understood as the point-of-view from the Kremlin. It’s always interesting to learn what kind of thoughts the Kremlin wants to support, and since they cater to an international audience, they have a great Russian learning page that has lots of grammar, vocabulary, and speaking exercises.

Медиязона (MediaZona)

https://zona.media/

Pretty much the exact opposite of Russia Today, Медиязона was founded by two members from the group Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. They cover political stories, such as those about law enforcement and judicial news. This is a good way to find out about the few opposition media outlets, and what they are focusing on today.


The Moscow Times

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/

This is an English-Language, Moscow-based online newspaper. They are independent, and cover stories about pretty much anything. If you just want a more familiar outlet that still discusses current events in Russia from a local perspective, this is a good one to start with.

Of course there are many more Russian news sources to choose from. These are just a few very different ones that might get you started!

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Need help with verbs? Try Cooljugator!

Cooljugator (https://cooljugator.com/ru) is a verb conjugation app for many languages, including Russian! This is great for a refresher on how to conjugate verbs you already know, or if you run into a new type of verb that you’re not sure about. Because it’s just for verbs, you don’t have to sort through a dictionary entry to find this part of the word. It’s quick and easy!

It shows a grid, for which you can change the settings, and it does this for the future, present, and past tense forms of verbs.

It also gives example sentences for context, along with English translations.

The website even provides trickier parts of Russian verbs such as participles and the aspect pair!

 

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Media Suggestion: La Cinémathèque française

 

The website of the Cinémathèque française, a large film institute and museum in Paris, contains a number of valuable resources for students wanting to learn more about French and French culture. The museum provides a large selection of online resources, including videos, articles, and image archives of both French and international films. Check out the “Découvrir” tab to access interviews with French directors, photo archives of past exhibits, articles on French films and actors, and excerpts from films and film festivals. The resources are easily searchable and have simple categorisation. Recommended for anyone interested in French cinema, improving listening ability, or doing research on film.

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“Einschlafen Podcast” – A German Podcast to Help You Fall Asleep

Subliminal learning, the idea that you can learn a new language just by listening to an audiobook while sleeping, is probably a myth at best. However, there is some evidence that you can gain, or at least reinforce, new vocabulary by listening to something in a foreign language while asleep.

Even if subliminal learning isn’t effective, that doesn’t mean that listening to podcasts in bed isn’t a good idea! My recommendation for this week is the “Einschlafen Podcast,” which is available on Spotify, on its website, on YouTube, and on iTunes.

“Einschlafen Podcast” (German for “Falling Asleep”) is an excellent German podcast, featuring the relaxing voice of Toby Baier. Each week, Toby starts out by talking about the news, his recent life, and any other random facts, and then eventually starts reading excerpts from books in a calming, slow voice. The books range from Alice im Wunderland to Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft.

The point of “Einschlafen Podcast” is to fall asleep. For those trying to learn German, this is a great way to increase your daily input, simply by falling asleep. Although “passive learning” is still fairly controversial, I feel like I’ve benefitted from listening to a little extra German every day, especially in listening comprehension.