Language Videos

Thai. Spoken in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and the surrounding...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:35:49 -0400

Thai. Spoken in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and the surrounding area by around 75 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A really cool video of a polyglot, or person who can speak multiple languages, by the name of Stuart Jay Raj. This man is of Thai and I think Chinese and Australian descent and can speak almost 30 languages. This video is an interview in Thai, as he speaks Thai and lives in Thailand, and is really cool to listen to. Finally a good sample of Thai, and what’s cool is you can hear Thai along with other samples of languages he speaks.

The language is truly amazing and I think I want to learn one of the Kradai languages one day. Hmm.

Let me know what you think!

P.S. - Some more videos of maybe Alexander Argüelles or Richard Simcott, other cool polyglots.

Dutch. Spoken natively in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname,...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:30:00 -0400

Dutch. Spoken natively in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, areas of France and Germany, and additionally in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, bits of Indonesia, and somewhat in South Africa, by around 50 total (22+ native, 27+ non-native). Wow. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

An interesting little broadcast about SMS, looking like it was from the beginning of the text-messaging boom a couple years ago. Kind of cool to listen to. It’s weird that the Dutch accent is much like English (for Americans), as it’s difficult to find another language that uses such non-articulate-ish, very brusque almost, kind of speaking. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe. I mean like not like Spanish or German with rolled “R"s and articulate vowels, etc. Anyway.

I really want to learn Dutch and plan on buying a book called Learn Dutch for English Speakers here at Amazon. I think there’s a cheaper on at my all-time favorite book-finding website, Bookfinder. SO many good rare books that can be searched from all the major sites: Amazon, Alibris, Abebooks, Biblio, etc.

Enjoy Dutch!

Azerbaijani. Spoken in Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:24:34 -0400

Azerbaijani. Spoken in Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and the surrounding area by anywhere from 20-30 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A video about a Democratic Convention (showing Obama and others) in the interesting language of Azerbaijani, or Azeri. This language much resembles Turkish, which was featured here at LanguageVideos. Unfortunately it does not have as many resources, so a good idea to go about learning Azeri is to learn Turkish first, as, e.g., this and this book are amazing, and then learn Azeri using a reader like this (which I got from Indiana University Bloomington, where I want to study, for free! You may have to email for a password here to get in). I plan on doing something similar to that.

Ah, sorry if so confusing. Anyway, Azeri is great and Azerbaijan looks like a really cool place! Enjoy.

Uzbek. Spoken in Uzbekistan and the surrounding area by around...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:14:32 -0400

Uzbek. Spoken in Uzbekistan and the surrounding area by around 20 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

An interesting video special by Voice of America (VOA) on YouTube. Actually relating to our last post on Kyrgyz, this video features a famous Kyrgyz author, Chingiz Aytmatov, but has been prepared for Uzbek speakers. Uzbek is unfortunately kind of lacking resources but that shouldn’t stop anyone from learning this very interesting language! There’s a five-lesson beginning course at I Kinda Like Languages here.

I love Uzbek! Enjoy, Brian

Kyrgyz. Spoken in the former Soviet republic, Kyrgyzstan, by...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:11:18 -0400

Kyrgyz. Spoken in the former Soviet republic, Kyrgyzstan, by around 2-4 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A little video of a Filipino lady, I think descending from Kyrgyzstan, speaking Kyrgyz and singing a little. It was basically the only I could find of just casual speaking in Kyrgyz. I’m actually really interested in this language and have a little blog about Kyrgyzstan here. There’s just something about it; I don’t know. I want to study it at IUB. I just ordered a video and resources on it.

Anyway, enjoy!

Aymara

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:52:00 -0400

Aymara:

(Sorry couldn’t embed without illegal re-upload. Just click on the green banner above for ones like these.)

Aymara. Spoken in Peru, Bolivia and Chile by around 3 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

An interesting video of people speaking Aymara, first one not from YouTube. Found this at a really amazing site for finding classes and resources, the CARLA Center for Less Commonly-Taught Languages here. Their is an amazing database search here for finding classes at universities, summer programs, abroad studies, etc. and it’s updated (link here). Found this video here with their materials. What a helpful site – the Internet is really amazing. Another amazing one I’ve been meaning to mention – UCLA’s Language Material Project that has a ton of searchable resources and descriptions of textbooks, really awesome (here).

Anyway, Aymara. Very cool sounding and unique. Similar to Quechua, a language I’ll be featuring soon. Love Amerindian languages. More videos from CARLA soon.

Yiddish. Spoken in countries all over the world (no specific...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:43:10 -0400

Yiddish. Spoken in countries all over the world (no specific nationality) by around three million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

An interesting video of a man speaking Yiddish and talking about the language and its history and current status. I would like to learn Yiddish. I’m not Jewish and have no affiliation with anything Hebrew/Yiddish/Jewish/Israel-related, but I think Yiddish is interesting. This book and this dictionary look the best; they’re by a very well-related author.

Turkish. Spoken in Turkey and in many other countries by around...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:54:00 -0400

Turkish. Spoken in Turkey and in many other countries by around 70 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A news cast about some kind of event. I really love the sound of Turkish. Am studying it very much lately, using this book and this book. Turkic languages are very interesting and I think it is a good idea to start with Turkish if I want to study other Turkic languages in the future, like Kazakh, Kyrgyz or Uzbek.

Malaysian / Malay / Bahasa Melayu. Spoken in Malaysia by over...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:51:00 -0400

Malaysian / Malay / Bahasa Melayu. Spoken in Malaysia by over 176 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A video of some Malaysian language contest for foreigners or something. Thought it was cool. Enjoy.

Faroese. Spoken in the Faroe Islands (owned by Denmark) by...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:41:00 -0400

Faroese. Spoken in the Faroe Islands (owned by Denmark) by around 60,000-80,000. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A news cast in Faroese, a language related to Icelandic and the other Scandinavian languages. Very interesting sound. I’d like to learn it; found out about it at Alexander Argüelles’ video introduction here. This book seems like a good resource.

Niuean and Cook Islands Maori. Niuean: spoken in Niue in Oceania...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:31:47 -0400

Niuean and Cook Islands Maori. Niuean: spoken in Niue in Oceania by around 8,000 (more at Wikipedia and Omniglot); Cook Islands Maori: spoken in the Cook Islands in Oceania by around 42,000 (more at Wikipedia and Omniglot).

An interesting video, I think from a news feature or something, about two Pacific languages, Niuean and Cook Islands Maori. I am trying to learn Niuean, and I think both languages sound very interesting and it is a shame that they are becoming endangered. Hmm.

Frisian (West). Spoken in Friesland in the Netherlands by around...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:33:17 -0400

Frisian (West). Spoken in Friesland in the Netherlands by around half a million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

Cute little language related to Dutch, spoken in a region in Holland. Actually one of the closest sisters to English (more about its relationship to English in this video by Alexander Argüelles here). Trying to learn it; all I found was this little reference grammar at The Fryske Akademy’s site, as well as this little book which I want very much to learn both Dutch and Frisian. Enjoy!

Mandarin Chinese. Spoken in China by over 1 billion. More at...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:46:26 -0400

Mandarin Chinese. Spoken in China by over 1 billion. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A news cast by a really great source for Chinese language listening, VOAChina on YouTube. I am studying Chinese and truly love it. Enjoy.

Hawaiian. Spoken in Hawaii in the United States by around...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:19:13 -0400

Hawaiian. Spoken in Hawaii in the United States by around 27,000. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

An interesting little video of a lady speaking Hawaiian from the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian language (here). Beautiful language.

Estonian. Spoken in Estonia by around 1.25 million. More at...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:58:00 -0400

Estonian. Spoken in Estonia by around 1.25 million. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

A very informative and interesting video talking about the wonderful country of Estonia. In Estonian with subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, (I think) Czech, Russian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Arabic and Farsi (I think…) and then Korean and Chinese. Very cool.

Inuktitut. Spoken in Canada and the Northern Hemisphere by about...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:39:00 -0400

Inuktitut. Spoken in Canada and the Northern Hemisphere by about 35,000. More at Wikipedia and Omniglot.

First video, very interesting and intriguing language. About Nunavut ancestry at Avataq Cultural Institute (here). Thanks also to Page F30.

About me and my language musings

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:42:00 -0400

My name is Brian, and I’m 13 years old. I live in the United States. I love languages. I really do. Here’s a bit about me.

Over the past two years or so I have become very much interested in languages from all around the world. And I really mean that. I’m not your average language learner just interested in French, Italian, Spanish and things like that. I’m more of an Esperanto, Chinese, Volapük, Turkish and Papiamento person. Yes, I know. (P.S. I <3 you, PageF30.com).

Now, they always ask – “how many languages do you know?”. And I can’t really say that I “know” any just yet as I’m still young and studying. But I must say that I started with Esperanto and love it dearly, and thankfully so that I started this way according to a friendly post at one of my favorite language blogs here at IKindaLikeLanguages.com.

So, yes, I am an Esperantist. But I do love linguistic diversity as you can see in my short list above (with many others there). I don’t want to go on forever about myself, but I will say that I love languages of all types and always appreciate unique features in a language.

I do study Chinese and Latin in classes, as well. Oh, Latin. Hoping to one day study Turkic languages at college as well as Germanic languages (I heart Dutch, Yiddish and Norwegian. That’s why I want to study at IUB for Eurasian and Germanic languages).

I am also interested in conlangs and language-creation, hence the Esperanto and Volapük and then Glosa and some others. Want to create my own language one day.

Post a response with what you think and I’d love to hear from any other language learners with their studies.

Love you, and email me,

Brian

P.S. - I also do other things, lol. I am a passionate vegetarian and have my own blog and podcast (and on iTunes) about that. There’s more about me there. Check out my Kyrgyz-themed blog here too. Love Kyrgyzstan. Tweet me too!

Welcome to Language Videos

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:51:00 -0400

I love languages. And I know many do too.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we can learn languages through many forms of multimedia content. There are so many resources out there, a simply innumerable amount.

So much that it’s hard to find quality content anymore. I know and I’m sure many will agree that one of the best ways to improve language skill is to hear and see the language spoken.

But, I know for me, I study many less-common languages and it’s not everyday that I’ll see a person or a news-station being spoken in, I don’t know, Papiamento or Inuktitut.

No more worries, Language Videos is here. This is for all the language enthusiasts out there who just want to find a sample of their language of study, maybe on YouTube or another site. And who don’t want to spend hours sifting through eight-second clips of bad-quality video of people laughing and saying a phrase (like this or this) or a random video of “Lesson One Phrases” made on Windows Movie Maker (like this). Or even sung, which is very nice to listen to – you still don’t get the same listening experience of the actual language. Not that these are horrible, but.

On this site, you’ll find a (hopefully) helpful resource of different videos in the language tagged. As much as it might be interesting to have videos about languages, this site will focus on just videos of the language being spoken.

I’ll also include some foreigners speaking languages (good-quality videos) as well as many polyglot videos.

I hope you find the site useful and feel free to contact me here by email or Twitter here. Enjoy.

-Brian, age 13, USA.