Getting To Know Me

Nathaniel Worthman  Professor. Dadak Writing 101 28.3.19 Project 3 -         “ Labrīt  моя Сашинка ! Kā tev?” -         “Man iet super labi, ну я не очень хорошо спала un tagad es tikai gribu gūlet.” -         “Man žēl  мой котик !  Dzeriet tēju, ja jūsu galva sāp! -         “ Хорошо ,  буду ! Have a great day today!” -         “Paldies! Es būs, un tevi arī! Čau” -         “Paldies, Čau!” W hile many people are may be familiar with the “Spanglish language,” Many people are not familiar with Krievie šu Valodu (Krievu and Latviešu) . In their defense however, I will add that many people aren’t familiar with the Latvian language nor the nation of Latvia as a whole. I however was lucky enough to live in the Republic of Latvia for six weeks thanks to a critical language exchange programme sponsored completely by the United States Department of State through a programme called NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth.) While I was in Latvia the goal

Nathaniel Worthman Professor. Dadak Writing 101 21.3.19 My new obsession: Türkçe (Turkish!!!) So how did this happen and what does this mean for my love of Latvian? First of all,  Endişelenme (Don’t worry,) Latvian is still safely one of my favorite languages in the world. Because I’m a huge language nerd I’m always searching the internet for the next best song regardless of language and country of origin. In all honesty it’s probably more interesting if it’s in a language I know little to nothing about so I have something I can learn about.  So, who did I become obsessed with Turkish? Well, a friend of mine told me she used to listen to a song in Turkish and was wondering if I knew any Turkish music. Unfortunately, at the time I really didn’t but luckily, she was about to change that for me. The song is called “ Bangır Bangır ” by the artist  Gülşen. (If you haven’t heard the song or are unfamiliar, I suggest this song to get you acquainted my language log will still be h

Nathaniel Worthman Professor. Dadak Writing 101 8.3.19 This week for my language log I want to talk about holidays. Now, I know what you're thinking, “what does this have to do with languages?” “I come to this blog for content on language!” Okay hold your horses it all connects! So what holiday sparked this? Маслиница (Maslinitsa). Маслиница is the Russian version of Mardi Gras. So why is this important? Well, the way we use language demonstrates what a culture values and not just the literal meaning. During Маслиница people all over the Russian speaking world people make блины (bleenee) or Russian pancakes to celebrate this holiday rooted in pagan tradition wherein the pagans believed this was how the should say goodbye to the new year and winter and help the sun return to bring spring.  This is so interesting to because if you speak one language the likelihood of you practicing a language/culture specific holiday increases significantly. Another great example is