Labyrinth of language learning

1. Pleased to meet you. 2. Can I have a coffee please? 3. I wonder if you can tell me where the toilet is. 4. I am looking for carrots. 5. Is this the right stop for the 135 bus? 6. I don't think we have met. My name is Sarah. 7. Sorry, I didn't understand what you just said. 8. Sorry, could you repeat that, please? 9. Is this seat taken? 10. Could you point me in the direction of the post office? 11. Can I get you something to drink?  12. Could you tell me what the time is, please?  13. My name is Sarah and I live in Bury.  14. How much does this cost?  15. Please come in, welcome. 16. This is where you will be staying.  17. If you need it, the toilet is just through there on the left. 17. Do you have a minute? 18. Is this a good time to talk?  19. What would you like to drink?  20. Is this the right place for the job interview? 21. Is there somewhere I can leave my bag?  22. I am here to collect a parcel.  23. Are you ready for your breakfa...

It is now over 2 years since I started to learn Urdu. I have already posted a blog on my initial observations.  As time has progressed, I am slowly becoming more familiar with the language, and, when I improvise a new sentence, some of my "guesses" prove right.  One thing to get used to is that "a" is a marker of the masculine singular (in Indo-European languages I am familiar with, it is a marker of feminine singular), "i" is a marker of feminine gender (singular and plural), and "e" is a marker of the masculine plural.  Urdu verbs seem quite straightforward. In the infinitive, verbs typically end in "na" ("hona" to be, "karna" do to, "sona" to sleep, "sunna" to hear etc.). When conjugating a verb, the root is used with or without an ending, eg "mein kam KARTA hun" means "I am working" where KARTA is the root KAR plus the ending TA to express a habitual present tense.  Vocabul...

Urdu isn't the first foreign language I have taken up. In fact, I think it might be the 16th. About a year and a half ago I moved to Bury, Greater Manchester to work as the pastor of a local Christian church, Radcliffe Road Baptist Church. And a large proportion of the local population have Urdu (and/or Punjabi) as their other language. So I thought I should give it a go. Urdu, like Farsi, is an Indo-European language. That means that it belongs to the same family of language as French, German or Polish. Even though it might seem more distant and less familiar, plenty of words are recognisably the same, such as "naam" (name) or "aat" (eight). Also, the general rules of how the language works seem familiar too.  At the same time, there are plenty of obstacles/challenges: 1. Urdu is written in a version of the Arabic script called "nastaliq". This requires mastery of the Arabic letters (for example ب is "b"), the direction of the script (right-...

Since my last post on this blog possibly over a year ago, I have begun studying another language: Urdu.  On 30 June last year our family moved to Bury, Lancashire, where I now serve as minister of Radcliffe Road Baptist Church . Bury is a Lancashire mill town which is now part of Greater Manchester (Mancehster is about 25 minutes by car or tram). A large proportion of the population of Bury are Urdu/Punjabi speakers. I am keen to reach out to them, and have been learning their language with the help of my neighbour and also at least one another acquaintance I have made.  Urdu, as well as its sister language, Hindi, is part of the large Indo-European language family, and is therefore related to English and other more familiar languages such as German and French. For example the numbers (in Urdu: eek, do, teen) are recognisably similar, and there are many common words such as "naam" (name). Having said that, Urdu is quite challenging to learn, especially now that I am far older...

  I have worked as a translator on and off since completing my masters in 1998.  After an extended period during which my translation work was very part-time, in October 2019 I returned to full-time freelance translating work. For the most part my work involves being sent Word files in a foreign language which I 'overtype' (i.e. replace the foreign language text with my English translation). My languages are German, Italian, Russian and French. My areas of expertise include semi-technical legal texts (such as contracts or court rulings) and texts related to detergents (such as patents or reports), as well as all sorts of commercial texts, advertising anything from spas to interfaces for paid parking. One of my niche jobs is translating coding-relating texts for a major social media company.  As I reflect on my work (and try to improve how I do it), I thought it would be useful to break the process of translating down into the constituent activities it involves. Hopef...

Lots of people across the world are faced with the challenge of learning a foreign language. You might be in your country of origin wanting to learn a language such as English for your work. Or you might have moved to another country and want to make progress with the local language.  But how do you do it? Is there any prospect of making significant progress? Will you ever be able to give that talk or do that job in another language?  Well, almost certainly yes, but it will take time and staying power. Accept that your ambitious goal may take some time to reach, but, as you make progress, every step is worthwhile in and of itself.  What I can offer is some tips to make your learning more effective .  Let me say straightaway: don't bury your head in an old-style textbook or rely on a language tutor to teach you (their job is to assist your learning) - that is not going to deliver the results you need. Nor is using Duolingo, on its own, although that is...