learning Kyrgyz

Downloadable textbooks

2005-10-26T19:29:00.000+06:00

The Books section has been updated today. The updates include links to two Kyrgyz textbooks that can be downloaded from the ERIC website.

Downloadable textbooks are wonderful news. However, Kato Lomb, whose book I am now reading, proves that languages can be learned with very few resources at hand.

By the way, I am halfway through Lomb's book on language learning. I will share my impressions in the next post.

Language policy

2005-10-25T11:19:00.000+06:00

Here is a recent post from the Golden Road to Samarquand blog on language policy in Kyrgyzstan. Reflecting on other Central Asian countries the author writes that "Kazakhstan seems to be rather unconcerned about the switch [to the Kazakh language]". Although I no longer live there, my impression is that the Kazakh language is quite high on the agenda in the neighboring republic. All official paperwork is soon to be done in Kazakh only, television and radio programs in Kazakh abound, and efforts to encourage people to learn the language are underway.

The good thing is that, unlike in Kyrgyzstan, people wishing to learn the language now have plenty of resources at their disposal. I am not trying to idealize the situation—apparently, there are many downsides to the promotion of the official language—but some of the developments are good indeed.

On a different note, we are in the news again. Some locals call it the post-March syndrome, referring to the events of March 24 this year. It looks like a new tradition: if you don't agree with something, get a couple of hundred of supporters and set up yurts in front of some government building.

Meanwhile, I'm still fighting the bad cold that I got nearly two weeks ago. I had to put in a day of simultaneous interpreting last week, which only made things worse. So I'm staying home, meaning more time to study Kyrgyz, right? :)

Children's Bible and a new online dictionary

2005-10-20T19:59:00.000+06:00

On some days I see people selling used books on Sovetskaya right by the intersection with Kievskaya. Something caught my eye as I was passing them by this afternoon. It was a copy of a Children's Bible, just like the one I have in Russian. But this one was in Kyrgyz! I grabbed it as soon as I saw it, paying only 70 soms ($1.75) for the almost new book.

Since these Bible stories are already familiar to me, I can guess many of the Kyrgyz words without looking them up in the dictionary. The language is very simple, and with colorful illustrations on every other page, I'm in for some very enjoyable reading. The title of the book is "Сүрөттөргө келтирилген Библия". It was published in 1995 by the Institute for Bible Translation in Stockholm. I think the Kyrgyz branch of the Bible Society may have some copies in stock.

Ыйса is the Kyrgyz word for Jesus.

"Мына ошентип, бардыгында адамдар, силерге кандай мамиле кылуусун тилесеңер, силер да аларга ошондой мамиле кылгыла."
This is the Golden Rule as found in Matthew 7:12

My other Kyrgyz language activities of today include the online English-Kyrgyz Dictionary. It is based on Gunnemark's Minilex, which is a fancy word for a collection of basic and, arguably, most useful words in a language. The online dictionary is still far from being complete and, as with all KyrgyzWiki projects, contributions are welcome.

Kyrgyz Language from Alex Lugovskoy

2005-10-19T21:17:00.000+06:00

I am still doing my reading on Kato Lomb. I have downloaded her book in Russian translation ("Как я изучаю языки"), which I want to read before I write my overview of Lomb's methods.

Meanwhile, here is an interesting site I have just discovered. It is called "Киргизский язык от Алекса Луговского", so unfortunately it will be of little use to those of you who don't read Russian.

As I'm browsing this site I am simply overwhelmed by all the information contained there. In addition to extensive background information on the Kyrgyz language, it contains a reference grammar and several online Kyrgyz lessons.

In the introduction, after some laments on the absence of good resources for the study of Kyrgyz, the author writes that he is planning to create an online Kyrgyz course without the shortcomings of the textbooks available to date.

What makes this project even more unusual is the fact that the author is neither Kyrgyz nor a resident of Kyrgyzstan.

Hopefully this much-needed course will grow beyond the two lessons that are currently online.

Self-directed learning

2005-10-18T13:02:00.000+06:00

While reading about Ms. Lomb I learned about autodidacticism. Basically meaning self-directed learning, this concept appeals to me very much. I have never really liked the idea of traditional education; I simply do not see it as the most effective form of learning.

Back in ninth grade, after much back-and-forth between my parents and myself, I was allowed to stay home for a semester and study on my own. I don't feel that I've made the most of that period, but it has been an exhilarating experience in many ways.

I did not have any formal training in what I now do for a living—translation—until this year. And the advanced interpreting class that I took at the university this spring has only reinforced my conviction that self-directed reading and hands-on experience are much more effective in teaching me about my trade. Although maybe if this course was taught at MIIS and not at the local liberal arts college I wouldn't be saying this. :)

No wonder I've been going on and on about passion for learning. No wonder my learning efforts have been largely solitary. Perhaps readers of a more conventional bent will find my ideas useless. I won't be trying to convince anyone to take the autodidactic path, but my posts will likely be slanted toward this approach for it is central to my learning experience.

Learning a foreign language

2005-10-18T12:19:00.000+06:00

There is a multitude of articles on learning a foreign language out there in cyberspace. Most of these, like 10 Tips for Language Learning Success offer common-sense advice, most of which is applicable to learning in general (e.g. set realistic expectations, identify your learning style, etc.).

Language acquisition is thus often approached from the standpoint of regular, consistent study and memorization. There is nothing wrong with this. However, I have always felt there are more effective and enjoyable ways to learn a language.

I spent much time in early 2004 reading about less traditional language acquisition methods and techniques. I also applied many of them to my study of the foreign language I was attempting to learn at that time. Some of these techniques seemed quite bizarre (Suggestopedia and subliminal learning among them). Some methods I have used all along without giving much thought to them.

For example, when learning French pronunciation in high school I never gave much thought to the rules scrupulously outlined in my textbook. Instead I listened to texts read out loud and followed them in printed form. I noticed patterns and let the rules form themselves in my head without much memorization. It was easy, it was fun, and it was very much intuitive.

I also noticed that once you become passionate about a language (even obsessed with it) many obstacles commonly faced by language learners miraculously disappear. Language learning is not much different from any other human endeavor—love for an activity creates effortless commitment and commitment to learning is what we need most, don't we?

I can relate to much of what Kató Lomb says about language acquisition. Lomb, who was one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, has mastered many languages—some of them when she was well past middle age. Now that I think of it, she could serve as a good role model for me. Guess who my next entry in this blog will be about?

On tea and languages

2005-10-16T17:33:00.000+06:00

Kyrgyzstan is converting me into a tea-drinker. I've never been too fond of tea. For me the only acceptable form of tea used to be the 'Christmas' variety with spices like cinnamon and cloves and dried orange rind. This was to be consumed during long winter evenings while sitting on the couch wrapped in a warm blanket.

For all other times coffee is my drink of choice. In a place like Bishkek, where black coffee is synonymous with awful-tasting Nescafe (with the exception of a few places like Navigator that offer decent but outrageously expensive coffee that is freshly brewed), I had to make sure that my supply of ground coffee beans was frequently replenished by shipments from Almaty and other, more remote, places.

But after a few trips to Kyrgyz villages and towns, where I was bombarded with endless "чай ичингиз?" and "чай ичкиле" (both of which basically mean "drink tea!"), I am beginning to yield to tea drinking with its pervasiveness in the Kyrgyz culture.

I realize that you cannot assimilate a language without taking in the culture that comes with it. This may not always be a comfortable thing to do. And it makes me wonder whether I will emerge from this learning Kyrgyz endeavor a different person. Whether I will lose a part of my identity and acquire a new personality. Will Kyrgyzstan also cure me of my aversion to red meat?

So many things to reflect on! I better go make myself another cup of tea.

No language is an island

2005-10-13T14:29:00.000+06:00

Ten minutes ago I was reading a Turkish magazine (in English of course :) and found myself staring at a line that said "Atatürk Havalimanı". This, I suppose, is a reference to the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. What fascinated me was the word "airport" – a combination of hava (meaning "air", cf. аба [awa] in Kyrgyz) and liman ("port").

The thing is the latter word was already familiar to me: in Greek λιμάνι (limani) means a port or a harbor. It is sheer delight to seek out new relationships between languages and to see something familiar in the unfamiliar.

If you look carefully, you will find this in any language you study. To use one of the more obvious examples, Kyrgyz has its share of Russian influences. But sometimes these influences are disguised – as with the word "момпосуй".

In his book Erik V. Gunnemark (more on him later) writes about what he calls transparent vocabulary, that is words in a foreign language the meanings of which are clear to you with no or little explanation. He further says that this transparency is different to different people. Often imagination is key to increasing the transparency of a language.

A lovely word that I learned today is торопой meaning piglet.
By the way a pig is чочко – nothing close, huh?

My growing collection of Kyrgyz books

2005-10-12T12:41:00.000+06:00

Yesterday I made a trip to the former Akademkniga, which now sells used books. What can be better than spending hours browsing through hundreds of books and then taking a leisurely walk discovering a new part of town with beautiful houses built in the late fifties. Akademkniga also houses a small store selling antiques, so I was completely exhilarated. I also found a set of Greek dictionaries and was jumping for joy until I saw the price… So I bought some printed music (Busoni's Klavierübung, some Debussy, and piano music by Central Asian composers), a book for my research, and four excellent books to help me in my study of Kyrgyz.

Russian-Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz-Russian Dictionary of Antonyms (Muratalieva et al., 1986) – a very useful study tool. It lists pairs of antonyms with their translations. For example:

утро – вечер // эртең менен – кечкурун, кечки

Russian-Kyrgyz Cluster Dictionary (Harakoz and Osmonkulov, 1979). As the name implies words with the same roots are clustered together. Good for discovering relationships between words.

ОСЕНЬ күз; цыплят по осени считают погов. малдын төлүн күзүндө санайт.
Осенью нареч. күзүндө, күз маалында.
Осенний осень-ге т.; күзгү, күзүндөгү, күздүк; осенний дождь күзгү жамгыр.

Methods of Kyrgyz Language Teaching in Russian Schools (2001). Based on books by the leading experts on the Kyrgyz language Igor Batmanov (1936) and Aleksandr Vasilyev.

Learning the Kyrgyz Language (Kasymova et al., 1991). Not to be confused with Кыргыз тилин үйрөнөбүз published in 1997 by Soros Foundation.

Going back to my earlier laments on the absence of Kyrgyz books in local bookstores, things are not as bad as they seemed in the beginning. Through libraries, friends, and now Akademkniga my collection of Kyrgyz language resources in print is growing.

What is not found in textbooks

2005-09-30T17:48:00.000+06:00

It's been a tiring trip but also a valuable experience in terms of learning Kyrgyz. I wrote about the importance of exposure to the language, and I got plenty of that during this week.

Last night as I read a text in my Kyrgyz textbook I was surprised by the ease with which I could pronounce the words. Although I did not get much speaking practice, I now feel much more confident about my pronunciation. All that just from listening to the native speakers.

I get the feeling that what you find in the textbooks is a language that is often very different from what is actually spoken. This is inevitable, of course, but sometimes the differences are too great.

When you are just starting to learn Kyrgyz, one of the first words you learn is "ооба" (meaning "yes"). However, it is rarely used. Most of the time the natives use a word that sounds like a nasal [ji:] to express agreement. "Анан" (which means "so") is heard a lot in conversations. Of course, none of this is found in the textbooks.

I also got an interesting kind of feedback on the Peace Corps textbook. One local lady told me about a Peace Corps volunteer who came to their village. "We use Russian words here and there when we speak Kyrgyz," the lady said. "But this girl [the volunteer] spoke pure Kyrgyz. For example, we would say 'конфета' [Russian for 'candy'], but she used 'момпосуй'."

While the lady who told me this story was impressed by the volunteer's mastery of the Kyrgyz language, she also made it clear that this "pure language", as she called it, sounded strange to a native speaker's ear.

"Момпосуй", a word borrowed from the Russian "монпансье" (which was in turn borrowed from the French "Montpensier") seems to have fallen out of use. "Конфет" (cf. the Russian "конфета") is used widely instead. This is true for many words. So following what is written in the textbooks can, in fact, make you sound rather weird. The only way to avoid this is to get as much exposure to the language (as it is actually spoken) as possible.

Blog updates: coming soon

2005-09-26T01:29:00.000+06:00

I will add several new features to this blog in once I'm back in town (in about a week from now). One is an announcement list for those of you who want to subscribe to Learning Kyrgyz updates. The other is an e-mail form to contact me. I am also thinking about starting something like "the word of the day" (week?). So please check back soon. And if you have any suggestions or ideas, your comments are always welcome.

2005-09-25T01:13:00.000+06:00

Sign on the yurt: "Cafe Bar"

Kyrgyz language day

2005-09-24T23:51:00.000+06:00

Yesterday, after a long day of running between the university and the seminar I'm interpreting, I flopped on the couch to watch the evening news. It turned out that September 23 was the Kyrgyz Language Day and it suddenly dawned on me that it's been a long, long time since I last updated the blog.

So here is the update. All of a sudden I have an excellent opportunity to practice Kyrgyz for real (I now wish I'd spent more time actually studying the language!). I am leaving on Monday to spend five days in some remote village, mingling with the locals and trying to overcome the language barrier. Very exciting but also very intimidating.

I think it is very important to become comfortable with the new language during the first stages of language learning. I find that if I spend some time simply absorbing the language, after a while it ceases to be something "foreign".

This can be done in a variety of ways. When you listen to conversations, audio recordings, or news on television let go of the thought that you don't understand. Learn to appreciate the natural flow of the language and take it all in. Casually browse through a dictionary to see if anything catches your eye. Read some texts without the pressure of trying to decipher their meaning.

This advice may seem strange, but it helps a lot. Once you are comfortable with the language, you are a long way toward mastering it. Once you stop focusing on what you don't know or don't understand, you free your mind to actually learn something.

Making slow progress

2005-06-24T02:38:00.000+06:00

Oh my, it's nearly the end of June and I'm still struggling with learning to read. Maybe it's the weather - in this +40C heat most times I feel like drinking frappe on the balcony, not pouring over textbooks in the presence of my tutor.

The good news is that I've made some progress with the vocabulary. And Kazakh does not seem to interfere so much with my Kyrgyz anymore. And yes, I've recorded some things for the Kyrgyz Wiki, so it's just a matter of formatting and uploading the text. Maybe next week?

Today we read a text about a Kyrgyz family to work on my pronunciation. Then we wrote a similar story about my own family. I found this very helpful for a number of reasons. The text has many repetitions, which are bound to make me remember useful expressions like "My (father/mother/brother) is ... years old". Another good thing about this is that by making the text more relevant to me I seem to remember it better. And I can use these sentences in actual conversations.

An interesting thing about Kyrgyz is that it has one pronoun, ал, that stands for "he", "she", and "it". As far as I understand, there's no grammatical gender whatsoever. That may make things easier... The difficult thing is to get used to having a string of affixes follow a one- or two-syllable root, containing a wealth of information. In the beginning this really feels like you have to learn to think backwards.

Oh yes, and I finally memorized what I am called in Kyrgyz. Котормочу. :)

First Kyrgyz lesson

2005-06-11T13:57:00.000+06:00

This is exactly what I meant by waning motivation. My trip to Naryn made me realize once again how essential it is to learn Kyrgyz. Upon my return to Bishkek, however, I became absorbed in my everyday work and it was only on Thursday that I went back to following-up on my language-learning plans.

We found a tutor, a journalism student from a local university, who agreed to commit herself to the (almost) daily teaching of two aspiring language learners. Yesterday was my first Kyrgyz lesson. I spent an hour in the afternoon examining the textbooks and repeating endless strings of words that meant absolutely nothing to me, save for a couple of phrases that sounded similar to Kazakh.

The challenge is to let go of the notion that the words are pronounced as they are written (which is the case with Kazakh). For example, if you have a г before ы, it is pronounced like the Kazakh ғ, or similar to the Modern Greek gamma, and not like the g in "get".

I think this blog is not the proper place for storing my newly-acquired knowledge for easy reference. So, being the computer geek I am, I went ahead and started the Kyrgyz wiki. The great thing about wiki is that it can be freely updated and edited by anyone. The Wikipedia is a good example of this (and there's even a Kyrgyz version of this encyclopedia).

Got a textbook at last

2005-05-26T22:19:00.000+06:00

It's been a while since my last post -- I've been insanely busy with my translations and the important interpreting job that I had today. I'm also leaving for Naryn on Monday, so I thought it would be a good idea to post an update while I still have time.

On Monday I got the "Кыргыз тилин уйронобуз" textbook (mentioned in the Books section) from the university library. The librarian said they don't have the CD that comes with the book, and this makes things rather difficult for I have no idea how to pronounce words correctly. Somebody at the library said that it doesn't matter because "you just pronounce it as if it were Russian". Yeah, and end up with a terrible accent. :) Besides, from what I've read some consonants are pronounced differently depending on the vowels around them. So I really need to find somebody to help me with pronunciation and also to answer my questions (and I already have a million questions even after reading the first few pages!).

I will write about what I have learned in more detail once I'm finished with my assignments this week. Meanwhile, here is a new link to an article on the Kyrgyz alphabet.

On agglutinative languages

2005-05-23T03:20:00.000+06:00

Here is a lovely short introduction to the concepts of synthetic and analytic, fusional and agglutinative (oh, I love this word!) languages.

Agglutinative comes from the Latin word agglutinare, which means to glue to or fasten to a thing. The Russian equivalent is a real tongue-twister: агглютинативный.

This Wikipedia article gives a more detailed, yet understandible, definition of the term.

How I learned 4 languages in 4 years (website review)

2005-05-22T20:35:00.000+06:00

Despite what its title might suggest, this website is not trying to sell anything language-related. The other name of the site is Luigi's Language Advice, and it contains some valuable advice indeed.

The author is a Hungarian man who shares some of his ideas on language learning. On the first page he says:

Don't expect somebody else to teach you! Learn and have fun doing so!

And he continues to explain how this pro-active approach helped him pass proficiency exams for four different languages in a very short time.

It is easy to overlook the things he talks about precisely because of their simplicity. But these are actually great methods that address some of the most common concerns of language learners. There are many websites on the subject, but this one is a good common-sense introduction to learning a foreign language.

If you put in 2×2 hours a week, it will really take you 4-8 years to learn. It means that you struggle for years and you still can't speak. Why don't you put in some more time for a few months and enjoy your knowledge for the rest of your life?

Personally, I like this approach a lot more than consistently studying a language for years. I seem to lose the motivation after a year or so and end up putting as much effort into encouraging myself to continue learning as into the actual learning process. This may not work for everyone, but I enjoy the thrill of making quick progress, especially in the beginning, which makes it much easier to continue with the study of a language.

Luigi's language advice

Some background

2005-05-22T19:49:00.000+06:00

I think it would be a good idea to share some of my background as some of you may be wondering how I ended up learning Kyrgyz and why I am putting all this effort into this blog and especially its list of resources. :)

The primary reason for learning Kyrgyz (or, for that matter, any other foreign language I have ever attempted to learn) is simple - I am fascinated by languages. This explains why a little over four years ago I quit my job at a newspaper and started working as a translator. As if my daily encounters with all sorts of linguistic wonders weren't enough, I spent a fair share of my free time studying a couple of other foreign languages.

I also got interested in the very concept of language learning and language acquisition, which I researched quite extensively last year. I tried a variety of methods and techniques, some of them quite successfully. I will discuss these in more detail in my future postings.

If I were asked to pinpoint the first time I experienced the beauty of the Kyrgyz language, I would say it was in April last year at a concert of Central Asian ethnic music in Bishkek. I'd been to Bishkek about a dozen times before that but it was only then that I fell in love with the language. Yet it never occurred to me to study it.

Well, it so happened that I moved to Kyrgyzstan early this year. And it so happened that in a recent conversation a colleague of mine suggested we learn the language, especially since I'll be staying here for months to come. I liked the challenge (and I assure you that learning a Turkic language is a real challenge for a person with a Western mindset!) and so here I am, struggling to get my bearings in this new linguistic environment.

I am a bit of a technology addict, which explains why I created this blog in the first place. This also means that I will probably make heavy use of computer in my studies. I have already wept when I realized there are no comprehensive Kyrgyz-English (or Kyrgyz-Russian) online dictionaries out there. I guess I'll have to live with that. Or create one myself. Hm...

Textbooks in Bishkek

2005-05-21T19:58:00.000+06:00

So far, I've found two Kyrgyz textbooks that I can borrow. Not bad, but I was determined to buy one. Ha! This is not as easy as I thought it would be.

It seems that I've been to every single major bookstore in Bishkek looking for Kyrgyz textbooks. The only one that I've been able to find is a blue hard-cover book (comes with two audio tapes which have to be purchased separately) with no explanations whatsoever and it's all in Kyrgyz. With my vocabulary of 10 words or so, I wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it.

This book is on sale at Raritet (on Pushkina) and at ZUM (3rd floor). Today I went to the big bookstore on Manas, between Chui and Kievskaya, - not a single Kyrgyz textbook in sight!

Now this is something I don't understand. I really expected to find much more than just this uninspiring blue textbook, which is of no use to a beginner like me. Last night I talked to a friend who admitted that she was determined to learn Kyrgyz when she came here, but soon her enthusiasm waned. Lack of textbooks and other resources was a major factor in this.

All the people I talked to suggest that I hire a tutor. However in my studies of other languages I found that for me independent study supplemented by occasional sessions with somebody who is able to answer my questions is the most effective approach.

I better create some workable plan next week, while my motivation is still strong. And yes, I am really looking forward to studying a Turkic language. There is a different kind of logic and a different kind of beauty behind it. Could it be that learning new languages is a way of staying open-minded?

Pronouncing "Kyrgyzstan"

2005-05-20T03:33:00.000+06:00

Stumbled across this explainer on Kyrgyz pronunciation. Quite interesting, though I didn't care that much to see these revolutionary faces again. :(

I learned a new phrase while reading that story - labial harmony. Certainly, after all these years of lessons in Kazakh I knew what this harmony was, but now I know how it's called in English. Does that count as my Kyrgyz lesson for today? he-he

List of regularly updated resources

2005-05-19T01:00:00.000+06:00

1. Kyrgyz alphabet and pronunciation

2. Kyrgyz dictionaries

3. Books: Kyrgyz language and Kyrgyzstan

5. Kyrgyz software and downloads

6. Reading in Kyrgyz

7. Kyrgyz audio and music

9. Other Kyrgyz language resources

10. Language learning

Language learning

2005-05-18T10:00:00.000+06:00

Foreign language learning resources

Other Kyrgyz language resources

2005-05-18T09:00:00.000+06:00

Kirghiz
Background information from Ethnologue.com

About the Kyrgyz language
Including some useful words & phrases.
I found this link through the Mithridates blog. (See Kyrgyz part 1 and part 2)

Kyrgyz language
A short article on the Kyrgyz language in Wikipedia

Kyrgyz audio and music

2005-05-18T07:00:00.000+06:00

BBC in Kyrgyz
News in Kyrgyz, including streaming audio

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Kyrgyz news; recordings of some programs and live audio broadcasts

Global Recordings Network
Download the audio of The Sacrifice, a Christian evangelism recording. The speech is quite clear and easy to follow. Total duration: about 1 hour (two MP3 files).
Scripts in the English language are available.

The Jesus film
Watch the film in Kyrgyz (streaming video).

Kyrgyz songs
Streaming audio

kyrgyzmusic.com
Probably the largest resource on Kyrgyz music. Features an overview of instrumental and vocal music and biographies of several Kyrgyz composers. Some recordings are available for download in MP3 format.