Destinations

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Cross Cultural Solutions

Cross Cultural Solutions, Well-polished tourist destinations are great but if you have ever thought about a new kind of vacation experience, it may be time for you to try volunteering abroad. Unlike a typical vacation, an organized volunteer travel program allows you to donate a portion of your day to a local community while you vacation. Volunteer organizations tend to operate in local communities with greater need for services – communities off the beaten path. Spending time in a local community with a group of fellow volunteers is a far cry from a typical tourist vacation and can be a real eye-opener. Working closely with local people gives you a much richer and unique insight into a culture that you would not have otherwise experienced. Many people who volunteer abroad are amazed at the depth of their cultural exchange experience. For some, it is life-changing. “I spent 4 weeks working in a classroom of five-year-olds within an orphanage. It was the most amazing experience of my entire life. Because of that trip I came to realize how big the world is — how enriching it is to live among different cultures. Today, over a month after I returned, I think of my experiences, and especially the people I met there, constantly. I am a more aware, open person, and I have found not only things within myself, but my life calling and aspiration.” Sarah, Cross-Cultural Solutions volunteer Headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, Cross-Cultural Solutions is a leading organization in the field of international volunteering. CCS has an infrastructure that supports approximately 4,000 international volunteers each year and over 250 sustainable community initiatives. More than 250 CCS in-country staff work year-round, ensuring that volunteers are involved in projects that contribute directly to the goals of each community. The CCS experience includes cultural and learning activities giving volunteers the opportunity to learn about the local culture. There is an in-depth orientation, language training, guest speakers and more. It’s not all work and no play. After volunteer work in the mornings and over the weekend, there is plenty of free time to relax, reflect, or explore the community. To contact CCS, visit their website at www.crossculturalsolutions.org, email info@crossculturalsolutions.org

French Heritage Conference, New York, Nov. 5

The French Heritage Language Program is proud to host its first conference to date, co-organized in partnership with The Cultural Services of The French Embassy, The National Heritage Language Resource Center, Le Lycée Français de New York and The Center for Applied Linguistics.

Gathering renowned research specialists in the fields of bilingual education and Heritage Languages, lending a voice to important actors on the ground from diverse francophone communities, and presenting various educational initiatives currently in place in France and the United States, this conference will examine the richness and diversity of heritage language education and the role of languages and cultures in promoting social cohesion, at school and beyond.

This event is very much about advocacy, demonstrating how multiple disciplines can collaborate, notably through local educational initiatives. Live streaming, recordings, and transcripts of the conference will be available on our website.

Admission is free, please register online

Demand for Portuguese on the Rise

Influx of Portuguese Learners Reveals Hole in Market

As language departments are downsized, or cut altogether in U.S. universities, the demand for Portuguese is growing. Although Portuguese has always been an important world language, it has only recently been recognized as an important language for business and international relations.

The profile of today’s Portuguese student is quite different from the humanities majors, lovers of Brazilian music, or heritage learners of before. Today’s student is interested in Portuguese as a means to get ahead in the business world. Associate Professor of Portuguese at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Rodolfo Franconi, attributes the increased interest in Brazil to two factors, “One, knowing just Spanish limits them to working in only one side of Latin America and right now, the Brazilian side is becoming more appealing and, two, the growing interest in ‘emerging’ countries on the part of the richest nations, especially U.S. interest in Brazil.”

Other students hope for a cushy expatriate position in a Lusophone metropolis, like São Paulo or Luanda. Dartmouth College Assistant Professor, Carlos Minchillo explains, “The consequence of Brazil’s economic performance in recent years and the future events to be held in Brazil, such as the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games is that we have more students who choose Portuguese for professional reasons. Some of them are even eager to live and work in Brazil.”

While the demand for Portuguese language training continues to grow, so does the demand for materials that teach Portuguese for special purposes, such as business Portuguese. The market has yet to catch up to the influx of Portuguese language learners. Professor Franconi points out that while there is some dynamic material for beginners, more advanced textbooks leave much to be desired, and “Regarding materials for special purposes such as the petroleum industry, just introductory compendiums, reference books and specialized dictionaries are available.”  The lack of adequate intermediate and advanced material leaves a hole in the market that has yet to be filled by publishers. As more students strive toward fluency in Portuguese, the need for new material will also grow.

- Kristal Bivona

 

 

 

 

About the Turkish Language

About the Turkish language

See also: Turkish language

History

The earliest forms of the Turkish language were written in Orkhon script.

During the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish was influenced mainly by Arabic and Persian. The primary writing system was based on Arabic and Persian script. Due to the difficulty of learning the script only about 10% of the Ottoman Turkish population were literate.

However, in 1928, modern Turkey’s hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, had changed many things about the Turkish language. He changed the writing system to a Turkish variant of the Latin alphabet (without the letters Q, W or X, and added the letters Ö and Ü from German, Ç from Albanian, Ş from Romanian; and also added the letters Ğ, I, and İ to represent certain sounds which weren’t present in any other Latin-based languages at the time), and replaced many loanwords with older or constructed Turkish words. The change of the writing system heavily benefited Turkey’s youth, and during the 1930s, the literacy rate shot up to 70%. Today, the overall literacy rate is approximately 87%, but the reason for the seemingly low literacy rate (for our time) has to do with personal family matters rather than any difficulty, even though it’s compulsory for all Turks to go to school up to the age of 16, so technically their parents are both breaking the law and depriving their children of a wonderful gift: knowing how to read and write.

Geographic distribution of Turkish

In terms of number of speakers, Turkish is the largest Turkic language in the world, spoken by approximately 100 million people worldwide.

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and is a recognized minority language in Kosovo and Macedonia.

There are also two million Turcophones in Germany, due to its very large Turkish minority living there; a slightly smaller minority living in Bulgaria; and also over 100,000 living in France, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Austria, United States and Uzbekistan. There are also smaller Turkish-speaking minorities living elsewhere, most notably Greece, Russia, Canada and Azerbaijan*.

Dialects

Within Turkey

Standard Turkish is basically the Turkish spoken in Istanbul, which has no particular accent, and is spoken clearly, smoothly and slang words are non-existent.

However, Turkey is a place full of surprises and diversity, and many dialects of Turkish exist. Here are the most common:

• Rumelice, which is spoken by muhajirs in the Rumelian area.
• Edirne, spoken by the inhabitants of Edirne*.
• Doğu, spoken in eastern Turkey, influenced by Azerbaijani.
• Güneydoğu, spoken in southeastern Turkey, heavily influenced by Kurdish.
• Karadeniz / Laz, the former spoken in northern Turkey in areas surrounding the Black Sea, and the latter spoken by Laz people in the same region*.

Outside Turkey

• Karamanlıca – spoken in Greece by Karamanlides, a Greek Orthodox, Turkish-speaking people whose ancestry goes back to central Anatolia.
• Kıbrıs – a dialect of Turkish spoken by Turkish Cypriots.

So yes, there’s a variety of different dialects spoken by Turks, but don’t let that put you off, because most Turks, regardless of whether they speak standard Turkish or a certain dialect, will understand standard Turkish, as it’s the standard for all schools in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Learning the language

Many people whose native language is not Turkish complain that Turkish is very hard to learn. Turkish, being an Altaic language, has grammar and vocabulary that is very different from Indo-European languages. Learning Dutch for a Brit or learning Italian for a Romanian is much easier than them learning Turkish. On the other hand, there are similar languages to Turkish such as Mongolian or Kazakh.

Advantages of Turkish (for English)

• There is no pronunciation help next to the word. Because every letter is pronounced the same in every word.
• Turkish is a phonetic language. Learning the alphabet is enough to pronounce the word correctly.
• Once you hear a word, you’ll know where to look in the dictionary.
• There are no dots dividing the word into its syllables or marks indicating a stressed syllable.
• Spelling determines the syllable count and stress.
• There are no inflected forms.
• Turkish nouns have no gender and its verbs are all regular.

Look at a noun and you’ll know all its declensions.

Look at a verb and you’ll know its tense, voice, etc.

• Turkish has no articles.
• You can hardly ever find exceptions in Turkish. Nearly all words obey strict rules.

The benefits of learning Turkish

Approximately 250 million people worldwide speak a Turkic language, Turkish being the most common. However, all Turkic languages have a very high degree of mutual intelligibility, therefore learning Turkish means you can speak to 100 million more people properly, and 150 million more roughly, but still understanding the basic gist of the conversation.

So, 250 million, that’s a lot of people, huh? Doesn’t that sound like good business and marketing opportunities to you? Trust me, Turkic countries aren’t as impoverished as you think. The West’s definition of poor is actually very exaggerated. Many, much poorer countries are still good places to do business. Take Africa, for example. At the moment African countries have the fastest growing mobile market in the world. When entrepreneurs hear news like this, they immediately appreciate Africa’s potential to generate lots of revenue in the mobile phone industry. As for Turkey, it’s richer and in better shape than most African countries, so financially you could do really well there. As a matter of fact, Turkey is a member of the G20, and is the 17th most industrialised country in the world. Turkey’s GDP ranks 17th, and has one of the fastest GDP growth rates in the world. Turkey has a developed services sector; a large, rapidly growing tourism sector; as well as construction, electronics, textiles and automotive industries which are very important to Turkey’s economy. So who says Turkey’s economy is bad?

Turkey and Northern Cyprus are also political hotspots, with many things going on in the Turkish parliament and politics. If you ever have to deal with Turkish or Turkish Cypriot affairs, learning the language would be highly beneficial.

On a much less serious matter, Turkish is a very beautiful-sounding language. Turkey and Northern Cyprus are actually incredibly beautiful places themselves, and are definitely worth visiting, so knowing the local language would be very useful.

Related languages

There are many languages related to Turkish in the Turkic family. Of these, Wikibooks of the following languages are available.

• Azerbaijani
• Mongolian
• Uzbek

• All external links in this article link to the English Wikipedia site.
• Turks don’t refer to southern Cyprus as Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti (i.e. The Republic of Cyprus), because Turkey, and of course Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), are two of the only places in the world which don’t recognize it. Instead, they refer to Southern Cyprus as the Güney Kıbrıs Rum Kesimi (the Greek Side of Southern Cyprus).
  • Turks, particularly Cypriot Turks, find it offensive when you refer to Southern Cyprus as The Republic of Cyprus, because the definition of The Republic of Cyprus takes the entire island into account, including Northern Cyprus.
  • Unlike most languages, when you say the word Kıbrıs, Turks immediately assume you’re talking about Northern Cyprus, so when trying to refer to Southern Cyprus, you must say Güney Kıbrıs (southern Cyprus).
• Quite a few of the new loanwords are now either seldom used or the old equivalents are used as much as the new ones.
• The Azerbaijani language is, like Turkish, a member of the Altaic, more specifically, the Turkic language family, and is therefore extremely similar to Turkish. For example, a Turkish speaker listening to an Azeri conversation, or vice-versa, could probably understand the basic gist of the conversation without having to learn the language of it. Azerbaijani is sometimes even considered as a Turkish dialect.
• Edirne is the westernmost city in Turkey, and is close to the borders of Greece and Bulgaria. Because of this, the Edirne dialect is influenced by Greek and Bulgarian.
• Laz people have their own language called Laz language, which is spoken mainly in Georgia and the Black Sea region of Turkey.
  • Although most non-Laz people in Turkey tend to regard Laz people as all inhabitants of the Black Sea region of Turkey, Laz people prefer to differentiate themselves from the other inhabitants of the area.

Korean Language Throughout the World

Speaking Korean offers you social and business opportunities in the region, but the increasing number of Koreans who are studying English sometimes makes it hard to practice unless you go to the suburbs or rural areas of South Korea.
Compared to other Asian languages of the Northeast Asia region (Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese), this is the easiest to learn, due to the comparatively simple and logical script, the absence of tones, and the large number of borrowed English words.

UPAEP (Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla)

Spanish Immersion Program
The Programa de Inmersión Total en Español para Extranjeros (PITEE) is a linguistic and cultural study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico. The program offers students the opportunity to immerse themselves in Mexican culture for 5 weeks and receive up to 6 credit hours of academic study.

Academic and Cultural Blend
The PITEE ties weekly cultural trips directly into academic study. Trips include such places as Tepoztlán, Mexico City, Cuetzalán, and Veracruz. A highlight of the program is the preparation to successfully participate in a global world by developing a linguistic and cultural mindset from living in Puebla, México for the summer. Classes are based on written and spoken texts addressing a variety of themes that will allow students to approach Mexican culture with ease and experience it to the fullest

Instructional Model
Course methodology ranges from research based on communicative language teaching (CLT) to Content–Based Instruction (CBI) to Styles and Strategies–Based Instruction (SSBI). Language tasks are designed to facilitate language acquisition in a meaningful way through problem–solving, and projects that promote interaction and the negotiation of meaning in and out of the classroom. The PITEE focuses on successful language learning by placing an emphasis on developing an awareness of students’ learning preferences and students’ autonomy.

Click here to find out more!

Spanish for Kids

Language Magazine’s Victoria is setting off for Guatemala today to escort her 7 year old daughter while she takes a Spanish immersion program for kids at CSA Antigua.
We’ll keep you posted with their progress.

Update from Guatemala:
on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 2:31pm

Valentina is looooooooooooooooving her Spanish classes and her teacher. It is like a playground for learning spanish painting, drawing, cut and pasting. CSA is fabulous. Everyone is so kind, helpful and very professional. The best Spanish school I´ve attended in Antigua, Guatemala. Valentina met her Guatemalan grandmother (abuela) on Sunday

The Guatemalan family we are staying with is great – our accommodations are clean and simple. The hospitality outdoes the luxury, which is what we wanted.

Valentina’s classes are like an art , painting and singing class all in Spanish. Couldn´t be more pleased. Her words after 4 hours of ¨studying´: “when do we go back to my school.”

Victoria and Valentina

English in America

From Austin with love

I questioned whether it was a ludicrously fortunate coincidence or simply my consistent failure to remember that this is a city of musical diversity; but with no sign of any answers other than “just be grateful,” I was still ecstatic to learn that Austin’s finest The Black Angels were to charm Manhattan with their wondrous Texan psychedelia on the days either side of my birthday. By an additional token of convenience, it turned out that both of these shows were as easily accessible to me as I would have desired, the second of which was dubbed “A Secret Show” — predictably not so secret once word got out, but equally exciting all the same.

The venue was as cavernous and cryptic as necessary, and looking around at the beards and ponchos I tried to shift every ounce of familiarity I had with this band (and city) into perspective. I was there to listen to music I knew and loved, with lyrics that had implanted themselves into my head on a bed of London concert memories, but the atmosphere was entirely different. Could it be possible that with differing nations comes an alternate interpretation of lyrics? Or was this crowd just wholly more serious? I had certainly spent time admiring the lyrical ingenuity of Alex Maas and Co. with their accompanying 60s inspired drones and echoes, but living in a place so far away from the visions behind these words, it seemed almost impossible for me to turn this music into something tangible, let alone a lifestyle.

So there I was, in an atmospheric hybrid of the Wild West and a sinking pirate ship, with adoring fans singing “Fire for the hills, pick up your feet and let’s go!” with such burning passion that the room felt like it was on the brink of a rum-fuelled canon brawl; when it became obvious that there was more than one performance happening here. Evidently the band held the fort, but in return the audience were bringing the lyrics to life as an alliance, doing their best to re-create the musical imagery with choice items of leather clothing and pseudo-tribal attitudes.

Despite feeling slightly like I had been thrown into another dimension, it was probably the most musically enriching two hours of my life. Albums that I had listened to repeatedly on the other side of the Atlantic were transformed into something physical by the dedication of this entire following, and it was actually in reach. It seemed like these people, (rumoured to frequent certain Brooklyn haunts in between visits from rugged Texans) were creating a movement right there in front of me.

The Black Angels, practically straight out of the desert, had brought their 60s revival to the North East and they had been met with a mass of people ready to start a full-on revolution – one in which language was a key component. Speaking to some fellow devotees, I learnt that like the teachings of an ancient scripture, songs “First Vietnamese War” and “Entrance Song” had been adopted as rose-tinted life mantras. I noticed one girl throwing her arms in the air and screaming praise in such an evangelical manner that, after “…we can’t live if we’re too afraid to die…”, I wondered if we were the beginning of a ‘First Psychedelic Church of The Black Angels’ – and to think, all this from what started as a few words in the mind of a hipster. It was unique, the world outside was a distant blur and we were comfortably trapped in a musical time warp that could never be repeated. Two states had merged into one on a catalyst of perfectly paired words and musical notes and with this, history had been made.

References:

www.theblackangels.com

 

Athina Kontos is writer/photographer from the UK spending the summer in New York

Chinese in Taiwan or China?

While the obivous place to go to learn Chinese is, well, China, it’s sometimes easy to forget that for quite a while after the communist takeover on the mainland, Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) was the only “China” recognized by the Western world. Global politics aside, Chairman Mao’s victory has resulted in some lingering after-effects for Mandarin Chinese learners as well.

First of all, the flight of China’s imperial government to Taiwan in 1949 introduced Mandarin as the principal means of communication across the island. The ensuing complete political separation between Taiwan and mainland China meant that Taiwan’s writing system never underwent the same simplification the communists enacted to increase literacy on the mainland. Now, only Taiwan and Hong Kong continue to use traditional Chinese characters, while China itself has fully switched to simplified characters.

Due to the United States’ history of good relations with Taiwan, coupled with the mutually held suspicion of China during the Cold War, Chinese language instruction in American schools and colleges continues to emphasize learning traditional over simplified characters. American students learning Chinese might therefore find studying in Taiwan meshes more easily with their program of study. Even for those contemplating studying abroad without prior language experience, Taiwan is an excellent option to consider. It is much easier to learn simplified characters after having studied traditional, but more difficult to reverse the order.

Taiwan has more attractions than simply its writing system to offer the curious student. Its capital of Taipei is a bustling, cosmopolitan city with pan-Asian cultural influences. Past colonization and rule by China, the Netherlands and Japan coupled largely autonomous rule after Word War II have resulted in a rich and unique culture and a certain local pride separate from mainland China. Taiwan also was not subject to the cultural devastation wrecked by Chairman Mao in the early decades of Chinese Communist Party rule, so many historical artifacts and some practices like traditional puppet theatre were preserved in Taiwan. Taiwan’s government has instituted democratic and liberalizing reforms over the past few decades, so the difficulties of internet censorship, restrictions on free speech, and political sensitivity on the mainland do not apply to Taiwan.

The two major cities in Taiwan are Taipei and Tainan, although several good language institutes are located in Taichung as well, and the countryside of Taiwan is notoriously beautiful.

Volunteer and Study in Japan

With the increasing consumption of Japanese cultural products in the United States, and especially with the proliferation of manga and anime, Japanese has become a popular alternative to the traditional canon of commonly taught foreign languages. Most colleges and universities and even some high schools now host study abroad or exchange programs with sister schools in Japan.

The most common places to study Japanese language in Japan are centered around Tokyo and Kyoto, although other options are available. Three of the most well-known and reputable study abroad options for prospective students are the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, which has been hosting international study abroad students for decades, and offers excellent intensive Japanese instruction, the Associated Kyoto Program (AKP) in Kyoto which also accepts American study abroad students for a year-long program at its Kyoto campus, and the two IES programs in Nagoya and Tokyo.

The two principle dialects of Japanese are centered around Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka, although further to the north and south of Honshu, the main island, and especially on the smaller islands, spoken Japanese may differ widely. Standardized education, greater national integration, and the adoption of a single dialect for television, radio and government use have, however led to the prevalence of Standard Japanese (the Tokyo dialect) nationwide.

2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

In March of 2011, a combination earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emergency hit Japan, with the greatest damage concentrated around the northern Tohoku region. Immediately following the disaster, Japan received a wave of international condolances and aid, including widespread donations to the Red Cross and envoys of aid workers. Now, however, world attention has moved on but Japan still faces a daunting task of reconstruction. Volunteers, especially those with some knowledge of the Japanese language, may be even more welcome now than immediately after the quake. Volunteering, moreover, is always an excellent means of connecting with people and exploring a culture on a deeper level than would be possible by merely acting the tourist.

The current US Travel Warning (expires August 15, 2011) advises citizens to stay outside a 50 mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, but has confirmed the safety of Japan’s food and water.

English in America

Niagara Falls

After stealthily blending in with the masses of Manhattan Island for five weeks, my inner-backpacker told me it was time for an out-of-city adventure. I contemplated Montauk and Green Mountain, pondering over maps and lack-luster tourist guide books, until I finally decided on what was both an obvious and predictable location; Niagara Falls. My reasoning was, despite the ten-hour train journey (a distance most Brits would treat like a round-the-world trip, packing enough food and water for a month) I was near enough to say I was in the “same part of the world” and therefore I should make the visit.

Staying in a hostel on the New York side of the border (just to enhance my hopes of becoming an explorer for the week), I quickly became acquainted with the town — its weathered exterior and seemingly restless inhabitants almost as intriguing as the falls themselves. In just under a mile, the bustling tourist destination dubbed the ‘Honeymoon Capital’ of the 1950s; hastily transforms from a deluge of 100 ft. cascading waterfalls, cliffside restaurants and bouncing tourists into a sea of derelict shopfronts and shy residents peering from the windows of tired houses, seeking out any sign of disturbance. Niagara’s 1950s population of roughly 100,000 has since halved, with whole families moving on to different towns and states due to the worsening employment conditions.

Consequently, the few locals that I did meet were working around Niagara Falls Gorge, entertaining tourists with boat tours and guided walks, and serving up a coolly polite “Enjoy your visit” to every photo-snapping swarm. Noticeably, also, was that although sharing one of the world’s biggest natural landmarks with an entirely different nation, both towns of Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York are more than willing to mock each other, culturally and linguistically. Despite separation by a mere short stretch of water, accents, etiquette and official languages of the two cities are poles apart; I realized this on passing a souvenir shop five minutes within the Canadian border, with a t-shirt reading “I speak two languages, not just one. I live in a house, not an igloo. I eat meals not just maple syrup. I am Canadian.” proudly hanging by the door.

Right from the borderline there was an overwhelming sense of a cultural divide, experiencing both sides of gorge flippantly throwing about the casual “us” and “them” when referring to the other. Neatly displaying every road sign, tourist information board, and site map in both English and French, Niagara Falls, Ontario made for the more linguistically stimulating experience, — particularly for me — an outsider. Bilingualism aside, eating breakfast in the U.S. and dinner in Canada couldn’t have been more different. A hand-on-hip “More coffee honey?” became a sprightly “Will that be all, Miss?” teamed with a side of sharp eye contact and a sprinkling of urgency. In essence, this reflected two things: the reserved, business-oriented atmosphere and the reminder that visitors are what keeps this town ticking. The falls themselves are also treated with similar possessive pronouns; “ours” and “theirs” to refer to the American and Horseshoe falls on each appropriate side, attaching verbal ownership to the already existing geographical.

Just like other natural phenomena in the world, Niagara Falls has shaped the towns around it, not just physically, but in giving its inhabitants a sense of pride. In this instance, a unique piece of geography becomes two, each receiving a different cultural family and therefore a different cultural history – and having roots in neither made my visit an ever more thrilling experience.

Athina Kontos is writer/photographer from the UK spending the summer in New York