Kio mi volus fariĝi?

Today’s exercises focused on professions and higher education. I guess that is the best way to put it. Some clarifications I found noteworthy:

When you write a language, it is in the adjective form preceded by “la”. i.e. la japana. This is because the language is an abbreviated form of “la japana lingvo”. While is it true that a language is a noun, you are actually just describing the language type. Esperanto is of course an exception to this for a few reasons. First of all it is capitalized, no other foreign langagues have capitals at the beginning. Esperanto is in fact a noun, and there is no need to say “la esperanta lingvo”, although I suppose it would not be technically incorrect. Another thing, an English person is “anglo” where as an “esperantisto” is a person who speaks Esperanto. So there is not a lack of confusion between the language, and the people i.e. English language and English person, “la angla kaj anglo”.

When using the verbs “esti” or “fariĝi”, there is no object in the sentence, so there is no need to identify one by adding an “n” to the noun. Apparently these are the only two verbs that have restriction, but there are other reasons for not using an “n”. For instance, in a sentence that contains “da” which is used when there are countable amounts. I have four books. “Mi havas da kvar libroj.”, as opposed to saying “Mi havas librojn.”

The question for today’s lesson:
” Do passive participles require an "n" at the end of a noun?
I am not sure because it seems the there is an object, but the examples they give in the section on participles do not use them.”

Ĝis

Dum la somero...

Sorry about the lack of updates, but I had not received an email from my Language Helper until yesterday. I usually do not move on to the next lesson until I receive the corrections from the previous one.

In response to my previous inquiry:
“You can think of "plaĉi" and "ŝati" as working in opposite directions. So I could say "I like ice cream" and "Ice cream pleases me". "Mi ŝatas glaciaĵon" = I like ice cream. "Glaciaĵo plaĉas al mi" = Ice cream pleases me (or, 'Glaciaĵo plaĉas min' is also possible but this is not so common a wording)”
In addition, as it turns out “bv.” is short for “bonvulo”. Although, I am still not quite sure why it abbreviated when I looked up the word.

Today’s lesson was primarily about the weather. Vocabulary was assigned accordingly. When I was answering the questions today, I realized that I had been given only half of the useful vocabulary to write some of the answers I desired. Only after looking up the word “cool” (malvarmeta), did I remember that most words that are opposites of an existing or known word, are created by adding a prefix, suffix or both. This literally doubles the vocabulary without having all the extra words. Grandioza!

This afternoon I plan to do a little update to make the menu and links on the right more legible. On a more personal note, for some reason I have never noticed that a “ux” in Esperanto uses a breve (ŭ,Ŭ) instead of a circumflex (ĝ, Ĝ) as is the case with the rest of the alphabet. It has not been such big deal except that when I write things on paper, apparently I am writing them incorrectly. Nevertheless, it has been duly noted, and I will try to refrain from making this error again in the future.

Ĝis.

Rapide...

I have recreated the entire design and look of this blog. It will probably be only one of many, but future updates may not be quite as noticeable.

Ŝatokupo kaj hobio, kio estas ilia signifo?

One thing I have come to appreciate while learning the language is its simplicity. I often tell people who ask me about it, “It is like that game Othello (Reversi), it takes a moment to learn and a lifetime to master.” Although, I am not necessarily sure it takes a “lifetime”, but I do know its a great deal easier to catch on to things like grammar, sentence structure, and identification of parts of speech than any other language I have encountered. I only have the creator and a total lack of “exceptions to the rules” to thank for that. On that note I have one brief issue to address.

Apparently, in Esperanto, “ŝatokupo” and “hobio” are both words meaning “hobby”.
It is not really such a big deal that two words have the same meaning. Heck they have entire books devoted to the idea of synonyms. It is actually just the compound word structure that has gotten me in a tizzy. This concept puzzles me because the image that I get from a word like ”ŝatokupo” is a job that I like – I do not even know if there is an English word for that concept. This is one of the few things that gets me in Esperanto, the compound words. They seem to take to random words like “hand” and “job” and combine them to make “skillful”. I do not know if this is an actual compound I was just using it for an example, but I think I get my point across.

If you have not guessed it already, the topic of the lesson was “things people like to do for fun”, or something along those lines. One weird thing I noticed today. In Ana’s family pictures, Ana is blonde, but everyone else in her family has black hair. Where did she get blonde hair? I am almost sure the idea was to make her stand out as the main subject. Still, I think her dad may be the milk man.

Today's inquiry:
"About the verb plaĉi, I know it is somewhat different from ŝati in meaning, but when used in a sentence, is it only correct to say, "something is pleasing to something else" i.e. "La koloroj de la domo plaĉi al aĉentantoj." To clarify my question, is it possible to say things like "Mi estas plaĉi." or "La hundo plaĉis ĝia familio."
On a different note, when I looked up "please" it had the abbreviation "bv.", what is that short for?"
The bv. really has me puzzled. The only word I know so far that it might be is "bonvenon", but that is used for "welcome" in that sense that you are being welcomed, not you are welcome.

Rapide...

Just a quick one before bed. I updated the sidebar with a new word, and the links I mentioned earlier. If you get a chance check out the Global Voices, lots of good stuff there. Thanks again to Steve for the listings.
Bonan nokton!

Familio kaj koloroj

In response to yesterday’s inquiry:

“Tens and hundreds are joined to form one word.
dudek, tridek, ducent, tricent
Everything else should be spoken and written as separate words, including thousands.
dek unu, dek du, du mil”

The response I got from the Lernu helper pretty much said the same thing, but I actually took the above snippet from the link provided to me in that email. This has led me to a bit of a conundrum. There appears to be two different Lernu websites, at least as far as format is concerned. The one I typically use is http://www.lernu.net, the other one that my helper responds to is http://en.lernu.net. I know it does not seem like a big thing, but the website designs are radically different. Personally, I prefer the second one even though I found it later. They seem connected in that they both have my profile and track my “study plan” progress. Therefore, I guess in that aspect, there is no difference. Have a look at both; I am sure you will see what I mean.

About today’s work, I learned a bit more about Ana and her family. Therefore, there was A lot of new vocabulary in relation to families. My favorite word being “ĝemelo(j)”, meaning twin(s). It is very useful, but novel word to me. Ĉar mi havas multajn amikojn tio estas ĝemelojn. (I have many friends that are twins.) In addition, an amusing side note, while ĝemeloj means twins, gemeloj means “badgers of both genders”. I find that hilarious.

Also thanks to Steve for sending me the links, I will be adding those later on this evening.

Pli koncerne Ana Pana

I am slowly making my way through what is technically the second portion of my introduction to Esperanto. Slowly meaning that I do not do the lessons as often as I should, and not that the lessons are difficult to understand or follow. This portion of the course is designed around a girl named Ana Pana. Whereas the first lesson grouping centers on the travels of an alien named Zam, teaching you fun facts about different locations around the globe. This second set seems to have a similar learning setup, consisting of vocabulary, fill-in-the-blank, and listening exercises. So far, it does not do much more than describe Ana personally. Who she is, what she likes, and where she lives. It is almost too basic for a language that prides it self on simplicity.

Some new things that I am encountering are the brief notes on grammatical clarifications that you will run into in the dialogue. It introduces how to form words (nouns, verbs, etc...), interrogative statements, affixes, and so on. It also has prepositions, which may be a new idea to most speakers of American English.

There is also a section for listening. Comprehension is not the primary focus for this part of the exercise. I mean while it is important for you to understand what you are hearing. The goal is to see if you can transfer what you hear into the correct words.

A new part that I particularly enjoy is the writing comprehension portion. Not only does this give you the opportunity to use Esperanto for practical reading, but also, you have the chance to work on you sentence composition. I think both are key elements to learning a new language. You submit your answers via the website, and a person at Lernu corrects them in about twenty-four hours.

In addition to the answers you submit, you can post any additional comments or questions you have in a designated section beneath the Q & A. My question today was concerning the formation of number phrases, primarily when or when not to make them compound words. Ekzemple, in English we say "eighteen", one word. In Spanish "dieciocho", also one word. However, when I used "dekok" to answer a question about age, I was corrected with "dek ok". Since the correlation is not the same for the teens in this instance, I wanted to know if any of the numbers are written in a compound form. I also asked if there was a place I could practice them. Perhaps a math section, even though I hate those, I think it would be useful all the same.

I added a link to "Landoj kaj Lingvoj de la Mondo", or "Countries and Languages of the World". This is the place to go to get the "official" translations of places around the globe. In addition, if you live in the U.S., it provides the equivalents for all fifty states (sorry, no capitols). In addition, it provides languages spoken in that country. The one for the U.S. is also extensive here including languages belonging to Native Americans as well. Neat!

Unuavice

This is just a brief daily blog to record my foray into the world that is Esperanto. Eventually, once my progress has reached a point where I can post the blog entirely in Esperanto. I would also love to meet other Esperantistoj, and if you have a blog or site relevant to mine, then feel free to tell me. That way I can add you to my links. I would love to spread the word and have every opportunity to help the spread of such a useful tool.
Other than my regular posts, I plan to have some useful links, word/phrase of the day, and anything else I may that I think of in the future.