#duolingo notes

1/100 days of productivity

These are notes from duolingo. I know a lot of people use the app, so I am going to be posting the notes as I go along. these are for the Japanese Greetings notes. 

Saying Thank You

The phrase "thank you" in Japanese is dependent on the situation. Below is a table of the most common forms, from least to most formal. Note that the formality increases with the length of the phrase.

Japanese  ||  Explanation

どうも   

Thanks, used with friends.

ありがとう   

  Thank you, used with friends.

どうもありがとう    

Thank you very much, used with friends.

ありがとうございます   

Thank you, used with strangers, teachers, and bosses.

どうもありがとうございます   

 Thank you very much, used with strangers, teachers, and bosses.

Saying Thank You for a Past Action

If you'd like to thank someone for something they did in the past, you change the ございます ending to ございました。

Japanese  || Explanation

ありがとうございました

Thank you for what you did, used with strangers, teachers, and bosses.

どうもありがとうございました

....so I lost my notes for Swahili when I was taking the class...so. Let’s just start all over! and this time, we’re going to start with Duolingo! so the notes you’ll be seeing are from there, unless otherwise stated. 

So this is just from the introduction module. I’m sure I can find some good resources for this language soon. why did I get rid of them? lmao.

moving on~~~~ so this is just for learning how to say the words. I’ll go into other things later but for now, it’s always good to start with the basics!

Pronunciation

Kiswahili pronunciation is, for the most part, easy for a learner whose first language is English. The language has a five vowel system represented by the letter, a, e, i, o, and u, (like Spanish), and most of its consonants are quite similar to English ones. The following points need to be kept in mind when learning Kiswahili pronunciation:

Kiswahili words are stressed. With a few notable exceptions, stress is placed on the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable, e.g. bába father, káka brother etc. The exceptions are: lázima necessary, obligation; núsura almost, etc. (The accent ‘used here to indicate stress.)

Kiswahili vowels are pronounced as follows:

The letter a is approximately pronounced as in English father, e.g. baba-father The letter e is approximately pronounced as in English debt, e.g. nene-fat The letter i is approximately pronounced as in English bee, e.g. bibi-grandmother The letter o is approximately pronounced as in English row, e.g. mtoto-child The letter u is approximately pronounced as in English moon, e.g. bubu-dumb person

All vowels are pronounced clearly and distinctly regardless of the position of the vowel in a word. They are never pronounced reduced (i.e schwa) as the second vowel in water and butter. Double vowels as in kaa, baa, taa, etc. are pronounced long. Dissimilar vowels as in pea, paua, zuia, etc. are pronounced distinctly as separate syllables; they are not pronounced like a sequence of two vowels one blending into the other as the English diphthong which is considered to form a single syllable.

Kiswahili consonants are pronounced as follows:

p, t, ch, k are pronounced as in English pea, tea, cheer, keeprespectively, Examples are: paa-roof, taa-lamp, choo-toilet,kaa-crab

b, d, j, g are pronounced as in English big, dig, jog, giverespectively. Examples are: baa-bar, dada-sister, jaa-fill, gugu-weed

m, n, are pronounced as in English. Examples are: mama-mother, nane-eight

ng’ is pronounced like ng in long, bring, sing. Examples are: ng’aa-shine, ng’ombe-cow, ng’amua-realize

ny is pronounced as ni as in the word onion. Examples are: nyanya-tomatoes, nyinyi-you all, manyunyu-drizzle

nj is pronounced like the nge sound in the word fringe. Examples are: njano-yellow, njegere-peas

th, dh are pronounced as English th in thick and this, respectively, Examples are: thelathini-thirty, dhambi-sin

s, z are pronounced as English. Examples are: saa-time, watch, clock, zaa-give birth

sh is pronounced as in English she. Examples: shangaa-be surprised, shinda-win

h is pronounced as in English he. Examples are habari-news, information

f, v are pronounced like the initial sounds in the English words fail, veil respectively, Examples are: faa-be of use, vaa-wear, dress (cloth)

r, l, w, y are pronounced as the initial sounds in the English words; rain, lawyer, way, yes, respectively. Examples are: radi-thunder, lala-sleep, wewe-you (singular), yeye-s/he.

I’ve decided to use Evernote to take and store some digital notes from Duolingo. I have a folder for the minor languages I look at once in a while from Duolingo, and am planning on making other folders involving my target languages I want to really improve this year - mostly French & Italian. 

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I’ve really been slacking lately on language learning. I’ve been beyond busy so far this year, so I haven’t had a lot of time to really focus on learning languages and following an organized schedule to do so. I knew that this year I would only be able to lightly study, so that’s the plan, I guess. I’ll just strive to become more knowledgeable in my target languages (maybe with reading and vocabulary) and some other languages I am interested in for a day by using Duolingo, but probably won’t gain much progress. That’s OK, I plan on at least maintaining what I know and doing some light studying when I have the time. 

2/100 days of productivity