Christmas Tip #1: Gothic Calligraphy

Image by Juan Manuel

Despite my terrible handwriting, I take the time to write (at least the names of) Christmas cards in Gothic calligraphy. Here are 5 reasons why you should do the same:

1. Writing in Gothic script preserves history.

Writings in blackletter have been done since the 12th Century AD. 


2. You don't necessarily need to have a calligraphy pen to write in the script.

Though a calligraphy or a fountain pen would be ideal, you still have a similar effect with a fine-liner. 

3. German-speaking areas used blackletter the longest.

Though, it did not originate in Germany, the Gothic script was used for the German language until the 20th Century, this is where the association of the Gothic script with Germany came from. Things associated with German culture (or come from Germany) often relate to the Christmas theme, for example: pfefferkuchen, Christmas carols (many are German in origin), Christmas trees and stollen.

What language fits your personality?

Language is communication. Communication in different parts evolved to be more beneficial for those who speak it. These changes gave the language a 'personality'. Lets find out what language suits your personality. This is my expression of these languages. 

Creative Common by Enric Archivell

Spanish:
An easy to spell and pronounce language which has a Latin American exoticness. If it was a food it would be spicy without too much to burn on your tongue. It can be helpful with business, if you live in the Americas. It can be seen as a travellers language as it is the second most spoken language after Chinese. 

Creative Common by Doug

Creative Common by Fingle

Travel Review: Cuckoo Restaurant - Photo Blog

On, Sunday I went to the Cuckoo for Christmas in July (sadly for us antipodeans we don't get a white Christmas). The Cuckoo is a smorgasbord buffet restaurant in Mt Dandedong which can become cold and it has snowed there in the past. It gives the impression that you are in a mountain forest in Germany.

What to chose, what to chose?

Serving 1

Serving 2

Serving 3

Serving 4 (starting to feel like
 'the very hungry caterpillar')

Liam, the Pancake maker

Impressive...

Sarah, who sang some songs from
'the sound of music', Christmas carols
and played the cow bells.

This is the world's biggest Cuckoo
clock (that works)

The building is a lot higher from the ground than
the photo makes it look.

The Cuckoo also has flags from around the world to welcome international guests.

Australia!

France

UK

Denmark and Poland

USA

Greece, India, Japan, Croatia and USA (again)

Vietnam, Hong Kong, Finland and Malaysia

Ireland, China, Estonia, Mauritius and Indonesia

Chile, China (again) and South Korea

Overall, I recommend going to the Cuckoo (on an empty stomach and feeling a bit cuckoo). :)


The Cuckoo Restaurant
http://www.cuckoorestaurant.com.au/
508 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road Olinda Victoria Australia 3788
Telephone: +61-3-9751 1003 
http://www.facebook.com/Cuckoo.Restaurant

What languages are harder to learn - Photo Blog

Source: http://zidbits.com/2011/04/what-is-the-hardest-language-to-learn/

I believe the table is missing German and Indonesian / Malay. If I was going to add them, I would have German in the bottom of the easy list or at the top of the medium list. I would have also put Indonesian in Medium only because of the diverse vocabulary (Indonesian has a lot of loanwords from Malay, English, Dutch, Spanish, Chinese languages, Portuguese, Sanskrit and Arabic). Indonesian grammar is simpler than Spanish and other Romance languages, the sentence structure is logical and there is no tense. Also questions can be made out of sentences very easily. E.g. Saya tinggal di... (I live in...), Anda tinggal di mana? / Di mana anda tinggal? (Where do you live?).

I agree with 80% of the table but the only fact I disagree with is that it takes 88 weeks to learn Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Arabic because Benny Lewis learnt to speak relatively fluent Mandarin in 3 months.  

What do you think of this picture? Please write your thoughts in the comment section below.

Should I learn Chinese or German?

En español

When you decide to learn a language, you may find yourself in a situation where you want to learn two languages, but do not know to choose one over the other. 
I have come up with an educated solution to this problem by creating a table with properties of a language. For those who are deciding between Chinese (Zhōngwén) and German (Deutsch) you're in luck. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincrosbie/4712869739/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjuel/5604964197/

	Chinese	German	What is the better choice?
Countries	Officially: PRC, ROC and  Singapore. Widely understood: Malaysia and Hong Kong but also spoken worldwide.	Officially: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy, Belgium.	Either, both spoken in many places.
Number of Native Speakers	Around 1.2 billion people  (2005)	Around 98 million people (2005)	Chinese
Pronunciation	Tones, most sounds don’t exist in English	Quite easy to pronounce, except for ü, ch and ch in the middle of a word.	German
Grammar	No flexion, very easy syntax	Gender, many word endings, verbs at end of phrase	Chinese
Vocabulary	Words are normally made up of one - two syllables	Long analytical vocabulary (words can be build upon themselves)	Chinese
Language Group	Sino-Tibetan	Germanic (along with English, Dutch, Swedish and other languages)	German
Writing System	No relationship to sound of the word. Made up of characters.	Very phonetic due to spelling reform. Nouns are written in capitals so you can recognise them easily, which speeds up reading.	German
Tally	3 Chinese	3 German	1 Either

http://www.flickr.com/photos/strandell/2658759725/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_p/3344862675/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/4179921545/in/photostream/

Overall, it comes down to whether you want to travel or are on a business trip to Europe or Asia. If you want an easy language to read and write, learn German, if you want a language with easy grammar, learn Chinese. If you still can’t decide, you can always flip a coin.

Danke / 谢谢 

What language should you learn?

There are many reasons to learn a language such as being useful for business, it is useful for traveling and it helps you understand how difficult or easy your mother toungue is. If you learn an 'easy' language you will realise that your native language is more difficult than you thought and vice versa with more difficult languages. I have made a quiz to help you decide what language should you learn.
What language should you learn?
I hope you enjoy it.