Tue, 30 October 2007
Just how similar are the Baltic States to one another? Not as much as one might think. Raminta’s book Ramintos knyga Great, now let’s do some nouns that end in –ė. Eglė changes to Eglės So, please repeat… Eglė’s book Eglės knyga Alright, study hard because on the next lesson we’ll dig even deeper into kilmininkas and it’ll be a more challenging lesson. To see Raminta's article in the newspaper Amerikos Lietuvis, go here: http://www.alietuvis.com/391/vakaru_lt.html
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Tue, 30 October 2007
According to Wikipedia, in the ancient Lithuanian religion, Perkūnas is the Lithuanian God of thunder, the God of the sky, the Lord of rain, mountains, oak trees and storms. Quite a powerful god indeed. First, let’s go over the vardininkas or nominative declension of the country’s names in Lithuanian. Prašom pakartoti… Egiptas Egypt Now, to say, “I’m from…", we use the genitive or kilmininkas. Prašom pakartoti… I’m from Egypt Aš iš Egipto Great, now let’s say “I’m Australian" or “I’m Brazilian" from a man and a woman’s perspective… I’m Egyptian Aš Egiptietis Fantastic, now keep in mind, that later on, it might be easier if, just for fun, you “Lithuanianize" your name. For example, I use Džiakas when I’m in Lithuania because it’s easier. If you’re not sure how to make your name into something that makes sense in Lithuanian, just contact us and we can help. Saulė the Sun
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Thu, 25 October 2007
Have you ever looked at the ten litas or dešimt litų bank note, seen the pilots and the airplane and wondered what it’s all about? The pilots are Lithuanian national heroes (Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas). They were Lithuanian emigrants to the United States and on 15 July 1933 they flew across the Atlantic Ocean covering 6,411 kilometers without landing. A total of 37 hours, 11 minutes in the air. This was also the first ever transatlantic air mail consignment in history. Today we want to get away from grammar just a bit and teach you some common phrases that you should be able to pop out of your mouth when you need them. Please repeat prašom pakartoti Keep in mind, the sentence, Aš mokausi lietuviškai, can be translated as, I study Lithuanian or I’m studying Lithuanian
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Mon, 22 October 2007
Hey Everybody! We'd love to have everyone join the party at Lithuanian Out Loud. Check out our newest comment on the blogpage. Now, don't be shy, we'd be thrilled to hear from you! Oho! Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson. We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian - Out Loud! Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! America Amerika
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Sat, 20 October 2007
In 2003, in front of international reporters, a Lithuanian ex-President said that he was as calm as a Belgian. This caused quite a stir in Belgium. This is a common saying in Lithuania but Belgians had no idea another nation thought of them as being calm. What did they do to deserve this recognition for calmness? Nobody knows. By the way, the name Raminta also comes from the root word for “calm" in Lithuanian. The next time you want to say you’re as cool as a cucumber…just say, “Aš ramus, kaip Belgas." I’m as calm as a Belgian. ramus calm note: in Lithuanian, names of nations are capitalized; nationalities are not. Also, Lithuanians often drop the verb, "to be" or "būti." You can say, "Ji yra Dovilė" - "She is Dovilė," or "Jis yra Andrius" - "He is Andrius." But it's okay to say, "Ji Dovilė" or "Jis Andrius." America Amerika
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Sat, 20 October 2007
Our friend writes…”There are no words in Lithuanian for boyfriend or girlfriend. Lithuanians refer only to the words “draugas,” which means a male friend and “draugė,” which means female friend. But, of course, that doesn’t convey quite what we’re looking for here. A more appropriate term would be “partner,” “partneris” for a male and “partnerė” for a female. You could also refer to someone as “gyvenimo draugas” or “gyvenimo draugė.” If a man says, “čia – mano gyvenimo draugas” or “čia – mano partneris” you would understand that he is gay. Let’s go over some terms… same sex partner translates as “tos pačios lyties partneris” for men and “tos pačios lyties partnerė” for women. “tos pačios” is derived from “tas pats” which means “same” tos pačios same “lyties” is derived from the word, “lytis” or “sex” and “partneris” or “partner.” same sex partner tos pačios lyties partneris (male) the word for friend is draugas or draugė. These are very common words in Lithuanian. draugas a male friend the word for partner is partneris or partnerė partneris a male partner
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Sat, 20 October 2007
In today’s episode Jack will mention Grūto Parkas near the Lithuanian city of Druskininkai. By mentioning this controversial park, Jack and I are not commenting on the right or wrong of the park’s existence. Some people like the park, some people hate it, some people don’t care. We’re simply saying the park is of interest for some tourists. Of course millions of people died savagely at the hands of monsters like Lenin and Stalin and no mass murderers should receive a place of honor in any nation. būti verb meaning, “to be" Lithuanian doesn’t use the article, such as “a” or “the.” We don’t say, “the book,” or “a book,” we simply say, “book.”
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Sat, 13 October 2007
Botswana and Brazil come aboard for Lithuanian lessons! No lie? Today we go over some expressions a Lithuanian makes when she/he is surprised. Oho! Wow! Raminta is finally on her way back home and Jack is looking forward to getting a break from walking the dog. Cute dog, but tiring! If anyone would like to send us a plug or a promo, email it to us or call our voicemail. Enjoy the lesson! jo? really? aš labai myliu savo žmoną I really love my wife email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Here’s the Akropolis Mall in Vilnius, Lithuania:
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Fri, 12 October 2007
Akropolis Mall north of Vilnius is a must see attraction, but if you buy something, make sure it's what you want; it's very difficult to return gifts. Akropolis was Lithuania's first super-mall. It's a one of the fun sites to see if you visit Vilnius. Today you learn how to say "I'm from..." This is our first introduction to the genitive declension or kilmininkas. Kilmininkas is the most used declension after vardininkas or the naming case. Pilies gatvė Castle street Amerika changes to Amerikos I'm from America Aš iš Amerikos Labas aš Raminta, aš iš Lietuvos, malonu email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Thanks to: CCMixter.org, ditto ditto, and Vieux Farka Touré for allowing us to use the music for this podcast.
Direct download: 22_071008_LL0022_-_kilmininkas_genit.mp3
Category:Language Course -- posted at: 3:49pm MST
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Thu, 11 October 2007
Oho! Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson. We'll say the word or words in English, you respond in Lithuanian - Out Loud. We know you've been studying hard so this will be easy! Good luck and keep repeating until you perfect it. ~Raminta and Jack :) (greeting a man) health! sveikas! email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Thanks to: CCMixter.org, ditto ditto, and Vieux Farka Touré for allowing us to use the music for this podcast.
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Wed, 10 October 2007
These are the show notes for episodes 11-20 in a pdf. Now, what is a pdf? This is simply a file that allows you to see the Lithuanian text from the episodes in a down-loadable file. You can download this file by right clicking here: Lithuanian_Out_Loud_11-20_Notes.pdf Just right click on this line with your mouse and click on "save target as." Save the file on your computer and then open it whenever you feel like it. Or, you can just left click on this link and your computer will open the file now. Of course, you will need Adobe Acrobat reader on your computer to read the file, but Adobe Acrobat is a free program. Or, you can just download this file through iTunes. If you have subscribed to Lithuanian Out Loud on iTunes, these files will come to you automatically. Raminta and Jack :)
Direct download: Lithuanian_Out_Loud_11-20_Notes.pdf
Category:Language Course -- posted at: 8:43pm MST
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Wed, 10 October 2007
Raminta is in Moscow this week as a guest of the Lithuanian Embassy digging into the Russian archives for her new book. Too bad Jack is stuck at home painting the house. The one thing you need to take from this episode is that the nominative or naming case is called, "vardininkas" in Lithuanian. declension = case nominative case vardininkas email Raminta and Jack at: lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Thanks to: CCMixter.org, ditto ditto, and Vieux Farka Touré for allowing us to use the music for this podcast.
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Sun, 30 September 2007
This week you learn where to party in Vilnius and how to ask for the restroom after drinking too heavily. On the blogpage you'll find a link for watching Lithuanian television. We’ll also go through the Lithuanian alphabet. You should learn it, but if you don’t want to, well, no worries. Enjoy! Vilnius hotspots recommended by Raminta: Recommended book: Trise Prieš Mafiją kudakuoja ir kudakuoja cackle and cackle Here's the alphabet. In parenthesis is the pronunciation. Kur? Where? In Lithuanian we often drop the verb, "to be." So, here we can drop "yra." Kur tualetas? Where's the toilet? To view Lithuanian television: http://www.tv.lt/mconsole.asp Thanks to: CCMixter.org, ditto ditto, and Vieux Farka Touré for allowing us to use the music for this podcast.
Direct download: 19_071001_LL019_-_tualetas_restroom.mp3
Category:Language Course -- posted at: 10:01pm MST
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