Interlinear books are bilingual translations where the original has a translation right below each word or expression. Try them out on Interlinear Books.
For multilingual verb conjugation, try CoolJugator - a tool that can currently conjugate in dozens of different languages. It also recognizes forms and provides examples for each verb.
West Timor, the part of Indonesia (and former Dutch colony). According to this article:
An Indonesian university, PGRI, will create a Portuguese language program in West Timor, announced the vice-rector Titus Bureni. "The main reason for beginning a Portuguese language course in our university is facilitating communicating with East Timor....East Timor and West Timor in Indonesia are located on the same archipelago and communication is important for a good relationship." PGRI is a higher-level institution dedicated to the teaching of sciences and training teachers, with locations in Cupang, West Timor, and Yogyakarta.
Here are four videos just uploaded in Indonesian featuring the first interview ever in the White House by an Indonesian TV channel. Obama intended to be visiting Indonesia at this time, but domestic concerns took precedence and the trip has been delayed to June. In the meantime though the videos provide some insight into not only his views on foreign policy in the region but also personal experience such as how much Indonesian he remembers (apparently he used to be fluent), and the entire interview has Indonesian subtitles too so those studying the language should watch the whole thing.
Putra Nababan has a Facebook page here, and a Twitter account here.
Since I already translated the video from Korean to English it was a simple process to then turn it into Lingua Franca Nova. Unfortunately YouTube rejected the video for being a duplicate of the last one so I uploaded it to DailyMotion instead. Since the original video is in Korean you can give this link to a friend who knows a Romance language instead of the one with English.
Here's a news report from summer of this year (August, I think) on the Cia-Cia language, a language that received some attention this year for its decision to use Korean hangul as its official script. The orthography for the language is as follows:
Consonants
ㄱ
ㄲ
ㄴ
ㄷ
ㅌ
ㄸ
ㄹ
ᄙ*
ㅁ
ㅂ
ㅸ
ㅍ
ㅃ
ㅅ
ㅇ**
ㅈ
ㅉ
ㅎ
romanized
g
k
n
d
dh
t
r ~ gh, l
m
b
v ~ w
bh
p
s
null, ’, ng
j
c
h
IPA
[ɡ]
[k]
[n]
[ɗ]
[d]
[t]
[r ~ ʁ, l]
[m]
[ɓ]
[β]
[b]
[p]
[s]
[-, ʔ, ŋ]
[dʒ]
[tʃ]
[h]
Vowels
ㅏ
ㅔ
ㅗ
ㅜ
ㅣ
ㅡ
romanized
a
e
o
u
i
null
What's interesting about this is that hangul is now a more accurate representation of the way the language is actually spoken than Korean itself, because though hangul is generally pretty easy to read it isn't a perfect representation of Korean - 조건 (term) for example is actually pronounced 조껀, the ㅎ in 싫어 (hate) is silent, so is the ㄹ in 흙 (earth), and so on, so some people actually do make spelling mistakes in Korean as well. That's what happens when a writing system is adopted but then the spoken language changes over time.
Also note that the woman in the news broadcast pronounces it as Bahasa Jjiajjia (since ㅉ in Korean is like a doubled j) but ㅉ actually represents a tʃ (English ch) sound in Cia-Cia. Chia-chia, not jjia-jjia.
Most languages choose to go with the Latin alphabet when devising a script, but the Korean government seems very taken by the idea of a language choosing to use hangul and so they are now receiving some preferential treatment from the Korean government including a trip from Dec. 21 to 26 to Seoul for nine people from the tribe (I assume the Korean/Seoul city government is paying for this) where they will hold a meeting with the mayor. Going with the Latin alphabet likely would have simply earned them a visit from a few dusty scholars and little else (certainly no media attention), so the extensive hands-on support and attention they are receiving from Korea after choosing to use hangul probably makes it worth it.
Working here, making eight times your former salary, learning the language and refining your professional skills = awesome
I think that's a good idea. Korea has the opposite problem in that it pays little attention to the actual ability of its foreign workers to adapt to the country and gives its workers little incentive to learn the language. Japan generally takes the opposite route though:
"I have the impression Japanese people are very strict about timekeeping and they work very quickly and carefully," Erli Ridwan, a 35-year-old nurse from Aceh, told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, a day after arriving.
Ridwan will be paid 152,500 yen ($1,390) a month, more than eight times what he earned at a Jakarta hospital, to work as a nurse's assistant.
In return he and his compatriots must study for and pass a nurse's licence in Japanese -- a language he barely speaks at present -- within three years, or leave the country.
"Personally I think it would be good if they could work without these restrictions," Indonesian ambassador to Tokyo Jusuf Anwar told the news conference.
With more than a quarter of Japanese expected to be aged over 65 by 2015, the country faces a labour shortage that could weigh on growth.
That sounds reasonable to me. I would expect that most other people would jump at the chance to live and work in a country making eight times their salary with the opportunity to learn a new language at the same time, as well as go over their studies one more time in the new language to make themselves even better at what they do.
On the cultural differences:
Apart from language concerns, employers in largely secular Japan must deal with the unfamiliar religious practices of staff from mostly Muslim Indonesia.
Television has shown hospital managers anxiously consulting compasses to calculate the best places for the new arrivals to pray in the direction of Mecca.
Dietary requirements will also be a sticking point. Pork is a staple of the Japanese diet and drinking alcohol with colleagues is a long-standing custom.
Nothing wrong with any of that. Consulting the direction of Mecca is no big deal, and nobody should have to eat or drink anything they don't want to anyway.
This paper in Japanese by the way says that there's another test for care workers, but this one must be passed within four years:
For half a year, after studying Japanese, they study while working in health institutions and nursing facilities. Nurses have to pass a national test within three years and care workers within four years, or they will have to leave the country.
Read more...
