Sun, 11 May 2008  Lithuanian Out Loud 0078 Beg - Jis Truputi Supranta He Understands A Little - Voicemail 206-202-4745 Hi there, I’m Jack and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. There are three things that we haven’t been very happy with on our podcasts. Number one is audio. Whenever Raminta is on the road we record the episodes using Skype. It’s a great tool but the quality just isn’t the best. Just so you know, we’re working on this problem and we think we’ve come up with an answer. When Raminta is on a trip we’re going to use Skype but I’ll have a Zoom H2 recorder sitting in front of me and Raminta will have an H2 sitting in front of her. After we’re done recording she’ll send me her audio file, I’ll slap both our files together and we should have some super audio. It’s exciting to me. Photograph: House of Perkūnas The second thing we haven’t been happy with is variety on the episodes. We love doing the basics but we’d like to do more intermediate material. We’ve got some interesting stuff planned and you should start to see more intermediate episodes by the end of May or early June. The third thing we aren’t happy with is the Lithuanian characters that can be viewed on ipods. That’s a technical problem that I don’t understand yet. Hopefully soon, I will understand it. Well we’re up to 19 positive reviews on our iTunes page. Our goal is 50. So, thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to leave us a review. If you haven’t left us a review yet, we’d love to have one from you. Also, we have about 50 episodes drawn up and ready to go. As soon as Raminta gets back from her current trip in Chicago, New York City and Washington DC, we plan to record dozens of episodes. So, expect to see many more episodes in about three weeks. Until then, we have about four episodes already recorded so we can continue to bring you at least one episode a week. These next four episodes will include two episodes with native Lithuanian speaking guest hosts. We hope you enjoy them. Hey, this is Cami from Atlanta and you’re listening to Lithuanian Out Loud with Raminta and Jack – enjoy! Hey Cami! Thanks for the plug! You’re super! We appreciate the time you took to contribute to the show. Anyone else like to leave us a plug? We’re listening! And now, on with the show Raminta and I recorded about four weeks ago using Skype. Enjoy! --- Okay, here we go, are you ready Baby? Okay, now I’m not tired, everything is going so good! Okay, here we go. Hi there, I’m Raminta. Oh, no, I’m Raminta. I’m sorry, I got confused. Hi there I’m Jack and I’m Raminta – prašom (as in please, go ahead) and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. Today we’re in the month of May which in Lithuanian is gegužė. According to the Wikipedia page entitled, House of Perkūnas or Perkūno namas, the House of Perkūnas in Kaunas is one of the most original Gothic buildings in Lithuania. It was built by the Hanseatic League in the late 1400s. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading guilds that had a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea between the 13th and 17th centuries. Perkūno namas was sold in the 16th century to Jesuits. At the end of the 19th century it was renamed as the "House of Perkūnas" when a figurine that resembled Perkūnas was found in one of its walls. Today, Perkūno namas is a museum. Aha, have you heard about this house, Dear? Perkūno – yeah, I heard about that but what a shame I never have been there. I want you to take me please. Okay, I will take you and myself. aš turiu klausimą, aš truputį kalbu lietuviškai, o tu? mano brolis is calling! okay, now we can start with pradėkime. Ah, labai gerai dear, you said that really, really nice. Thank you, nicely done. Nicely done, much more similar to a native speaker. I know, but dear I haven’t enough practice. a little truputį he speaks a little Indonesian jis truputį kalba indoneziškai I understand a little Swahili aš truputį suprantu svahiliškai šiek tiek also means a little aš suprantu lietuviškai – šiek tiek a little šiek tiek I understand, a little aš suprantu – šiek tiek I speak Russian, a little aš kalbu rusiškai – šiek tiek I understand Spanish, a little aš suprantu ispaniškai – šiek tiek one of my favorite phrases to say, even if it‘s not always true, is I understand almost everything aš suprantu beveik viską Šaunu! Great! You made it to the end of another episode! Nuostabu! Wonderful! Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. House of Perkūnas http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[4] |
Sun, 4 May 2008  Hi there, I’m Raminta – Oh, you’re not Raminta. Hi there, I’m Raminta and I’m Jack and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. Hey! We’re in a new month. In English this month is called May, after the Greek goddess Maia. The Romans associated Maia with their own goddess Bona Dea, the “good goddess.” She’s the goddess of fertility, virginity, and women. Bona Dea had festivals in this month. In Lithuanian this month is called Gegužė. Gegužė is derived from gegutė, the cuckoo bird. The call of the cuckoo tells everyone spring has arrived. Woohoo! Good news. I’m ready for spring. Photograph: The Cuckoo France and Lithuania are the two most nuclear power dependant nations in the world. In 2004, 80% of Lithuania’s electrical power came from nuclear power according to the Wikipedia page entitled, Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. As a condition of joining the European Union, Lithuania agreed to close Ignalinos atominė elektrinė. Why is Lithuania required to close it down? Safety. Unfortunately, the nuclear power plant at Ignalina is of the same design as the Chernobyl reactor which exploded in 1986, spraying Europe with airborne radioactive waste. Not only that, but the reactor is built on a tectonic fault and the United States Department of Energy has named Ignalina one of the most dangerous nuclear installations in the world. There’s a lively debate today in Lithuania as to when a new nuclear power plant should be built to replace the plant at Ignalina. pradėkime, let’s get started. labai gerai. Previously we studied the verb kalbėti, to speak. Today we’ll learn to conjugate suprasti - to understand. Kaip pasakyti lietuviškai? How do you say it in Lithuanian? I understand aš suprantu Now, we’ll go over some sentences but first we’ll introduce the word, tik – only. only tik I understand English aš suprantu angliškai Šaunu! Great! You made it to the end of another episode! Nuostabu! Wonderful! Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[0] |
Sun, 27 April 2008  Vienas, vienas, vienas! Crazy guys, with you again! Okay, European Route 67 is a highway that runs through Lithuania on its way between Prague and Helsinki. It’s known as the Via Baltica and the section between Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki is covered by ferries that depart 20 times daily. Oh, so nice, you speak so well. Oh, thank you. To improve the Via Baltica, Poland plans to build the Augustow bypass through the Rospuda Valley Wetlands just south of the Lithuanian border. The European Union filed an injunction against this work because of the damage it would cause to the protected wetlands. Poland faces fines if it continues with the project. Map: Europe Highway E67 --- Hey there! Before Raminta and I get to the episode we recorded about six weeks ago, I wanted to go over some notes. A listener wrote in with a good question asking about some terms of endearment we went over in previous episodes; meile, mylimoji, mylimasis, brangioji, and brangusis. The question is, can you use these terms with children as well or only with adult couples? Meile, mylimasis and mylimoji should be used between couples. Brangioji and brangusis can be used between adults or with children. Thanks for the interesting question! Another listener wrote in to correct us on something. Lietuviškai, angliškai, ispaniškai etc. are in fact adverbs, not adjectives as we described them previously. Thanks to David in Boston for catching the mistake, we appreciate the great editing job! Thanks to everyone who answered our call for more iTunes reviews, today we have 18 reviews and we really appreciate your efforts. If you have an iTunes account and if you enjoy Lithuanian Out Loud, our goal is to have 50 positive reviews and we’d really appreciate you writing one for us. If you don’t have an iTunes account, just ask someone who has one to leave your review for you. Thanks and we’ll be anxiously watching for those reviews. Alright! On with the program. - kaip jūs kalbate? To add negation to a sentence it’s easy. Just add ne- to the beginning of the verb. He speaks Lithuanian - Jis kalba lietuviškai. He doesn’t speak Lithuanian – Jis nekalba lietuviškai. I don’t speak aš nekalbu Now let’s do some complete sentences – Good luck! Sėkmės! I don’t speak English aš nekalbu angliškai atleiskite is a word that is basically means the same as atsiprašau pardon me atleiskite Gerai! Šaunu! Great! You made it to the end of another episode! Nuostabu! Wonderful! Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. European Route 67 http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[0] |
Wed, 23 April 2008  Hi there, I’m Jack and I’m Raminta and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. According to the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Šiauliai is the home to the Hill of Crosses or Kryžių kalnas. Beginning around 1831 people started leaving crosses on the hill. During the Soviet Occupation of Lithuania between 1944 and 1990 the Russians bulldozed the hill three times but the crosses, crucifixes, carvings of national heros, effigies and rosaries were rebuilt. There are no official rules regarding the hill so anyone who wishes can leave an object of their choosing. photograph: The Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, Lithuania Oh, did you know, that we, I think it was 19…1985 when my grandmother, my father and me drove to the Hill Cross of Šiauliai and left a cross and my father was digging and my grandma…and I was playing there and we were kind of…fast, fast, fast, that nobody would see. Why? Oh, you had to go fast because of the Soviets. Right somebody can, you know, you can get into trouble. Ah, so it was at night or during the day? At day, at day, people - it was there, like you know, it was destroyed but then again people would do that. And they really didn’t want that somebody would see and then it would be really bad with their job and everything, you know so you wanted to be fast. Oh, that’s a cool story, I didn’t know. Thank you. In Lithuania, the first day of the week is Monday or pirmadienis. Lithuanians and the English have very different methods of naming the days of the week. In English the days of the week are capitalized, in Lithuanian you don’t generally do that unless the day of the week is the first word in a sentence. Just to demonstrate how different the names of the days of the week are in these two cultures, let’s run through the English system… Sunday comes from the Germanic Sun-nan-dag – a day to worship the Sun God. In Lithuanian, basically, we say first-day, second-day, third-day, etcetera. Let’s learn how to say, first, second, third – all days of the week are masculine. first pirmas The Lithuanian word for day is, diena, which is feminine. Of course, we’ve used this in the phrase, laba diena. Now, let’s go over the days of the week. Monday pirmadienis (sunki diena - hard day) So, Raminta, before we do the last day, Sunday, if it follows this pattern, this day must be called septintadienis, right? Oh well, what are you going to do? Okay, so Sunday diverts from this system just a little. Sunday sekmadienis Šaunu! Great! You made it to the end of another episode! Šaunu! English days of the week Hill of Crosses http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[4] |
Tue, 22 April 2008 Keturioliktas Egzaminas. This is a quick response episode! We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian – Out Loud! It’s too late for questions, the exam starts now. Ready, set, go! this, that tai Comments[0] |
Mon, 21 April 2008 Tryliktas Egzaminas. This is a quick response episode! We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian – Out Loud! Too late for questions, the exam starts now. Ready, set, go! how are you? kaip sekasi? Comments[0] |
Sun, 20 April 2008 Okay, so are you ready to do another lesson? Let’s work with energy, with energy please! Woohoo! I’m excited too! Hi there, I’m Jack and I’m Raminta and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. Today we’re in the month of April which in Lithuanian is balandis. The common word in Lithuanian for horse is arklys. According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Ašvieniai, another word for horse is ašvienis. Is that true? You know I – first time hear that word. Aha, interesting, the first time you heard this word, huh? It’s like really old maybe or something – you’d never understand what it… In the old Lithuanian religion ašvieniai are twin spirits carved into the roof of some houses to protect the house from evil spirits. Sometimes ašvieniai are presented as the twin horses who pull Saulė’s chariot through the sky. (note: in this episode we describe angliškai, lietuviškai, ispaniškai, itališkai, etcetera, as adjectives, when in fact, they are adverbs. Thanks to David of Boston for catching the error. We apologize for the mistake.) Kalbėti is the infinitive or base verb, to speak, kaip pasakyti lietuviškai? How do you say it in Lithuanian? I speak aš kalbu Let’s go over some languages. Lithuanian lietuviškai ar tu nori kalbėti ispaniškai? (do you want to speak spanish?) Malaysian malaiziškai The words angliškai, lietuviškai, ispaniškai, itališkai, etcetera, are actually adjectives. Angliškai means, “in the English way.” Lietuviškai means, “in the Lithuanian fashion or style.” The adjectives lietuviškas, angliškas, itališkas, etcetera, describe something as being in the Lithuanian, English or Italian style. For example, a Lithuanian name – lietuviškas vardas, a Lithuanian (style) house - lietuviškas namas, an English (style) automobile – angliškas automobilis. Can you say, “Italian word” – “itališkas žodis?” Yeah, you can say – yes - itališkas žodis - itališkas žodis When we say turkiškai, olandiškai, or ispaniškai, we’re saying, in effect, in the Turkish way or style, in the Dutch manner or style, in the Spanish manner or style. When we refer to the Lithuanian language as lietuviškai or English as angliškai, we’re using the plural of lietuviškas and angliškas because many people speak in the Lithuanian way or in the English manner. Nicely done, nicely done, you speak excellent English. Oh, yeah, I know, thank you. So, lietuviškas, angliškas, itališkas and ispaniškas are changed to lietuviškai, angliškai, itališkai and ispaniškai because many people speak these languages. We’ll go over more on the rules of using adjectives in future episodes. The important thing to remember here is that when we say, aš kalbu lietuviškai, we’re not exactly saying, I speak the Lithuanian language, we’re literally saying, I speak in the Lithuanian fashion. Great, now let’s combine some languages with the verb kalbėti. what languages do you speak? kaip jūs kalbate? O, Raminta, prašom kalbėti lietuviškai, kaip tu kalbi? aš kalbu lietuviškai Ah, by saying, kaip tu kalbi, is this not saying, what languages do you speak, or not? No, not really, no, no, no, no, no. You would say – you would translate – kaip jūs kalbate? – how do you speak? Aha, kaip jūs kalbate, how do you speak? Yeah. So, what do you think about this translation? What languages do you speak, kaip jūs kalbate? No, it’s not correct to tell the truth.. But, it’s not that bad, you know, kaip jūs kalbate, when you – I don’t know, it’s not like really bad. So, what languages do you speak? kaip jūs kalbate? now, just to be clear, this is not a literal translation. Literally we’re saying, “how do you speak?” I speak English aš kalbu angliškai Great, on an upcoming episode we’ll study kalbėti some more. (Antik the dog barking – a pug) Oh, my goodness! Antikai, stop it – at the end of the lesson! Ateik čia! (come here) Nuostabu! Wonderful! You made it to the end of another episode! Nuostabu! Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. Ašvieniai http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[0] |
Sun, 13 April 2008 Hi, this is David in Boston and you’re listening to Lithuanian Out Loud, the first and foremost Lithuanian language lesson series via podcast. Let Raminta and Jack be your guides to this unique and beautiful language. And now, here’s Raminta and Jack. Hey David in Boston! Thanks a million for the plug. Great job! You must have your own radio show right? Well, we really appreciate you taking the trouble to do that for us. The more people we have involved in the show, the more fun it is. David also left us some other comments that we’ll use in an upcoming episode. Thanks, David. If anyone else would like to leave us a plug, we’d love to have one from you. Before we get to the episode Raminta and I recorded a few weeks ago we want let you know we appreciate those of you who’ve helped with the iTunes reviews. Our goal is to have 50 positive reviews on iTunes. As of today, we have 15. Can you help us out? Even if you don’t use iTunes, if you know someone who does, just ask them to leave the review for you. Nothing wrong with that, right? Thanks! We appreciate it. It’s the only way we can move up in the iTunes rankings. Also, thanks to all of you who are listening, we now have over 40,000 downloads of our podcasts and we’re breaking 1,000 downloads a day. Allright, on with the show! Hi there, I’m Jack and I’m Raminta and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language. Today we’re in the month of April which in Lithuanian is balandis. The Lithuanian name for a good friend or a special friend is bičiulis. This word comes from the special place the honeybee has in Lithuanian culture. A bee is - bitė. Bičius is a beekeeper. Fellow beekeepers called each other bičiulis, the diminutive for bičius. Some words that follow this theme are: male friend bičiulis do you call any of your friends bičiulė? You know, not so much but it’s a good idea to use that word it’s so cute – word. It’s very cute. What do you think Gintarė will say, or Dovilė, if you say Dovile – Bičiule! What do you think? I think they will – I will try – actually I will try – I will tell how they were acting, I have no idea – but I would use that if there is a lot of my friends sitting in the room and I’m coming and introducing a new person to them and I’m saying to this new person, I’m saying, this is my bičiuliai. O, kaip pasakyti lietuviškai? (how do you say it in Lithuanian?) friendship bičiuliavimasis or bičiulystė Are these common words or not – probably not. Oh, that’s common – that’s common bičiuliavimasis – I am saying – it’s a common word, but not so common. But, around friends, sure… to be friends bičiuliautis So, is this common? No, not really common but it sounds cute, I would need to use that more. Let’s see, what’s more common – draugiškas? Draugiškas – sure. Okay, in episode 0017 we learned neblogai means, not bad, and in episode 0046 we learned negalima translates as, one cannot. Today we’ll have a short introduction to negating a verb. It’s simple. Just add ne- to the beginning of the verb. The verb būti, to be, is irregular. Just add ne- to būti and you have the verb nebūti, to not be. I am aš esu I am not aš nesu So, dear, can you say, let’s say, for example, two children talking and then one child says, “your father is bad,” and the other child can say, “Jis nėra!” she is ji yra she is not ji nėra In the following examples you’ll see some things we haven’t covered in any episode yet, but we will soon. Don’t worry about learning everything here, we just want you to become familiar with negating a verb. I’m not a specialist Aš nesu specialistas Aha, so they could say this to you maybe when you go to the gym? Yeah, I wanted to say – yeah, to the gym you need to have a card. They’re not sweet Jie nėra saldūs I’m sorry, what were you going to say? Like corns, popcorns – can be. You can say, “jie nėra saldūs.” Right, right. You took the popcorns! Are they not in Lithuania? Ar jie nėra Lietuvoje? The bottom line is, to negate a verb just add ne- Alright! That’s it for today! Thanks for the download! If you got anything out of this lesson please leave us a review on our iTunes page. http://www.Lithuanian.Libsyn.com Comments[4] |
Thu, 10 April 2008 Dvyliktas Egzaminas. This is a quick response episode! We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian – Out Loud! It’s too late for questions, the exam starts now. Ready, set, go! straight ahead tiesiai center centras |