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Lithuanian Out Loud is a podcast series designed for fans of the Lithuanian language. Come along with native Lithuanian author/lawyer Raminta and her North-American husband, Jack. They'll teach you Lithuanian along with tidbits about the history and culture of Raminta's homeland - Lietuva!

Music: Vieux Farka Toure - Ana {Pocket Remix} by pocketproductions (c) copyright 2007 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/pocketproductions/8916 Ft: Pocket (Richard Jankovich)

 

Jan 9, 2008

Hi there!  This is Jack and welcome back to another episode of Lithuanian Out Loud.  So, what month is it?  Do you remember?  I’ll give you a moment…it’s Sausis or the dry month, also known as January.  Before we get to the lesson that Raminta and I recorded a couple months ago, I wanted to get you caught up on some things.  First off, Raminta and I recorded some episodes today and I think we’ve finally hit on a system that will really improve the audio quality of the shows.  So, as soon as we get through the next couple of episodes, you can expect the fuzzy audio or buzzing sounds to disappear.  That’s such a relief!

Donna, a listener in Longmont, Colorado, a town 30 miles north of Denver, Colorado in the United States, is looking for a native Lithuanian speaker with whom she can practice.  If anyone who’s listening knows of a candidate, please let Raminta and I know and we’ll forward the information to Donna.  Of course, Donna is willing to pay for your time.  As a matter of fact, if anyone around the world is in a similar situation, just let us know and we’ll be happy to announce it on an upcoming episode.

Now here’s something that’s really exciting!  Have you noticed that you can download daily podcasts of Lithuanian radio and television on iTunes?  Just download the free program iTunes at iTunes.com, it’s completely free.  Open iTunes on your computer and in the search window type “lietuvos" or l,i,e,t,u,v,o,s.  Then in the blue window that pops up, click on podcasts.  On the screen that comes up you’ll see 30 different programs.  Now, go to the bottom of the page and in the lower right hand corner you’ll see a button that’s labeled, “more results."  Click on that and you’ll see 30 more shows.  After a quick glance I count 128 audio radio shows and television video shows.  It’s amazing!  There are news programs, detective mysteries, children’s television shows, music, and much, much more.  Of course, being a beginner, I don’t understand much of it but I love to listen to a show while I’m studying.  I’m a big believer in learning through passive listening as well as active study.  Remember, you don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts, you can download it all on iTunes for free and listen on your computer!  You have to check this stuff out, it’s awesome!                       

Those of you who listen to Lithuanian Out Loud on an iPod know very well the problems we’ve had trying to put Lithuanian alphabet characters in the lyrics or text section of the podcast.  We’ve tried many different approaches to fixing it but nothing worked.  So, sadly, we’ll just forgo embedding the episode text in the podcast until iPod is able to support Lithuanian alphabet characters.  Sorry about that, but if the software can’t handle it, it seems like a waste of time to do it.  Okay, I think that’s it.  On with the show we recorded a few weeks ago…

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Hi everybody!  This is Jack and I’m Raminta and you’re listening to Lithuanian Out Loud, the world’s first Lithuanian language lessons in a podcast series!
According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Baltic Air Policing, the Baltic air-policing mission is a NATO air defense designed to guard the airspace over the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Since March 2004, when the Baltic States joined NATO, alliance nations have policed the airspace over the area on a three to four-month rotation from Lithuania's First Air Base at Zokniai/Šiauliai International Airport, near the northern city of Šiauliai.
Usual deployments consist of four fighter aircraft with between 50 and 100 support personnel.
To date the nations of Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, United States, Poland, Turkey, Spain, and France have all patrolled the Baltic skies from the base in Šiauliai.  Sounds like a fun job! 

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Today we’ll go over a couple of very useful words.  In Lithuanian there’s a word that
means, one can or it’s possible or may I?
For example, I’m at a friend’s house, we’re drinking wine and I reach for the bottle to refill my glass.  I say, may I? or can I?

galima?   may I?
galima!   you may!
galima?   can I?
galima!   you can!

galima can be used whenever you want to ask to do something and your intent is clear to the person with whom you’re speaking.  For example…

you want to take somebody’s photo, you hold up the camera and say…

galima?   may I?

you want to look at a book on a coffee table, you reach for it and say…

galima?   can I?

you’re eating with a good friend and you think her french fries look tasty.  You meekly reach towards them and say…

galima?   can one?

but, hey, what if the answer’s no?  Then the response might be…

negalima  no, you can’t take my photo
negalima  no, you can’t look at my book
negalima  no, you can’t have any of my fries

your dog is barking and you yell at it and say,

negalima!

or, you try walking in the wrong door at the theater and the doorman yells at you…

negalima!

Hey, Lithuanian is easy!