“Kita stotelė: Stotis” means “next stop: station” and that’s what I hear almost every day in the buses and trolleybuses of Vilnius. The sounds of the city are very familiar to me now, so I do not hear them anymore. The journalist Marielle Vitureau had the idea to record these sounds that reflect the atmosphere of Vilnius. Then she gathered them on this virtual map: www.kitastotelestotis.lt
Some tips (to myself) to improve my English during my EVS.
1. Stop to invent words! .. It is not because English and French are sometimes similar that you can take a smart face and an English accent (impossible accent) to say “supposably”. No, “supposably” is not an English word …
2. Improve your accent! You live and speak all day long with Spanish, Italian and Lithuanian people, so, be CARRRREFUL with your accent, wich is already not English at all, but not even French anymore …
3. Extend your vocabulary: When you desperately looking for an English word that you do not know the solution is not: to simply say it in French! Of course, you have 9 chances out of 10 that your Spanish and Italian flatemates understand you perfectly, because this is probably the same word in their language, but that does not help you to know the word in English.
4. Knowing your interlocutor: practical example – if you arrive in the train station in Vilnius speaking in English to the lady who sell the tickets and who is actually Russian, you will quickly understand that speaking in English with her it is like to speak Russian in America … Her reaction will like:
< “Я не понимаю…”
This weekend, a huge map of Europe was put on one of the largest squares of Vilnius. The opportunity to see how Lithuanian people call our French cities:
Another strange thing that I‘ve learned, all Lithuanian male names ends by -as. So, the first names but also the family names! It means that in the same family, men have names ending by -as, and women, have the same name but with a different ending, -a or -e.
And you know how they call Brad Pitt? … Bradas Pitas!
*I learn Lithuanian
We started having Lithuanian lessons this week with an English teacher who is Lithuanian and also half Russian. A little complicated … So we discovered with Ismael and Oriana, this beautiful Baltic language.
First it is a language neither Latin nor German nor even Slavic. It is a Baltic language. Then it’s a language that uses many declensions. Our teacher tell us: “it looks like your languages, there are also declensions in Latin.”
Well, nowadays nobody speaks Latin anymore except some crazy teachers, and also there is no declensions anymore in our languages exactly because it was too complicated. And then I did not learn Latin at school (I should do?).
So, we learnt that “Vilnius” in Lithuanian is: “Vilnius” (easy!), but “in Vilnius” is “Vilniuje”, “from Vilnius” is “Vilniaus”, “to Vilnius” is “Vilniui” etc ... And of course, the endings change whether it is singular or plural, masculine or feminine word.
And for our names as well! For exemple “for Justine” is “Justinei”
Well, let’s go back to simpler things. How do you say “I come from France?” “Aš esu iš …” (I come from …) and at this moment you learn that “France” is “Prancūzija” …
Brilliant! It will be very easy …
Article very interesting about the similarities between Lithuanian and Indian languages
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