Word for the Travel Wise (01/26/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

This craving for bibim bap will not escape me. It’s been haunting my taste-buds for months now and I have done little to lessen the need. There’s an excellent Korean restaurant not too far from my home and I’ve managed to stray everywhere, but their dining establishment. If things continue to proceed in this manner I’ll have to do something soon or take drastic action later, like a trip all the way to South Korea for the real deal. Don’t mind my hunger babbles though.

Today’s word is a Korean word used in Korea:


shik-sah – meal

Several more words in the Korean alphabet with excellent pronunciation guides can be found at Mr. Oh’s Learn Korean website. It’s a fun place to start to learn the basics. KBS World Radio has a three part, 30 chapter online learning guide all for free. I can’t get the hangul text to show up, but they’ve got sound clips of all the sample conversations available. Learn Korean dot net has most of the aforementioned along with a forum to meet other speakers both fluent natives and beginners. For a list of Korean language programs in the country click here.

Word for the Travel Wise (01/23/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

In celebration of my one year anniversary here at Gadling I thought I’d take things back to my roots and the place where my insatiable hunger for travel all started. In a sense I’m treating this a little like my birthday. As you may recall from small previous mention, I was born in Angeles City, Philippines into the life of a military brat many moons ago. Departing from the area at the tender age of five months, I regret having no real memory of the place, but hope to return one of these days. There’s this strange magnetic draw that keeps me wandering, wishing, and waiting for the right time to come.

Today’s word is a Tagalog word from the Philippines:

taon – year

Tagalog is one of the major languages in Central Philippines and part of the Austronesian language family. For some reason I was surprised by the number of free GOOD resources available to prospective Tagalog student. Wikipedia has great background info on the lingo as well as related languages, Bikol, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, and Cebuano. Mongabay pretty much covers all the really good, up and running links to sites that help teach Tagalog, after checking out a few I’ll do the favor of pointing the best out. The first is an interactive language and Filipino culture resource site tools are provided for both teachers and students. A pretty intense breakdown on local slang and how it is derived can be found here. Travel Lang has word and phrase generator that spits out all the basic words you’d use while visiting for a week, month or ‘taon.’

Word for the Travel Wise (01/22/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Sixty-six days rest between today and the complete total solar eclipse scheduled to cross over Turkey at several points and various times. The exact date is March 29, 2006 and you can click here to see the projected path of this phenomenal event. But what would possibly be cooler than seeing an eclipse while in Turkey? Knowing how to speak a word of Turkish. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I stand alone when it comes to seeing the importance of basic exchange of communication and%uFFFD more so how incredibly divine, groovy, nifty and neat it all is, but I seriously doubt that. So follow me.

Today’s word is a Turkish word used in Turkey:

merhaba – hello

Though used throughout Turkey, this word is commonly used in several Arab countries to greet someone as well. Use it before asking about nature’s awe-inspiring spectacle and if you should be around during the time use it to say hello to the rare twilight that masks the sky for only a few minutes. After the sun, moon and planet Earth finish their fantasmo light show you might be struck in such a manner to learn every Turkish word under the sun. Prepare ahead of time by visiting this Turkish Class site. Membership is free and you’ll get a lot more than some of the basics they already have listed. Online Turkish is good too, but you’ll have to register and pay to get anything more than hello, how are you and I love you. Stick to the first site and check out this Turkish vocabulary list of body parts. This is only a hunch, but I have the feeling you’ll see several ‘isaret parmagi’ pointed toward the sky during the eclipse.

Too Many World Heritage Sites?

by Adrienne Wilson on

New York Times runs an interesting story worth reading if you’ve ever visited such World Heritage sites as the Statue of Liberty, Angkor Wat, the Jiuzhaigou Valley or any of the other 800 plus cities and landmarks. At one time in 1978 there were only 12 sites listed and as the list continues to grow and grow folks are starting to wonder if the program’s meaning is beginning to get lost. Once making the World Heritage list several places are using the opportunity to increase tourism, which can often damage the cultural and natural sites of “outstanding universal value,” the list was designed to protect. A good handful of people are also starting to suspect the list is doing more harm than preservation. Enormous hotels soon get constructed, admission prices shoot up and a sea of camera toting and flash snapping tourists are certainly changing the look of the places, but what is one to do? Curiosity of the named sites would certainly drive me to visit places like the Takht-e Soleyman (Iran), Bahla Fort (Oman), or the Simien National Park (Ethiopia), but I’m sure concern comes for some of the more popular destinations like the ones mentioned in Mexico.

Word for the Travel Wise (01/20/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

My plan to welcome our newest blogger Neil to the team pretty much blew up in my face. Since he’s going to be doing some really cool blogging on Russia and in celebration of his first few posts here I figured I would learn a little Russian online to stay in the theme of things. I only wished to find a simple “hello” or “welcome” to greet him and to pass onto you potential travelers. Things didn’t go as smoothly as I had imagined. Russia has that crazy Cyrillic alphabet, which is fine, however I couldn’t find any sites that provided the phonetic spelling of the word in an alphabet I’m familiar with. Even when I played with the translation dictionaries I was given a set of characters that made no sense to me. For these reasons today’s lesson will work a little different than the last.

Today’s word is a Russian word used in Russia:

Groceries

The picture above is a sign found in the country somewhere that says ‘groceries.’ It looks awfully long and I have no clue how to pronounce this one. Sorry guys. There seem to be several great methods for learning this challenging language online, especially if your interest goes as far as reading and writing the alphabet. Check out Master Russian first. They have numerous excellent sound files and the text is clear and easy to read. Learning also goes beyond your Russian A, B, C’s at their site as they have crosswords, literature, proverbs, folk music, and homework help. Other good sites include Learning Russian and this Ectaco Translation Dictionary. Click here for two language book rec’s on Amazon.