World Languages Collection at Tūranga receives warm welcome

“It is my first time to see Korean books in a library!” an elated Donggi Jun said when he saw the shelves of books in his native Korean, a part of the World Languages Collection Ngā Reo o te Ao / World Languages, Auahatanga | Creativity, Level 4 of Tūranga.

Jun hails from South Korea but has been a Christchurch resident for years. “I’m so happy to see lots of popular authors. A lot of us miss our country. These books will be a source of comfort,” added the 58-year-old who also renewed his library membership card so he can start borrowing Korean books “as often as I can”.

Jun is only one of many migrants who were delighted to see the World Languages Collection since Tūranga opened on Friday 12 October. The collection aimed to reflect the thriving cultural diversity of Christchurch. It enables migrant communities to maintain a connection with their language and culture, as well as provide study materials for English language learners.

At present, the World Languages Collection at Tūranga comprises of books in 13 languages including Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Thai. In addition, it has magazines and periodicals in Afrikaans, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese and Russian. It also includes an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) section for English language learners.

Customer browsing the World Languages Collection, Auahatanga | Creativity, Level 4, Opening day, Tūranga, Flickr TU-2018-10-12-136

Olivier Hoel, who left France to work in Christchurch a year ago, was thankful to find his beloved French titles housed at Tūranga:

“It was a great surprise when I saw them first at Peterborough Library and now, they’re here, more accessible in a such a lovely place.”

Visitors to the city were equally impressed. “We are in the wrong city! How come you have this!?” a South African visiting from Wellington exclaimed while lifting an edition of the Afrikaans magazine Rooi rose from the rack. She was also able to find a book in the Afrikaans section written by a friend, quickly getting a snapshot for Instagram.

German tourist Horst Schnidt was also pleased. Looking up from reading the pages of German periodical Der Spiegel, he commented, “This new library is in itself amazing. But having items in various languages like German makes it more special.”

The collection has been well-used. An average of 30 items are being marked “used” every day, at times peaking up at 50. This doesn’t include the many more being borrowed. Many customers also joined the library or renewed their membership (like Jun) just to access the collection.

ESOL tours have proven to be quite popular as well. Over 350 individuals from various cultural backgrounds have been toured around Tūranga since its opening and shown World Languages materials (adult and children’s) including the eResources they can access from the library website. Among them were students from Hagley Community College, Papanui High School (Adult ESOL Department), and Wilkinson’s English School.

“The ESOL items are a big help to me,” said Chinese student Rita Xu who was also thrilled to see the Chinese books section, the most extensive in the collection. “My friends will be happy. I will tell them about it.”

The collection, however, is not only popular with English language learners but also with students of other languages. For instance, German language students from Hagley College were keen on the German books and magazines that could aid them master German.

No doubt, the World Languages Collection in Tūranga is a hit.  As Anne Scorgie from South Africa puts it, “Having this collection shows that Christchurch is really now recognising its growing diversity. It’s a great step.”

Hayley Concepcion and Crystal Betito
Auahatanga | Creativity, Level 4, Tūranga

Arrrrrr it be Talk like a Pirate Day

Ahoy mateys! If it’s pirate chatter ye be after, you’ve come to the right place. Mango’s Pirate Language Course will teach you everything you need to know to “parley” in perfect Pirate.

Don’t be a lily-livered landlubber, belay yer carousin’ and haul wind smartly. Get on to Mango Languages and find some booty. Take your language skills across the seven seas me hearty, and join in the conversation. Arrrre ye up for the challenge of becoming a swashbuckler!

What be yer Pirate name, me hearty? check out the Pirate name generator below!

Podcast – Bilingualism in a single language-dominant society

Christchurch City Libraries blog hosts a series of regular podcasts from specialist human rights radio show Speak up – Kōrerotia. This show is created by Sally Carlton.

UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day is on 21 February. In this episode Sally speaks with University of Canterbury and Growing up with Two Languages researchers Una Cunningham and Jin Kim, and activists/teachers Anya Filippochkina and Jawad Arefi, who discuss community/heritage language bi- and multilingualism in a single language-dominant society.

• Part I: Defining ‘mother language’, ‘first language’ etc
• Part II: Cognitive, professional and social benefits of speaking multiple languages; first language use among first- and second-generation migrants
• Part III: Challenges to encouraging continued engagement with first languages in a single language-dominant society
• Part IV: Recommendations to parents

Transcript of audio file

Find out more in our collection

• Find information about our World Languages Collection
• Find resources to help with English language skills
• Find library information for newcomers
• Find titles about the study and teaching of language
• Find streaming video about bilingualism (access with your library card & password / PIN)
• Find articles about bilingual children in New Zealand (access with your library card & password / PIN)

   

   

More about Speak up – Kōrerotia

• Speak up – Kōrerotia on Facebook
• Contact the host of the show via speakupkorerotia@gmail.com.

The show is also available on the following platforms:

• Plains FM website
• SoundCloud
• iTunes

What languages do you speak?

There are approximately 6900 languages in the world today. That’s right – six thousand, nine hundred! That’s A LOT of different languages! How many of them can you speak?

We all learn a language when we are born. That’s our ‘mother language’ – we pick it up from our family and friends, and learn it without too much effort. Some New Zealanders speak English as their mother language, some speak te reo Māori or New Zealand Sign Language, and others speak one of those thousands of other languages. To quote that well-known song, Aotearoa New Zealand really is a great big melting pot of cultures!

UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day (21 February 2017) is a chance to celebrate the different languages we all speak, and to encourage people to read, learn, and share ideas in their native language.

Here at Christchurch City Libraries we have heaps of resources you can read in your mother language – books, newspapers, magazines, online resources, you choose! Our World Languages collections have books and magazines in languages from Afrikaans to Vietnamese.

PressReader lets you read newspapers and magazines from Albania to Zimbabwe, and our selection of language eResources can help you study, relax, or learn English or another language.

Check these resources out, and maybe by next year you’ll be able to say you speak one more language than you do now!

Tokelau Language Week – Te Vaiaho o te Gagana Tokelau 2016

Mālō ni. It’s Te Vaiaho o te Gagana Tokelau -Tokelau Language Week from 23-29 October.

Tokelau is a group of three coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean. The population of Tokelau is about 1,000. The language of the Tokelau is related to Samoan. More than 7,100 people of Tokelauan heritage who live in New Zealand. There are approximately 80 people of Tokelauan heritage living in Christchurch.

This year NZ Post are issuing a special set of stamps for Te Vaiaho o te Gagana Tokelau.

If you would like to know more about Tokelau and it’s language, we can help you.

• We have a collection of books for adults and children who want to learn the language.
• If you want to learn more about Tokelau, look in our catalogue or try some tokelau phrases online.
• Do you want to hear some Tokelauan music? Then check our catalogue and our music e-resources.
• Visit the Human Rights Commission website for more information about Tokelau Language Week.

And, don’t forget to say “Mālō ni”.

‘Voulez-vous partir with me ….

…and come and restez la with me in France’ – so the Bill Wyman song goes.

I love a good mixture of Franglish (or Spanglish for that matter).  Eventually, with examples of the above, combined with expressive mime, facial expressions and dexterous hand gestures you can get yourself understood.

My French teacher endured approximately seven years trying to teach me the basics of French conversation and grammar. His perseverance was rewarded when our whole family got lost in Caen at the beginning of our summer holidays ‘under canvas’ and, since I was the only one who had supposedly learned French, I had to locate our first night’s accommodation.

I had seen Maurice Chevalier, Alain Delon and Sacha Distel all speak fractured English on the TV and naively assumed that the majority of the French population could do likewise!!  Duh!!!

To my complete amazement I learned that every French person I accosted (in the street or even in their homes whilst having their family diner – I was desperate), with my pitiful ‘je suis perdu – où est le… hôtel??’, was met with a mixture of indifference or a rush of ‘gauche et droites’ which left me more confused than ever.

The same French teacher had also advised me that ‘gesticulating’ as a last resort might be the way to go. SO bearing this in mind, I bravely flagged down a passing police car and watched, horrified, when a Charles de Gaulle look-a-like stepped out of the Citroen with his hand resting gently on his holster and asked me (in French) what the problem was?  Well, for starters the gun was… Anyway, I managed to impart the necessary information and he quickly rose to the challenge. We were in our hotel 15 minutes later having witnessed said gendarme ‘tearing a strip off’ the hotel owner for turning the neon sign off that would have alerted us to the hotel at least 3 hours ago!

All library customers can avoid painful scenarios such as the above incident by utilizing, with the aid of their Library Card Number and password/pin, the eResource, Mango Languages.  There are 72 languages available (including American Sign Language). Clicking on the option ‘Building the Basics’ after choosing the language you wish to learn is a great way to start your linguistic adventures.

Of course, you can also:

• visit our libraries and select combined CD & basic phrase book sets off the shelf
• visit the Overdrive platform, type in ‘languages’ in the search facility and download a language pack onto a mobile device
• check our Community Information Christchurch (CINCH) database to see what language learning groups and classes are available near you.

et voilà…

Bonne chance! Buena suerte! In bocca al lupo! Lycka till!

Mango Languages Online gets juicier

Ever wanted to learn a new language online or improve your English skills from the comfort of home? We  have your answer in Mango. It has undergone an upgrade and now provides access to over SIXTY languages for free! If you want to seduce your partner with sweet Italian phrases or travel to a foreign country and converse with locals then Mango is for you. The languages you can learn include:

• Arabic;
• Chinese – Mandarin or Cantonese;
• Italian;
• French;
• Japanese;
• Korean;
• Russian and many more!

Mango also has lessons for people wanting to learn English if their native language is:

• Arabic;
• Chinese – Mandarin or Cantonese;
• Japanese;
• Korean and more!

Access Mango free through the catalogue or the Source  from within libraries or at home and start chatting away in foreign languages like a native. Buona fortuna! That’s good luck in Italian my peeps!

Going somewhere foreign?

So Christmas holidays are nearly upon us. I personally am trying not to dwell on this season as I have no leave and no money. My holiday experience will be  family fights and snide remarks around the dinner table on Christmas day in Invercargill. For those of you more fortunate you may be planning an overseas holiday to help heal the harassment of the past three years. Alternatively you may be looking for a New Years resolution that does not involve another wasted gym membership. That is where Mango can help!

Mango provides online access 24/7 to six languages for those wanting to learn a language from basic right through to advanced levels. The languages provided are:

• Spanish;
• French;
• Japanese;
• German;
• Italian.

New Year resolutions, “me  time” from family or a much needed skill when you enter a foreign country – Mango can help. Have a play and impress your friends with your multilingual marvellousness!

A worm in your ear …

I was quite excited to discover that the library now includes Earworms in its collection. No, I’m not referring to those annoying snatches of songs that get stuck in your head – Christchurch City Libraries’ are not your common garden-variety earworms, but rather a series of “specially composed melodies with rhythmic repetitions” of phrases in foreign languages and English that “take the hard work out of learning.”

Earworms Rapid Arabic

I have always been a bit of a sucker for “revolutionary accelerated learning techniques” – at one stage, a few years ago, I even tried playing tapes (yes, that’s how long ago it was) while I slept, in the hope that osmosis would do its thing. (It didn’t, though the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep because I was too busy listening probably had something to do with it…) So, as soon as I saw the title in the RSS feed of just ordered titles, I placed a hold on a brand-new copy of Earworms Rapid Arabic Volume 1.

My personal “musical brain trainer” came with a booklet listing the 200+ words and phrases that are on the CD, together with their phonetic transcription, as well as a very persuasive explanation of the science behind Earworms. Does it work? Well, my definitive answer is maybe! Remembering the words hasn’t been particularly hard, but I have to admit that I did cheat, because I chose a language that I was already familiar with. On the other hand, while the sing-song conversations were not too painful to listen to, I wasn’t drawn to go back to them again and again, as the booklet suggested would be the case. Still, I think I’ll give it another shot, perhaps with a language I don’t know at all. Chinese, here I come!

Have you tried any of the Earworm series? Did they work for you? Do you agree with Wikipedia that having a touch of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder makes you more susceptible to earworms? And, most importantly, if earworms have been driving you crazy, is it true, as I seem to remember being told at some stage, that the solution is to listen to Faith by George Michael?