Russian Language Learning - Learn to Speak Audio CD
The House of Oojah Learn to Speak Russian Audio Books
  • About the Korean Language
    Koreanis the official language of both North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 80 million Korean speakers, with large groups in various Post-Soviet states, as well as in other diaspora populations in China, Australia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and more recently, the Philippines. The genealogical classification of the Korean language is debated. Many linguists place it in the Altaic language family, but some consider it to be a language isolate. It is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax. Like the Japanese and Vietnamese languages, Korean language was influenced by the Chinese language in the form of Sino-Korean words. Native Korean words account for about 35% of the Korean vocabulary, while about 60% of the Korean vocabulary consists of Sino-Korean words. The remaining 5% comes from loan words from other languages, 90% of which are from English. Names The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in North and South Korea. In North Korea and Yanbian in China, the language is most often called Chos?nmal , or more formally, Chos?n?. In the Republic of Korea, the language is most often called Hangukmal , or more formally, Hangugeo or Gugeo . It is sometimes colloquially called Urimal ("our language"; in one word in South Korea, with a space in North Korea). On the other hand, Korean people in the former USSR, who refer to themselves as Koryo-saram call the language Goryeomal .
  • About Klingon
    The Klingon language (tlhIngan Hol in Klingon) is the constructed language spoken by Klingons in the fictional Star Trek universe. Deliberately designed by Marc Okrand to be "alien", it contains many peculiarities, such as Object Verb Subject (OVS) word order. The basic sound (along with a few words) was first devised by actor James Doohan ("Scotty") for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That film marked the first time the language had been heard on screen; in all previous appearances, Klingons spoke in English. Klingon was subsequently developed by Okrand into a fully-fledged language. Klingon is sometimes referred to as Klingonese (most notably in the Star Trek: Klingon is one of the rare times when a trained linguist has been called upon to create a language for aliens. Add to this thirty years of the Star Trek phenomenon, a mythos that has permeated popular culture and spread around the globe. These factors begin to explain the popularity of the warriors' tongue. A small number of people, mostly dedicated Star Trek fans or language aficionados, can converse in Klingon. Though mentioned in the original Star Trek series, Klingon was first used on-screen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Okrand enlarged the lexicon and developed grammar around the original dozen words Doohan had created. It would be used intermittently in later movies featuring the original cast: in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), translation difficulties would serve as a plot device.