Lithuanian language
To study a language that is spoken by about 3 million reserved Lithuanians who manage to describe completely different things with “nu”, “nu nu”, “nu ką?”? And all of this just to be able to order the famous pink soup and have conversations with Lithuanians about their country’s potato heritage and basketball…
Lithuanian, together with Latvian, is the oldest and the only surviving Baltic language, although in the past there were many more: Prussian, Jotvingian, and Curonian, as well as other languages. The Lithuanian language is interesting because of its variety of sounds. There is a constant change of voiced and voiceless consonants, a range of sibilants that might be rather strenuous for some to pronounce. In addition, Lithuanian has long and short vowels that are depicted with diacritical marks. As if that were not enough, the words in the Lithuanian language constantly change their form. This is because they have grammatical genders, plural and singular forms, declensions, tenses. With all that in mind, grammar becomes a serious challenge, but don’t get upset. Lithuanians are endlessly forgiving to those who speak their native language, are determined to help, understand, and maybe even become friends.
I had the pleasure of being taught Danish in English!
We could not find any other school to teach in non-Lithuanian. Obviously not an easy task but our teacher rose to the challenge and nailed it!
Very flexible times, great materials including current news, issues and culture.
Highly recommended!
Krzysztof