Why Foreigners Living In Lithuania Should Learn Lithuanian
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- Опубликовано: 21 дек 2022
- Hey guys! I had my very first formal Lithuanian language lesson the other day. It was overwhelming and a lot to absorb in 45 minutes but I think the point of this first session was for my tutor to get a sense of my existing knowledge and ability with Lithuanian. With this experience fresh in my mind, I wanted to talk about why I think foreigners living in Lithuania should learn Lithuanian.
References:
www.acclaro.com/blog/lithuani...
akorbi.com/akorbi-explains-th...
www.ucl.ac.uk/atlas/lithuania...
Thanks to @TomCaptures for providing some fantastic Vilnius footage!
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And you are 10 steps ahead of those native russian/polish people, who live here since times of soviet union and refuses to speak Lithuanian and even looks offended that I am not speaking in their language. So good luck, have fun and never worry about language mistakes. It sometimes is difficult even for us.
I wish you the best of luck while diving into the world of Lithuanian - take it slow and have fun :)
I don't think you can compare Polish and Russian people living there. Polish people have been living on some teritories of modern Lithuania for centuries. You can't force national minorities into speaking your language. For Poles living there it is as important for their identity as Lithuanian is for your.
@@igorszerszunowicz8049 If they're lithuanian citizens, they must speak lithuanian, they can move to poland if they wish to speak polish
I don't know why my answer to that disappeared, so I'll repeat. So if there are Lithuanians living in Poland, they must speak Polish? Or if they live in Belarus, they must speak Belarussian. That is absurd. You can't force someone to share your identity, just because they live in your country - that's totalitarianism. Poles living in Lithuania or Lithuanians living in Poland didn't chose where they live. They have lived there for centuries, but along with the wars and other international arrangements, borders have changed. That's not their fault. Language of national minorities is part of their identinty and one should respect that.
@@igorszerszunowicz8049 Lithuanians living all their life in Poland, Belarus etc. can speak fluently in local languages. Poles/ruZZkies living all their life in Lithuania very often can't speak Lithuanian. By the way Pole from Poland and Pole from Lithuania are very different people in many cases ;)
I'm American - I married a Lithuanian 15 years ago and brought her to the USA - I felt that it was my duty to learn the language (even though we live in the USA) - it was not easy at all, and took a few years of making LOTS of mistakes with the case endings, but in the end, it was totally worth it! In her family, only my nephew and 1 neice speak English, so LT was necessary to communicate with her family. It's opened a lot of doors for me to meet people in LT , and I can honestly say, I have more Lithuanian friends than American! Now, we have a 4 year old Godson and without LT, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the funny things he says! I also, now, get the honor of teaching him English via our daily video chats - he doesn't even know he's leanring it, but, lol, he's doing quite well! Good luck on your language journey, and if you need any tips, as a fellow North American, feel free to ask! Greetings from Richmond, VA USA
@@Servington which hell hole? Lithuania?? lol - sorry we want to get out of THIS hell hole (usa) and come to LT full-time
Great story, Sean! Sounds so encouraging! You are so right: by truly respecting your wife you are now reaping a great harvest of wonderful, lasting and enriching relationships that came as a result of your wise investment. Also from my humble observation as of Ukrainian it looks like that Lithuanians place more value into their extended family relationships than you guys do in the US. I don't mean you personally, but rather on the average. Therefore for someone enjoying family life like you do, to make close connection with your LT family is really a benefit! Merry Christmas to all of your family at both sides of the Atlantics!
@@alexeistoyanovsky9161 you are correct in regards to what you said about family - we (Americans in general) don't tend to have the same appreciation as Lithuanian do for family - it's sad, but it's true. Merry Christmas to you as well and stay safe! Slava ukraini!
Last night I signed up for my first lithuanian language class after 20 years of not speaking the language! I am an American and moved to Lithuania when I was 4. I was fluent in Lithuanian when I came back to the states but my parents never bothered to learn the language and it was before the days of Zoom so I lost the language. Considering the historical suppression of the language and the extreme efforts it took to save the language it felt like a sin to let it die inside of me. I am looking forward to reconnecting with this lost part of me. Good luck on your lithuanian language journey 💙
If you were fluent in Lithuanian at one point, you don't need to learn the language again. All you need is to dig it up after it has been covered up. Daily listening to the news in Lithuannian is a good first step. Taking classes will wake up what you already know.
Your past reminds me a lot of mine. I was born in Germany, but because one of my parents is Lithuanian, I also spoke Lithuanian until I was five. Then, unfortunately, I had to leave my family and go to a home where no one was interested in my language either - and so I forgot it. A few months ago, a good nine years later, I moved to Lithuania (I love it btw). I still understand quite a bit, but not being able to speak the language I once could is a wrenching feeling.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. if you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” - Nelson Mandela. Hearing foreigners trying to speak one or two phrases, even completely butchering the pronunciations still fills me with joy. IMO, everyone planing to live in a foreign country should learn at least a few basic phrases. This should be enough to go by, but may give enough courage on becoming more fluent in the local language. Love your vids
It's a pity that in some cases (I will refer to my knowledge & experience with Hungarian), I learned some of the language, just to show gratitude to the culture and language...only to get a cheap quote "wow, you speak really good", while speaking to me in English.
Honestly, why try to learn a language, if a person you are speaking to wipes his ass with your effort and proceeds to speak to you in English? I hope I was just unlucky and most of the foreigners WILL actually appreciate the effort, while giving me the chance to conversate in their language, including mysterious & sweet Lithuanian, which I am trying to learn.
@@RichieLarpa I wouldn't say they wiped your effort. Maybe they thought you didn't know enough of the language and couldn't understand their answer, so they answered in English 'cause that's easier. But I might be wrong too. Maybe they should have at least tried to answer in Hungarian after all, to encourage you in that way. So, to conclude, I would say they appreciated your effort but took it for granted
@@lunarmothcat Maybe, but learning some language to conversate in English anyway would be a waste of time for me.
Errors belong to a language journey and I am happy to be corrected, if the person on theother side is happy to conversate with me in his own language.
English is taking too much space of our lives, in my opinion, it's the same with Russian in the past, with the difference that people do not mind now, even though it might be endangering their language and community in some way.
This is why I always have prepared SOS sentences, like "please talk more slowly" and so on.
@@lunarmothcat Anyway, how would I say that sentence in Lithuanian (if you were Lithuanian language speaker)?
With my current knowledge, I would say "prašau, kalbėkite lėtai", but I am not sure, if that is correct.
@@RichieLarpa "Prašau, kalbėkite lėčiau" skamba truputį formaliau, bet turėtų pakakti. "-k" - neformaliai, "-kite" - formaliai. Kalbant su draugais gali naudoti "kalbėk lėčiau" arba "palauk, neskubėk ir pakartok"(wait, slow down and repeat).
I live in a small village where no one speaks English so learning Lithuanian is important for me, but it is taking me a long time, I stayed in Kaunas for two months this year and whenever I attempted to speak Lithuanian people replied in English. Good luck with your language lessons and Laimingų Kalėdų 🙏
Ačiū! sėkmės irgi - Laimingu Kalėdų!
Yes, that is a problem, people don't believe you can understand what they say, so they answer you in English. After some time everything changes, continue studying and be patient. Good luck to you.
I'm moving to Lithuania, and I registered a lithuanian language semester course. I agree with respect locals and don't want to be isolated reasons. And I think it's also for me to living life more convinent there.
Sounds great! Good luck with your move to Vilnius!
I'm a 3rd generation, half-Lithuanian American here and I've been studying the language for the last 5 years. It's quite tricky (much harder than the German and French I learned in school), but I find it very satisfying. With RUclips and Podcasts and other streaming outlets, it's very easy now to get daily listening practice with TV and radio programs. I enjoy listening to LRT radio shows on a podcast whenever I'm walking or driving.
Not an easy endeavor, though. It took me 2 years of pretty focused effort before the grammatical case system started to make sense intuitively and quickly, and I still mess it up if I need to produce a sentence about half the time. Only in the past year or two has reading and listening actually felt comfortable where my ear and my brain can keep up with the pace of regular spoken language.
Best of luck.
leave russia at the beginning of the war, and got the chance to move to Lithuania, although Lithuanians have many concerns about russian citizens(which are truly reasonable) hope to adapt, currently learning the Lithuanian language.
@goofy ahh How getting straight to the point is rude?
As a lithuanian I should tell you that we really appreciate foreigners who are trying to learn the language. It is quite hard even for many locals 😅 Sėkmės mokantis !
I love the Lithuanian language, I don’t live there but I’ve tought myself quite a bit, about enough to survive as a tourist to ask questions and understand the responses. It took quite a while for me to get the basics, but I know I could progress quickly if I lived there. What’s interesting is that my Lithuanian friend asks me why do I bother to learn? I asked her why she bothered to learn English to be here in England? She agreed. So I absolutely love it, I need to come back and study more.
Being Lithuanian, I love this channel!
One of the shows I enjoyed watching online early in my studies was "Kas ir Kodėl?", a quiz show on LRT. They print the questions on the screen while the announcer says them, so you get to read and listen at the same time. I sometimes even knew the answer. Fun.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes I watch this show with my family all of the time
Aš mėgstu tą kanalą, dėkoju už viską!
Since I speak lithuanian as a foreigner I am treated very well and kind in Lithuania, people here really appreciate your effor put in learning their language, which is really not easy. Few times I got even free beer or shot in pub in this situation :)
P.S.: And people usually say: "You speak better lithuanian then Russians who are living here for over 30 years.
i love your mind set! i agree if you live in a country for a longer time you should learn at least minimum
Thank you for the inspiration and motivation! I am originally from Brazil, and I’ve been in many different countries, not as a tourist but living for few years. I really like Lithuanian people and how good they are with English skills, but lots of times I feel like I need a step further to understand the context.. it’s not only about the language.. I am doing baby steps towards learning Lithuanian, and I am thankful that there are people like you to encourage that! ❤
Aš negyvenu Lietuvoje bet išmoku Lietuvių kalbą nes tik noriu. Tai labai gera kalba ir esu labai laiminga kada rastu naują informaciją apie Lietuvos kultura ir dainai. Norečiau važiuoti į Lietuvą kita metai!
If you don't mind, I will correct you. 😊 Maybe you will find it useful.
Aš negyvenu Lietuvoje, bet išmokau lietuvių kalbą, nes labai norėjau. Tai labai gera kalba. Esu laiminga, kai randu naujos informacijos apie Lietuvos kultūrą ir dainas. Norėčiau atvykti į Lietuvą kitais metais.
Taip pat žodis "lietuvių" rašosi iš mažosios raidės, nes tai nėra vietovardis arba asmenvardis. Arba kitaip, lietuvių yra daug, o Lietuva viena.
Labai smagu, kad mokotės kalbėti lietuviškai. Kaip žmonėms ir labai mažos šalies, tai mums daug ką reiškia ❤️.
I hope you are not mad at me 😄
@@talayoki6989 I appreciate your corrections!
I have been learning Lithuanian on my own for over one year--love it! I am here now and use it as much as I can.. My 3rd time in Vilnius in the last 15 months:)
As a French living in 🇱🇹 since 2007, I started by leaning the language. It used to be mandatory to find a job but it's not anymore the case.
Still, I'm convinced that having Lithuanian as a part of your skills is an asset.
You are wrong - it is mandatory to speak Lithuanian at a workplace.
@kestutisa3826 , companies such as "Vinted", "Teltonika", "McKesson" [to name just a few] are not imposing Lithuanian as a corporate language.
Same also is seen in restaurants where plenty of Ukrainians are taking client orders.
Tačiau, sutinku kad yra geriau išmokti Lietuviu kalba.
@@AnthonyPoullain_private Ukrainians are exception. They need time.
I agree. If you're living in Lithuania, you need to learn lithuanian and it's for your own benefit.
Congratulations on your first Lithuanian lesson! :)
Ačiū!
Taip pat labai svarbu apsivalyti dvasia
Labas Rytas from the USA 🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇱🇹
ačiū už jūsų vaizdo įrašą. Aš negyvenu lietuvoje bet pusė šeimos lietuviai ir nekalba angliškai. So I have finished my first term of lessons with our tutor Julija - it's not easy to find lessons outside of the country. I agree completely with your sentiment that to try and live somewhere for years, while making no effort to learn the country's official language is disrespectful and self-defeating, you will exclude yourself from most things. To illustrate the point, if you left Lithuania to live in north America or any other English speaking location, there would be no one switching to Lithuanian (outside specific parts of Chicago). The history of the language is fascinating, the verbal history is very very old but the history of modern written Lithuanian isn't nearly so old, I'm told it's essentially east Prussian with some updates and was consolidated from 17c up to the addition of the ū in 1918. daug sėkmės with Lithuanian grammar, the declining of nouns is literally mind-blowing to the English brain.
Watching these vides as a lithuanian person studying aboard, feels like a piece of home tbh
Funny story: an Indian guy from my University dorm learned speaking Lithuanian. He was once waiting in a bus stop. Started small talking with a random lady in Lithuanian. This lady turned out to be a russian and she became angry on the guy: if Lithuanian, than why not russian??
Hilarious.
That's really good video(especially montage and video shots). About English speaking Lithuanians, I don't think that people pretend that they don't know it, but they actually just can't speak it.
I've been learning Lithuanian language for 3+ years, some time by myself, some time on courses or with tutor. And always in Lithuania, doesn't matter if I am in Ukmergė or in Vilnius, I try to speak Lithuanian. And I have had very small, TINY number of cases, when Lithuanians switched to other language. Sometimes they can ask if you are learning the language, and believe me, in most cases they will be HAPPY with that fact and will really try their best to help you. You can speak with accent, you can speak with mistakes, but you can practice everywhere :)
Good luck on your Lithuanian way! It will be amazing ☀️
(Feel free to contact me if you need any help in learning, bus malonu jums padėti!)
We have people who live for 40+ years in Lithuania and still refuse to learn lithuanian language, and they call it an "oppression" if we dare to ask them to atleast learn few lithuanian words
Lithuanian is very interesting to learn. I'm from Belarus and moved to Vilnius in April, and trying to speak in Lithuanian to the locals makes it very different - they see you try to do your best and carefully listens, it's a bit different when you do Russian or English from the beginning. Additionally, all the documents are in Lithuanian and all the important information is mostly not doubled on English like in the Northern countries, it's I guess the price for preserving the language in being a bit conservative of letting English into the day-to-day features like contents of the food, or public signs or announcements :) But Kudos for starting learning it, it will definitely make your life a bit easier
I will be retiring to Lithuania from canada with my lithuanian wife in a year or two and Yes I'll be learning lithuanian once we move. I have picked up some while we have visited.
I'm not sure how successful I would be in trying to learn while I'm still working full time in Canada though.
Thank you for your attitude and nice explanation! Whatever the reason is, I wish you to enjoy the result, and also the process :) I teach foreigners, so my advice is - be patient at the beginning. Some languages - like English - are easy at first but difficult later to study. Others - like Lithuanian - seem difficult at the beginning but become easy later, after you realise its system and find a golden key :)
A great video! You made a lot of great points.
English is a great language to know. It's awesome to be able to speak to someone from a different nation using a single language. It makes learning and experiencing things so much easier. That being said, if a person chooses to migrate to a certain country, they must, to a certain extent at least, adhere to local customs. And language is one of the most important aspects of such customs. It is true all around Europe. If you choose to live in Germany, you will need to speak German. If you choose to live in Sweden, you better start learning Swedish. Lithuania is no different. If a person intends to live here, they better learn the language. It's part of the broader integration process. And it's no easy task, especially learning a language like Lithuanian. It's ancient and tricky to learn. But integration of immigrants is crucial.
As for us, our language is precious. All of our kin languages, such as Old Prussian have gone extinct. Lithuanian and Latvian are the last remaining Baltic languages. And without our languages, we wouldn't really be Balts, thus we wouldn't be ourselves anymore. Throughout the history there were attempts, purposeful or otherwise to make us more Russian, or Polish, but we turned out to be really bad it. We are too stubborn to be anyone else but ourselves. 😄
❤
Labai gražiai pasakyta
Dėkui
I do agree, people who decide to live in a foreign country should learn the language eventually since you dont want to be an outsider forever. Also English might be uncomfortable for someone who never or barely spoke it even if they learned it at some point in school. Lately there are more foreigners (my guess - students) in my city and its cool when you hear them speaking some Lithuanian. Like "where does this bus goes" or a simple "excuse me".
❤
my cousin who used to live in lithuania but now lives in the uk has forgotten lithuanian and every summer she comes back to lithuania she learns the language by speaking with people in english and the other person speaks in lithuania and slowly starts using phrases or sentences in lithuanian
I think that learning any language (As an adult in a native country) is a social challenge in itself. I have seen many countless foreigners trying to learn languages (Around the World) and (Because English is an international language) everyone reverts to using English. Lithuania (Or rather Vilnius) has many foreigners and inevitably they tend to bump into each other and become akin. (Politics aside) it'd also be worth mentioning the many times people substitute Lithuanian for the more popular Russian language. Given the option, it'd be much wiser to learn Russian over Lithuanian for practical reasons. But, for the challenge, a little Lithuanian is also seen as polite. Please and thank you, etc...You really will be speaking one of the oldest languages in the world, and should be spoken with honor...
A very good helping tool is to get hooked on a lithuanian song or two. Music is a very big motivator for learning a language. I'm sure your wife can recommend something you'd like
Maybe you'd even find something new like lithuanian folklore which I'd highly recommend myself
As a lithuanian for all of my life now almost everybody can talk english but still i think that when you learn lithuanian it will be more easy cause we lithuanians have bad english acents but that is only my thouts and you can do what ever you want
Nice to hear of such polite and understanding foreigners. You are more welcomed here, than thous locals of Slavic origins. I agree with Your points and all what You sad about Lithuanian, can also be sad about Latvian, as it's sister language and historic experience was closely similar.
Thanks for another video. Very well done! And congrats on your first Lithuanian lesson!
Mano manymu lietuvių kalba yra viena iš gražiausių kalbų pasaulyje. Esu amerikietis ir esu studijavęs tos klabos beveik 3 metus. Žinoma ta kalba anglų kalbančiams ne lengviausia kalba bet labai vertinga jeigu norėtumetė daugiau susipažinti su Lietuva arba studijuoti arba kurti įmonę. Skrendau iš Sietlo į Helsinkį ir iš Helsinkio į Vilnių.
Puikus vaizdo įrašas, man labai patiko!
Thank you ❤
I am so God smacked that any one would live in a country by choice and not learn the language. I was sent to Korea for a year and had very little contact with Koreans but did manage a little bit. That is why when I came to Germany (again not my choice) I started the first week learning German.
Sekmes!!! One of best tips: disconnect your self from English. Watch or listen tv, radio ONLY Lithuanian. In 6 months you will have knowledge enough to understand what is going around you.
Thanks 😊
Hey i am Lithuanian but i'm in UK right now
As a Lithuanian i haven’t met alot of Lithuanian people that speak English it’s only the younger people that mostly are going to school or are somewhere around 20-30 because they went to the uk or us to work and learned english but for older people well they don’t know anything about it from my experience and really not their fault because they weren’t being thought english that well during the soviet times as i heard they only learned a few words and that’s it they don’t have use for english unless they are working outside of Lithuanian as like a trucker but they mostly speak german the use for english in Lithuania is not yet very much needed especially for old people and they work jobs that don’t require English really the most “needed” languages in Lithuanian are russian or german but even then it’s not that big it’s sometimes is useful to know other languages even if you are living in a country that doesn’t speak that language but if you are living in like france you have to learn that language it’s the common decency and practical use to understand others and not be embarrassed you don’t know that someone is saying even though you lived there for 10 years.
I don't know why that's even a question. If I live in a foreign country, I should learn the language. Besides, Lithuanian is a fascinating language. One of the oldest in Europe, much of it still unchanged. My favorite phrase in Lithuanian: Aš turiu idėją.
Mes galim padėti mokytis palikdami lietuviškus komentarus 😅
😆
Im very happy that you're learning lithuanian because me as an lithuanian its pretty nice there the city i live in is "Plungė" i just wanted to talk about this because why not?
I can write the following in English o puedo escribirlo en español, but Google Translate will help you with this task (something you can't do live, e.g. in a railway station).
Ačiū už įrašą. Aš esu lietuvis, iš Lietuvos. Esu lankesis ar gyvenęs kurį laiką keliose šalyse. Visada išmokstu bent kažkiek vietinės kalbos. Puikiai kalbu lingua franka (anglų kalba), bet nei vieno neverčiu ja su manimi kalbėti. Kai užsieniečia, laikinai apsistoję Lietuvoje, nekalba lietuviškai, aš visiškai juos suprantu ir neverčiu kalbėti valstybine kalba. Tie, kurie jau gyvena ilgiau nei Erasmus studijų laikotarpiu, dažnai jei nekalba, tai nemažai supranta lietuviškai. Nors aš iš jų tikiuosi, kad šiek tiek jau kalbėti mokės, bet vis tiek kaskart garsiai pasidžiaugu ir pagiriu jų kalbos įgūdžius. Problema būna, kai kitataučiai gimę ir užaugę Lietuvoje, mokesi mokykloje 12 metų lietuvių kalbos, išlaikę lietuvių kalbos egzaminą (nacionalinis reikalavimas norint, kad vidurinis išsilavinimas būtų užskaitytas) atsisako kalbėti lietuviškai, nors visiškai geba tai daryti, ir dar, negana to, reikalauja, kad tu jų (užsienio) kalba kalbėtumei!
Os voy a dar un ejemplo. Cuando fui a España a pasar el verano allí, sabia muy poco del español y todavía no hablaba el idioma. Podía hablar inglés perfectamente, pero siempre en todos los sitios intentaba hablar castellano. Nos entendiamos perfectamente. Creo que es mejor hablar el idioma local con poco fluidez y muchísimos errores que empujar a los nativos a hablar cualquier otro idioma.
If you want to learn our language, just ask us not to switch to English. You'll learn the language in no time. And do a LOT of listening on the radio, TV, media, video entertainment, etc. Sėkmės!
Edit: grammar
Good job! just go for it with Lithuanian :)
I have a question for Lithuanians:
How your tu/Jūs culture looks like, so I can compare it to Czech one? How often and in what situations you use each of them?
5:21 Isn't that Marijampolė?
Apart from the singular/plural use cases, "jūs" is used when adressing older people, strangers or people you want to be polite with, like your teacher or boss. Of course this can change depending on how familiar you are with these people, for example if you have close rapport with your boss then using "tu" is completely normal.
@@flamingas So it's the same like in Czech Republic. What about addressing in web pages? Polish and Hungarian ones stick to the informal speech, due to their rather complex system of formal speech. Czech Republic uses mostly formal speech with some exceptions, like using informal speech in webpages directed mostly to younger audience.
Saying Tu sounds a bit mean, and while saying Jūs sounds more respectful and polite
@@aurered6387 Yes, I agree, but Hungary for example is more open in this matter and although they use both, their informal "te" is more common.
Such thing was hard for me to get used to, as I address most of the people with formal form. I would address you the same way, because I do not know you, but English does not give me anything, but neutral "you".
@@RichieLarpa Originally English 'you' is plural, so they always speak formally (joke). English lost their singular 'thou'.
I've been living in Lithuania my whole life. I was born here and I live here. I've been wanting to move out for a while but leaving my brother, father and mom is just too hard for me. The lithuanian language is actually one of the hardest languages to learn just because of ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž. It's really hard to learn when to put these letters at which places for example Thanks or Thank you in lithuanian is Ačiū and it's pronounced ãčiū. But the letter ū is pronounced the same as ų and you just have to learn many many rules to learn where to put commas and question marks and
exclamation marks to only then understand a little where to put į and where to put y or ė and ę or ū and ų. It's a lot to memorize and nearly 80% of people who have failed the final exams in tenth grade have failed only because of lithuanian.
Also there are quite a few words which you have to litteraly memorize the way to write it. There are no rules to help you with them. I also wanted to mention the younger generation of Lithuania and how they speak English a lot. I once helped my teacher behave a class so the whole class wouldn't just run out or just play with their phones the whole lesson. I was watching over 6th graders and mostly the whole class were talking in english to make me understand less. I only understood less of what they were saying because they're english is so bad. They know the words they don't know how to speak fluently. It pissed me off so much and the worse part is when my teacher got back every single one of them were talking english so the teacher wouldn't understand. I had to stay there the whole lesson instead of half the lesson to translate what the kids were saying to the teacher. the teacher had to give everyone a lot of extra homework because of they were swearing a lot.
No matter what country you have settled in, you should eventually start learning the language. It's just a logical and respectful thing to do. I've had refused to answer people on the streets in russian here in Vilnius (i hardly can put a sentence together, but i had to somewhat learn to navigate the language cuz of my job where we would get a lot of Belorussian customers that spoke zero of any other language than their own) when it was obvious they are "local", and they turned out to speak lithuanian perfectly fine when my attitude was to not respond and say i don't speak russian and that this is Lithuania you're in, not a russian speaking country. Well i don't have to know any other language except the native tongue of the country i live in. Assuming that i speak something other than my own because of the history of the place or the population nuances is wrong move. Ask first, that always sounds a lot nicer and more polite than just putting people on the spot. If you want to use your language in your community and with your family - sure, go ahead, you're totally free to do that! But unless you are clearly a foreigner turist, here for a year, or a few months, native tongue is the only one to be used ouside of those circles while interacting with locals. It's just disrespectful not to. If I ended up living in a foreign country, it's a no brainer that i have to learn the language, like that's how my brain understands it. Moreover it will benefit you A LOT. We know our language is a pain in the ass to learn for anyone, but the fact that someone is trying and willing to will give them a lot more respect from the locals and will make life a lot easier running errands and what not.
Anyways, good luck with your lessons, it's a one hell of a language to tackle, and don't worry about the mistakes, that's how learning something works! Kudos for actually having the will to do it!
cool video :)
from what I understand, during russian annex after the 40s, it wasn't so much that the Russians put pressure on LT to lose their language ... but that they made it illegal and exacted the most extreme punishments for those caught with the literature. There were great movements to smuggle in literature from other countries with people risking their lives to do so. Some would have to convert their lithuanian texts to the phonetic equivalent in cyrillic. Basically LT is great and USSR is the worst.
Even living in Canada, it is sad that many foreigners (even some of my Lithuanian relatives) who associated only with Lithuanians never really became fluent in English. By forcing yourself to use your target language only will you make progress quickly. Perhaps you can agree with your wife that jus kalbesite tik Lietuviškai kartu pirmadienis iki penktadienis. On the other side, it is a good idea when you are young to learn and maintain the language of your heritage.
I'm Lithuanian and every body is really nice 👍
Try channel 1min Lithuanian they have free lessons there.
Foreigner living in Lithuania here. Where did you have your first lesson?
Thanks
I won’t disclose that just yet, but two names that were recommended to me during my search were “Lithuanian with Dovile” and “Talk Like Antanas.” Good luck on your journey!
Sėkmės!
Ačiū!
Labukasssssssssssssssssss
Since I born in Lithuania, alot of Lithuanians don't understand English especially senior or old adult people, which is you need to learn Lithuanian or watch these tutorial videos.
good luck everyone i speak lithuanian fluently and lived there half my life, but the grammar is so hard
We lived throu so mucht
as Lithuanian language speaking person i can say its easy to learn
Lmao how much did you get from your lithuanian language exam? Tiesiog įdomu
No it is not, unless you already know Latvian
Noone should live in a foreign country without knowing the language.
"It's arrogant and disrespectful to be in a foreign land and expect others to know your language"
Russians: im gonna pretend i didnt hear that
"Why, when living in [country x[ you should learn [language x["
1. you get to fucking socialize
Lithuanian language is mandatory for PR??
"Tourists and occupants do not learn local language"..
Based
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Kodėl? Nes aš esu čekas ir aš manau, kad lietuvių kalba yra įdomi ir labai sena. Jau norėčiau eiti į Lietuvą, jau ne noriu laukti!
Jau nuo gruodžio mėnesio galima patekti į Lietuvą su traukiniais per Lenkiją 🐸
@@DodoGTA Tai gerai, bet kelionė į Lietuvą nėra mano problema, dabar aš ne turiu daug pinigų, todėl negaliu keliauti. Kur surasiu daugiau informacijos apie traukinius?
@@RichieLarpa Informaciją apie traukinį iš Lenkijos į Lietuvą galite rasti LTG Link svetainėje (aš bandžiau nuorodą pridėti, bet mano komentaras buvo ištrintas, tai reikia slinkti žemyn toje svetainėje kol rasite „Vilnius-Varšuva-Krokuva-Vilnius”)
@@DodoGTA Radau, labai ačiū už jūsų pagalbos! Su džiaugsmu taip pat išbandžiau lietuvių kalbą su jums.
@@DodoGTA Vakar žiūrėjau šią vaizdo įrašą ir jūs buvote teisus, malonu buvo sužinoti daugiau apie maršrutą į Lietuvą.
ruclips.net/video/ETL5suUxv4w/видео.html
I personally do not mind when actual foreigners do not speak Lithuanian since it really is a difficult language, especially for those who’s first language is a Western one. Of course it’s a great thing when they do (whether it’s only a few phrases or being able to speak fluently). But there are other cultures or nationalities (mainly Russians) who have lived their whole lives in Lithuania and they somehow cannot say a word in Lithuanian. Those are the ones who actually disgust me, my family, friends, people around me, etc. If you plan on living in a country for a long period of time (that being around 5 years or more) you should at least try to communicate in the local language before switching to another language and not write everything off as “if I speak in my own language slowly, they’ll surely somehow understand me”. It’s disgraceful to yourself and others.
I live in Lithuania I’m lithuanian
Im lithuanian too laba diena palinkėsiu jums geros dienos ir gerų Naujų Metų
The effort is appreciated greatly, and it a shame to follow up with "however"... But the result is often painful to behold.
One needs several years of intensive study and full immersion to actually be understandable.
I've seen this with our parish priests: older people would literally go to another church because they can't understand their thick Polish accent. And that's just pronunciation, the poor friars are actually using correct grammar.
For me it's literally easier to communicate in English than to try and decipher heavily accented Lithuanian without proper inflections.
If people know you're not from lithuania but, you live here and you speak our language - the respect for you highrockets😂. All of our lives we've been told it's an impossible language to learn, so we appreciate the effort. Also prepare for a question - why did you learn lithuanian? It's so not useful at all
Great video, I support this message. In my opinion, if you are planning to live in any country as a foreigner for longer than 5 years. I would say you have to learn the language because you will never be a part of the culture.
Lithuanian is preaty Hard bc of the letters like:į, ą, ę.
And stuff i am Not that good at Lithuanian it does Not matter if į was born there or no like its still pretty hard
Need Lituanija am liv her. Am 8 old kid
Viskas gerai šnekėk kaip tau patogu nebijok parodyti ką moki tai viskas gerai kad angliškai šneki tu bet geriau šnekėti kaip tau patogu!
You should learn to, but u never contacted me to start a classess 😉
If you are living somewhere for a couple of years without planning to stay I can understand not learning the language. In other cases its just a form of disrespect and in many cases when talking specifically about Lithuania a way of displaying hostility and or superiority towards the Lithuanian culture and the Lithuanian language. Yes its a small country and yes there are realistically just somewhat more then a million native speakers in the world (not counting here the people living in Lithuania that are native speakers of other languages and their kids not going to lithianian schools) speaking this 5000 year old language but thats the more reason to keep it alive and make sure it does not go extinct.
Jus teisi
When Lithuanians go to live and work to another country with 0 of native language they learn quet well the language in 6-12 mounths and thats is comon, so lithuanians expecting that from imigrants. Just lookk in lithuanians face when you say a sentence in aour langugage- face light up
Lithuanian isn't older than other languages, it's just more archaic than most other indo-european languages, that's all. Languages have no age, they don't appear overnight.
Saying that Lithuanian is 5000 years old doesn't make sense, what did people speak the year before that ? 🙂 Btw, 5000 years old, the ancestor of English existed, the ancestor of Latin to, of Greek too, of Irish too, of Hindi too, and so on. Just like the ancestor of Lithuanian. The only thing is that Lithuanian is thought not to have changed as much as most other living indo-european languages (but it has changed a bit though).
Unless you're yourself linguist and do have a degree in linguistics , and your exploits are connected to exploration of Indo-European languages roots , I'm reluctant to except your view...
I'm in my studies was taught very differently
The answer is it depends. You don’t know all the stories of those people to make a reasonable conclusion.
I my opinion I think if you are planning on living or working in any different country is very important to learn said countries language if you don't in most peoples eye you will look very ignorant and disrespectful
That's is true
Everyone from 10 to 20 speaks fluent english 7 out of 10 times, 20-30year olds its 50/50, 40 to 60 yearolds, 20% chance they can speak english, above 60 years old, like grammas and stuff, haven't seen a single one yet XD and keep in mind, i was born and lived here for over 20 years XD
How is this even a question?
Galiu va pasakyt labas😂
Laba diena lietuviukai
Nejaugi tai yra vienintelis sakinys, kurį jūs galit pasakyti? Apmaudu, nes aš manau kad lietuvių kalba yra viena iš gražiausių kalbų visame šviesiam pasaulyje, ir tai kad aš nuo ankstyvos vaikystės šneku lietuviškai, rašau ir skaitau padėjo man išmokti dar tris kalbas. ir kalbėti, ir skaityti, ir rašyti aš sugebėjau išmokti
jesus 4 years and not a word, damn, even when I go abroad for a couple days I look into even what are the basic words as thank you, hello etc. This guy you were mentioning is something else, probably speaks only one language, so not really understand the benefit of at elast learning few words, sentences
If U live in Lithuania U should learn the Baltic Lithuanian (the state language) and Polish (as Poles contributed a lot to Lithuania and even nowadays many people speak Polish in this country).
Aš ne šneku lenkiškai ir nesiruošiu šnekėti
As probably people said that already: ltu language is not the oldest, Icelandic, from top of my head, would be older. It is most archaic - least changed.
Icelandic is much younger than Lithuanian. Icelandic is a germanic language which developed after Lithuanian
@@spage80 my wiki knowlegde failed me.
You are right to move from 'oldest' to 'archaic'. Neither Icelandic is the oldest. All European languages (except Finno-Ugric) developed from the same proto-language.
Most lithuanians understand english, but arent confident enough to speak it.
Ha, and why foreiginers in Germany should learn germany
It is required to learn a basic amount of German in order to have permission to live there.
@@spage80 this is a rhetorical question. Іt is obvious that if you live in a country for some time, you must know the language
It's a tricky decision to make. As Lithuanian, I think our language might be hard to learn and our country is quite small so knowing this language is not very useful. Also in some cities there are a lot of Polish and Russians who do not speak Lithuanian :D
You are right in some sense. If one is going to live in a reservation, closed area, without studying and working...
It's nonsensical to call any natural, non-creole language "old" (or "oldest" or what have you). What does it even mean? All Indo-European languages descend from the same source, thus logically they're equally old. "Conservative" is the more accurate term for Lithuanian - it's conserved many oldfeatures (and that's not identical to literally being old).
I think it's good to mention you need to also learn a little of the Russian (and a bit of Polish) jargon, cause it's often used in connection with Lithuanian.
Better not. Lithuanians feel outraged if you start talking to them Russian occasionally.
@@rimajezukeviciene3460 I don't mean that, I'm Lithuanian myself. I mean some of the slang often used, and swear words.
It depends in the which part of the country
Today the Russian language is not very popular. Most Lithuanians are migrating from Lithuania and the number of people leaving this country only rises. Try to find statistics. With the English language, there are no problems in Lithuania. Life in this country is not getting any better, rising taxes, and our politicians are not worried about people. Rising salaries only for themselves, making dumb decisions, and crying that a lot of people are spending money in Poland. Even if we will touch times until 2020 situation will be only slightly better.
Because you live in Lithuania so naturally you should and must know at least basic phrases smh
There aren't old languages lol