Latvia's 97th

This year Latvia celebrated 97 years since it declared independence on November 18, 1918. The Washington area Latvian community marked the day on November 15th.

May as well take a photo while we're dressed up!

The day began with a flag-raising outside the church, then most proceeded to the church service, while the Latvian school gathered for a small event of their own. The students were fortunate in that we had special guests - musician Laima Jansone and singer Zane Perkone, who later performed for the entire community, but in their time with the school, they engagingly educated us about the kokle.The type Laima plays is from Latgale, while the kokles we are more accustomed to seeing here in the U.S. are from the Kurzeme region.

Later the concert itself was absolutely fantastic. Afterward I did have a brief chance to chat with the performers; Laima was very interested to learn that my grandfather had made kokles here in the U.S.

As is always the case, following the concert everyone greatly enjoyed the reception - complete with champagne and many delicious hors d'ouevres. And as is often the case, I was one of the last to leave. It's always nice to see friends and acquaintances, and have an opportunity to catch up. 

At the tail end of the reception...

Although from my photos it may seem that only women were present at this event, I can assure you there were quite a few men, as well. But clearly they were not as photogenic!

How Well Do You Recognize Foreign Languages?

The Great Language Game is fascinating! It's a multiple choice quiz: listen to a language, and try to figure out which language it is. I was quite pleased with my scores when I played it twice several weeks ago.

How well did you score? Did you find it too challenging (i.e. frustrating), or was it an interesting or fun experience?

I wish I were more multi-lingual than I am; the languages that I do speak are really only thanks to immersion a child, but somewhere deep inside of me lurks a linguist, because I love hearing different languages and trying to decipher what they are. Naturally, living in the DC area means I hear and overhear a variety of languages more frequently. Just last night I was in a children's clothing store, overhearing a couple speak in a language that I recognized as Slavic, but could not place precisely. I typically don't walk up to strangers to ask what language they are speaking, although it's something I have experienced myself many a time. One of my favorite (or least favorite) experiences in that regard took place ago many years ago in the Midwest. If I recall correctly, my mom and I were out shopping, and were asked what we were speaking. One of us responded, "Latvian," to which the questioner said, "Latin? I hear that is a difficult language!" Sigh...should we talk about the complete lack of geography education in this country?

If you do play the Great Language Game, leave a comment -- you don't need to divulge your score, just let me know what you thought of the experience!

Valoda / Language / Sprache

A few years ago I was given this old letter by a relative to whom it had originally been sent. I am so glad that snail mail was a big deal when I was growing up, and that - I presume in an effort to get us to write in Latvian - my mother often sat my sister and me down to write cards and letters to various family members who lived in other cities. Luckily, some recipients of my cards and letters kept them, and I was quite touched to see this one.

Translation:

Dear xyz and abc:
I had good grades. We will go to Great America and Garezers. We will go to camp. I know how to read, also in German.
Daina
13 June, 1982

Explanations:

1. Great America was an amusement park a couple of hours from our house, and clearly planning on visiting that was a big deal. Naturally, the thing that I remember best from that visit was not being allowed to go on many kids' rides because I was too tall. This would not had been as problematic had my younger sister not been more average-sized and thus being able to enjoy the rides while I watched from the side. Nope, not one of my fondest memories!

2. Garezers is the Latvian camp and cultural center at which we spent most of our summers. Our family lived there for about eight or nine weeks each summer because my parents worked at the camp, and at the appropriate ages my sister and I attended the two week long kids' camp and later the six week long summer high school.

3. Although we spoke only Latvian at home, my parents decided to send my younger sister and me to a German immersion elementary school once we began kindergarten. Our city was one of the first to have public language immersion schools; founded in 1977, the school was only a few years old when we began attending. From kindergarten through second grade students were immersed in the foreign language 100% of the time. From third through fifth grade, half the school day was in German, half was in English. Both my sister and I continued studying German for many years, including spending time in Germany as university students. Interestingly, although the language is considered less useful than others nowadays, both of us have used our German skills in at least one job.

Lessons:
A. Bi- or multi-lingualism = good.
B. Writing old-fashioned letters and cards = good.
C. Keeping certain mementos = good.

Best Ever Note to Tooth Fairy

Thank goodness my mom saved and even dated this!

Translation:
Dear Fairy,
Because this is one of my last teeth, I would like more than 25 cents (75 cents would be good).
Thank you very much,
Daina (fake middle initial and real last name - more on that later)

Observations:
1. Clearly, handwriting has never been my strong suit.
2. I have loved parentheses from an early age. (And - really - who wouldn't? Such a great tool for those of us who are wordy!)
3. For a child born in the United States, I had damn good Latvian skills. Paldies, mamma un tēti!
4. Although, unlike my father, my mother does not save many papers and mementos, she made an awfully good choice with this one. She and I actually cracked up with laughter when she gave me this little note to me about a year ago.
5. I need to find the note again to see what (if anything) is written on the backside, as the many arrows on the right seem to indicate that the reader needs to flip the paper to check out the back!

Valoda

This post will be relevant only to Latvian speakers. :-)

Someone I follow on Twitter retweeted the graphic below. I found it quite interesting and informative, and thought maybe three of my five readers would, as well! The original source is here.