Lithuanian Out Loud

Labas everybody!  This is Jack, and I’m Raminta, and you’re listening to Lithuanian Out Loud, the world’s first Lithuanian language lessons in a podcast series!  So, what’s new in Lithuania today?  According to the Wikipedia page “Lithuanian Nationality Law" in 1944 when the Soviet army pushed the Nazis out of Lithuania and Lithuania’s people were forced to become part of the Soviet Union, there was a great Lithuanian diaspora to the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina and other parts of the world. In 1990 after Lithuania reestablished its independence, the Lithuanian Seimas or parliament enacted the “Lithuanian Nationality Law." According to this law, a person is a citizen if they’re born in Lithuania or if they’re naturalized.  To become a naturalized citizen a person must; 1-Complete a residency period 2-Pass a Lithuanian language exam 3-Pass an exam on the Lithuanian Constitution 4-Proof of financial support 5-An oath of loyalty to the Republic of Lithuania But according to the Lithuanian National

When you greet a Lithuanian at his or her house, flat or say the front door of a restaurant, whatever you do, don’t shake hands across the threshold of the doorway.  Yeah, that one surprised me too but I was brusquely corrected on it recently. Now, of course, you can greet each other as your guest opens the door but the physical shaking of hands must be done either inside or outside the threshold.  If you do it wrong – baaaad luck! Same goes for kissing on the cheek with close friends.  Either the person who is at home opening the door must step out through the door and past the threshold or the guest or guests have to come all the way inside before kisses can be shared.  Same as a handshake – if you do it wrong, it’s bad luck.  Who makes this stuff up, anyway?  How do you kiss Raminta?  Do you kiss on the left cheek first or right cheek first?  Straight to the lips!  But, really, traditionally.  Really?  With your girlfriend?  With the girlfriend.  Tradition – to the lips…oho…okay, something I didn’t notice…

Hello everybody, this is Jack and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where you learn Lithuanian along with me, the beginner, and where my wife Raminta keeps us all in line.  Now, if you’ve been following the last few episodes you know that Raminta’s on the road right now and, honestly, when we started the Lithuanian Out Loud project we didn’t expect her to be traveling nearly as much as she is.  Of course, with her being on the road so much, recording lessons is a serious challenge.  Now, we’re working on some fixes like recording lessons over the phone or with Skype and some other ideas but until we perfect our yet to be discovered solution, we ask that you please bear with our technical difficulties. One listener wrote in asking if it was possible to locate a book which conjugates a few hundred Lithuanian verbs.  You know, there are plenty of books available like that for Spanish, French, German, etc., but not so much for Lithuanian.  However, there is a book called 365 Lithuanian Verbs, but it’s out of pr

Beginning at the age of 40, Grand Duke, or High King, Gediminas was ruler of Lithuania from 1316 to 1341. He became the monarch of the Lithuanians 80 years after the Battle of the Sun.  Gediminas ruled for 25 years and he inherited lands that included what is now Lithuania as well as parts of Belarus. Gediminas was very loyal to his subjects, giving them the freedom to worship the traditional Lithuanian gods, Christianity or Judaism.  He’s the true founder of the modern idea of a Lithuanian nation. He created a large, powerful Lithuanian army; defended Lithuania with a series of strong forts and built castles in towns including Vilnius.  He originally placed the capital at Trakai, near Vilnius, but later decided on Vilnius itself. His reputation is that of a man who worshipped the old Lithuanian gods and who resisted every attempt to christianize his country, but the reality is a little different from the legend. Wanting to create a strong nation and needing help to defend Lithuania from the German Teutonic K

Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson.  We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian  -  Out Loud!  This time we have so much to review, we’re breaking it up into two episodes.  Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! Raminta’s book                                 Ramintos knyga Austėja’s amber                                Austėjos gintaras the wife’s room                                žmonos kambarys Sandra’s restaurant                             Sandros restoranas Kristina’s sister                                  Kristinos sesuo Raminta’s husband                             Ramintos vyras Austėja’s house                                  Austėjos namas Sandra’s brother                                Sandros brolis Raminta’s city                                   Ramintos miestas Kristina’s amber                                Kristinos gintaras a country                                          šalis   a door                             

Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson.  We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian  -  Out Loud!  This time we have so much to review, we’re breaking it up into two episodes.  Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! Egypt                                       Egiptas     Australia                                   Australija   Netherlands                              Nyderlandai   Ireland                                      Airija    Botswana                                 Botsvana   Brazil                                       Brazilija   I’m from Egypt                          Aš iš Egipto I’m from Australia                     Aš iš Australijos I’m from The Netherlands          Aš iš Nyderlandų I’m from Ireland                        Aš iš Airijos I’m from Botswana                    Aš iš Botsvanos I’m from Brazil                          Aš iš Brazilijos I’m Egyptian (male)                    Aš egiptietis I’m Egyptian (female) 

Who are the Samogitians?  According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Samogitia, Samogitia or Žemaitija in Lithuanian, is one of five ethnographic regions in Lithuania.  It’s primarily the western third of Lithuania.  The Samogitians were a key factor during the Battle of the Sun. In 1236, the invading Livonian Brothers of the Sword, whose base of operations was Riga, in present day Latvia, rode south into present day Lithuania.  The Livonian Brothers were Christian Crusaders from Holstein in present day Germany.  Lithuania hadn’t been conquered by the Christian armies and they were willing to fight to keep the Christians out.  The Livonian knights left Riga, headed south, crossed into Lithuanian land and raided some Samogitian settlements.  After the Germans had their fill of raiding villages, they headed north towards home.  They came to a river crossing and a unit of Samogitian Lithuanians were blocking their path.  The Crusaders chose not to fight but to camp for the night.  Oops, that was a mistake. Early

In August of 2007, Denmark and Lithuania removed their combat troops from Iraq.  The Lithuanians were withdrawn from the southern city of Basra where they’d been under Danish command.  Over 750 Lithuanian soldiers served in Iraq and not one was killed.  Nine Lithuanian soldiers are staying in Iraq to help train Iraqi troops. Congratulations to the Lithuanian nation on the safe return of their troops.  Personally, I’m thrilled that not a single Lithuanian soldier died in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and hopefully, none will be. We already learned how to use the genitive case or kilmininkas with feminine nouns. -a changes to –os and –ė changes to –ės. Now let’s go over masculine nouns.  Most masculine nouns end in –as, -is, -ys, and –us. Before we do the genitive examples, here are some masculine nouns in the nominative case or vardininkas. Prašom pakartoti, please repeat… Ignas              Ignas, a man’s name, short for Ignacas Ignas   vyras              a man or a husband anglas             the Engl

According to the Wikipedia page entitled, Forest Brothers, the Forest Brothers or Miško Broliai were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Occupation. The Red Army occupied Lithuania in 1940–1941 and, after the Nazi occupation, again in 1944 until Lithuanian independence in the 1990’s. As Stalinist repression intensified over the years, tens of thousands of Lithuanians hid in the country’s forests. Lithuanian resistance units varied in size from individual guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defence, to large and well-organised groups able to battle large Soviet forces.  The ranks of the resistance swelled when the Red Army attemptėd to conscript young men after World War II, with fewer than half of the youths reporting in some districts. The families of the missing conscripts were harassed by the Soviets and this pushed even more Lithuanians into the countryside.  Many enlisted men deserted, taking their weapons with them. By the late 1940s and early 1950

In Lithuanian, veidas, means “face."  Are you familiar with the popular Lithuanian magazine called Veidas?  It’s amazingly similar to the U.S. magazines Time and Newsweek, bursting with full color photos, national and international news, charts, graphs, entertainment news, history, etc. My hubby discovered this gem when he visited the webpsite Balticshop.com looking for a gift for some close Lithuanian friends.  One way to get a subscription to Veidas is to go to Balticshop.com.  They have a wide selection of Lithuanian gifts.  Balticshop.com will also send you a large, full color catalog full of photographs of their Lithuanian gifts.  They’re based in the U.S. and no I wasn’t paid nor did I receive any compensation to mention them on Lithuanian Out Loud.  The Veidas magazine subscription, as I recall, wasn’t cheap.  I think it was around $200.00 but our friends get the magazine every week for a year.  It’s a special gift for a special friend. Okey dokey!  On the last lesson we went over feminine nouns in the

Just how similar are the Baltic States to one another?  Not as much as one might think. The Baltic States are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  For starters all three speak different languages and they can’t understand each other.  The Latvian and Lithuanian languages were the same language many hundreds of years ago, but not today.  The Estonian language is completely different;  it’s related to the language of Finland or Finnish. The Estonians and Latvians are mostly Protestant Christians but the Lithuanians are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.  The Lithuanian people are also considered to be the warmest and friendliest people of the three nation region. And by the way, any time somebody says Lithuania is a small country…just gently remind them it’s not that small, it is, after all, larger than Switzerland. For quite a few lessons to come, we’re going to be going through all the ins and outs of the genitive case or kilmininkas.  After we finish this series of episodes you should be a real pro at this declension

According to Wikipedia, in the ancient Lithuanian religion, Perkūnas is the Lithuanian God of thunder, the God of the sky, the Lord of rain, mountains, oak trees and storms.  Quite a powerful god indeed. In songs about a “heavenly wedding" Saulė (the Sun) cheats on Perkūnas with Mėnulis (the Moon); Perkūnas splits Mėnulis in half with a sword. According to another, more popular, version, Mėnulis cheats on the Sun with Aušrinė (the morning star) just after the wedding, and Perkūnas punishes it. However, Mėnulis does not learn and repeats the adultery and is punished again every month. Other explanations say it is why the Sun shines during the day and the Moon at night. Though divorced, both want to see their daughter Žemyna (the Earth). In other songs Perkūnas, on the way to the wedding of Aušra (dawn; the daughter of the Sun), strikes a golden oak, most likely in order to expel evil spirits, Velnias or snakes, that usually hide below the roots of an oak. The oak is a tree of the thunder god in the Lithuanian

Have you ever looked at the ten litas or dešimt litų bank note, seen the pilots and the airplane and wondered what it’s all about?  The pilots are Lithuanian national heroes (Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas).  They were Lithuanian emigrants to the United States and on 15 July 1933 they flew across the Atlantic Ocean covering 6,411 kilometers without landing.  A total of 37 hours, 11 minutes in the air.  This was also the first ever transatlantic air mail consignment in history. The aircraft was painted bright orange and was named Lituanica, the latin name for Lithuania. Sadly, two days after a successful Atlantic crossing, the aircraft crashed in Germany killing the two pilots and destroying the aircraft.  Some claim it was shot down by German forces.  The wreckage can still be viewed today at the Vytautas The Great War Museum in Kaunas. Today we want to get away from grammar just a bit and teach you some common phrases that you should be able to pop out of your mouth when you need them. please repeat     

Hey Everybody!  We'd love to have everyone join the party at Lithuanian Out Loud.  Check out our newest comment on the blogpage.  Now, don't be shy, we'd be thrilled to hear from you!  Oho! Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson.  We’ll say the word or phrase in English and you say it in Lithuanian  -  Out Loud!  Sorry, no more questions, the exam starts now! America                             Amerika England                              Anglija Lithuania                            Lietuva Poland                                Lenkija from                                   iš I’m from                            aš iš genitive case                      kilmininkas I’m from America               Aš iš Amerikos I’m from England               Aš iš Anglijos I’m from Lithuania             Aš iš Lietuvos I’m from Poland                 Aš iš Lenkijos nice to meet you                  malonu nice to meet you too           taip pat malonu three words for “really?"     rimtai?  tikr

In 2003, in front of international reporters, a Lithuanian ex-President said that he was as calm as a Belgian.  This caused quite a stir in Belgium.  This is a common saying in Lithuania but Belgians had no idea another nation thought of them as being calm.  What did they do to deserve this recognition for calmness?  Nobody knows.  By the way, the name Raminta also comes from the root word for “calm" in Lithuanian.  The next time you want to say you’re as cool as a cucumber…just say, “Aš ramus, kaip Belgas."  I’m as calm as a Belgian. ramus                                   calm note: in Lithuanian, names of nations are capitalized; nationalities are not.  Also, Lithuanians often drop the verb, "to be" or "būti."  You can say, "Ji yra Dovilė" - "She is Dovilė," or "Jis yra Andrius" - "He is Andrius."  But it's okay to say, "Ji Dovilė" or "Jis Andrius." America                               Amerika England                                Anglija Lithuania                              Lietuva Poland    

Our friend writes…”There are no words in Lithuanian for boyfriend or girlfriend.  Lithuanians refer only to the words “draugas,” which means a male friend and “draugė,” which means female friend.  But, of course, that doesn’t convey quite what we’re looking for here. A more appropriate term would be “partner,” “partneris” for a male and “partnerė” for a female.  You could also refer to someone as “gyvenimo draugas” or “gyvenimo draugė.” If a man says, “čia – mano gyvenimo draugas” or “čia – mano partneris” you would understand that he is gay. Let’s go over some terms… same sex partner translates as “tos pačios lyties partneris” for men and “tos pačios lyties partnerė” for women. “tos pačios” is derived from “tas pats” which means “same” tos pačios                        same “lyties” is derived from the word, “lytis” or “sex” and “partneris” or “partner.” same sex partner              tos pačios lyties partneris (male) same sex partner              tos pačios lyties partnerė (female) the word for friend is

In today’s episode Jack will mention Grūto Parkas near the Lithuanian city of Druskininkai.  By mentioning this controversial park, Jack and I are not commenting on the right or wrong of the park’s existence.  Some people like the park, some people hate it, some people don’t care.  We’re simply saying the park is of interest for some tourists.  Of course millions of people died savagely at the hands of monsters like Lenin and Stalin and no mass murderers should receive a place of honor in any nation. būti                   verb meaning, “to be" aš esu               I am tu esi                you are (familiar) jis yra               he is ji yra                she is jūs esate           you are (formal) jūs esate           you all are mes esame       we are jie yra              they are jos yra             they are (females) namas              house vardas              name knyga               book ir                      and brolis                brother sesuo                sister Lithu

Botswana and Brazil come aboard for Lithuanian lessons!  No lie?  Today we go over some expressions a Lithuanian makes when she/he is surprised.  Oho!  Wow!  Raminta is finally on her way back home and Jack is looking forward to getting a break from walking the dog.  Cute dog, but tiring!  If anyone would like to send us a plug or a promo, email it to us or call our voicemail.  Enjoy the lesson! jo?                   really? rimtai?              really? tikrai?               really? oho!                 wow! miestas             city kambarys         room parkas              park restoranas         restaurant vyras                man vyras                husband žmona              wife aš labai myliu savo žmoną         I really love my wife email Raminta and Jack at:  lithuanianoutloud@earthlink.net Here’s the Akropolis Mall in Vilnius, Lithuania: http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=54.710795&lon=25.260057&z=17&l=0&m=a&v=2  

Akropolis Mall north of Vilnius is a must see attraction, but if you buy something, make sure it's what you want; it's very difficult to return gifts.  Akropolis was Lithuania's first super-mall.  It's a one of the fun sites to see if you visit Vilnius.  Today you learn how to say "I'm from..."  This is our first introduction to the genitive declension or kilmininkas.  Kilmininkas is the most used declension after vardininkas or the naming case. Pilies gatvė            Castle street Katedros aikštė      Cathedral square Gedimino pilis        Gediminis castle America                Amerika England                 Anglija Lithuania               Lietuva Poland                  Lenkija from                     iš genitive case         kilmininkas Amerika changes to Amerikos Anglija changes to Anglijos Lietuva changes to Lietuvos Lenkija changes to Lenkijos I'm from America          Aš iš Amerikos I'm from England          Aš iš Anglijos I'm from Lithuania         Aš iš Lietuvos I'm from Poland        

Oho!  Approximately every fifth lesson will be a quick response lesson.  We'll say the word or words in English, you respond in Lithuanian - Out Loud.  We know you've been studying hard so this will be easy!  Good luck and keep repeating until you perfect it.  ~Raminta and Jack :) (greeting a man) health!                                     sveikas! (greeting a woman) health!                                 sveika! (cute greeting between women only)                    sveikutė! what's new?                                                      kas naujo? nothing                                                              nieko bye                                                                  ate (greeting a group) health!                                  sveiki! (greeting a group of females) health!                  sveikos! "cutsy" good evening                                         labas vakarėlis what's up?                                                        ką darai? nothing, and you? (fam