I'm back! Yay! New video to finalize Curaçao trip and about Papiamentu books!

Hi all,

Late on this lovely Sunday night I want to greet you all and apologize for my prolonged dormancy at this blog.

I was inspired by R. K. Harrison (of Papiamentu-Tur-Dia)'s comment to get this blog going again and enjoy the amazingness of Papiamentu.

I was sorry that I had never finished off my little saga on my Curaçao trip, and I had also been meaning to talk about the cool Papiamentu books I got at the Mensing's bookstore outside of Willemstad.

So, I decided to make a video blog (and small book review) at one of my current Internet projects, Brian on Language, which is a YouTube channel and blog that I made to share my love of languages to the world.

I figured I could "kill two birds with one stone" (hate that phrase, but it's true) by making a new video for BoL and also giving iPapiamentu another chance.

Thank you to any reader(s) out there who stumbled upon iPapiamentu before this long hiatus and again, sorry about that.

Hopefully I will be posting some new stuff here at the blog, but for now, please enjoy the video below from my channel Brian on Language.

For all of the links, and for more about the video and my channel, please check the description out on YouTube as well as / or at my blog.

Danki!

Brian

Aloe plantation, Ostrich farm, snorkeling and bingo! Curacao days 3 + 4

Hi all,

Back with a quick update about my past two days in Curacao. As I keep saying, I am continuing to have a fabulous time as I meet new nice people and see new places.

Yesterday was one of my favorite days, as we got to see a bit beyond the city and explore the island's smaller towns and rural areas. It's almost hard to remember what happened here on island time...

In the morning we took a drive over the famous tall Curacao bridge (I'm not sure of the exact name) and to some cool attractions. We got a bit lost on the roads, but made our way and got to see some unexpected shops and restaurants! I noticed a lot of Chinese food restaurants and markets, as well as a couple Surinaamese restaurants -- due to the Dutch and South American influences.

Speaking of Dutch influence, that's something I noticed a lot here, and something that relates to the linguistic theme of this blog...

Most of the people here, or at least the ones I've encountered at the hotels and restaurants, are speaking Dutch or Spanish. This makes it almost more practical for one to learn Dutch going to the ABC islands (or at least Curacao from what I've seen).

However, the locals really do speak the Papiamentu. And it's so nice to hear!

Anyway, yesterday we went to the Aloe plantation that's well-known and loved here in Curacao. We got a lovely tour from a woman of Dutch roots who'd lived here in Curacao her whole life. We got to try some fresh-harvested aloe leaves on our skin, which was nice; however, the aloe tasted not so pleasant... ;)

I learned it was from the onion, garlic and leek family; not from the cactus family as believed.
The plants at the plantation were beautiful and well-kept, and we got to see what they were made into, including some lovely gels and lotions and juices and sodas.

The factory and office was quite small but the plantation portion with the lovely aloes was huge: 100,000+ plants!

We purchased some of the products and I'm excited to be using them. Here is the website for the Aloe plantation. I wish I could put up photos but I'm very tired and it's difficult to upload them; sorry!

Next was the ostrich farm which we went to quickly between waiting time for the aloe tour. We got to see the ostriches walking around which was very cool. They're so cute! Also some goats, ducks and a cute African gray parrot (which I want as a pet!).

I didn't really want to take the tour of the ostrich farm because...didn't want to see the slaughter process... I'm a vegan, can't blame me!

That was the major portion of day yesterday. Don't want to go on forever. Really fun!

Today we hung out at the hotel and I got to read and also hang in the lounge on the computers -- going to study Navajo next! That's a whole nother blog, though...

Just now I got back from bingo at the hotel casino! Was so fun to hear the Papiamentu numbers and see the locals. However, I just got kicked out because I'm under 18...

So now I'm in the lounge, enjoying blogging here. Thanks for reading!

Email me and comment about your Curacao experiences!

Brian

Curacao day two! Pictures and more

Hi all,

I'm back in the hotel computer lounge here to tell you about my second day in Curacao! Yesterday I posted here about my return to the blog and my trip in the real location of Papiamentu's speaking community.

Today we went to the town of Willemstad for the day. What a beautiful city! The buildings, as the famous "skyline" shows, are full of color and the town and its people full of life.

I got my big sunhat and my camera and we were off. The breezy, warm weather made for a nice day. I'll do a sort of photo blog below and post some of my photos and captions to give you an idea of my trip. Sorry these posts upcoming won't be the most about the Papiamentu language, but give insight and a fun story about Curacao and where Papiamentu is spoken! (Get acquainted with the language here if you've just arrived).



Of course, the famous "bon bini", or "welcome" at the Curacao airport.



The Hilton Curacao hotel.



View from the hotel balcony.



Beautiful Willemstad view.



Up-close buildings. So colorful!



From the "floating bridge". You can certainly feel that it's floating!



Also "floating" was the market here, with wonderful produce and handicrafts from vendors on boat from Venezuela. Saw a cool video about this on YouTube right here.



All the amazing fruits and veggies I got at the markets! So cheap -- the currency is the Nederlands guilder and the exchange worked out in our favor. If you can see, I even got a noni!

So, those are those! Again it was so cool to be hearing Papiamentu spoken. They speak it so fast, so I had trouble conversing much. However, I did use some phrases for asking directions and how much certain things cost.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think by emailing me here any time!

Brian

Mi ta na Curacao! I'm back, updates and various

Hi guys,

Wow! Hi! It's been way to long. I got really bad about posting every day here at iPapiamentu and I'm sorry. But here I am with an update!

My goal was to do all the grammar and explanation posts, and also the phrases and words posts for each of the lessons of E.R. Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook (learn more here). However, life got in the way and I couldn't finish it in time (I'll explain more below), but I didn't want to give up on this blog. There's been way too many blogs that I've created and gotten going and then never continued, and I don't want iPapiamentu to be one of them.

As I was saying, the "in time" thing...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this anywhere on this site but my spring break plans are for Curacao! And here I am! In the lovely outskirts of Willemstad, on the island itself! I cannot believe it.

The date came up so fast... We just arrived from the plane in the Curacao airport at about 2:30 PM but had to wake up at 3:30 AM (EST) to start the drive to Philly airport, make the connection to Miami, and then to Curacao.

Anyway, enough me about the flight. Here I am and it's absolutely beautiful here! Already there's many people with friendly smiles and service. The weather, though I'm not your "hot sun, lay-by-the-pool type", is really pleasant, surprisingly, although it is hot and a bit humid. This is because of the nice breeze (which sometimes turns into high winds!) that is always blowing -- the trade winds.

Guess what language everyone is speaking! Papiamentu!

Of course, as many of you fans of the ABC islands know, Papiamentu isn't the only language spoken here in, for my case, Curacao. I've heard Dutch a lot, from tourists and other workers, as well. It was very cool to hear two people conversing: one talking in Papiamentu, and the other responding in full-blown Dutch.

Also I've heard Spanish and even an Indian language that I'm not so linguistically-versed to have figured out. Lots of linguistic diversity!

It makes me sad a lot of the time that America only speaks one language, for the most part. Besides those of other cultures, mostly all who work, live and play in America only are monolingual in English!

Besides that, though, it is great to be hearing Papiamentu in real life. I've seen the videos of TeleCuracao on YouTube (here) and I've read La Prensa news online (here), but it's SO cool to hear it somewhere else than on my textbook or on the Internet! You know what I mean? When you study an odd language and then you hear it... you think... "It's actually real?!"

So, we've arrived and we're ready for a quick but fun trip. Five days. We're going to head to the Aloe Plantation (here) and the Ostrich Farm (here), the Dolphin Adventure (here), and maybe the Hato Caves. A lot to see here!

I'll have more about the language and some pictures possibly tomorrow. I'll try to get in the business center here at the Hilton Curacao executive lounge as soon as possible. I think there's a USB port I can use...

Enjoy and thank you for reading!

Drop a comment at this post or feel free to email me here as always.

Brian

A little walk through iPapiamentu & various

Hi guys,

The blog is just getting started and I want to let everyone know about a couple features, plans and notices concerning goings-on here at iPapiamentu.

First of all, thank you to Mithridates, author of the well-loved and well-known Page F30 blog, who replied to my comment on his cool post about Papiamentu here. It was very nice of nice of him to offer to post a link at the Auxlang Mailing Yahoo List (for constructed auxiliary languages like Esperanto) to iPapiamentu to get the word out!

Second, I'll make a little bulleted list on some new features, besides posts:

• New layout for the blog, clean and simple (somewhat edited with my self-taught CSS + HTML skills)
• Added "about the blog sidebar" section
• "Links of interest" section expanding for some other cool places to check out on the Web
• Subscribing options just added today for subscribing by email (to get posts delivered to your inbox free), in a reader (like Google Reader), or by plain old XML RSS. Check 'em out -- it'd be great to set up a subscribed mailing list!
• Simple visitor counter, counting unique visitors to web site (from tinycounter.com, which I happen to like)
• Blog archive and other settings up

I hope everyone's liking my posts so far. If you've just arrived, check out:

• Welcome post here
• Introduction to Papiamentu here
• Papiamentu vs. Papiamento here
• My Papiamentu textbook and walkthrough plans here

And be on the look out for more lessons, phrases, vocab building, and web clips!

Thank you to all who comment (so far one person, but it's a start!) and please send me a quick email right here if you're interested in Papiamentu as I'd love to hear from you!

Brian

Web Clip: Horoskoop den Papiamentu!

To take a small break from the lessons in the Papiamentu book (check out lesson one's grammar overview and also phrases and sentences from yesterday), I'll be doing intermittent posts on "web clips", or news stories, poems, texts, sentences, forums and other media.

I'll also do posts on pictures, video and multimedia in the future to get a taste of Papiamentu's culture in that sense.

So, anyway, I found an awesome news site for Papiamentu news, focusing on Curaçao (which is good, as I'm learning the Curaçao dialect for my trip this Spring), called La Prensa. I'm adding it to the sidebar "links of interest" right after this post.

This site has all types of news, including local, global, sports, politics, and also a cool little section on horoscopes! For some odd reason I've been interested in reading mine every day (in English until now) but will now try to decipher a Papiamentu horoscope when I can.

So, La Prensa has a section here for the horoscopes and they seem to post them every day, one for each zodiac sign. I happen to be an Aquarius -- any other Aquarii out there?

This is mine for the latest day they've seem to have added, Feb 27. (link here), but it'll do:

AKUARIO: Bo ta kurioso pa sa mas riba kosnan skondí. Bo sírkulo ta ekspandé, ya ku bo ta envolví den vários aktividatnan. 06,10,34.

I believe the numbers at the end our my "lucky numbers" for the day.

So, I'll try and work it out:

AKUARIO: Aquarius

Bo ta kurioso: You are curious

Pa sa mas: To know more

Riba kosnan skondí: About things (skondí?!)

Bo sírkulo ta ekspandé: Your circle is expanding

Ya ku bo ta envolví: Already that you are involved (?)

Den vários aktividatnan: In various activities

This one isn't totally clear to me, but I think it is trying to say:

AQUARIUS: You are curious to know about (outside/additional?) things, your circle expanding; but you are already involved in many activities (as in, you shouldn't overdo it). 06, 10, 34.

Let me know any thoughts on this one. Kind of interesting. I'd love to hear from any native speakers for advice.

Again, as always, feel free to drop me an email here or drop a comment here at the blog!

Brian

---

Edit 3/2:

We have a new comment at the blog, yay! User urubu commented to let us know that the word skondí means "hidden", from the Dutch. See the comment and my reply here @ the comments section for this blog posts. Feel free to add your comments as well!

"Prome les" sentences, phrases, words and practice

Continuing the first lesson of our tour through E. R. Goilo's Papiamentu Textbook. Learn more here.

The second parts of each lesson will consist of a mere list of the sentences translated, new words, phrases, etc.

Check out the first part of di prome les here for an explanation on the grammar and new topics learned herein.

Unda bo ta bai?
Where are you going?

Kén bo ta?
Who are you?

Kíko bo tin?
What do you have?

Pakíko mi ta traha?
Why do I work?

Pasobra mi ke placa.
Because I want money.

Cuá buki ta di bo?
Which book is yours?

Cuantu placa bo tin?
How much money do you have?

Bo ta bai cu mi.
You go with me.

Cón ta bai?
How is it going?

Den mi sacu.
In my pocket.

Mi tin dies cen.
I have ten cents.

Aki mi ta.
Here I am.

Ei bo ta.
There you are.

Aya mi ta bai.
Yonder I go.

Mi tin dos pen í un potlood.
I have two pens and a pencil.

Tin un buki riba mesa.
There is a book on the table.

Cuater o cincu.
Four or five.

Dos of un.
Two or one.

E buki ta pa mi.
The book is for me.

E buki ta di mi.
The book is mine.

Bo no ta bini? Di cón?
You don't come? Why?

Mi ta malu.
I am ill.

Mi no ta malu.
I am not ill.

Mi tin placa.
I have money.

Mi no tin placa.
I do not have money.

Unda bo ta bai?
Where do you go?

Mi no ta bai.
I do not go.

Kén bo ta?
Who are you?

Kén Meneer/Señor ta?
Who are you, sir?

Mi ta haci mi trabou.
I do my work.

Mi ta bini cas.
I come home.

Mi ta bai cas.
I go home.

Mi ta duna placa.
I give money.

Mi ta skirbi un carta.
I write a letter.

Mi ta sali un or'.
I go at one o'clock.

Mi ta cumpra cigaría.
I buy a cigarette.

Mi ta bende un cos.
I sell something.

Mi ta come pan.
I eat bread.

Mi ta bebe awa.
I drink water.

Mi ta traha awe.
I work today.

Mi ta drumi ocho'ora.
I sleep six hours.

Mi ta sinta riba un stul.
I sit on a stool.

Mi ta biba na Corsou.
I live in Curaçao.

Mi ta huma dos cigaría.
I smoke two cigarettes.

Mi ta drenta mi oficina.
I enter my office.

Mi ta gana cincu florin.
I earn five guilders.

Mi ta hari henter día.
I laugh all day long.

Mi ta siña mi les.
I learn my lesson.

Mi ta mira mi amigu.
I see my friend.

Mi ta papia ingles.
I speak English.

Bon ta bini?
Do you come?

Nò, mi no ta bini.
No, I don't come.

Mi a haci.
I did.

Bo a haci.
You did.

El a haci.
He/she/it did.

Nos a haci.
We did.

Boso a haci.
You all did.

Nan a haci.
They did.

Mi a bini.
I came/I have come.

Mi a bai.
I went/I have gone.

Mi a duna.
I gave/I have given.

Lo mi haci.
I shall do.

Lo bo haci.
You will do.

Lo é haci.
He/she/it will do.

Lo nos haci.
We shall do.

Lo boso haci.
You will all do.

Lo nan haci.
They will do.

Lo mi bai.
Later on I go/I shall I go.

Lo mi duna.
I will give.

Mi ta Señor B.
I am Mr. B.

Mi nomber ta Antonio.
My name is Antonio.

Mi ta biba na Otrobanda den Klipstraat number dos.
I live in Otrobanda in Klipstraat number two.

Mi ta traha na Punda, na oficina.
I work in Punda, in an office.

Mi ta skirbi carta, dies carta pa día.
I write letters, ten letters a day.

Mi ta haci hopi trabou.
I do much work.

Mi amigu ta traha na Isla.
My friend works at Shell.

E ta traha tur día.
He works all day.

Señor Jansen no ta traha.
Mr. Jansen does not work.

E tin placa.
He has money.

E tin hopi placa.
He has much money.

Cu placa nos ta cumpra hopi cos: buki, skrif, potlood, pen, ink í hopi otro cos.
With money we buy many things: books, copy-books, pencils, pens, ink and many other things.

Mi tin un pen í un potlood.
I have a pen and a pencil.

Cu un pen í un potlood mi ta skirbi.
With a pen and a pencil I write.

Mi ta skirbi carta í mi ta skirbi mi les.
I write a letter and I write my lesson.

Mi ta skirbi den un skrif.
I write in a copy-book.

Mi ta skirbi carta riba papel.
I write letters on paper.

Mi no ta skirbi carta cu un potlood, ma cu un pen.
I do not write letters with a pencil, but with a pen.

Nos ta drumi tur anochi.
We sleep every night.

Nos ta drumi ocho ora.
We sleep eight hours.

Mi amigu ta traha ocho ora í e ta drumi diesseis ora.
My friend works for eight hours and sleeps for sixteen hours.

E ta come hopi, ma e no ta bebe hopi.
He eats much, but he does not drink much.

Mi tin un buki.
I have a book.

Mi tin buki.
I have books.

Mi tin dies buki.
I have ten books.

E buki ta riba mesa.
The book is on the table.

E bukinan ta riba mesa.
The books are on the table.

Mi buki ta riba mesa.
My book is on the table.

Mi bukinan ta riba mesa.
My books are on the table.

Nan no ta bini.
They do not come.

Nos no ta come.
We do not eat.

E no ta skirbi.
He does not write.

Bo no ta gana placa.
You do not earn money.

Nos ta bai cine.
We go to the movies.

Nan ta bai cas.
They go home.

Mi ta bai Punda (stad).
I go to town (Punda).

Su amigu ta bai New York.
His friend goes to New York.

E ta bai su trabou.
He goes to his work.

Bo ta bai ariba.
You go upstairs.

Boso ta bai abou.
You all go downstairs.

No mas cu tres.
No more than three.

No menos cu cincu.
No less than five.

Mi ta skirbi un carta.
I write a letter.

Mi ta bini cas.
I come home.

Mi ta come cu gustu.
I gladly eat.

Mi ta bai Roxy.
I go to Roxy.

Mi ta bebe awa í limonada.
I drink water and lemonade.

Mi ta sinta riba un stul.
I sit on a stool.

Mi ta traha tur día.
I work all day.

Mi ta drumi tur anochi.
I sleep every night.

Mi ta sali un or'.
I go at one a'clock.

Mi ta duna mi mama tur mi placa.
I give my mother all my money.

Mi ta cumpra paña nobo.
I buy new clothes.

Mi ta drenta oficina ocho'or.
I enter the office at eight o'clock.

Mi ta huma un paki' cigaría pa dia.
I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.

Mi ta biba den Klipstraat.
I love in Klipstraat.

Nos ta skirbi tres carta.
We write three letters.

Nos ta skirbi tur día.
We write all day.

Mi amigu í mi amiga ta skirbimi hopi.
My friend and my girlfriend write me often.

Ayera nan a skirbi cuater carta.
Yesterday they wrote four letters.

Nan ta skirbi cu pen í ink.
They write with pen and ink.

Nan no ta skirbi cu potlood.
They do not write with a pencil.

Nos no ta malu.
We are not ill.

Nos ta salú.
We are in good health.

Nos ta come bon.
We eat well.

Nos ta bebe hopi awa.
We drink much water.

Nos ta traha bon.
We work well.

Nos ta gana hopi placa.
We earn much money.

Nos ta bai cine.
We go to the movies.

Nos ta bai cas í nos ta bai drumi.
We go home and we go to sleep.

Mi no ta huma hopi.
I don't smoke much.

No mas cu un paki pa día.
No more than a pack a day.

Sr. Jansen ta na cas.
Mr. Jansen is at home.

E ta come.
He is eating.

E ta come pan.
He is eating bread.

E ta bebe awa.
He is drinking water.

Ami ta bebe kòfi.
I drink coffee (though).

Nan ta sinti den sala.
They are sitting in the parlor.

Nan ta bebe kòfi tambe.
They are also drinking coffee.

Cu placa nos ta cumpra hopi cos.
With money we buy many things.

Nos ta cumpra buki, skrif, potlood, pen, etc.
We buy books, copy-books, pencils, pens, etc.

Mi ta dunabo.
I give to you.

Mi ta mirabo.
I see you.

There we go! A lot in the first lesson. Coming up I believe there will be more passages to translate and vocabulary to learn. As I said, this book isn't particularly organized, but I like it.

Please drop a comment or email me here if you have any suggestions, ideas, corrections, etc.

Thanks guys!

Brian