Cleaning out and consolidating my millions of files/folders, and came across a folder of images from one of our favorite learn-Armenian books – Բառաշխարհ (Parashkhar) by Hippo, a division of Aras, published in Istanbul. Apparently all of the pages I thought I scanned were scanned sideways, so I only got half the image… except on this one page, the kitchen scene!
I might print it, laminate it, and use it at our kitchen table. As a place mat? We’ll see. But anyway, here’s this, and everyone should buy the book. Here’s our review of it from a while ago.
Zabel, adjusting the countdown paper chain on our mantel.
Here’s something we did last year to mark advent. It’s a paper chain countdown, with the numbers 1-50 in Armenian. We cut the strips out, taped them together, and then the kids ripped one link off the chain each day until January 6th. I don’t know if we’re going to do a countdown chain again this year or something else (the fast of advent begins today, so we’d better figure something out quickly). If we do the chain again, I’ll add star stickers onto Armenian Christmas and American Christmas… Our kids got to Dec. 25th and it felt like we should mark it in some way on the chain.
Hello, world. Our family has a Yoto player, which is basically a screen-free music player for the kids. It’s like a CD player, but it uses cards with NFC chips to play audio instead of CDs (so it’s wayyy more durable). It’s really user-friendly, kids can operate it by themselves, and it’s great.
One of the things you can do on the Yoto is record your own audio, and create your own playlists. Then you can load that onto a card, so the kids can play your stories whenever they want.
Vartan and I went ahead and recorded a dozen of the Armenian books and stories that we have, and turned them into a sharable playlist through Yoto. Anyone who has the link can add the playlist to their Yoto account and save it onto one of their blank cards.
It’s a combination of books in Western Armenian and in English, but about Armenia or by Armenian authors. We’ll add new recordings to the playlist over time, and it’ll automatically update for anyone who added it to their Yoto account/library.
You should still be able to listen to the recordings from that link, even if you don’t have a Yoto player or account. But if it’s not working and you want the files, feel free to email them too! happy to send.
Playing around with fonts and Inkscape’s Trace Bitmap via Edge detection tool. Made a bunch of Armenian alphabet coloring pages (8 to be exact). Enjoy.
But really, if you’re looking for Armenian fonts, I use this: https://fonter.am/en
And if you’re looking for Armenian alphabet coloring pages, mine are nonsense/basic, but THIS is super fun from anoush dsgn® : https://www.anoush-dsgn.com/coloring-pages
Learn Western Armenian Online — added a quick review of one of the online teachers we studied with for a semester a few years ago. Added THREE new online schools/tutors for Western Armenian.
The landscape has really changed in the last few years, since I last updated those resource pages in 2021. I want to continue overhauling the pages to make them more useful. If there’s anything else you’d like to see, services or apps I can trial for you, let me know!
Okay, it’s super short notice, but the course is 10 weeks long and only $100, so even if you miss the first week, it’s probably worth it.
Armenian Relief Society of Eastern USA, Inc. is hosting a conversational Western Armenian course called “Let’s Chat,” that has 3 different “levels” of courses for beginners. (Beginner 1, Beginner 2, Beginner 3. CLICK HERE to view the breakdown of skills taught at each level.)
I *love* that they’ve got 3 levels of Beginner classes. I’ve only ever seen Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced described for conversational classes, and it’s so hard to know where I’d fit in that. Most people I talk to would consider themselves beginners, even if they’re able to carry basic conversations and/or know a ton of vocabulary. The way they’ve set this up feels really accessible.
I found out about this from my son’s teacher, and will TRY to make the Beginner 3 classes, only because they start at 8pm which is potentially/theoretically past when I’m putting the kids to bed. And if 8pm rolls around and I’m still laying next to a crib, holding a 2yr old’s hand… well, it’s a donation for a good cause 😛
Quick post with a super simple resource – Large print letters from the Armenian alphabet, in a word document. They’re not set up to be used as flashcards, but you could make them into that, or they could be used for a bunch of other random things.
Personally I’m printing these on cardstock, cutting them out, and using them for a hide-and-seek / hide-the-thing/find-the-thing game with our kids.
Like Holy Translators Sahag and Mesrob “found” the Armenian alphabet? I don’t know. But if it saves me from watching “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Tiger Family Trip” for the 12th time this week, I’ll try it.
Sahag and Mesrob are commemorated as a team, distinct from the rest of the Translators, on the Thursday following the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. This year in 2023, that commemoration is tomorrow, June 29th. More on those saints here: https://vemkar.us/feast-and-saints/the-holy-translators-sahag-and-mesrob/
Next day update: used them for a matching game too.
Ages ago, I got access to a Western Armenian dictionary in EXCEL format. Absolute gold for creating your own flash cards.
Quick screenshot of the dictionary in Excel.
I went through and categorized the words by frequency of use – or at least, as best as I could guess – IN ACTUAL CONVERSATION. So, it’s prioritized by the words I actually wanted to learn how to say, rather than by theme. You’re more likely to say “countertop” than “crocodile,” for instance. Textbooks often teach vocabulary thematically, so you aren’t always taught in a way that makes sense for actually USING the language.
Anyway, here’s what I came up with. I marked all the words I already knew as 0, all the words I could never imagine using as 99, and then grouped vocabulary by order of priority. Then you can use the number column to sort your OWN priority words, and import the file into a flashcard application like Anki.
Another list of good resources for folx! This time, board books in Western Armenian, perfect for babies and toddler-aged kiddos.
In case you don’t have kids or you’re shopping for someone else, board books are essential for kids in the 0-4 age range. Regular paper books get ripped, chewed on, bindings get shredded, covered in sticky stuff, etc. That’s pretty devastating when these aren’t books you can just pick up from a yard sale down the road. So here’s literally every wonderful, durable board book in Western Armenian I’ve been able to find.
There are these two from the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church that we love, both illustrated by the talented Anush Movsesian Avejic: Transliteration NO Translation YES Reading level BEGINNER-INTERMEDIATE
The complete “Frog and Toad” series, plus “Owl at Home” (Western Armenian translation of the series) – a 5-book set, including Frog and Toad Are Friends, Days with Frog and Toad, Frog and Toad All Year, Frog and Toad Together, Owl at Home
And a few one-off publications:
Proud Armenian – Հպարտ Հայ (Hbard Hye), by Meghri Dervartanian [our review] Translation NO Transliteration NO Reading level BEGINNER
Բառաշխարհ (Parashkhar) by Hippo, a division of Aras, published in Istanbul.
Parashkhar is our new favorite book. It’s beautiful, well-made, and well designed. It’s an oversized paperback 64-page visual dictionary for Western Armenian, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is trying to learn the language.
What sets this book apart from similar visual dictionaries like “my first book of Armenian words” is that every page spread introduces words in a SCENE. So you’re learning the words in context, and not abstractly on their own. I’ve also found that the scenes are highly RELEVANT to the Armenian we want to use in everyday life. The best example I can think of is the FOOD page, which actually teaches you how to say things like “pizza”, “pasta”, and “ketchup.”
Foods you actually want to learn to say.
A typical page, and my favorite – the garden.
It’s a paperback, not a board book or even a hardcover, so if you’re using it with kids you’ll want to be a little careful with it. And it’s oversized, so you have to handle it a bit to keep the pages open. We’ve already ripped the binding. However, we’ve found it to be great for Hagop right now, because he’s very into “look & find”-type books. He’ll point out one of the pictures along the border of the page, and then we try to find it in the scene. You’ll also want to note that this was published in Istanbul, and might have a few Bolsahye-specific words for things (Armenians living in Istanbul).
So, overall, we’re huge fans, and I want to buy copies for everyone I know. Right now, you can get it from Abril books, but if we find it on the East coast or figure out international shipping I’ll let you all know. 🙂
Western Armenian YES Translation NO Transliteration NO Reading level BEGINNER
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