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EESTI ELU reedel, 18. septembril 2020 — Friday, September 18, 2020
Learn Estonian for both credit and enjoyment! After another successful year and with growing popularity, the University of Toronto is again offering an Estonian language course as part of its curriculum, and this Fall the course will be offered in a blended format: once a week via a videoconferencing platform (Zoom) and the rest of weekly learning will take place online. Students from all Toronto area universities (Toronto, York and Ryerson) have the opportunity to take the course for credit, after getting permission from their home university to transfer the credit from the University of Toronto. After receiving permission, students from other institutions must pay a fee and submit an application to Woodsworth College to receive a University of Toronto student number and register. You can also consider auditing the course for personal fulfillment if it sounds interesting and too good to pass up! The course will be offered at the intermediate level (EST 200H1F and EST 201H1S). The course will continue to build essential Estonian vocabulary, grammatical and communicative competence through a variety of reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. Popular songs, poetry, and structured and semi-structured dialogue are among the various tools for achieving these ob jectives. This will evolve to themed sessions using language for travel in Estonia, savouring the language of Estonian cuisine, and the lyrics of popular, folk and classical Estonian music. If you have ties to the Estonian heritage and culture and have wanted to strengthen these bonds, this is a great opportunity to get a better appreciation of all things Estonian by enhancing your knowledge of the Estonian language. If you know of people who are held back from a stronger bond with their Estonian heritage by their language skills, why not recommend this course to them? Estonian is an interesting language for its own sake. Estonian is different from most spoken languages in Europe. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, which also includes Finnish and Hungarian. The role of vowels in Estonian is among the greatest in any European language, whereby a
string of vowels can form meaningful words around the frame of few consonants. It also has the additional vowels õ, ä, ö, ü. If you have trouble with the following tongue twisters, then this course is for you. Ülekooliline tööõigusabibüroo (University-wide legal aid office for employment), Jäääär (edge of the ice), Õueala (courtyard), Kõueöö (night of the thunder), Puuõõnsus (hollow of the tree), Töö-öö (working night). One can even compose a complete sentence without using any consonants – Äia õe oaõieaia õueaua ööau!!! For more information, please see: https://www.visitestonia. com/en/why-estonia/your-quickguide-to-the-estonian-language The instructor for this course is Marju Toomsalu. Marju is a passionate advocate for language and welcomes the opportunity to combine her love of language with teaching. She inspires her students to discover the nuances of understanding that language variations hide and offer, and also enjoy selected aspects of comparative linguistics using simple everyday terms. If you are interested in taking this course, please email Marju (mtoomsal@ryerson.ca) for a zoom invite and look the course up in the University of Toron to’s Faculty timetable: https://timetable.iit.artsci.utoronto.ca/ (P.S. the course is offered by the Department of Slavic Languages and literature and the course code is EST200.) The course offered in the 2021 Winter term will be a continuation of the one offered in the 2020 Fall term, at an increased level of language proficiency. Many students who have some preliminary know ledge of the language have joined the EST 200 in the Fall or Winter term. Information for auditors can be found here: http://sites.utoronto.ca/slavic/ courses/auditing.html. Classes begin on September 10. This course is a key part of the Estonian Studies Program at the University Of Toronto. It is made possible through the generous financial support of Tartu College and Chair of Estonian Studies Foundation in recognition of the importance of the Estonian Studies Program to the Estonian community.
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Putin’s equation of Forest Brothers with Nazis outrages Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia, September 2020 Staunton, September 9 – A week ago, Vladimir Putin signed an order calling for a one-time payment to Russian citizens living in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania of 75,000 rubles (one thousand US dollars) who fought against the Forest Brothers, as the Baltic resistance to the Soviet occupation was called, after 1945. By equating Soviet troops who fought Nazis with those who fought Baltic Forest Brothers, Putin has equated members of the Forest Brothers with the Nazis. Not surprisingly, this has outraged the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian governments as well as many ordinary citizens in those countries and their friends elsewhere. The history of the Forest Brothers movement is complicated. Some of their members in fact did fight for the Ger mans. But most were Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian patriots who fought first the Soviet occupation, then the German occupation and then the Soviet occupation once again. Moscow occasionally picks up on this issue, focusing exclusively on the few documented cases in which Forest Brothers after 1945 had earlier worked for the German occupiers in order to blacken the reputation not only of these freedom fighters but that of the Baltic countries as a whole. Three developments appear to have triggered the latest action by Putin in this regard. First, several Estonian officials have called for demolishing Soviet war memorials in Tallinn, actions that Russian commentators say could trigger a crisis that in bilateral relations. Second, the increasing integration of Baltic forces into NATO ones has reminded some in the Russian capital that Western military experts have encouraged Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to develop Forest Brother-like partisan units to resist any Russian move against them. And third, Moscow con tinues to be worried about the image of the Forest Brothers on the population within Russian borders. Few know that Stalin deported Russians from Pskov Oblast in the late 1940s because some of them were attracted to and even involved with Latvian Forest Brothers. Blackening the reputation of the Forest Brothers and the Estonians, Latvians and Lithua
Language card illustration by Marko Mäetamm.
Celebrate worldwide Estonian Learning Week and Culture Days 2020 with VEMU (the Museum of Estonians Abroad) Vincent Teetsov If you ever wanted an impetus to start learning Estonian or to take your linguistic abilities to the next level, then this would be a great occasion to do so. Starting on September 21st and finishing on the 27th, language learners and teachers across the world will unite for Worldwide Estonian Learning Week. If you’re able to make your way to Tartu College in the evenings, you can add a visual component to your learning by viewing VEMU’s Estonian language-themed exhibit in the windows of the G floor. This exhibit happens to coincide with Culture Days, a monthlong (from September 25th to October 25th) recognition of arts and culture taking place across Canada’s provinces. The official Eesti keele nädal website (keelest.ee) has shared a number of online resources to energize the inevitable memorization and practice that goes into the learning process: including YouTube vlogs and a directory of relevant language schools where one can take classes. One resource mentioned on the website is Speakly, a platform that prioritizes conversation and frequently occuring vocabulary to get you speaking actively. There is an additional live chat service, too, whereby users can speak over Skype with a tutor. Two other resources promoted by World wide Estonian Learning Week include Keelklikk and Keeletee, which provide exercises where you can write to a teacher in Estonia, among other features.
nians serves Moscow’s interest in a variety of ways, but it is not without risk: Every time Moscow does so, ever more people in the Baltic countries and elsewhere refocus their attention on these fighters and sees that Moscow’s propaganda now is as false as it was under Stalin.
Learning a language doesn’t have to be a solitary experience – there are many other people out there in the same position as you! The official Eesti keele nädal website shows a map indicating countries around the world where site visitors can indicate where they are learning or teaching Estonian, or simply where they are on the planet as a speaker of Estonian. If you’re taking part, you can add yourself to the map, to join the movement and see where other fellow Estonian language enthusiasts are. For confident Estonian speakers, why not lend a hand to someone at a beginner or intermediate level? A phone call or video call could really help contextualize the aforementioned study materials into reallife situations. You can even print out and use the exuberant and charming language cards illustrated by artist Marko Mäetamm. Furthermore, on September 26th, VEMU is planning an Estonian language quiz for those who would like to test their knowledge. The quiz also coincides with the 19th edition of the European Day of Lan guages – on the same day, you’ll be able to take a free 25 minute Estonian lesson online (along with several other European languages). For further details on all of this, be sure to like and subscribe to VEMU on Facebook (www. facebook.com/vemu.ca) and You Tube (www.youtube.com/channel/UCT0mLjjfm8yceOr13rlsiw). For every instance you might have heard that you need to be a child to learn a language, there are linguists to refute that claim. Polyglot and author Benny Lewis has argued that adults learn more effectively than children do. So don’t be intimidated! All of these educational activities happening at the end of September are more than a coincidence; they’re a reminder to never stop learning, even if you’re not in school any longer.
